Jerry Mann

Nicole Miranda, on the trail at Reagan Park in Medina.

Thanks to a few kids, I’m back to riding trails on my mountain bike, and I feel like a kid again, too!

Last August I discovered the Youth Mountain Bike Clinics at Reagan Park in Medina, and next thing I knew I was on my bike every week — taking my step-grandson Stanley to learn the finer points of trail riding. As we both honed our skills, we also met a bunch of cool people, including the Miranda family: five avid mountain bikers, who regularly race in Ohio, and out of state, too.

This photo was commissioned by the parents, Linda and Patrick, for Nicole’s senior portrait. They asked me if I ever do senior portraits, and I gave them my standard reply: just for family and friends. So I made some new friends this past summer too. : ) 

By the way, although we left it out for this pic, Nicole and every mountain biker I know always always wear their helmet when riding …

At races, Nicole regularly places high in the standings— actually her younger sister and brother do just as well. (Check this link)! Most notably, Nicole won the Midwest Regional Cyclocross Championships in December (and the coveted Stars-and-Stripes Jersey that comes with it). She will study mathematics at Brevard College in North Carolina — a mountain biking mecca — and will race for the mountain bike team there!

I’ve always loved riding the trails, but it was tough getting to a legal mountain bike trail in Northeast Ohio. Emphasize was. The Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA) helped me find all the trails in the area, with updates about their conditions. I decided to join CAMBA and have been putting in time building new mountain bike trails in the Cleveland Metro Parks! Yes, you heard that right: there will be mountain bike trails — many miles of them — in the Cleveland Metro Parks!

Actually, there already is one trail open to bikes, at the Ohio and Erie Canal Reservation. Its short but sweet. I can get there in 20 minutes and ride it in twenty. It kicks my butt, but hey I’m having fun getting back in shape. 

So if I’m not out shooting, I’m out on the trails— and sometimes out shooting on the trails. Stay in touch… if you are in the area maybe we can go out riding together! It’s a blast!

www.jerrymann.com

Two Beans, ©2011 Jerry Mann.

This image is signed and framed and available in the raffle at tonight’s Coit Road Market Benefit. The image is 4x4 in an 8x8 frame, over-matted with white museum board.

The post below shows the other image that will be available tonight, as well.

Please come to the benefit for great food by ten top creative chefs from the area and music and fun! $35 gets you in and all the food you want, plus chances to win fab raffle items! Plus, it’s at the Beachland Ballroom, which is always a pleasure to visit with the grand ballroom and great beer list!

The Coit Road Farmers Market is my regular source for fresh produce, eggs, cheese and locally roasted fair trade coffee beans!

www.jerrymann.com

Volunteer, ©2011 Jerry Mann.

I have donated this image for the raffle at tonight’s Coit Road Market Benefit. The image is 4x6 in an 8x10 frame and is signed, matted and framed. Please come by and support my local market!

www.jerrymann.com

Shooting from the hip was a blast!

Two weeks away from zoom lenses, auto-exposure and a razor did me some good. Sal and I went off to parts Down East, as they say in Maine, and all I took was my Canon 5DMarkII with a 50.

While that doesn’t sound like much room for creativity, I knew that having only a normal lens at my disposal would force me back into Pure Photography mode. I set the camera on M, and for my first serious shot of the trip I put myself to the classic test: guess the exposure. Anyone remember the Sunny 16 Rule? Presto, perfect histogram. I rarely strayed from the M again the whole trip.

The other “camera” I brought was my new iPhone (white!) which I fully expected to drop in Lake Sebago—but no such disaster occurred. The camera takes pretty crummy photos by pro standards, so I found an app for dat. I was soon shooting the crappiest photos possible, which were purely beautiful.

It takes an art school student who’s been forced to shoot with a Diana camera (nowadays, a Holga) to understand that statement. Above is the last frame of the trip, as Sally and I found a road side farm market that had beautiful, local produce and ICE CREAM! It was a nice end to our two week adventure.

