Hello to all and welcome!
I can't really say what you should expect to see here as I've never before tried blogging or anything similar. It'll have to be a work in progress. I'll probably talk about photography in general (and mine in specific) as well as point out different things that are going on that I find interesting or worth commenting on. If anyone (assuming anyone actually ends up reading this) has questions or suggestions on topics, feel free to let me know.
I'm here you're with me, here at the beginning of all things.
Roger
p.s. Comments and feedback are very welcome.
Night Skies
At the start of August I went on my first photography workshop in well over a decade. What convinced me to do so was the topic - shooting the night sky over Lake Superior. It ended up being a series of firsts for me, both in terms of location and results.
The night we arrived up north, there really wasn't a chance of capturing a good night sky photo, so we ended up shooting around the harbor in Duluth (a place I've only driven through in the past, so my first first of the trip). Duluth is one of the two cities in Minnesota that still has a working Lift Bridge (the other being in Stillwater). The need for such a device becomes apparent when you see the varying sizes of boats/ships that travel under it, from regular motor boats to behemoths like this freighter.
Here's a shot of Duluth at sunset.
Night Two proved to be the best night for shooting the night sky. We started off at Split Rock Lighthouse (another location I've never visited, let alone shot at). This is one of the most iconic and most photographed locations in Minnesota. I enjoyed trying to capture different views of the lighthouse. The first is playing with the pools that for amongst the rocks (unfortunately, massive mosquito breeding grounds). The second is a more typical view, but I like the colors in the twilight.
Unfortunately, because of the time of year, the Milky Way was not going to align itself with the lighthouse, so it was time to set up a different view for that. Shortly after capturing this image (complete with some lucky meteors), I realized that I had not set up exaxtly where the Milky Way was, so I had to reframe my image.
This is a 7 shot composite, which was necessary to capture as much of the Milky Way as I could.
After leaving Split Rock, we stopped at Twin Point Park/Iona's Beach. Here's a Milky Way shot from there.
While capturing that and some other images, I couldn't help but notice how nice and bright the Big Dipper was over the trees to the right. So, I had to get a shot. Then I saw what else was going on and had to get many more. Here's my favorite.
Day Three brought us to Gooseberry Falls, yet another iconic location I've never been to. It is much harder to get a shot than I realized because of all the people swimming in the pools around the falls. This was the best I could manage.
The Milky Way wasn't as bright and colorful that night, so I decided to convert it to black and white (this is a 6 shot stitched panorama). The glow around the tree is from a city to the south, possibly Two Harbors.
Our final day and night were on and off rainy, so we knew we wouldn't get night skies. However, it did stop raining enough to get out and shoot around Two Harbors. Here are some of my images from that.
Two Harbors is one of the largest loading areas for taconite in Minnesota [taconite is an iron ore that is shipped as pellets...it is the reason the hills around Duluth are called the Iron Range]. Here you can see the ore docks as well as a supply of the taconite pellets.
It was a really good trip and one I would do again, but at a different time of year (mostly to get the Milky Way and Split Rock Lighthouse in the same shot). And now I know how to get similar results in other locations I want to visit.
Challenge #4 - December
It turns out December was an incredibly blah month. Not good or bad, just blah. I complained back in Challenge #3 about getting snow all through April. In December, none untid the 31st, and even then just enough to change the color of the ground from brown with dead grass to white with dead grass. An improvement, but nothing to write home about or go out and shoot.
So, shooting in December was a challenge (pun intended).
To start off, some Chanukah shots. I thought my little baby gargoyle would add some fun to otherwise kinda ordinary shots, which is why it's perched at the top and bottom.
For these next two, I wanted to show the interesting patterns and textures left by the melted candle wax.
I play pub trivia every Wednesday with some friends. This is Molly, the trivia mistress, on the night of holiday trivia. She gave extra points for people who showed up in holiday dress. The closest I could come is a green shirt.
Every year, my brother and sister-in-law bake cookies for the holidays and give them out to friends and family. During the year they practice new recipes. Here's this year's assortment. [side note: All this baking led them put publish a cookie cookbook. If you enjoy baking, check it out at https://www.heritagecookies.net/]
Since it's December, holiday lights are a must. Here are a couple of houses near met (and note how the neighbors get into the act in the second photo).
I have very geeky friends. My friends Dave and Mary invited me over for a holiday meal. Here's a small sample of how they decorate their tree.
Finally, one thing I knew I wanted to capture was a nice roaring fire. It is endlessly fascinating and mesmerizing.
Challenge 3 - It's not that easy being green
This is the third photo challenge my friend Cynthia has put out. I'm starting this one off with the required self-portrait as it serves as a good starting point to explain my approached. This photo was taken on April 1 of this year, after yet another snowstorm. In fact, this has been either the 2nd or 3rd snowiest year on record. In fact, I could have taken a very similar photo a week later as that's when we had another 8.5" of snow. Even now, trees are barely starting to bud.
So, I realized very early that I wasn't going to be able to approach this challenge in a normal fashion. Instead, I thought "why not try it in reverse?" So, there is no greenery in any of these photos. No leaves. No plants. Nothing that normally makes you think "green/spring".
So, I started off at home. I enjoy interesting looking rocks and minerals. The first image is a malachite ?geode? I've had for a long time. The second one is a slab of jasper.
These are some alibrejes that I bought down in Sayulita, Mexico on one of Cynthia's photo workshops.
