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

From a little earlier in the season, but I like the color of the willows.

Today’s forecast for Minneapolis is “wintery mix” — is that a word? Wintery? It sounds so cheerful: Let’s gather around the fire to tell fond stories and share some eggnog & wintery mix.

In actuality, it’s all forms of winter precipitation: snow, sleet and rain. A slushy mess that is almost impossible to drive on — for everyone else, I have a jeep. So I’m dashing off my post for the day before my sister and I head north to Grand Rapids to visit Grandma. Hopefully it will be over the river and through the woods, not through the river and into the woods.

So if you don’t see a post from me tomorrow, send out the dogs.

Sunday morning on the lake. While I was staying at the Northernaire resort in Three Lakes Wisconsin this weekend, I got up early and headed out on the ice. It was two below and I was on my snowshoes crunching my way across the frozen lake. My tripod slung over my shoulder never felt more like a rifle. The fantasy of being a mountain man in the unsettled old West was fun until my hands started to get really cold.

I was up there to take pictures of the resort for the website and other promotional materials. The place was completed this summer and is rather empty right now. If you are looking for a really nice and luxurious place to escape to, they are renting at a discount. It’s a great place and a great real right now, but when summer hits, it will book up fast. I’ll post some pictures of the place itself later.

Bare trees and matted grasses await their snow cover in the Minnesota River valley. It’s nice to get out of the city and see that there are quiet places waiting contemplation. This time of year always draws me out to the woods to watch the changes. The holiday season rushes in and activity picks up to a fevered pitch; everyone racing about shopping and going to parties. It’s easy to miss this quiet transition.

The man is forecasting snow this weekend so check back and see the most Northern metropolis venture into it’s wonderland. It’s the time, as Garrison Keillor says, when nature makes a concerted effort to kill you.

A series that I have been contemplating is called “Finding A Path.” There is something inviting about a path in the woods and I have a few pictures so far. This composition caught my eye because of the clear horizontal color bands and the strong heavy verticals of the trunks. The bases of the trees provide the right edge of the path and are very pleasingly symmetrical.

Another project of mine that has reached a new mile marker is “Those Darn Squirrels.” I’ll write more about them soon, but for those of you who know about them, the fall series of greeting cards is printed and order forms have been sent out to most of the stores on my list. I need to rebuild the website for them before I write more. They are a lesson in persistence. I took the pictures that the cards are based on a long time ago, but the effort and creativity to find a purpose and complete it has been overwhelming.

Finding your own way on a business venture is like walking through the woods without a path. Sometimes I think that I am bushwhacking my way along, unaware that there is a path going my way, only a few feet to my side. So my advice today is, if you find your trail hard to travel, take a break and find something to climb up on and look around. A conversation with a friend or a little quiet time walking by a lake and asking yourself simple questions might point the way to a path near by.

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.