2024 “List”
I have this note on my phone called “potential things to shoot.” It’s not the first one I ever created, nor the second, or even the third—but it’s the one I’ve been using most recently. Sometimes it features a screenshot of something I came across online, other times it’s a poorly translated voice-to-text about a scene I saw while driving, and occasionally it’s coordinates from Google Maps. All the items have two things in common though: they’re scenes I want to photograph, and, well: they never really get checked off the list.
Maybe the lighting wasn’t right, I didn’t have the proper equipment with me, or I was busy doing something else. Sometimes it’s all of that. Coming up with excuses is pretty easy, but things usually just boil down to this: I’d like to make a photograph of that, but I can’t do it now—so I’ll write it down and (maybe (probably not)) come back to it.
Recently, however, I had some random time and the weather was great. So, I set out with plans to knock a few things off “the list.”
I spent some (too much) time trying to whittle down the bullet points into a few close-by things that I could get to in one afternoon, having forgotten just how large the tally had grown. A few scenes I went to were already gone. Who knows when they got knocked down, covered up, or removed. Casualties of procrastination and priority. And hell, once I did start making progress—I found myself doing the same old, self-defeating thing: “Oh, that looks cool, but I don’t like the light right now, so I’ll add it to this list and come back.”
Eventually on that day, however, I stopped letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, and just captured what I could as I saw it. So, here’s what I managed to get that day and on the few days that followed . As I keep ticking away at this list of “potential things to shoot,” I’ll keep adding them here as the year goes on.
Last Updated: August 6, 2024
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Last Updated: August 6, 2024 —
The Cincinnati skyline as seen from Lower Price Hill. Inspired by a photograph taken by my colleague/coworker/friend (yes, we are friends, Becca) Becca Costello.
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Interstate ramps connecting Cincinnati with the Brent Spence Bridge.
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Covington, KY:
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Old sign frame near the casino in downtown Cincinnati:
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Doorway near Swift Alley. Downtown Cincinnati.
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Liberty Street. Over-The-Rhine. Cincinnati.
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The sad, little Subway of CVG:
I just love that there’s a space clearly built for some sort of concession stand, but there’s only a Subway vending machine. As if regular Subway wasn’t miserable enough.
I did try to buy the Spicy Italian in there, but the machine didn’t work.
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This “old” streetcar sign in downtown Cincinnati:
This was actually a promotional poster placed by supporters who favored building the light rail line (during one of the many times opponents attempted—and failed—to scuttle the project). These maps were placed near where all potential stops would be. Only the one at the Court St. station remains.
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Office tower in the Bond Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati:
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Last Updated: August 6, 2024
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Last Updated: August 6, 2024 —
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