Author: Dennis

September 2, 2022July 16, 2023

The Bridges of Rowe Woods

Rowe Woods Trail Bridges

Along the many trails in CNC Rowe Woods nature center’s trails, you will come across some bridges that span the ravines. Some are short and older, some are long and newer.

Misty morning trail bridge, east Rowe Woods.

Many of the pictures are of the same bridges, but at different season of the year.

Upgrades trail bridge along the trails in Rowe Woods

Over the many years, the Rowe Woods trails bridges have been transformed from walking bridges. To wider to allow fossil fuel trail runners to be used by the CNC Rowe Woods staff.

Autumn along the trails are special, the bridge is south of the Krippendorf lodge along the trail to Avey run over look.

The southern trails in Rowe Woods have ravines that lead to the Avey Run stream that runs through Cincinnati Nature Center at Rowe Woods.

Avery run bridge and over look shelter back in the early 1990s. This picture shows how many Ash trees once populated Rowe Woods and provided shade too much of the forest trails. The EAB killed off most of the Ash Trees in Rowe Woods. It is ironic that the Nature Center logo has Ash Leaves as the featured leaf.

Fresh new expanded trail bridge along the Deer Trace trail.

Not all the bridges along the trails in Rowe Woods are made of wood. This stone bridge leads from the Krippendorf swimming pool to the Krippendorf Lodge.

First snow footprints on the main bridge leading south from the Powel Crosley Lake area toward the prairies and ponds to the south of the Nature center building and lake in Rowe Woods.

Hikers love the trails and bridges that provide all type of levels of hiking from a novice easy trail walking, to an experienced hiker who likes more challenging trails.

This picture is the Avey Run overlook many years later after the Ash Trees began to fall, and the walking bridge was replaced by a wider motor vehicle trail bride. The few trees have allowed the undergrowth to increase and block the old view of the Avey Run over look area.

East of the Powel Crosley Lake shelter is a bridge that leads towards the Nature center main building. Along the way to pass marsh Pond and forest and fields as to hike the Rowe Woods trails. The picture is during autumn and shows the trees that have been damaged by the Emerald Ash Bore.

This is the same trail bridge along the way to Powel Crosley Lake shelter and overlook area. The picture was taken at near dawn using a wide angle lens to capture the mood of early foggy mornings and hiking the Nature center trails.

South of the dam that holds Powel Crosley Lake is the connector trail bridge to the southern part of CNC Rowe Woods where you will find ponds, streams, wildlife and endless Woodland beauty.

Wide angle view looking north toward the Powel Crosley Lake dam and trail that circles around the beautiful lake. This view is as you head to the gift shop and boardwalk along the edge of Powel Crosley Lake to the bird feeder area that overlooks the lake.

The Trail Bridges of Rowe Woods

These are just a few of the many bridges and boardwalks that are all over Cincinnati Nature Center at Rowe Woods. I left out the walkways that span the edge of Powel Crosley Lake, as well as the other ones at the many ponds and bodies of water. I plan on a post that will feature the boardwalks in the future.

Hoping you enjoy the pictures of the trail bridges that are in the southern area of Rowe Woods. More captures of other northern Rowe Woods trails bridges will be added to this page. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Dennis Camp, Photographer.

August 1, 2022August 7, 2022

Candid Street Photography – People and Places

Cincinnati Street Photography and Beyond

Candid street photography has been a favorite style of taking pictures of moments in time. Since I often carry a camera, I like to take pictures of places, and people to document the location frozen in time. I seldom ever use flash photography for street captures. Great pioneers of flash documentary such as Jacob A. Riis slum photography works. Candid street documentary photo journalism.

There are several styles of candid and street type photography. Many are made to document the time and place of a location or person. These photo journalism captures moments in time that live on to remind people what life was like at that moment in life.

There are numerous times I have captured these moments. Travel overseas, and in and around where I live, makes for good candid street photography.

