Lake of the Isles

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Rule Number 18, Limber Up

It's the first of November and it's time for these web-footed holiday dinners to get ready for the big trip. I've been observing the canucks training since August, seeing small vees chugging across the city, but now they are forming bigger groups. I watched a thirty-something-goose-flock strafe Lake Street on my way home from Caribou yesterday. If you watch them this time of year, you can see that they are going slow and working to stay in formation. When I head South myself for Thanksgiving to Kenosha, I see several hundred-plus-goose formations on the wing, so they have a few weeks to go. In the mean time, they will be slickering up the trails and hissing at me. OK, I go asking for it, can't help myself, how often can you get a bird mad at you? Don't try this at home though, they can be pretty tough, those big wings can give you a good beating if they grab you. When I was in high school, a teacher's adult golden retriever chased the geese and they turned on him — and killed the dog. So don't mess with the geese. So what's the deal with Minnesotans and "gray duck"? Over in Wisconsin when I grew up it is was duck, duck, goose. Seems that Iowans are gray-duckers too.

2

Harmony & Community

This morning's picture is from one of my favorite views of Lake of the Isles. It's called Evergreen Point (things you learn reading the really-local weekly papers). As the first signs of fall colors brush across the island, a unique compositional quality makes an appearance — harmony. The reflected three now-bare trees and the contrail form a harmonious pattern that unifies the image. Like a musical chord, harmonious elements work together in an image. Speaking of music, I'm writing today's post from my favorite morning coffee shop, the Caribou on Lake & 100. Today is their first anniversary and sure enough, they're throwing a party today from 4-6pm. My Sunday-morning baristas Carmen and Rohit inform me that they will have live music (Carmen's daughter and husband), door prizes (including cool plush rainforest frogs), treats, fun for the kids and the best part: the Caribou Mascot! The Lake and Excelsior Caribou had their customer appreciation party a week ago and I got a mug, $4 card and my picture with the Bou! Maybe it's the caffeine talking, but a coffee party is rolicking good fun. I'll be back for the party, but I better take it easy on the caffeine today, I'm already shivering, though that might be the 33° Minnesota morning taking it's toll.

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Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron strigosus)

Behold the humble Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron strigosus). So often you've strode past, never giving this wild flower (weed) a second glance. With the power of on-the-fly macro photography, we can enjoy the infinite precision of the Fibonacci series on the face of this little half-inch wide flower, along with the errant dandelion fluff.

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Full Moon Over Lake of the Isles

It's the biggest full moon of the year (seriously, it's 14% wider and 30% brighter). Make sure you get out and see the "Hunter's Moon" come up! I managed to get up early this morning and catch it before it went down. No better way to start your day than fumbling with a telephoto lens in the dark on a 38° morning without mittens (true Minnesotans don't wear them 'til it's at least 10°). All lunatic blogger references aside, I was out last night and was amazed at how bright the moon was, so I looked it up and found out why. This morning's picture isn't the best moon shot I've taken, I was using my 70-210 Nikkor that I'm starting to not trust. It's doing some weird stuff that looks like chromatic aberration, but the guy at National Camera said it was a good lens... I guess I'm going to have to spend more, oh well. I might set up the spotting scope tonight and mount the camera on it and try again. Now that the sun is coming up and I'm enjoying my dark roast at Caribou, sanity is sweeping lunacy from my mind and the fruits of clarity suggest otherwise — everyone knows what the moon looks like. We'll go look for some more colorful things to shoot today and get back on track with daylight, after all, there's less and less of it everyday.

1

Minnesota Autumn Colors

AAAAGH! It's all coming to an end! Just like the fireworks grand finale, the best colors mean the end is near. Stiff wind and crisp air send a biblical shiver down the spine of any good Minnesotan. Remember 35 below? Yep, not far off. It's time for us proud citizens of the most Northern Metropolis to start thinking about snow tires, new car batteries and the high-tech members of the crowd to ponder the lithium batteries in our cameras. Will Mitchster.com survive the winter? If the batteries hold out and I can find my snowshoes. Until then, enjoy the colors, because soon there will be only one.

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Golden Tree

A beautiful crisp fall morning awaited me today as I headed out to Lake of The Isles again for my walk. This elm on the North Branch of the lake was reaching out it's perfectly yellow boughs under the clear blue sky, begging for it's cameo. Something I have discovered is that the colors of leaves are very dependent on their background. Bright red leaves against a gray sky are very bland and unsaturated. Shooting up against the early-morning-dark blue sky (and a little post-processing) brings out the colors. Another way to do this is to find colorful trees against the darkness of a grove or forest. The black area between the leaves. The theory behind this is that colors of the same luminosity lose their impact when placed next to each other. Adding a dark line forces contrast into the colors and making them pop.

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Fall Colors around Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis

A brief break in the rain and the desire to get a picture sent me out today to circle the lake. I walk around Lake of The Isles pretty much every day. Sometimes I bring the camera, but usually I don't. There's some kind of jinx thing going on that prevents cool things from happening when I have the camera. Now that the blog is officially up and running, I guess I'm going to have to bring the beast along with me. A Nikon D200 and lenses is a bit to carry, but it's probably easier to manage than a kid, a stroller and two dogs.

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Sunrise Over Lake of The Isles

A blue morning sunrise over Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis, Minnesota.