Lake of the Isles

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On the Move

Keepin' real busy these days, 2008 is off to a good start. This week I've finished a few websites. Kathi Tunheim is a leadership coach, I built this site to reflect her style and the collegiate world. Zididada is a Danish rock band. I'll be developing a website for them over the next few months, but until then, I customized a myspace page for them. I was up working on it until 2am yesterday morning, so I'm still a little groggy. I have five more projects in progress, so that's why I haven't been writing as long of posts lately. But fear not, spring is in the air (it was only 8 below this morning!) and I'm itchin' to get out shooting the magic of spring in Minnesota. As soon as it warms up, this place pops to life!

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Last Luminary

The last luminary from the City of Lakes Loppet both literally and figuratively. This was my favorite shot from that night; it was on the wall as we were climbing out of the lagoon. Worked out real well too, since my camera battery gave it's last for this shot before it froze up. Yes Virginia, camera batteries will freeze.

3

Building Bridges in the Snow

Another day of fun in the winter wonderland. This is the bridge over the canal leading to the lagoon from Lake of the Isles, the luminaries from the City of Lakes Loppet are in the foreground. This is one of two matching bridges on the lake, the other one is barely visible in the distance in Monday's photo. Down the canal in the lagoon is something unique that I found; check back for this Saturday's Moment of Zen to see it. More snow is in the cards, so I'll have some more snow action-shots for you soon. Real snow, not the fake stuff. Today is my sister Sharon's Birthday, so if you are in Kenosha, Wisconsin, stop by the Copy Center and wish her a happy birthday. She's the good kid that stayed home and took over the family business. In addition to running the business and keeping an eye on my parents, she edits the typos I make on this blog. Happy Birthday Li'l Sister!

5

Skating Rink Star

What could be more romantic than an evening on the Lake of the Isles skating rink? How about a star? Many of you have asked about the star effect that I have in a few of my shots and frankly, I wasn't sure how I was getting it. After a little experimenting I have the answer.

Star Effect

You could use a star filter, but then you would have to carry it with you. This image was created without one. How? Crank down the aperture (bigger number, it's an inverse ratio, i.e. 1/22). When the aperture opening is very small, the points where the blades intersect become more pronounced and this causes the star effect. By the way, you can find out how many blades are on the aperture by counting the points on the star. Arcane knowledge for sure, but each lens may be different and it's fun to know. This shot was taken with my Nikon 70-300mm at f/32. This is possible at night with a good stable tripod — you'll have a longer exposure. Also, note that you need a point of bright light, not an illuminated surface for this to work. Once you are set up, put your camera on aperture priority and try different settings to see how big of a star you can get. I shot this in manual mode so that I could set the shutter speed as well to determine the exposure. Another problem with night photography is that your LCD is relatively bright, so you may accidentally underexpose your images because they seem bright on the LCD to you (and your highly dilated eyes) at night. Check you histogram after each shot and make sure that the exposure is right. If you get a chance to try this and like the result, please leave a comment with a link to your picture, I'd love to see it and share it with my readers.

5

February Sets In

The Minneapolitan, full of coffee, ambition and cabin fever, stumbles out onto the ice in search of content. Lost in the swirling snow that gathers in his clothes and camera bag, he seeks that which will keep you, the reader satisfied — the images of his mere existence. In spite of his environment, his efforts bear fruit. Alas, the camera yields forth said images with the greatest of ease, for in every direction the rugged beauty of his land offers amazement, or at least a shallow dynamic range.

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Luminaries Under the Bridge

Recoiling from the shock of pure daylight, we return to the safety of the night. Here are a few more of the luminaries (look to previous posts to see what I'm talking about). I really enjoy this image, it has a real Gothic feel to it.

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City of Lakes Loppet Kids Race

OK, time to brighten things up. I've been posting a lot of night pictures lately and though I like the colors and the mystical effects, it gets heavy with all that black. So today I bring you the 'content' of the Loppet: one of the races. This was the beginning of the kids race. If you have been to Uptown for the art fair, you know this place. That gray roof above the flag is the bus terminal on Hennepin. The skiers are on the boulevard by the Greenway (for the locals, it's called The Mall). They actually haul in snow and cover the streets all the way to the lake. This is the start and finish line for the kids race, they go out to the lake, circle around and come back.

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City of Lakes Loppet & Independence

Back on the ice. Here is the illuminated pyramid from the Caribou Coffee City of Lakes Illuminated Loppet. You can see the pyramid from above in yesterday's post and here it is from ground-level. The pyramid has 200 'luminaries' alone. There are 400 of them forming a path on Lake of the Isles. I got to learn more about this project when Hal Galvin called yesterday. Hal and David Bryan are responsible for the light show; you can read more about them in this WCCO interview. He called me hoping to see some more of my pictures of the lights, so hopefully I'll get to meet him later on this week. The lights are blocks of ice made in buckets with candles in them. I'm curious about the whole process and look forward to talking with him more. I'll let you know what I learn.

Super Bowl Declaration of Independence

I don't know if you saw this during the Super Bowl, but they produced this dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the time. I'm often troubled by the US citizenry's lack of knowledge of the constitution and history. Like 'School House Rock', this production makes the Declaration of Independence tolerable to the less interested. If a few people are inspired to learn more about the Declaration of Independence, great; if some go on to read the first draft and see what was cut out for political expediency even better.I was reading the comments on the YouTube page for this video and ran into a discussion of the first draft. I had not read this before; someone pointed out a section that had been removed. Many people take issue, and rightly so, with the line "all men are created equal" when the constitution (adopted 11 years later) allowed for slavery. There was a section removed from the declaration that addressed slavery and starts:"He [King George of England] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemispere, or to incure miserable death in their transportation hither...."Slavery was here when the country was created. I wish we had resolved that problem in 1787. But we didn't and have suffered ever since.I'm glad they created the video and I hope that a few other people have thought about it and maybe, just maybe, some conversations have come from it. Today is Super Tuesday and the horse race is in full swing. Sometimes politics is a dangerous topic, but talking with those around you about the original intent of the Great American Experiment is a good idea; who knows, you might learn something.

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City of Lakes Loppet

This weekend was the City of Lakes Loppet in Minneapolis on Lake of the Isles. I live in Uptown and the races went right by my home, up the boulevard by the Greenway. My friends Bob, Rob and Matt came by and we spent Saturday evening photographing the event and the area. They have posted their pics too, so check them out. Caribou Coffee sponsors a Luminary Loppet on Saturday evening; they put 700 ice luminaries around the lake. It's really impressive and we had fun photographing them. I'll be posting some of my pics this week. I wanted to start with this view from the bridge to give you an idea as to what the area looks like — an establishing shot. Monday is in full swing here at MRDI, so I have to run, but there will be more as the week progresses.

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Minneapolis – Land of Lakes

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.