I really enjoyed working with the lit floats in the Holidazzle parade — this one had lots of red lights and I managed to start the exposure just before it entered the frame. If you look at the center bottom you’ll see a blue and purple light. That’s a woman selling lighted wands, you know, for kids — she’s got a box full of them.

This is the same perspective that posted earlier, you can learn about the exposure and the scene on that post. Though they are the same scene, the lighting and processing are different. On the previous one I tried to keep the color as close to real as possible, but on this one I was going for the effect of the light.

Up the street on the left is Sam’s Red Popcorn Wagon. As I mentioned earlier, Greg and I stopped by to take some pictures and Sam offered us Cider and Hot Chocolate. He’s a really nice guy and enjoyed us taking pictures of him and his wagon. I finally have a photo processed that I like of him and here it is:

As you can see, this was some tough lighting conditions, I had to give up my long exposures for the portrait. I was confronted with a real-life Edward Hopper indoor/outdoor subject. Only difference was that the inside was much brighter than the outdoor. I wanted the buildings in the shot so I had to get down low. So even though the photo was a challenge to take, Sam was such a nice guy that I wanted to get this picture posted.

If you get to the Holidazzle, stop by and get some chili from Sam.

Yes, I am still showing pics from my night at Gaviidae. My cold persists and if you look to the right and see the temperature here in Mill City, you will see why I’m staying inside.

I talked about Bokeh recently and this is another example of that effect. The subject in the foreground is a big star decoration and the glowing circles are from small Christmas lights in the background that are out of focus and causing the bokeh circles. You can see everything in focus in the wide angle photo. Another term for these glowing out of focus disks is The Circle of Confusion. The light coming through the lens is has not focused to a point yet by the time it hit the sensor and is thus “confused.”

You might be suffering from this on a regular basis with other aspects of your life. Now you have a great term to use to describe it. Note: The Circle of Confusion is diminished with a wider perspective of the subject.

The golden hues of Christmas lights at the Gaviidae Shopping Center in Minneapolis. This was shot ar 300mm with a large aperture to throw the lights behind it out of focus.

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.

Ah, the lovely browns of late autumn in Minnesota. I went exploring along the Minnesota River yesterday and though I chased a woodpecker for a while, I chose this picture for today.

The high-noon sun is usually a problem for most situations, but I found a way to make it work. The high light was glancing down on this little fluff-ball giving it dimension — notice the way the stems have clear light and dark sides. Since the sun was high, the dark-brown trees were, well, dark. By using my telephoto at the widest aperture and placing the subject just inside my minimum focal distance, I was able to throw the background completely out of focus.

Depth of Field (the area in focus) is determined by three things: aperture, distance to the subject and focal length. In this case, I was maximizing all of these factors which makes for a nice Bokeh. I’ve done this before and probably will again. A good time to try this is when you have a good solid color in the background or a confusing one.

Bokeh is the light effect created by the out of focus light from the background. The quality of this effect on the image is a function of and an important distinction in the quality of the lens. For example, at some point everyone who has an SLR with interchangeable lenses discovers the 500mm mirror lens for $90 on ebay. Why is this powerful lens so cheap? It has very little glass in it and two problems: the aperture is fixed at f/8 and the bokeh looks like little donuts. Seriously, little white donuts.

That’s it for today, have fun and keep your focus!

The shining emerald city of Minneapolis offers it’s best view from 35W, in fact, if you are a fan of the movie Fargo, you will see this angle as the guys drive in from Brainerd. Actually, if they were coming from Brainerd, they would be coming the other direction, but the view of downtown from the North isn’t nearly as spectacular. Unless you were there on the first of August.

Long exposures is one of the many benefits of night photography. To learn how to take photos like this and many more photography tips, please stay tuned to my daily photo blog, where I publish a photo from Minneapolis every day.

Learn more about Night Photography techniques in this post.

Ha! I found the place with the view over 35W. My first reaction was; how on earth are you people shooting through the chain-link fence? Then I found the hole. It reminded me of Geocashing, knowing that someone had been here before and I had to find the small mystery. The sky wasn’t that interesting and I think I could do a better job on the exposure, so watch for another version soon.

The shining emerald city of Minneapolis offers it’s best view from 35W, in fact, if you are a fan of the movie Fargo, you will see this angle as the guys drive in from Brainerd. Actually, if they were coming from Brainerd, they would be coming the other direction, but the view of downtown from the North isn’t nearly as spectacular. Unless you were there on the first of August.

I’ll be posting through Thanksgiving, so if you need a break from the family unit or want to show them that Minneapolis isn’t that bad, stop by and see what I put up.

Enjoy your time with the family, take a deep breath before answering inappropriate questions and safe travels!