Spur of the moment side trip in Ohio conjures lots of fond, family memories

For many years in the 1990s, the period when I was helping to raise my four children in Indianapolis, I would treat them to a meal out of the house on Saturday nights. More often than not, we'd end up at a Bob Evans restaurant, which had a menu offering a lot choices.

The meal choices included popular items on the special kids' menu, which made eating out for the five of us pretty affordable on a weekly basis. The kids had their favorites (one of my daughters made it a point to frequently order two potato sides -- french fries and mashed potatoes -- with her entree). They probably remember that I ordered the fried (and, for a while, cajun seasoned) catfish dinner and side garden salad with Italian dressing (but no onions) more often than not.

All my kids are over 30 years of age now, but I still think about them -- the small, dependent versions -- every time I pass a Bob Evans.

In 2014, when Lee Ann and I started making trips from Indianapolis to North Carolina to visit her son and his family in the Raleigh suburb of Cary, we'd drive along U.S. 35 in Ohio, and I'd again think about the kids when we'd pass the exit for Rio Grande, where the Bob Evans Farm Restaurant Museum attraction is located. (Bob's first restaurant opened in 1946 in Gallipolis, which isn't far from Rio Grande). In all the many times we'd drive that route, I'd often thought about taking the Bob Evans Farm exit to check out the attraction, but we never did.

On Monday, we were eastbound on U.S. 35 in Ohio, returning to North Carolina from a short trip to a family wedding in Indianapolis, when we both realized we were hungry, and Bob's sounded like a good fit to address that. It had been a long while since either of us had been to a Bob's.

The restaurant on the Bob Evans Farm property isn't anything special. That's it in the picture leading off the post above. I don't recall seeing catfish on the menu when we were there, so I opted for the cornbread coated fried cod. It wasn't as good as I had hoped, and Lee Ann wasn't fond of the turkey dinner she ordered. So in that sense, the visit was a slight disappointment.

The farm itself -- which had hosted its annual festival the previous week (and remnants of the celebration were still evident) -- was interesting from what I could see. We hadn't planned to spend a lot of time checking it out (in fact, Lee Ann went to the car as soon as we finished our meal, so I scurried to take the landscape photos in this post).The farm has several buildings and a few markers and lots of acreage.

Above and below: The two sides of the same historical marker telling the Bob Evans story.

Above and next three below: The area where they hosted the farm festival the weekend of Oct. 12-14.

Above: As I  mentioned in the text above, I didn't spend a lot of time grabbing these pictures. I didn't learn the background or history of this home, but as the red sign on the far left indicates, the long green cart with red wheels in front of the home is offered as a place for people to stand for pictures that put the home in the background.

Above: An attempt at something artful in at least one of my pictures. I don't know ...  

Perspective and closeup shots (above and below) of a barn whose history is explained in the sign in front (second photo below).  

Above: The restaurant road sign promoting the farm festival is still up, even though the festival was the previous weekend.

Early voting was brisk at the site that I visited this week in Wake County, N.C.

In most years in the recent past, midterm elections have been drawn paltry crowds to the polls. But the political climate in the United States today is so inflamed (and dire, one could argue) that voters have excellent cause to get to the polls this fall.

Early voting started in North Carolina on Oct. 17 (and it ends this Friday). Until this year, I had never taken advantage of early voting. I'd always gone to the polls on election day. But this year, I didn't want anything last-minute to get in the way of my ability to cast a vote, so I went to Wake Tech Community College on Monday to take care of that business.

Wake Tech is one of 10 early voting sites in Wake County, N.C., where I live. I knew before heading to the poll that early voting was up considerably nationwide, so I kind of expected I might run into a bit of a wait. But there was no line to speak of (I think there were one or two individuals in front of me when I arrived) when I arrived. But when I looked inside, there were as many as two dozen stations where early voters could work on their ballots, and at least 20 of them were occupied.

Not long after I exited the site, I turned back to look to see if there was a line forming yet -- and there was. Which is why I decided to pull out my phone camera and take the pictures you see in this post, leading off with the line I saw after I exited the voting area.

The bottom of the lead-off photo and the first two photos below show a service I did not realize was provided -- curbside voting for handicapped citizens unable to climb the stairs to the line you see above.