Moments in time people, places, and things are all styles of candid street type photography. From an action, to a still life of the place and moment in time memories.

One Hill After Another, Persist

Cincinnati Street Photography, Mt. Adams — Walking the Seven Hills of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio is built with a downtown area surrounded by seven hills. The Ohio valley area is where Cincinnati is located. The other well known city with seven hills is Rome, Italy. The area has many traditions and a rich cultural history, based in many of the Catholic German and Irish families that once dominated this area. It is not uncommon for people of this area to ask where you went to school, or what Parrish did you grow up in, as part of getting to know a new person.

Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky is where many of the first of the 1849ers from Germany relocated after the vote for unifying the German’s States failed. Some gathered and relocated to Minster, Ohio to start an all German based city.

Cincinnati May Festival is the oldest continuous Choral festivals in the Western Hemisphere. Cincinnati has some of the most beautiful parks and gardens, as well as a historic Spring Grove cemetery. The city is a hidden gem in the Midwest.

July 29, 2022March 21, 2023

Abner Hollow Cabin – CNC Rowe Woods

Abner Hollow Cabin Changes

This post is to show how the Abner Hollow Cabin located in CNC Rowe Woods was changed over time by the Cincinnati Nature Center board. Like the changing, the original CNC Mission statement and purpose of the Cincinnati Nature Center at Rowe Woods. CNC Rowe Woods nature center was once the place where local member neighbors and other members gathered to learn and love nature in its pure form. The board changed the mission into a Disneyesque themed simulated nature place with a broad non-local based mission statement. The changes for some at CNC is better, for many it is not what the Cincinnati Nature Center was all about starting many years ago.

Improved Abner Cabin — Rowe Woods Progress

The above picture is what the cabin looks like after the Simulated Nature Playscape was placed in the field that surrounds where the cabin was relocated from Adams County. The cabin donated by Helen Black, a founding member of the Cincinnati Nature Center. Below is what the primitive Abner Hollow Cabin looked like once rebuilt piece by piece.

Primitive Abner Cabin in Rowe Woods Nature Center

Helen Black donated the Abner Hollow cabin which was located in Adams County, Ohio and had it deconstructed, then reconstructed as each item on the structure had been numbered or noted for rebuilding. The cabin once had a family of 13 living in this two room log cabin. Some years ago, I exchanged emails with the family that last lived in the old log cabin.

Primitive Abner Hollow Cabin — Abner Hollow Cabin Sunset

Improved Abner Hollow Cabin — Abner Hollow Cabin Sunset

Since I moved next to the Cincy Nature Center, I have documented the changes using my camera and my eyes. I started to visit the nature center many years ago as I traveled out in the Milford, Ohio, Clermont County area. That is one reason I wanted to live next to CNC – Rowe Woods. The quiet area of Union Township with a hybrid of nature center and neighborhood. Now I get to hear wedding reception DJs and music as I watch the wildlife while relaxing on my back deck. Krippendorf Lodge has been turned into a wedding venue.

The Cincinnati Nature Center scarped the old master plan that Stan Rowe and the founding members used when starting the Nature Center. The changes to Rowe Woods since that time have not been good in my opinion. Why the architects put a simulated nature playscape in the middle of one huge natural nature play area called Rowe Woods is beyond me. The primitive cabin was improved to fit in with the new nature concept.

Abner Hollow Cabin on a winter's dad. — Abner Hollow Cabin Winter

The Abner primitive cabin once located in a pristine field just north of the parking lots and Krippendorf Lodge to the south. Just to the west, where the Lotus Pond located. Trails to Rowe Woods and beyond surround this area. As you can see, the Abner Hollow Cabin once sat in a beautiful nature setting with sounding fields. I enjoyed taking pictures of the primitive pioneer cabin in the different seasons. It once had simple beauty, till it was butchered with the construction of the Disneyesque type of nature simulated nature playscape.