I’m not promising it, but maybe I will put together a slide show of the trip. Stay tuned! In the meantime make sure you check out this month’s Cleveland Magazine. I shot the cover and several inside features as well. The stack of CleMags looks really sweet at the checkout at Whole Foods.

www.jerrymann.com

The bones of Elwell Parker.

As we scoured a dumpster for the bones of a shut down factory, Timothy and I felt a little crazy, but we also knew we were doing the right thing. It was the year 2000, and we had just spent the better part of two years trying to save Cleveland’s icons of industry, the Hulett Ore Unloaders. Now we were salvaging wooden patterns from the Elwell Parker Electric Company, a factory that had operated on that site for over 100 years.

We filled the back of my pickup truck, and then Tim’s, and unloaded them next door into the Brownhoist Building, which also has century-old roots in Cleveland. We then went back to the factory to get more patterns and other artifacts that were doomed for the dump or the scrapyard. Some items still had useful life in them; others hinted at a value beyond utility. We especially saw a unique beauty in the patterns which were crafted with the pride in workmanship that had driven Elwell Parker to greatness throughout the 20th century.

We knew we would do something important with the collection. We wanted to share it with others, celebrate its value as industrial archaeology and honor the workers who were Elwell Parker Electric. After eleven years that time has come. Join us this Friday, June 3rd downtown at the new Brownhoist Gallery on St. Clair Avenue. The opening will run from 5-10 pm. You can also get more info and updates on Facebook.

I will have some photos in the exhibition, too, but don’t expect to see framed prints on the wall!

www.jerrymann.com

In honor of our good friend, Tim Lloyd, who passed away on April 30th.

AKA “TWL”, He was our teacher first and good friend for the rest of his life. He had a positive affect on more young people than can be counted, and will never be forgotten.

Appearing soon at your local dentist’s office, bird cage floor or recycle bin.

Yesterday the April issue of Cleveland Magazine appeared at my door, and it reminded me that I never bragged about my recent cover shot for CleMag. I’m surprised I let a month slip by without a blog post on the subject, but then again I’m not that great at gloating.

My March, 2011, portrait of Dr. Kathryn Teng was a nice change from the more freestyle assignment I am used to. Very tight layout requirements and strict control of background lighting are a few of the challenges of shooting a cover.

Besides commandeering a small conference room for the studio shot on blue seamless, we also did a cover try of Dr. Teng in the lab. Finding the perfect location for an environmental cover shot is a unique challenge, so Art Director Kristin Miller and myself spent a lot of time touring the Cleveland Clinic to find the right spot.

My personal favorite is the environmental portrait, and the magazine loved it too. But market research told them that covers on seamless will sell better, so that shot wound up on the table of contents. (see the pix in my post below.)

Dr. Teng was one of the best cover subjects I’ve had the pleasure to work with. She could turn on the smiles when needed, adjust her poses minutely to our specific needs and could repeat it all endlessly. And unlike a few models I can recall, she didn’t need to count on her fingers to remember the poses. ; )

Anyway, the point of this blog posting is this: March came in like a lion and no one noticed my cover shot on Cleveland Magazine. Now you have to go to the dentist to see it. Or your local library!

Also, see below for my other two portraits of doctors for the March Top Doctors issue. Happy Spring everyone….

www.jerrymann.com

Dr. Kathryn Teng of the Cleveland Clinic, environmental cover try for March, 2011, Cleveland Magazine.

A toast to the carriers of the flambeaux.

I spent a few days in New Orleans catching parades and music. The flambeau carriers at the Krewe of d’Etat were stunning. I saw them down the block on our way to the parade route and spent some time shooting them. Click on the image above to view a short slide show at my website, or click here. (It may take a minute to load depending on how low-speed your high-speed is!)

The flambeaux at the Muses Parade were fueled by propane—and the carriers heroically had tanks strapped to their backs! But these flambeaux were kerosene-fired, with their fuel tank on top of the pole—even more heroic!

For more info on flambeaux and the carriers of the flambeau, visit the Wikipedia page on New Orleans Mardi Gras or this history page at Mardi Gras Digest.

www.jerrymann.com