Sorry about that

In an earlier post I misspelled the name of Dr. Charles Somerville, dean of the College of Science at Marshall University. It's been corrected. I guess I was so frustrated in not being able to ... oh, never mind. I made a mistake, and it's be corrected. Sorry about that.

Excuses, excuses

It was raining. I had to hold the umbrella in one hand while working my camera with my other two hands. It was getting late, and dark. I was in a hurry because Adam had to get back to Huntington to get his new DS game from his sister and then run to a store to get a new Pokemon added to it.

But I got a few shots off anyway, for better or worse. I had to get the fog.

First, the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam.

The mooring cells below the locks, partly hidden by high water.

The community of Bladen, Ohio, about a mile and a quarter below the dam.

The lights in the center are at a store known as Bladen Landing.

And two views of some houses along the river below Miller, Ohio, as seen from the West Virginia side. I normally don't do this, but (full disclosure) I played with the color some.

Cover story

In February 1986 -- more than 25 years ago -- what was then known as Ohio Magazine ran a cover story titled, "A Portrait of the Ohio as a Working River." It was pretty good for the most part. Most of its 12 pages were given over to photos.

What strikes me as I look at it today is that with the Internet and digital photography, what took two professionals to do back then is done every day by regular folks like us. Some of the barriers to entry have fallen. In industry terms, print publications are no longer the gatekeepers to information. We barbarians have broken down the gate, and torn down a good bit of the fence, too.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure the cover photo was taken at one of my favorite spots along the Ohio, Virginia Point Park at Kenova, W.Va. Or perhaps just across the Big Sandy River at Catlettsburg, Ky. But that is Ohio in the background, with the Norfolk Southern bridge.

The boat is the Admiral Fu.