Category: landscape

8

Infrared Greenway Bike Trail in Minneapolis

Here's yesterday's location, only in infrared. I keep forgetting that I can do this. I waited all winter for the bright green foliage of summer so that I could take my infrared camera out. As you can see from these two photos, the foliage reflects infrared light so they appear as crystal white masses. The sky goes black and the clouds go white. There are special cameras for taking infrared, but a lot of point-and-shoots can do it. I'm using a Sony F828 for this. If your P&S has a "night mode", then it probably does a decent job of infrared. The easy way to test it is to point your TV remote at the camera lens and push a button. If you see a light coming from the remote on the screen, your camera see IR. Then you need a filter. Light colors are measured in wavelengths and the filters are numbered accordingly, 720nm, 820nm and 1000nm are the common ones. The first two do a good job, the 1000nm is hard to work with, with so little light, you need a tripod. If y'all like these, I'll take some more...

1

Dark Oaks

On the news this morning, I heard that last night the low temperature was 35°F, the first time above freezing since November 16th. Spring is coming and soon these bare trees will have some leaves and the rolling hills of the tundra will be alive with the color of green. Thanks for all the great comments on yesterday's post about cairns. I continue to be amazed at how quickly information can be found on the web. So many trips to the library avoided, so many projects not held up. I'm now starting to take a serious look at my extensive book collection and ask it why I have to share my space with it. Sure, I'll always keep the fine-printed art books, but so many reference books haven't been opened in years. Soon I'll be posting pictures I took downtown with the Tips from the Top Floor Group. My freind Bob Kupbens took a shot of me while we were there that I like. With the warming weather, the ice on the lakes is melting and soon we'll have open water again. Just follow the ducks.

3

Afton State Park

I captured this vista during my hike on Sunday at Afton. It's amazing what a wide-angle and some clever processing can do to a cold Minnesota plain. The ultra-wide-angle lens that I have been using for a while now has some interesting characteristics when it comes to distortion. It's an aspherical lens that has almost no fish-eye effect, but it tends to stretch lines that go to the corners. Also, if you point it anywhere that is not the horizon, it tilts everything causing "falling lines." This means that I have to shoot landscapes straight on, placing the horizon boringly dead-center. So now I look for compositions that can handle these conditions an here is one of my favorites. I was able to through some great diagonals across the image with the path and the clouds. Turn up the post processing to emphasize the lines and I think it works. Also, the way I processed it is close to a lightroom preset called "direct positive" that I have used before. It made the image look like a photo my dad of my grandparents standing in a wheat field taken in 1966. The direct-positive look mimics the way that color photos were processed in the 1960s. It's pretty rough on the image, but when the right opportunity comes along, I love to use it.

16

Washburn Water Tower - Infrared

This is the little-known ever-terrifying Washburn Water Tower, hard to find, it is located in south Minneapolis in a confusing little area known as Tangletown — so named for the street layout. Perched on a hill surrounded by trees, this beast was built in 1932 with massive eagles atop and scary Templar Knights at the base. The knights are "guardians of health" designed to protect Minneapolitans from typhoid — tainted water had reciently been linked to the disease. The first time I went there was at night, so I'm even more afraid of the place. I went through a fit of infrared photography at the time and decided that the spooky effects of infrared would suit this location. Infrared is the light above human vision. the human eye can detect light that has a wave length of 380 to 750 nanometers. Infrared is from 700 - 1400nm. I shot this with a 1000nm filter that cuts out all light below that. I was using a Sony F828 camera that has a night mode. The best thing about infrared — trees. They glow like crazy. Second best is the sky, it goes black and the clouds go white. Here's a perk for all of you with point-and-shoot cameras: Big DSLRs have filters that prevent them from taking IR photos. A lot of P&S cameras have a 'night mode', if yours does, put it in night mode and then point your TV remote at the lens and push a button. If you see the light on the screen, your camera picks up IR. Do a little research: type in your camera model name and 'IR' or 'infrared' and see if anyone has talked about your camera. All you need is a filter and a tripod (you are cutting out a lot of light with the filter, so shutter speeds will be slow). I would recommend a 72 or 75 filter, they are a lot cheaper than the 1000nm I bought (I'm a bit of an extremest). I've since discovered that I can convert my Sony F828 to be Infrared in regular mode. It costs $350 at maxmax.com. Have you done this? Let me know. I'm interested in doing so.

2

Snow on Lake of the Isles

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

2

Wintery Mix

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.

8

Northern Morning

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.

3

Quiet Reflections of the Changing Season

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.

1

Finding a Path Through the Woods

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.