Category: people

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Sunday Afternoon in the Park with Debi

A leisurely Sunday walk is a nice way to mark the weekend. My friend Debi and I went to Theodore Wirth Park to enjoy the fall colors and take some pictures. The mighty oaks in this hill-top part of the park provide an autumnal setting for this picture. As I finished trying some classic straight-up-the-trunk shots of the trees, I looked over and Debi was standing in a pool of light, framed by this oak. Sure enough, the best shots just offer themselves up unannounced. There are actually two frames around her, the trees behind her and the big oak reaching its long limb over the whole image and its shadow. Speaking of shadows, it wasn't until I started studying oil painting with Joe Paquet that I started actually seeing shadows. It's amazing how much information about form comes to us from shadows. We automatically know the shape the shadow should be, and then interpret the curvature of the ground from the shape of the shadow. Always a snappy dresser, Debi was wearing a big wool sweater, the kind that seems to say "Yah sure, its cold, but at least I get to wear this fuzzy sweater, ya know." FYI: Though from Iowa, Debi can affect a truly impressive Minnesota accent. We ended our walk strolling through the Eloise Butler Wildflower Sanctuary. It's a nice little spot hidden in the park area. I drove past the sign for years, but only visited for the first time earlier this year. They have a cute little cabin for a visitor center and some nice little trails. But yesterday was the last day of the season, so you'll have to wait until April (yeah, that's six months away). So let the season of fuzzy sweaters, cross country skiing, building snowmen and warming up by the fire while drinking hot cocoa with the little marshmallows in it begin!

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Boom!

I've lived in Minneapolis for a long time, but as usual, it took having someone from out of town to get me to see the sites in my home town. The TFTTF Photography Workshop expedition to Fort Snelling gave me a chance to chill out with some heavy field artillery. No matter how old, boys will be boys and a bag of gunpowder the size of a kitten is a rollicking good time. The deafening blast of the cannon was a true dude delight, but my experience there had an additional geek delight sound added to it. A small contingent of us photographers were gathered together to record the cannon fire and we all had the same idea and technique. We watched the soldier on the left bring the golf-club-sized matchstick down to the back of the gun and when he got close, we all held down the triggers on our DSLRs -- a chorus of 3, 5 and 11(!) frames-per-second cameras clicked away hoping to capture the blast. This weekend is the last of the season for the fort to be open, so I might head back. If you get a chance, the cannon is fired at 1:00pm and 4:00pm. If you don't think that's worth the price of admission, then go check out the old-time cooking at the commander's house and leave the marching field for us boys and our toys...

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Sarah's Greenspace

I went out to the Minnesota State Fair Grounds today with Carol Anne. She and I were attendees of Chris Marquart's Learning To See Workshop. We were working on the Challenge: Negative Space. This is her daughter Sarah. One of the interesting things about these gray Minnesota days is that the local color of objects is much more saturated than you'd think. Without the harsh dynamic range of a sunny day, you can get some great colors on digital. This wall of green on the side of the Butterfly house caught my eye, since it matches the current color scheme of mitchster.com. It was great to have Carol Anne and her daughters with me, Sarah is a great model. This green wall would never work without a subject. I like images like this because they remind me of Mark Rothko's paintings -- it looks like a very simple abstract image, but there are little details that give it character like the dent in the wall and the patchy grass. Even Sarah's akimbo stance adds tension to the otherwise static image. Just a quick note, this photo won the Tips From The Top Floor Two-Week Photo Challenge! Thanks to all those who voted on and participated in the challenge titled Negative Space. The new Two-Week Challenge was just published. As the winner of the last challenge, I got to choose the the next one — Contrast.