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

This weekend was the City of Lakes Loppet in Minneapolis on Lake of the Isles. I live in Uptown and the races went right by my home, up the boulevard by the Greenway. My friends Bob, Rob and Matt came by and we spent Saturday evening photographing the event and the area. They have posted their pics too, so check them out.

Caribou Coffee sponsors a Luminary Loppet on Saturday evening; they put 700 ice luminaries around the lake. It’s really impressive and we had fun photographing them. I’ll be posting some of my pics this week. I wanted to start with this view from the bridge to give you an idea as to what the area looks like — an establishing shot.

Monday is in full swing here at MRDI, so I have to run, but there will be more as the week progresses.

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

The City of Lakes Loppet is a week away. Soon cross-country skiers will be shuffling up the hill right by my home in Uptown. A loppet, as you may have guessed, is a cross-country ski race which requires snow. You’d think we’d be set, but the last few years have been a bust when it comes to snow. So here’s the solution. They set up snow machines like the ones they have at downhill skiing places, right on the shore of Lake of the Isles. In the land of winter fun, we have to make our own backup snow in case the real stuff doesn’t hold up.

The beautiful golden light in this shot is brought to you by the big city lights illuminating the cloudy sky. The icy haze of the winter nights scatters light instead of absorbing it like wet clouds do, so it’s frequently quite bright here at night.

Now for the entertainment portion of the program. While avoiding responsibilities last night, I found a video made by a couple in West Saint Paul. It funny, has a catchy tune and shows what this place looks like when the snow starts to melt. I go to great lengths to tart up my snow shots, but they went the other way. Oh dear…

On their website they say that it’s for a video competition at the Walker Art Center. They have a link to a higher-quality version too, so if you liked it, get over and see that one and learn more about them. Say hi for me while you are there.So there you go, a video about the convenience of an inner-ring suburb and the Northernest biggest city in the world making snow in case of emergency.Why live in paradise when you can light a good buzz just watching the cabin-fevered Minnesotans just trying to entertain themselves ’til the spring thaw.Oh yeah, I still need to get some new mittens…

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

I found a new perspective on the emerald city of the Northern Plains. You have to bike a lot or work for BNSF to know this location. This was one of my more planned out shoots; I tracked the moon for the last few days knowing that last night was a full moon. I searched this area for an angle that would get the moonrise in the frame with the city. I changed locations several times last night and will be showing them over the coming days. This was my first spot, chosen because it was the highest.

A lot of night scenes with the moon are photoshopped together. I wanted to make sure that this one was obviously natural. It was tricky to get the exposure right, because the moon is so darn bright. Had I exposed the moon correctly, the city would have been severely underexposed. So I chose to blow out the moon and enjoy the illuminated haze around it. One of the cool features of a sub-zero atmosphere is ice crystals. That’s what is going on with the moon, it’s not schmutz on the lens causing the halo, it was clearly a real-life effect. The glowing ice-haze ties the moon to the buildings; both compositionally and technically.

On the techy side, I set the exposure at 2.5 seconds and then moved the aperture up and down. I wanted to blur the traffic, yet keep the exposure times to a minimum so I could keep the moon sharp — the darn thing moves faster than you think!

This baby is the successor to the Thanksgiving Rush Hour I35 photo, which one do you like better? Let me know.

I need new mittens.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily Minneapolis Photography. Minneapolis Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains photography, composition and photo techniques.

Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen

Time to start revving up for the CDPB Theme Day. This is the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry in the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden. This 700-pound utensil was plunked down on the edge of our metropolis in 1998, a gift of Frederick R. Weisman in honor of his parents, William and Mary Weisman. I just discovered that Weisman gave this sculpture to the city and I’m now looking into the history of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum on the U of M campus. I never realized the relationship before.

As Peter Gabriel said, “all of the buildings, all of those cars were once just a dream in somebody’s head.” It’s interesting to discover that the same person is in-part responsible for two of Minneapolis’s biggest art landmarks.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily Minneapolis Photography. Minneapolis Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains photography, composition and photo techniques.

Night Photography Tutorial | Photoblogging Tutorial

Post 98 — Mitchster.com turns 100 on Tuesday January 15th!

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.