Leica Two scenes from NE Ohio with the Leica Q.

D

dalethorn

Guest
Two very different Ohio scenes: I've passed this farm numerous times driving from Summit-Medina counties down to Amish country, and whatever photos I've taken have not been satisfactory until this time. These cows are fairly curious and will approach the camera to some extent, but then they turn shy very quickly. This farm has looked just like this as long as I can remember - back to the 1990's or earlier.

The Glamorgan Castle (a real castle) in Alliance Ohio was given to the Alliance Board of Education a few decades ago, sans most of the interior treasure that was sold off. It was built in the 1800's by immigrants from somewhere in Britain. A funny story: My wife, her mother, and myself were touring the castle in 1999, and on the tour we came across one large room where some of the Board of Education staff were meeting. I walked into the doorway and announced "As your new acting president, y'all are fired effective today." Now I don't know if they *really* took me seriously, but one of the staff scrambled over to me and said "We only meet here once a month for an hour", as though they weren't wasting a lot of time in meetings. It felt pretty good.

Edit: I didn't want to be this close to the castle, but behind me the ground dropped off 10 feet or more, so no choice...

Leica Q, f5.6, 1/1000 handheld, ISO 200.
Ohio77_s.jpg


Leica Q, f5.6, 1/1000 handheld, ISO 200.
Alliance07_s.jpg
 
Indeed - I have been to several castles in the area around Germany and Austria, and while some of them have old artifacts, most looked pretty well dead. The castle in Alliance OH is fairly small as historic castles go, but in spite of its small size it has the characteristics I recognized from abroad, including the lavish interior (until most of that was sold off by the heirs). Still, it's very impressive on the inside, and huge compared to even the big estates I've visited around Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara.
 
Hi Dale,

I'm just messing with you. The real difference is that Bamburg Castle is one of the most impressive castles in England and it is approximately 1000 years old (parts of it are only a couple of hundred) also it was built for defence. The USA has only been around for a fifth of that time and I would guess that the Alliance castle was built for show (also known as Dick-Waving).

More importantly, your picture is better than mine.

Cheers
 
The Ohio castle was the actual home for immigrants who were realizing a dream far from home, and after 2-3 generations the money spread out and there wasn't enough left in one place to support the place.

There are numerous odd buildings and structures in the U.S. that are very out-of-place and time for their neighborhoods, but a much better example of d-waving would be the mansions of Charleston SC, for example, because those were the plantation owners who were very competitive with each other.

There is/was a castle-type estate on a hill in Malibu California, seen from Pacific Coast Highway. That too is one of those "I've got the ultimate home in this neighborhood" statements. But the Alliance castle was built in an area in the mid-1800s where there were no homes or businesses, just a large forest. So I think they had a very different thought than most of the palatial home-builders of modern times.
 
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