Travis Novitsky

Last night I was checking out the Cameratalk MN site looking for information about the fall colors up on the North Shore. A friend of mine, Dale, and I are going up to the North Shore Wednesday after work for a few days of shooting and I wanted to get an idea of the colors. One of the posts was authored by Travis Novitsky, his first on the site.

I briefly checked out Travis site last night but took a much more thorough look this morning. There are few photographers that really hit home with me but Travis really did.

I don't know Travis nor have I ever spoken with Travis but I feel like I know him, at least just a little bit. Travis is a member of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe)and lives on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation at the far north western tip of Minnesota. Lynn and I have traveled to Grand Portage many times over the years and for the last three years we been fortunate to be at the annual Pow Wow held in August.

What I felt while looking at the images Travis makes is the obvious connection he has with the land, his home on the North Shore of Lake Superior. He talks a bit on his Welcome page about the adventures he had as a child growing up on the reservation which really seems to be the foundation of his photography. Fortunately Travis followed in his fathers footsteps and took up photography as a passion, at least I see passion in his work.

Travis shows to me a Native American view of the land. He shares his world not only with his imagery but also with his accompanying words.

Do yourself a favote and spend some quality time on Travis site. It can be found at Photography by Travis Novitsky

Roger

P.S. Come back for some fall colors.

Clean your lens cap

When you take your lens cap off your lens where do you put it? I'm sure the answer is as varied as the number of photographers but if you're like me you stick it in your pocket. And if you wear cotton jeans as I do you know there are loose cotton fibers in your pocket. Over time these fibers get causht in the mechanism of the lens cap and get transferred to your lens from element. So when you sit down to clean your camera gear, as I did the other evening, give the inside of your lens cap a goot shot of canned air. You just may have cleaner front elements, at least for a while.

Roger

River

It's a bright sunny day. The light is to challenging. But wait, there's a patch of shade with the Cascade River flowing thru. Out comes my Vari-ND filter allowing me to expose this image for 10 seconds at f/22. (The streak are small bubbles, from the waterfall upstream, flowing down river)

Roger

Quiet Morning

Before delving into macro land last Sunday, see the following post, I enjoyed the solitude of an early morning sunrise. I like to get to my sunrise location an hour before the sun is to rise where I'm usually alone to enjoy the beginning of a new day. It is well before the sun peaks above the horizon that the morning magic begins. This image was made about 15 minutes before sunrise. Five minutes later the color was all gone.

Roger

Looking Beyond the Sunrise

Artist Point in Grand Marais is known for it's sunrises, sunsets, crashing waves, rocks and Lake Superior. But if you look closely there is an entirely different dimension on Artist Point.

Last weekend, after a beautiful sunrise, I went looking for this other dimension. Here is the result.

Roger