Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.
Minnesota is known as the “Land of Lakes” claiming to have 10,000 lakes. This is an old marketing ploy, Minnesota doesn’t have that many lakes, that’s just a nice round number — the real number of lakes over 10 acres in size is actually 11,842. We also have 69,000 miles of rivers, including the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi. In the summer, Minneapolis is amazing, there’s so many parks in the city with lakes or rivers in them. I live in Uptown, which is on the “Chain of Lakes” on the western side of the city. Today’s photo is of Lake of the Isles, my favorite Lake. Not many know this, but the namesake islands are Mike’s Island and Raspberry Island — both bird sanctuaries.
The price of living here is the winter. If you are a regular reader, you know my stance on it. But we make the best of it including a big cross-country skiing event this weekend that I plan on taking pictures of and sharing with you, so check back.
That’s my friend Lynne in the picture above, she’s an oil painter. The day I took this, she was painting and I was experimenting with my IR camera. She’s one of a rare breed of landscape painters who practice “plein aire” style — painting outside and capturing the quality of the light and the landscape in a few hours. I painted for a few years, but I’m on a break from it, the camera is more my medium right now.
Infrared photography creates some amazing images and it’s one of the instances where point-and-shoot cameras out perform DSLRs. To learn more, read my article about Infrared.
Other City Photo Blogs participating in the Monthly Theme Day
The theme for February is “When People Think of My City They Think of…” Today is the day to go see the world, the DCPBers are showing off their cities! Portland (OR), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Memphis (Tennessee), USA - Manila, Philippines - San Diego (CA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - New York City (NY), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - San Francisco (CA), USA - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - Mainz, Germany - Weston (FL), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Turin, Italy - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Bicheno, Australia - Durban, South Africa - Joplin (MO), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Brussels, Belgium - Chicago (IL), USA - Montpellier, France - Seattle (WA), USA - Mazatlan, Mexico - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Toulouse, France - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Susanville (CA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Helsinki, Finland - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Lisbon, Portugal - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Trujillo, Peru - Dunedin (FL), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - London, UK - Baziège, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mumbai, India - Naples (FL), USA - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Setúbal, Portugal - Stayton (OR), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Arradon, France - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Athens, Greece - Austin (TX), USA - Singapore, Singapore - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Jackson (MS), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Budapest, Hungary - Rotterdam, Netherlands - St Malo, France - Chandler (AZ), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Cleveland (OH), USA - Nottingham, UK - Kansas City (MO), USA - The Hague, Netherlands - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Wrocław, Poland - Chateaubriant, France - Cheltenham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Monrovia (CA), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Toruń, Poland - Grenoble, France - Lisbon, Portugal - New Orleans (LA), USA - Sydney, Australia - Boston (MA), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Wichita (KS), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Christchurch, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Wailea (HI), USA - Aliso Viejo (CA), USA - St Francis, South Africa - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Seattle (WA), USA - Pasadena (CA), USA - Vienna, Austria - Orlando (FL), USA - Torun, Poland - Delta (CO), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Paris, France - Stavanger, Norway - Niamey, Niger - Le Guilvinec, France - Bogor, Indonesia - Saarbrücken, Germany - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Juneau (AK), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Glasgow, Scotland - Chicago (IL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Sydney, Australia - Riga, Latvia - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Terrell (TX), USA - Terrell (TX), USA - Inverness (IL), USA
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That’s a lot of water! The summers have got to be great.Plus, you should have plenty of water to drink!
This is a wonderfully different photograph–an intriguing technique. Yes, the price of living in the Twin Cities is the winter, but the summers are glorious.
wow that’s a lot of lakes in Minneapolis!
Happy Theme Day!
Mitch, thanks for your comments on my blog. About those Minnesota regiments who came South to fight, some of the men were captured in north Alabama by Gen. Forrest and brought to the prison at Cahaba near Selma. A super nice couple from Minneapolis came here in 1995 and began researching the names of Union soldiers who were interned there. They worked with the Cahaba staff and compiled a list of more than 9,000 Union soldiers, then published that roster as well as a collection of prisoners’ memories. They went all over the U.S. to research this.
They were so interested because one of their great-grandfathers was a Union soldier who was imprisoned at Cahaba. The tragedy is that many of these soldiers died on their way back home when the steamship Sultana exploded in the Mississippi River. It was the worst domestic maritime disaster in U.S. history. The grandfather, however, was among the survivors.
At a quick glance, one might have thought it was winter. Lake of the Isles is such a beautiful area, good choice.
Love this IR photo—just beautiful! Happy Theme Day from Maui!
Lovely. And oh yeah, winter cold but 747 size mosquitoes when you want to be out walking one of those lake shores.
Great shot Mitch! I was wondering what you would come up with - this is perfect for theme day!
Chuck -
Not really, they actually control mosquitoes in the city limits. I stopped by their booth at the state fair and asked them about it — I’ve seen their helicopters around he area. They drop little bits of corn with a bacteria in it that messes with the mosquito larvae. Pretty neat trick. Anyhow, they aren’t bad in town — up north in the bogs is an entirely different matter.
- Mitch
Mitch, that’s a wonderful photo!
Sharp photo and great explanation. Tell Lynne I admire painters. Also, I think they make great subjects for photos. A painter always appears serene.
Lots of ice out there with all our lakes. I really like this IR shot with it’s dramatic effect. I shall give it a try sometime in the future. Just waiting out the cold.
Hi, Mitch. My eyeballs are throbbing with so many interesting posts to look at today. I’m really tickled that, by coincidence, my blog got noted on the Post-Dispatch’s web site today.
IR is fascinating to me and yours are always very well made. I read your January 6 post but never got around to trying your suggestions with my Canon PowerShot A640. I just re-read it so maybe I will be inspired to try this over the weekend. We have a relatively rare cover of snow to work with at the moment, although it will probably be gone in 48 hours. Don’t want to give up either of my two Canon DSLR bodies for this purpose, though, so I will just have to keep enjoying yours.
Surreal
I love your photo! It’s simply beautiful. I like the sepia effect, too!
joy
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Because of you, I would say I think of bitter cold, LOL. But I remember license plates that said land of 10,000 lakes. Great pic.
Love this image. very artistic. I didn’t expected this but, hey, it’s fantastic!
I love the sepia effect. A very nice photo, everything seems very tranquil.
I must admit I was expecting the Mall of America! Glad to see you had other ideas.
land of lakes…..nicely done!
A fascinating capture. I would be very interested in seeing your friend’s painting from that day. I always thought that 10,000 lakes was an exaggeration, but I guess it was an understatement!
Nice shot, Mitch. At first, I thought it was just sepia-toned, but the IR effect snuck up on me, tossing my brain for a loop. Hyper-real with an everyday, peaceful subject. Reminds me of some of my favorite music vids. Glad to see you keeping your promise and including more people in your photos. More, please! Keep up the great work.
- Paul
your photo is beautiful… i love the detail, and the color/tone. it makes it appear like an old photograph from the past…
As always a wonderful photograph from you. This one is enchanting. And thanks for all the information. I had no notion of the number of lakes and rivers in Minnesota. Fascinating post.
(I tried logging on to you yesterday but for some odd reason the photo wouldn’t disply - had that problem with a few blogs - perhaps cos I’m using Firefox, don’t know - so apologies for a day late).
Wonderful background info on the actual number of lakes. Your photo treatment is wonderful. I’m still trying to get around to all the CDPB theme day folks. . .This was a really great theme!
-Kim
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