The grassy areas near the voting access area at the college were littered with political signs, as shown above and below. One of the most controversial items on the ballot in North Carolina this fall were six proposed constitutional amendments promoted by a Republican super majority in the two state legislative chambers (first photo below). Three of the amendments -- one protecting the right to hunt, fish "and harvest wildlife" in North Carolina, another implementing an undefined or unexplained increase in victims' rights, and another lowering the cap of annual state income tax increases to 7 percent (it is now 10 percent) -- were viewed as red meat items to draw more Republicans to the polls to support the three amendments the legislature really was interested in -- 1) creating a voter-ID requirement for in-person voting in North Carolina in future elections (a federal appeals court struck down a recent previous effort to enact a voter ID law, saying it targeted African-American voters, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Republicans' appeal of that decision), 2) shifting certain judicial appointments from the governor (who is now a Democrat) to the legislature, and 3) reducing the size of the nine-member election board to eight -- and shifting from the governor to the legislature the duty to appoint members to that board. 

Above: On the right in the photo above, you see the stairs to the upper level of the physical education building where voting occurs at the Wake Tech campus. On the left are tables where Republican and Democrat poll workers have literature available about their candidates on the ballots. This election is the first to have judicial candidates run as members of political parties. 

View from the office window: Photographing elusive cardinal

For a couple months, I've seen a cardinal or two foraging for food or nest-making material on the roof of my sun room as I've looked out the windows while working in an upstairs office.

Of course, each time I saw a cardinal I immediately thought "pictures!" but this colorful bird can see me through the same window I saw him, and the moment he saw movement inside the office -- i.e., me dashing across the room to grab my camera -- he made himself scarce.

The more I saw the cardinal(s), the more I wanted to photograph them. So about two weeks ago, I decided to set up my camera with the appropriate long-range lens and keep it on my desktop at all times unless I was using it out on a shoot. Several days passed without any luck.

It finally paid off early the morning of Oct. 1 -- a few hours before I would leave the house to do the Lake Benson photo shoot (see previous post). The pictures in this post are the result.

Photo geek stuff: I had to make some quick adjustments on the camera's shutter speed and ISO to make things work on my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm Di VC PZD lens set at the maximum focal range (300mm) and an ISO of 4000 (remember, it was very early morning, just a couple hours after dawn). So there is some noise in the images, and at 300mm, and because of that -- and because I had to shoot through a window, I had so-so luck with optimum sharpness.

It's a beautiful day ... at Lake Benson

About the headline ... any baby boomers out there remember the San Francisco band called It's a Beautiful Day? The band's signature tune, released in 1968, was "White Bird." No? (sigh)

When I made my visit to Lake Benson Park on Oct. 1, it was, as the headline conveys, a beautiful day. As mentioned in my previous post, Lake Benson Park is located about 6 miles due east of Lake Wheeler Park in Wake County, N.C. Each has walking trails, boating, fishing, playgrounds and picnicking facilities.

Lake Benson also has the Garner Veterans Memorial, a nicely landscaped collection of stone monuments to military veterans situated near the park's entrance on Buffaloe Road.

Unlike the Lake Wheeler shoot, which I did under heavy overcast skies, I had sunshine and some picturesque cloud patterns at Lake Benson on Oct. 1. Because of the sunshine and the fact that I'd be dealing with glare on the water, I the Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens (on my Canon 6D camera) with a B+W polarizing filter. I'm sure it had much to do with the rich sky and water colors -- and the detail in the lake surface, including and especially with reflections. The photo leading off this post is a good example of that.

I had thought I'd be shooting most of my full-range lake shots from the main beach and lake access area close to the main pedestrian walk. But there were people sitting on benches there, and rather than disturb their relaxation and/or meditation, I decided to explore a dirt trail I saw heading northwest of the main beach access.

About a quarter- to a half-mile into the trail, I came upon a modest opening in the shoreline brush. The opening wasn't huge, but it was pretty easy to reach ... and plenty wide to enable me to get the lead-off photo. I took two versions of this scene. The first was taken with the lens set at 37 millimeters; for the second, I pulled back to the widest focal range -- 28 millimeters, which enabled me to incorporate more of the shoreline foliage (on the bottom).

As always, to view a larger, sharper image, click on the image. To see a full gallery of my shoot at Lake Benson, click on the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: I took three exposures of every composition to meld later in high-dynamic range (HDR) Photomatix software during post-processing. I set the camera on aperture priority and adjusted my ISO levels in dark conditions to allow for optimum shutter speeds so as not to blur images.

Because of the limited open access to the lake from the trail I was on, I decided to explore the kinds of shots I could get integrating the interfering brush and foliage. Some of my results appear in the next six photos. I probably had more "misses" than "hits," but ... I present them anyway in the spirit of at least trying ...  

One of the park residents spotted me when I took the photo above. I was quite a distance -- at least 40 yards or so, with my lens at maximum focal range (300 millimeters). But that wasn't safe enough for this guy. Within a minute or two, he was in the water with a companion and swimming away from shore (below). 

Above: In this composition, I was interested in seeing how the shallow, rusty-colored soil bottom near the shoreline would appear juxtaposed with the regular depth lake water.  

