Smile for the Notepad

I like taking pictures. Sometimes I share them.

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Went on a work trip to Hawaii. Got to see Kauai and Oahu. Amazing experience.

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Beep beep

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Oh hey, I haven't posted here in a while. Here are some night shots from Cedar Point.

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The Avon Lake Fire Department recently conducted some rope rescue training exercises. 

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I took some shots last weekend during the MS Walk in downtown Cleveland. Enjoy.

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I took these a few weeks ago. Visiting the lake before the weather warms up is turning into a favorite thing of mine. Taken at Veterans Memorial Park and beach in Avon Lake.

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Some photos from Kopf Family Reservation in Avon Lake.

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Just a foggy day on Lake Erie

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The ice formations came back to the two parks along Lake Erie in Avon Lake. The ice didn't cover as much as last year's, but we had a much bigger storm come through in 2014. Besides, there's still time.

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Students from Erieview Elementary School in Avon Lake competed to collect the most food in a food drive to benefit Avon-Avon Lake Community Resource Services. Together, the students collected 2,300 canned food items for CRS. Teacher Laura Smith’s fourth-grade class won the food drive competition, setting them up for a face-off on the court against the school staff. The students won 25 to 23. During half-time, Avon Lake grad and inspirational speaker Jim “Basketball” Jones entertained the students with some tricks.

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The community said goodbye to firefighter-paramedic Larry Heczko on Nov. 19. Heckzo, a firefighter-paramedic for 23 years, died Nov. 13 in an off-duty construction accident. Fire departments from around the region, as well as the fire department from his hometown in Connecticut, attended his funeral and joined in the procession. Hecko's son, Mark, and daughter, Annie, wrote a letter in this week's Press, page A7, to give their thanks to the community for the love and support shown to them.

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Took another walk in the woods in Avon Lake.

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Took a walk through the Lorain County MetroParks Kopf Family Reservation last week. The leaves haven't started turning yet, but I saw some other interesting things, including one of the locally famous piebald deer just resting near a young buck.

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Just wrapped up a series on suburban agriculture. My last piece was on the Klingshirn Winery in Avon Lake, the city's last owner-run growing operation. The winery has been passed down through three generations, starting out as a vineyard and press for grape juice (sometimes for home wine making) during Prohibition. The winery has focused on growing grapes and making wine, but in recent years, the owners have looked at growing some fruits and vegetables on a small scale as well as experimenting with hops for some local microbreweries.

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The Love-A-Stray Big Splash Dog Swim is always one of my favorite events to shoot. Dogs get to play, run around and jump in the water and a good organization raises money to fund its dog fostering program.

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Had some fun at the air show in Cleveland yesterday.

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The Avon Lake fire and police departments hosted a mass casualty drill Aug. 7 at Avon Lake High School. The drill included neighboring safety services and emergency rooms. Students from the drama club and teachers volunteered as victims. The training scenario had an armed intruder in the high school that police had to search for and neutralize before they and paramedics could rescue victims from the building.

While taking pictures of the drill, they kept media at two observation posts to allow us access but keep us from getting in the way. On one hand, I wish they would have let me move around more for better pictures, but then again, I realize I wouldn't have anywhere near this kind of access during an actual event.

Being when the drill began gave me a very strange feeling. I don't know quite how to describe it. It was definitely eerie seeing something like this unfold, even if it was only a training session. After speaking to some of the other media and the first responders there, I found out I wasn't alone feeling that way.