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

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

OK, this is from July 4th in Minneapolis, but I wanted to wish our fellow revolutionary brothers & sisters a bon quatorze juillet! France is, after all, the home of the City Daily Photo Blog, thanks Eric!

Believe it or not, I took this night photo hand-held with a telephoto lens. Yes, it’s the Nikon 70-300mm VR to the rescue. 1/6th of a second at f/4.5 and a focal length of 165mm. If you breath slow enough, you don’t need a tripod!

It’s possible that my former co-worker/mentor Mike Smith was right that if you drink enough caffeine, you jitter fast enough that you appear still. Either way, VR or Image Stabilization rocks!

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

Fireworks over Saint Paul.

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

Nine Months ago today on August first at 6:05pm, the 35W Interstate Bridge plunged into the Mississippi River during the evening rush hour taking thirteen lives. There were over 100 cars on the bridge at the time and they fell 115 feet to the river — it is truly amazing that so many survived. Now 140,000 vehicles that used to cross the bridge each day must mind a new route. For a river town, that’s hard to do. The new St. Anthony Falls Bridge is under construction 24 hours a day and should be open on Christmas Eve, this year.

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by Mo, Le Guilvinec, France by ds2944, Lisbon, Portugal by Sailor Girl, Lisbon, Portugal by Maria João, Lodz, Poland by ritalounge, London, UK by Mo, London, UK by Ham, Mainz, Germany by JB, Malaga, Spain by Paula, Manila, Philippines by Heyokity, Maple Ridge, Canada by Susan, Marseille, France by Alex, Medan, Indonesia by KT, Melbourne, Australia by John, Melbourne, Australia by Mblamo, Memphis (TN), USA by SouthernHeart, Menton, France by Jilly, Mexico City, Mexico by Carraol, Mexico City, Mexico by Poly, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Mitch, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Greg, Minsk, Belarus by Olga, Misawa, Japan by misawa mama, Monrovia (CA), USA by Keith, Monte Carlo, Monaco by Jilly, Monterrey, Mexico by rafa, Montpellier, France by Marie, Moscow, Russia by Irina, Mumbai, India by Magiceye, Mumbai, India by Kunalbhatia, Nancy, France by yoshi, Nashville (TN), USA by Chris, Nelson, New Zealand by Meg and Ben, New Orleans (LA), USA by steve buser, New York City (NY), USA by Ming the Merciless, New York City (NY), USA by • Eliane •, Newport News (VA), USA by ptowngirl, Norfolk (VA), USA by ptowngirl, North Hampton (NH), USA by Amy, Norwich, UK by Goddess888, Nottingham, UK by Gail’s Man, Ocean Township (NJ), USA by Josy, Omsk, Russia by Nataly, Orlando (FL), USA by OrlFla, Oslo, Norway by Lothiane, Owasso (OK), USA by Jennifer, Paderborn, Germany by Soemchen, Paris, France by Eric, Pasadena (CA), USA by Petrea, Pasadena (CA), USA by Can8ianben, Penang, Malaysia by Maltelda, Perth, Australia by Elevation7, Phoenix (AZ), USA by Cheryl, Pilisvörösvár, Hungary by Elise, Port Angeles (WA), USA by Jelvistar, Port Elizabeth, South Africa by Sam, Port Townsend (WA), USA by raf, Port Vila, Vanuatu by Mblamo, Portsmouth (VA), USA by ptowngirl, Prague, Czech Republic by Honza03, Quincy (MA), USA by Cluelessinboston, Rabaul, Papua New Guinea by Jules, Ramsey, Isle of Man by babooshka, Riga, Latvia by Riga Images, Rollag, Norway by Stormel, Rotterdam, Netherlands by Ineke, 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Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.

Took the big lens out last night and shot the moon! It’s a film lens, not a digital one, so there’s a little chromatic aberration going on. But you gotta love a 2000mm lens. The red is real, the reason to try to photograph a lunar eclipse is the color and the darkness of the moon.

How to Photograph the Moon

You need a big lens, the bigger, the better. Except during a lunar eclipse, the moon is really bright. Mixing it with other elements like the skyline is difficult. You either take two pictures to expose the moon and the earth-bound objects separately or let the moon burn out, like I did with this picture of the full moon over Minneapolis. To get the exposure right for the moon, check out this chart I found or just wing it and look at the LCD. The moon isn’t going anywhere, so experimenting isn’t difficult. If your camera has a histogram, make sure you use it with night photography, it’s easy to underexpose the image since the LCD looks brighter to your dilated pupils at night.

Make sure you chose a clear night, in February in Minneapolis it gets pretty cold at night. Last night it was below zero and the nice thing about that is that it’s too cold for clouds to form, so it’s pretty clear (snow pants rock). Back to the list: big lens, a good tripod, cable release or camera on timer mode and flashlight (cell phone works as a light too, a pretty good one in fact). The moon is on the move, so keep the shutter time down. That’s not an issue with the moon normally, but it is with an eclipse. This one is at f8 (crappy lens) and 4 seconds. You can see the moon is blurred slightly in today’s picture because it moved noticeably in those 4 seconds.

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

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.

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

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.