Golden Rod – Abner Hollow Cabin Rowe Woods

The Abner primitive pioneer cabin, which is located in Rowe Woods, Milford, Ohio. There are more pictures of the Abner Cabin in winter, also other PBase cabin galleries of early Abner cabin photos. CNC Rowe Woods used to be a pure nature paradise, now gone to progress and money. Pictures of Cincinnati Nature Center at Rowe Woods, photography by Dennis Camp

July 10, 2022August 7, 2022

Hot Air Balloon Glows – Dennis Camp Photography

Hot Air Balloon Illumination Glows

To inflate a hot air balloon for a ride or a balloon illumination glow, you first have to get it somewhat inflated before you can add the heat. The first step is a large fan. The cooler the temps, the faster the hot air balloon will inflate to the full size for a glow or ride.

Nancy Starts the Inflation

Balloon Glow 2010

Dan in his hot air balloon

Coney Island Balloon Glow Inside Balloon

Touch the Clouds Balloon

The Heat Is On

Touch The Clouds Full Size

Illuminating Color Hot Air Balloon Glow

All A Glow Balloons

Coney Island Hot Air Balloon Glows

The time it takes to get the balloon out as well as the basket and other items need to inflate the balloon with hot air can take a while. Dan from Touch the Clouds, who does hot air balloon rides as well as the balloon glows for the local area people. It is worth going out to see a hot air balloon glow with all the bright colors that illuminate the night skies. This hot air glow located along the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio.

July 3, 2022July 13, 2022

A Dog Named Cooper – Dennis Camp Photography

Cooper was a Trooper – He was a once in a Lifetime Dog

A dog named Cooper who was rescued from the Clermont County Pound in 2007 on his last day before the chamber.

In early 2007 on January the 8th our old big Golden Retriever Cosmo died from the poisoned Chinese dog food that was imported into American. His health was already failing, so it was a bitter-sweet ending for an old family friend. Mo was a big dog at 120lbs, we wrapped in his favorite sleep bag and carried him to the pet cemetery. We all buried Mo in the backyard while cried and dug a hole for Mo.

The next day winter came, and the ground froze solid, it was fate he died when he did. I am not sure what we would have done if we could not have buried him. That spring we adopted Custer, a Golden Doodle who grew quickly and kind of odd pup. My son Max wanted a small dog, so we started a search for an older, smaller dog to rescue from the pound.

This is where the story of a dog named Cooper begins.

Cooper and Max meet November 2007 and play in the basement — Cooper meets Max, November 2007

Cooper came to live with us on November the 18th, 2007 from the Clermont County pound where he had been waiting for someone to adopt him for over two weeks. The lady at the pound told Cooper this is your lucky day when we adopted him, since he was scheduled to be euthanized the next day. I am not sure who rescued whom as I look back to that time.

We were told he was three years old at the time, we think it was more likely two years of age. He looked a little sick with what we soon learned as canine influenza, which was a new infection at that time. The pup was very sick and went to the hospital where he spent Thanksgiving and almost did not make it.

The good people at Beechmont Animal Hospital saved his life and he came home after five days. From then on, Cooper became a big part of the family. Sleeping in the big bed and running around the yard with Custer. He was the most mellow dog and would calm your soul just sitting next to you.

Custer and Cooper Play on the Tealtown Backyard

Cooper the dog with Custer playing in the yard on Tealtown. — Cooper and Custer Playing in the Yard

Once in a lifetime dog…

When we got Cooper from the dog pound, we thought we had rescued him. What happened is he rescued our family with 14 years of being the best dog one could have as a friend. Coop was sweet, passive, friendly and just a dog everyone liked, and he liked almost everyone. He and his buddy Custer never had to stay at a kennel, Sally and Dick our neighbors loved them so much they watched over him while we went on vacations.

