Just like Denver last week, my hometown is now on the armed camp of the national stage. It seems that nobody here is from here. I went downtown after the big protest march just to look around. It was in the high 80s and that’s pretty warm for us northerners. I wasn’t there for the big march, but I did get to watch a fun little low-key interplay last night. As I was walking around, I noticed this group of about 75 officers march out of the convention zone and over to the corner of Kellog and St. Peter.

I love the flourish-like zip-tie handcuffs on these dudes (and dudettes, there were quite a few female troops in the ranks as well). Here’s the set up, the officers marched out to this corner and just stood there for at least fifteen minutes. As far as I can tell, they were there to guard the Crown Plaza Hotel — as the evening wore on, several large motorcades came and went from the hotel. Boy, did these guys draw attention to themselves!

Sure as shoot, the code pink protesters that were on the St. Peter bridge hanging their banners for the benefit of the coast guard gunboats patrolling the Mississippi found out about it and came up the corner with their megaphone and banners. It was pretty entertaining, over a hundred police officers and several dozen photographers watched about ten loud protesters dance in the street.

Did I say a lot of police? I guess after the afternoon teargassing event, they weren’t taking chances. Now with only ten protesters, this seems ridiculous, but a lot of things didn’t happen. The 50,000 protest march of less than 10,000 went through town and then over the St. Peter bridge to Harriet Island (a festival ground across the Mississippi). President Bush was going to be speaking, but didn’t come to town because of the Hurricane. But the cops were still playing by the old schedule. I would imagine that Bush was going to be at the Crown Plaza (the Texas delegation was staying there) and security was expecting 50,000 protesters across the bridge (which the city had barricaded with four old dump trucks). In addition to the re-enforcements, the cops in the front row now have tear-gas launchers — note the green canisters on their chests.

OK, so back to the pictures. This guy had the oddest little sign he kept standing and holding at the police. I never figured out what it said. Hand-hold shooting by street-light requires a fuzzy-high ISO. Note to the protesters, I know it’s too much to ask for you to take a bath, but please don’t sing. I commented on the off-key singing to another photographer and he said that he offered a cop $20 to shoot the singer :).  The cops were actually pleasant. I stepped behind them to take this picture and one of them looked over his shoulder at me. I said “I’m just taking pictures, I don’t want to surprise you”, to which he replied, “No, you don’t” and smiled.

After an hour of dancing and (ugh) singing, the protesters got bored and the one with a megaphone declared “let’s go this way” and they danced off. Remember the guy with the little sign? He stuck around for his 15 minutes. I’m glad he did, this was my favorite picture of the night.

Thanks to the protesters for an evening’s entertainment, but thanks especially to the cops for remaining calm and not minding us damn photographers walking all around them. It was still near 80 degrees out and I was warm wearing a t-shirt, I can’t imagine wearing riot gear.

Professional Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow shares daily photos of the city he loves. Exploring Minneapolis through Photography while teaching composition and techniques.

The True Meaning of Cell Phone Sunday

My friend Dave pointed out that my skills as a photographer may appear to be the result of my good equipment, so I should get a cheap camera and prove otherwise. I suggested my cell phone camera, because it has a simple 640×480 camera and I always have it with me. “Perfect” Dave said, ”now do it.”
Simple rules: only uncropped, images directly from my cell phone. I do some post processing to sharpen up the image. The “camera” on the phone only has a “capture” button, so, at heart, it’s really a composition challenge. See past Cell Phone Sunday Photos.

Professional Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow shares daily photos of the city he loves. Exploring Minneapolis through Photography while teaching composition and techniques.

Continuing with the obstruction theme, today’s distortion is brought to you by the reflective and warped doors on a building at the University of Minnesota across the street from a Caribou Coffee. I like how this image pairs well with yesterday’s image: similar composition and subjects.

This was a fun image to compose, though I was inspired by and standing right where my friend Bob was when he took a picture of the same thing (plagiarism is such an ugly word), I focused on the reflected buildings, not the door and really had to work to get the open sign legible. It’s all about the coffee.

I was out with Bob and Matt walking around the new stadium construction at the U. It’s going to be quite the beast! It’s impressive to think that the St. Anthony Bridge (new 35W Bridge), the University Stadium and the new Twins’ Stadium are all being built at the same time. Three major Minneapolis landmarks being created at the same time.

Tomorrow Obstruction: Constriction

Professional Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow shares daily photos of the city he loves. Exploring Minneapolis through Photography while teaching composition and techniques.

I’m back. Sorry for the missing days lately, much ado about many things. Lots of work, family events and summer stuff. I’ve noticed a lot of barriers and obstructions in my work recently, so this week is obstruction week. It seems a good theme since I was obstructed from posting yesterday: the hotel I was at in Grand Rapids, MN didn’t have internet.

This photo was taken from the window of my friend Lynne’s art studio in Lowertown St. Paul. It’s on the eighth floor of a warehouse and looks out to the North. The building across the street was converted into a parking garage. Her window is that security glass with chicken wire cast into it.

I liked the idea of the window being so prominent in the image, it really wants to keep you in. The obstruction makes you look around it and even move your head around trying to see around it. The framing and the chicken wire also mimic the rhythm and composition of the parking ramp.

Tomorrow Obstruction: Distortion

Professional Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow shares daily photos of the city he loves. Exploring Minneapolis through Photography while teaching composition and techniques.

Professional Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow shares daily photos of the city he loves. Exploring Minneapolis through Photography while teaching composition and techniques.

The True Meaning of Cell Phone Sunday

My friend Dave pointed out that my skills as a photographer may appear to be the result of my good equipment, so I should get a cheap camera and prove otherwise. I suggested my cell phone camera, because it has a simple 640×480 camera and I always have it with me. “Perfect” Dave said, ”now do it.”
Simple rules: only uncropped, images directly from my cell phone. I do some post processing to sharpen up the image. The “camera” on the phone only has a “capture” button, so, at heart, it’s really a composition challenge. See past Cell Phone Sunday Photos.

Professional Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow shares daily photos of the city he loves. Exploring Minneapolis through Photography while teaching composition and techniques.

As the storms rolled in, I raced off to hide my Jeep in a parking ramp to avoid the hail.
The hail never came, but the totally awesome clouds did.