Before I reached any of the openings where I could shoot decent lake pictures, I came across some photogenic scenes along the trail. Above, the reflection on a small pond near the trail. Below, a viceroy butterfly that had just dropped onto this foliage.

Above, an insect (spider) on the edge of the aluminum rim you see below the bird feeder in the photo below. The second photo below is a closeup of the barn-like structure in the background of the first photo below.  

A portion of the playground area (above) and a long-range view of one of the shelters in the park (below). 

Above and next two photos below are scenes from the Garner Veterans Memorial near the front of the park. 

A lake, a pond and other things at Wake County's Lake Wheeler Park

In southern Wake County, N.C., there are two lakes, Wheeler and Benson, that are about 6 miles apart as the crow flies. Three major north-south thoroughfares are between them -- Lake Wheeler Road on the far west (which goes right by the lake of the same name), Fayetteville Road in the middle, and Old Stage Road on the east (although technically Old Stage runs along Lake Benson's western border).

On maps, they look to be almost the same size -- big enough to support recreational boating, fishing, and parks that allow for trails and hiking, playgrounds, and picnicking -- but not anywhere close to the size of, say, Lake Winnebago (which I include for my Wisconsin friends and readers!).

Both lakes happen to be within reasonable traveling distance to where I live, so I decided to visit each recently to indulge some photography -- finally -- after months of putting it off. Ideally, I should have waited until the autumn colors changed, but there's nothing that would prevent me from going back at some point.

I use today's post for the first of the lake parks that I visited recently, Lake Wheeler, the one after which a major road has been named. It has 800 total acres, of which 650 are water.

On the day I was there, Sept. 25, it was overcast the whole time, so I did not use my polarizing filter for any of the shots. I like using the polarizing filter when I do any shooting involving bodies of water because it helps cut through glare and does a beautiful job bringing detail to water reflection and enriching the blue in skies. The reverse would be true when I made it to Lake Benson six days later; it was sunny the whole time, so the polarizing filter came out for that shoot.

I came upon a surprise when I started strolling through Lake Wheeler Park; there is a picturesque 8-acre pond, surrounded by forest, within the grounds. Yes, this is in addition to the lake. The smaller body of water is called Simpkins Pond, which flipped on a light bulb to explain the origin of nearby Simpkins Road that I'd traveled on quite a bit in my 18 months living in North Carolina.

One of my favorite shots of the say came from an opportunity I had to photograph the lake's spillway, a slice of which can be seen in the photo leading off the post. Motorists on Lake Wheeler Road catch a glimpse of the spillway, but a glimpse has never been long enough for me. There isn't really a place to pull off the road there to take it in the way I'd wanted to until the day of this shoot, when I got to this point by foot after parking inside the park.

While I was there, I enjoyed a serendipitous moment when a man navigating a bright red canoe paddled by. A gaggle of geese positioned along the spillway's uppermost crease served as spectators.

A portion of the lake's size is illustrated in the first two photos below. It also underscores the overcast skies I mentioned previously.

As always, click on any photo to pull up a larger, sharper version, which is particularly helpful when accessing the blog from a mobile device. To view a full gallery of images from my shoot at Lake Wheeler, follow the link in this sentence.

The late summer foliage is beginning to make its color transition as evidence by these photos of the lake. The shot below was taken from the end point of a very lengthy pier near the boat launch ramps. So I'm "on" the water, looking back toward the shore.  

I liked the tree's role in framing this couple sitting on a bench along the shore (above). The only motored boat I saw on the water when I was there was this one (below). 

Above is a pedestrian walk leading to a modest overlook along the shore. Below is the paved trail back to the park that one sees while leaving the above overlook.

Above: About 60 yards down the same shore from the couple pictured above were these two geese. The one on the left is keeping an eye on the couple.  

 Above: Another natural framing composition. 

Above: If you've been following Photo Potpourri for a while or checking out full galleries of my shoots via links I drop into my posts, you've noticed how much lately I've been exploring the composition concept of shooting through meshed foregrounds like this for artistic effect. I don't contend that it's a great idea or even suggest that it ought to be done more often or on a regular basis. I just like exploring it ... and seeing what I get from it. 

If there was a real "find" at Lake Wheeler Park, it was Simpkins Pond, the wooded area surrounding it and the creeks intersecting the woods near the eastern portion of the park. Two views of a creek are shown above and below. 

An a smaller, interior body of water, I saw Simpkins Pond in "still waters" mode, as exhibited by the views shown above and below. 

The park has playground (above) and picnic facilities and a sand volleyball court (below) in an open meadow along the access drive (second below). 

Next up: Lake Benson Park