Cooper Eyes Permanent eyeliner — Cooper Eyes

In early 2019 we lost Custer at age 12 years after something happened internal, and he was gone in a day. He had a good 12-year run with little or no problems before his passing. Cooper looked for Big Guy (Custer) for a few weeks after his passing. They were a true Mutt & Jeff team in the house and yard. Later in 2019 we adopted Bean. How we came to have such a yippy little dog is a story in itself. He is a rescue from SAAP and Coop welcomed into his home. Cooper was that kind of a dog, always friendly to everyone, and everyone liked Cooper. Cooper had a true, sweet soul.

Bean and Cooper on the living room couch on Tealtown — Bean and Cooper Become Friends

Bean’s Gotta Ball – Cooper is Tired

During Cooper’s early years, he spent a lot of time in the kid’s playroom in the basement. Custer would not come down the stair steps, so Cooper got all the attention from the boys playing with hm. Cooper and Ghost had a special bond, even though Ty went off to O.U when Cooper was younger. Cooper never lost that bond and always was happy to see Ty when he came to visit. The last Thanksgiving before Cooper passed on, he slept at Ghost’s feet in a spot he seldom ever slept in just to be near his old littermate.

Life is not an if situation, it is a when situation…

Cooper at Eastgate Animal Hospital. Thanks to Dr. Todd Philips for taking good care of Cooper and making sure he passed on in comfort. — All good things come to an end.

Cooper started to passed away on the night prior to December the 11th, 2021 at his home. The next morning we went to Eastgate animal hospital. I had taken care of him all night as he succumbed to his cancer, which we suspected by his bumps that may be a concern. The different bumps were tested many times over the years, never came back as cancer, still he had aged a lot.

I had taken him in to Eastgate Animal Hospital for some blood work abut two months before his passing. Dr. Goode gave me the bad news that his kidneys were failing, and we knew he had heart problems. Doc and I both seem to know he had cancer at this point, still you would have never had known it. On the ride to the vet and from, he got to hang his head out the window in the breeze. On the way there and back, he remembered every bend and twist in the road home. Thanks to Dr. Todd Philips for taking good care of Cooper and making sure he passed on in comfort. Cooper was a trooper, there will never be one like his again.

June 30, 2022July 13, 2022

Coney Island Hot Air Balloon Glow

The Coney Balloon Glow and Fireworks shows held on the 4th of July weekend on the banks of the Ohio River. The Balloon glow lights up the night once all balloons fully inflated for a stunning show of color. After the hot air balloon show there is an impressive firework show over the Coney Island Lake Como.

July 4th Celebration, Coney Balloon Glow.

Since the Coney Island 4th of July Hot Air Balloon Glow and Fire Works started back around 2008 I went to photograph and capture the inflation process and the final after glow. In the early years I was able to get a lot more pictures with fewer people. The event became popular quickly after the first two years, and it became hard to get nice pictures of the balloons during the inflation without a crowd of people blocking the view. The Coney Island Forth of July Hot Air Balloon Glow along with a great firework show afterwards over Como lake is worth a trip to Coney Island, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Complete photo gallery of Coney Island hot air balloon glows.

Hot Air Balloon Glow Photography — Inside The Beast of a Hot Air Balloon

Inside Hot Air Balloon Glow — Snap Shadow Balloon Glow

The Afterglow of the Hot Air Balloon Inflation Process

Touch the clouds hot air balloon rides and the Coney Island Balloon Glow Show. — Touch The Clouds

The flame illuminates the balloon while inflating — Touch The Clouds

The Coney Island Balloon Glow starts with the balloon inflation process that takes a lot of time to get the balloon laid out correctly and the basket in proper place. All the bright color hot air balloons in various stages of being prepared for the hot air balloon glow show when it gets dark.

The Coney Island 2022 Balloon Glow will be a hot fun time for all the people who come out for a colorful illumination of hot air balloons glowing around one another lighting up the 4th of July holiday weekend. The Coney Island Hot Air Balloon Glow Show is on July 3rd 2022.

June 27, 2022August 4, 2022