Day 5 - "The Tower" /  by AE Stagge

You saw it on the first page, and those of us in the area have lived with it blighting our landscape for more than 7 years. This is the project originally called Kenwood Towne Place. You can read some of the gory details here, but the mismanaged $175 million project cost some people their businesses, and others were charged with federal crimes.

This night shot shows the lights are on, and that's the good news. Construction has recently gotten back underway and the new owners have grand plans for the newly named "Kenwood Collection".

Now let's see how the powers-that-be accommodate the increased traffic volume from thousands of additional workers and customers. 

We'll revisit this site many times in the coming months to track the progress of construction and the consequences of same.

Day 4 - Exploring Boundaries /  by AE Stagge

So I want to get more familiar with the boundaries of the township. Here is the northeast corner of the northern-most part of the township; Fields Ertel at Snider.

I'll find some other boundaries as we go forward. I think I know where the township starts and ends but I might be surprised.

Sorry, no fireworks to be found inside of Sycamore Township on this Independence Day.

Day 3 - Bechtold Park /  by AE Stagge

Sand volleyball courts at one of my favorite local parks. Twenty-two acre Bachtold Park is the oldest park in the township. It is located between the Kenwood and Dillonvale neighborhoods.

We'll be back here soon, as next weekend this place will be transformed into the popular "Festival in Sycamore". Always a good time, with food, rides, games and live music from local, regional and national acts. This year the headliners are 70's bands Ambrosia and The Guess Who.

Day 2 - Heavily Fortified /  by AE Stagge

In the heart of the Kenwood shopping district is the new Cincinnati FBI headquarters. A beautiful complex as far as I can tell from behind the fence. I would like to keep it that way.

A bunch of very smart people work here. Should we feel safer with this in the neighborhood? I do.

Day 1 - Where is Sycamore Township? /  by AE Stagge

To set the stage here's a map of my "territory" for this project. A PDF of this map is available on the Sycamore Township website here:

http://www.sycamoretownship.org/index.cfm

It may seem odd that the township is composed of three separate pieces. At one time these pieces were all connected but over the years portions of the township were annexed into surrounding cities like Blue Ash, Reading and Madeira. I wonder if the rest of the township will be absorbed some day....

Sycamore Township Photo-a-Day /  by AE Stagge

For some time I have been looking for a photo project. Many photographers have done a 365 project, where they post a photo each day for one year (see 365project.org or aphotoaday.org). The idea is to exercise your vision and creativity by shooting very regularly. Good photographers of course have learned to “see” well.

Recently I heard an interview with a blogger in Paris. His project is one photo a day of Paris and I really like his site - www.parisdailyphoto.com. He has been at it for nearly 10 years. That’s commitment! I thought about doing CincinnatiDailyPhoto, but wasn’t sure I could realistically cover all of Cincinnati. Also, someone else is (kind of) doing that here: cincinnatidailyphoto.blogspot.com.  So, I am combining the 365 idea with a more local theme, scaling it down to the community in which I live.  By limiting the geography and time I am hopeful I can keep this commitment.

I have lived in Sycamore Township most of my life. I grew up here, and after a few years in other places I returned here with my wife to start our family. Sycamore Township is a mix of residential, industrial/commercial and retail businesses, maybe best known for the Kenwood Towne Centre.

This project is a selfish endeavor. It’s about me improving as a photographer. If others find it interesting, great. I am not using it to promote the township per se, but there are some great things about our community. If all goes well, you will see the good, the bad, the ugly and the great. My self-imposed rules....no make that guidelines, are to post once a day, a photo that has been taken within the last 30 days. I hope to mix in a few panoramas and time-lapse videos. The tools are not important; I might use my camera phone, GoPro or DSLR and whatever processing techniques I wish to make the image I want. 

So, here we go…

UPDATE   10/1/2014

The first quarter is in the books!  This project has been a challenge, and I have enjoyed it. Ninety days/photos doesn’t seem like a lot, but it took at least 900 shutter clicks to get those 90 shots. I suppose ten percent isn’t so bad.

I’ve waffled a bit at times on what subjects I should include. The project has become part art, part humor, photo journalism and part township tour. That’s ok with me as they all keep me shooting, which is the main purpose.

I will have to do much more exploring to get to 365. I also need to experiment more with post-processing tools. I may come up with some odd results, so let’s get back at it.

Best,

AE

UPDATE   1/1/2015

I'm half way home. This quarter I have used more photos from my phone which eases the burden but may have lessened the quality a bit. Lately my big issue has been winter skies. I have to take what I can get, which is often not good. I'm looking forward to spring. 

I've continued to struggle with content. I take a lot of shots that don't make the cut, and I'm still not getting the variety I'd like. That said here are some of my favorites from this quarter:

95, 106, 112, 115, 118, 125, 139, 175, 180, 181

Best,

AE

UPDATE   4/1/2015

Rounding third and heading for home…to quote a famous local celebrity. RIP Nuxy.

This quarter was more winter and cold and snow. I did some fun exploring days 241-243. Tried some different things, like 257. I used a modern in-camera HDR feature instead of in post. I feel like I am making progress developing my eye. Time will tell.

Here are a few of my favs from Q3: 

186, 214, 217, 223, 243, 261, 271

Best,

AE

FINAL UPDATE 7/1/2015

I really enjoyed this exercise and I learned a lot. Many times I felt my post photo was not of the quality I wanted, but that is part of working with a deadline. I realize it is difficult to follow the project from the beginning, so soon I was post a page of photos in reverse order. In the meantime you can go to Day 1 and click the link at the bottom of the page to advance one day at a time.

Thanks for stopping by!

AE