The Backdrop to the new Target Twins Stadium, now in infrared.

Alas, all is back to normal here in river city. It’s been tough on this great city to be essentially cut in half for just over a year. What was so shocking for all of us who didn’t lose anyone in the collapse is that everyone either crossed the bridge regularly or knew someone who did — 140,000 vehicles a day passed over the old bridge.

This first photo was taken from the Washington entrance ramp going North, ten minutes before the bridge opened. You can see the blue glow of the LED lights on the bridge.

A parade of vehicles began a slow procession across the bridge, a row of troopers, a row of construction trucks and then the crowd that had assembled behind them, honking and hooting!

Here you can see the row of trucks and traffic coming from the University side.

And there they go! It was fun to see all these cheery, happy people honking and waving. A large group of motorcycles came up over Washington and circled back onto the bridge.

If you showed up at this moment and had no idea what was going on, it would seem pretty odd, all these people beaming with joy to drive over an interstate bridge; a crowd assembled to watch normal traffic flow at 5:10am on a Thursday.

After crossing the bridge, I turned around on 4th and stopped to look from the west bank. Unfortunately I shot this from out the window of my idling Jeep, so it’s a little blurry. You can see the 30-foot tall sculptures in the median. They represent the shape of the Mississippi river as it passes through Minneapolis.

A little non documentary treat.

I’ve never been tempted to look for a book nor found any comfort in the interior, but for a photographic subject, this 110 million-dollar César Pelli monstrosity gets five stars. This is the Nicollet entrance to the Minneapolis Central Library.

American Sporting Artist

In other news, I finished up another website for another fine art oil painter. In addition to Landscapes, Roger Blum also paints wildlife like moose, fox and pheasants in their natural settings. His work is not only well composed and technically incredible, it also harkens back to the rural America of Frederic Remington and Teddy Roosevelt. As a lifeling city-dweller, it’s somehow relaxing to see classic game subjects like this — when I look at his paintings I imagine the mahogany and over-stuffed leather drawing room that should accompany them. Take a moment to look at his site and give me some feedback! I hope that I have done well by his work.

It’s time to take a break from the woods and head downtown. One of the great things about Minneapolis is how quickly you can go from wood ducks & herons to busses and skyscrapers.

Yes, this image is heavily processed. My skills in color mangagement are being called forth and it’s time for me to start honing my edge on the whetstone of a daily blog. Stay tuned this week for more processed deep-city images.

This scene appealed to me because I could throw the clouds out of focus to emphasize the details and contrast in the pinecones. If you look closely, you can see a cobweb complete with spider. This is the same tree that I found the snake in, but a different day.

If you’re from here, you know I didn’t take this over the weekend. What follows two days of rain? Monday. I guess it was worse south of here, so I should be happy. It’s going to be in the 60s today and back to the 70s Tuesday. The colors are coming! Soon glorious winter will return to this Northern Decidious Forest.

P. S. I wrote this at Caribou during the very peak of the Full Moon, which was at 5:45am! Carmen, Bryan and I went out to look at it just before sunrise. Yes, we all howled!

The fans cheered in raucous approval,
awaiting the next serving of pablum.
more turtles, more turtles…
Then a chant rose from the masses.
more turtles, more turtles…
Soon the ‘dear leader’ new he had lost control.
more turtles, more turtles…
He had to act fast.
more turtles, more turtles…
Like all dictators, he was a wise opportunist
more turtles, more turtles…
He told the crowd he knew what was best for them.
more turtles, more turtles…
He knew what they really needed, they really wanted,
more turtles, more turtles…
And as always, he provided:
More Turtles!

I found this little guy flitting through the neighborhood, bringing a flash of color wherever he went.

I’ve been having fun photographing simple thinks like ducks, flowers and grasses. Something so simple is a great challenge both compositionally and observationally. This photo exhibits one of my favorite points of photography — you don’t photograph an object, you record light interacting with it.

This is Eloise. Eloise spends her mornings on Cedar Lake, but after the ducklings have gone to school, she joins her girlfriends to go dabbling on Minnehaha Creek. She’s not interested in popular entertainment or the latest fashions, but mention one of her ducklings and she’ll quack your ear off (she’s got a stack of photos of them in her pocketbook).

This particular morning Eloise was heading out to the PDA (parent duckling assn). Since she was planning on taking a stand against the geese hanging out on in the schoolyard, she was all dressed up and ready for the spotlight. To get over the jitters of the expected media, she had me take some candid photos before she left the lake.

“Normally we just ignore the Geese”, said Eloise, “sure they sleep in the park and honk at all hours, we’ve come to accept that over the years.” The problem started earlier this year with the unexpected closing of the pool hall down the street. “They used to wake up early and just leave”, she said, “But now they stumble out of the park around noon — someone is giving them hard cider.” The biggest problem is that they hang out in the duckling schoolyard and hiss at the kids. “My little joey is having nightmares”, she said.

Though rumors abound, including the hint that someone has called the Minneapolis Food Shelf, hopefully cooler heads will prevail.