My friend Ryan won the 2008 Summer Beer Movie Contest; Congratulations Ryan! It’s a fun short movie that I am proud to say I helped with. Don’t believe me, check the credits. Speaking of which, keep watching, there’s more after the credits.

“No Guts, No Glory.” by Ryan Taylor.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Some of summer’s guilty pleasures.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.

Can you believe this? It’s like a perfect world here. It’s freaking me out.

What’s Cell Phone Sunday all about?

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

35W Bridge construction truck dumps a pile. But what is that?

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

So how did I get those pictures of the 35W replacement bridge construction? Was I flying over the Mississippi River? Nope, there’s another bridge right next to it. The city was wise enough to create a pedestrian lane on that bridge to allow gawkers like me and my friend Matt, also known as Ravsitar, the release pixie of Tips From the Top Floor Photography Podcast.

Yes, that’s fellow Nikonian Matt taking a shot with a Nikon 70-300mm VR — looks good on him eh? Let’s all encourage this newly-minted professional engineer to reward himself with one of his own, or at least a lens I want that I can use when he’s got mine.

If you are interested in learning more about the bridge, I found a Minnesota DOT information sheet online.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Here’s what the St. Anthony Bridge segments look like before they install them. Note the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in the background (home of the Minnesota Twins & Vikings) behind the Valspar paint company.

How would you move something this big & heavy half a mile? Check it out…

Look closely, a segment is actually hanging from the Shuttle lift.
Speaking of looking closely…

Here’s a 500mm telephoto of the side of the segments, you can see how they interlock.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

He takes a moment to rest and enjoy the view. What’s he working on?

Behold the business end of the St. Anthony Bridge construction. What’s the view like? You tell me.

Is that the coolest job or what?

Technical note, remember the 500mm mirror lens I was playing with? The first two photos were taken with it’s replacement, the Tamron 200-500mm f5/6.3. It’s an ungodly monstrosity to work with, but I’m very happy with the images! I still have a guilty desire to go buy back the mirror lens though. In spite of the wacky bokeh, the images were really clear & the lens was light. There are some really cheap ones out there, maybe…

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

This angle includes the full span-so-far of the soon-to-be mighty St. Anthony Bridge. It’s difficult to capture the immensity of this project. Maybe I’ll get back down there and take some shots from below. The size of everything there is impressive, big cranes, trucks & parts.

Check back tomorrow to see my favorite photo of the bridge construction workers.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Matt and I went down to the St. Anthony Bridge construction site to take pictures on Sunday. It’s amazing to see them working on this monstrosity. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Matt heard that they took four hours off for Christmas and one and a half for New Years. I have some close-ups of the guys working on it taken with the 200-500mm Tamron that I will show you later in the week.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Behind the scenes at MRDI. Production for Lake Pointe Chiropractic & Wellness.

My friend Jack sent this video to me. It’s worth watching, really. He’s in it. You can see him at 2:06, wearing a black cowboy hat on the right. But that’s besides the point.

It’s been a long week for me and this morning I didn’t feel like posting a picture or working on the blog. I’ve been falling behind and loosing interest. What’s it for? Why am I doing this? There is so much I must do and I’m building five websites at the same time right now (today’s pic is from one of them), so why am I blogging every damn day?

Then Jack sent me this video and I realized that I’m in the dance. This video is so beautiful. I makes me realize that all the photo bloggers around the world that I share the daily photo project with are all out there dancing. We aren’t dancing for each other, we aren’t dancing for ourselves — nobody is paying us, nobody might see us, there is no promise at the end, no golden ticket, but we dance. That’s why. Simply for the joy of the dance.

So smile, dance a little and remember that we are all in this together.