This is the next subject I knew I wanted to include. It is a Jade Mountain that is on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I'm constantly amazed at the detail that was included in this. The first image shows one side of this massive piece of jade and gives a small sense of the amout of carving that went into its creation. The others are details from different areas.
Since I was already at the MIA, I thought I might as well go and see their current show, which is on Chinese Ritual Bronzes. After all, there had to be a lot of green there. My favorite of these is the second one. I love the shadows.
I still wanted to include some outdoor greenery if possible. The obvious example was this mallard. Unfortunately, none of the other birds or other creatures I expected to see were out, probably due to the cold.
The last image I knew had to be included was this one. Street signs are a ubiquitous green and show up better at night when they are lit. I've also wanted an excuse to capture an image from here for a long time (Franklin Avenue bridge over 35W for any locals).
So, those are the images I managed to capture for this challenge. To give you a sense of what I wasn't able to include, here are some older photos that fit the theme:
I did think about buying an avocado and including that, but none of the ones in the supermarket were ripe. Instead, here's a kiwi I shot after my first workshop with Cynthia. These were inspired by here friend and neighbor Denis Brihat.
This is actually the first year I haven't seen painted turtles out yet. I'm still surprised I couldn't include one.
Snapping turtles are maybe more of a May reptile than April, but are so primordeal that it's worth including them in any collection you can.
This Leopard frog might also be more of a later spring reptile, but oh well. Besides, considering the blog title, I had to include a frog.
I was really hoping that some wood ducks would be out. The above image was taken in April, so it was certainly a possibility.
This guy would have been a great ironic image to close on. It's a green heron, although I have no idea where it got that name since I've never seen any green on them.
Chasing Waterfalls
Back in January, the challenge from my friend Cynthia was to show the city on a specific day. The challenge this time was to pick a subject and show off that subject during the month of September.
I chose to shoot waterfalls.
Turns out I should have tried to think of a different subject. Not because I didn't get some images I'm happy with (I wouldn't share them if I wasn't), but because circumstances conspired against me in multiple ways. September has been fairly dry, so the waterfalls i went to were mostly at a very low volume. It has also been a very hot September and I don't do well when it is hot. I'm not a morning person and all of these really wanted to be shot early in the day in order to avoid hot spots/shadows (overcast would have also worked, but it's been sunny).
I also decided to avoid anyplace I have taken photos in the past year or two in order to make these fresh. So, nothing from the Arboretum, Minnehaha Falls, or St. Anthony Falls.
So, without further complaining or downplaying things to what I am realizing is an absurd degree, here are the results.
Shingle Creek Falls - Webber Park, Minneapolis
I'm not sure how to classify this waterfall. It has obviously been altered by people, but its location indicates that it is probably a natural waterfall. I wanted to include the surroundings, and I also like the way the foam outflow adds an extra area of interest.
Hidden Falls - Hidden Falls Park, St. Paul
One of the reasons I chose waterfalls as a subject was to visit some places I haven't been to in a long time. Hidden Falls is one of those. I actually went there a couple times since I had some equipment and light issues on my first visit. One of the things I discovered is that, if the light is not great but still OK, convert to black and white.
I don't know if that last one actually counts as a waterfall since it is maybe a foot from the top to the bottom (it is a series of drops in the river downstream from the falls above). What struck me was the individual bright falls spots while the rest of the image was much darker/almost black. Processing was really hard, but I'm satisfied with the result.
Shadow Falls - St. Paul
I had never heard of Shadow Falls before this project. I found out about it by Googling "waterfalls near me" (I also found out about Webber Park that way). Turns out there is a lot of scrambling required to get down to the falls along an all natural, somewhat sketchy trail. And, 2pm was not a good time to visit because the light was all over the place. These images were 7-image HDR composites in order to get as much detail and color as possible. I do like the texture that comes out in the black and white version.
Normandale Lake Falls - Bloomington
This is another one that I'm not sure if it actually counts as a waterfall since it is 2-3 feed from top to bottom. It also seems like it might be man-made, but since it is overflow from a lake, I don't know for sure. Because of the lack of water flowing, I only got decent shots of the bottom level.
Hidden Falls - Nerstrand/Big Woods State Park
I haven't been to this park in probably 20 years, so it was another of the ones that made me want to shoot waterfalls. This is one I actually got to early enough to avoid bad highlights.
Those last two images were inspired by my friend Angie, who joined me there and at Hidden Falls in St. Paul. She showed me her version of this shot, which had a lot more foreground; and later sent me a copy that she had converted to black and white. I personally prefer having less foreground and color since it shows the falls better.
Cannon River Falls - Northfield
I went to college in Northfield, so I was fairly familiar with the falls in downtown. It is also on the way back from Nerstrand/Big Woods State Park, so stopping there for lunch and to shoot made a lot of sense. The falls image turned out OK, but what really intrigued me was the way the current was reflecting on the underside of the bridge. The last image is that reflection, which might be my favorite on in the entire set.
Summing up the City
How do you sum up a city in a single image? I was out at Lake Bde Maka Ska the other day and thought I'd see if I could do so.
Obviously, the first requirement was to include the city in the image. And, since Minneapolis is "The City of Lakes" including the lake seemed requisite as well. The final element is people. Minnesotans use their lakes...swimming, sailing, fishing, etc.
So, after capturing several images, I narrowed the selection down to these four. What I can't decide is which one sums up the city best (or which one I prefer).
