Category: downtown

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Hennepin County Government Center

Today's your last day for free cookies and punch at the Hennepin County Government Center. That big building that goes over 6th? This is their atrium. I was there this past weekend with the gang from Tips from the Top Floor. Fourteen photographers wandering the skyway looking for interesting things. Turns out most security guards don't want you photographing the interiors of the buildings. This is a government building and it was ok; we stood right by the security desk and he didn't mind. I took most of the color out of this image because the abstract shapes were much more powerful in B&W. It's a great space when it's empty and quiet. A very bright, cheery place actually. This was the first time I was there when I wasn't doing paperwork that I didn't want to. It's a very different experience. Go take pictures or just hang out at the DMV, you might like it.

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Out of the Box

This image appealed to me today after a full day of working on the design of mitchster.com. A nice comforting box. With all the complex angles and layer, if feels like a CSS XML layout. So many similar forms with variations in form and color, yet all working together to support the valuable content. I'm settling in on the design of mitchster.com that you see now. It's been a long time coming — months of notes and research. Let me know what you think. I can't believe that I've been running this photoblog for over 150 days now. This coming April 11th will be my six month anniversary. I'll have to think up something special to do to celebrate, winter should be on the run — I will have survived my first winter of photoblogging. Normally I hide inside and try to ignore the really cold days, but this project kept me out there. Hopefully I will be able to show you why we all put up with winter, the summers are enjoyable, not too hot and with all the lakes and rivers, it's very beautiful here.

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The Orpheum Theater

The Orpheum theater sits on Hennepin Avenue in Downtown Minneapolis. I love the layered effect of all the signs and buildings. It reminds me of pictures I've seen of the old skid-row that used to be on the other end of Hennepin but was demolished in the late 50's to make way for some really horrible buildings. Minneapolis is known for the great buildings that have been destroyed in the past, especially the Metropolitan.

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Grand Finale

And now for the grand finale of the Holidazzle parade with the IDS Tower in the background. That was Santa's sleigh with all the reindeer that just went by. Learn more about Night Photography techniques in this post.

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Holidazzle Christmas Shopping Parade

The Festival of the Illuminati returns to Minneapolis. New York has a Christmas shopping parade on Thanksgiving, but in Minneapolis they have one every Thursday through Sunday night from turkey day 'till Christmas. It's pretty interesting, a few floats, a band and lots of people. What makes the Holidazzle Parade so unusual is that it's in the dark at 6:30 and all the people in the parade are covered in lights. I want to know how they are powered — must be some big batteries. This is a ten second exposure at f10 & ISO 100. I'm using the new Tamron 11-18mm to fit all this in, as you can see, there is very little distortion. Pretty cool getting both sides of the street, a parade and the top of a skyscraper all in the same frame. That skyway you see is not unique. Minneapolis has a habitrail system that spans the whole city. You can walk on the second floor in the warm air from one side of the city to another. Since you are above the traffic, it's actually the fastest way around too. I took quite a few images of the Holidazzle, so check back tomorrow. There's another place for you to check too, I met Greg from View from the Tundra photo blog for the first time. We scurried through the skyway and took lots of pics along the way. After shooting the parade, we stopped and took some shots of Sam who runs the Red Wagon Popcorn Stand across from Gaviidae. The popcorn stand is on the other side of the skyway in my photo above. Sam's a real nice guy, he offered us hot cider and hot chocolate. He said he'll have chili there tonight, so if you get down to the parade, stop by and see Sam, he'll set you up with some warm goodies.

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Down by the River

Saturday I went on a mondo photo tour. Matt Armstead and I went to Theodore Wirth park to talk Nikon and take lots of pictures. Somehow I always end up with a list of expensive things I need after I talk with Matt. While we were there, Bob Kupbens called and wanted to go take pics of the riverfront. Matt couldn't go, but I did. This is one of the first shots I took there. There is some heavy post-processing going on with this pic. The reason for that is to emphasize the design of this image. It is very geometric, and I would love to try and paint this sometime. The group of shapes of the buildings are very rectilinear — a veritable forest of square lines. This is strongly offset by the long smooth curves of the bridge. Also, the stepping down line of the skyline re-enforces the curve and draws the eye down along the bridge. What originally caught my eye was the caissons in the river. Big yellow things in a sea of dark are very attractive. So why did I do so much processing? I wanted to flatten the image and force the abstract shapes by increasing the saturation, vibrance and contrast. The image now feels like an Edward Hopper painting to me. Which the river front always looked like to me with the railroad corridors and early 20th century architecture. We also went across the river to see the new Guthrie Theater building. I'll post some pics from there later this week.