It was a Cold Morning

Well cold is relative in Minnesota. Yes it was cold, below zero, but it can get alot colder. At any rate I was dressed to the hilt and my hands and toes got oh so cold. After a while I quit feeling my toes and when I walk it's like walking without toes, feels wierd. But I think I finally figured that problem out cause the next day my toes were fine. I keep a couple of hand warmers in my jacket pockets to keep my batteries warm. Well OK they are to help warm up my hands after they start to sting but they play a second role of warming my batteries.

I met Travis on this beautiful January morning at Hollow Rock. The ice pancakes, as Travis likes to call them, were slowly moving about with the sun shining brightly thru the hole in the rock. The water was calm and it was tranquil, except it was cold.



After a day of photographic exploration, and feet warming, we returned to Hollow Rock for sunset. The wind had picked up during the day and lo and behold the ice pancake were gone. Things change rapidly on the North Shore. (That's Travis on the rock.)

Roger

Lake Gulls

Having grown up in California not far from the Pacific Ocean I was very familiar with Seagulls. Along the North Shore of Minnesota we have Lake Gulls, not their scientific name of course but it works. The sight of these birds is quite familiar. What is unfamiliar, at least for me, is seeing them sitting on a snow/ice covered rock. My family and friends in California will relate to this.

Roger

What Do You See?

It was a blustery day on the shores of Lake Superior. Snow was falling and the winds were blowing. Harrington Park, just north of Duluth, Minnesota has the only noteworthy piles of ice I would see that weekend. The ice that sticks up from the rest of the pile offers interesting shape, shapes that allow your imagination to run wild. When I first saw these two pieces of ice my imagination immediately locked on to something.

Does yours?

Roger

(Clicking on the image will make it much larger.)

Up North

Howdy

Last Friday I headed up to the North Shore toward Grand Portage to meet with Travis for a day of shooting on Saturday. Travis told me Harrington Park, just north of Duluth, had some ice piles so I stopped there first.



This image certainly isn't ice piles but a mosaic pattern I kept seeing in the ice (ice piles to come later in a different post).



Travis and I met for sunrise at our favorite spot, Hollow Rock Resort. The last time I was at Hollow Rock, about a month ago, the ice extended far out into the lake. The warmer late winter weather had taken it's toll on the ice as seen in this image. You could still walk thru the hole in the rock but not beyond the lake side entrance.



Credit goes to Travis for this image. Travis first saw this composition and photographed me looking at 'Gull Rock' (my name), then we switched spots. I was interested in seeing how two photographers interpreted basically the same scene. This is my intepretation.



Next, we snowshoed to the top of Mt Rose which has a great view of Grand Portage National Monument. The image doesn't show a monument but a tree that caught my eye. The day was overcast but mild, low 30s, and most importantly no wind at all. A beautiful snowshoe hike, thru the woods, followed by a breathtaking view and topped off with a fine companion, one couldn't ask for a better experience.



We completed our photographic day at the Little Cedar Spirit Tree. It is always a special treat to visit the Spirit Tree and wouldn't you know it as soon as we arrived the sun started shining and the clouds cleared away.

As I work my way thru the images from the weekend as well as those taken on previous trips I'll post them to the blog.

Roger

Digital Image Cafe - POTD

I recently joined the Digital Image Cafe, a friendly group of photographers from around the world that help each other and compete daily for Photo Of The Day honors. My friend Travis, whose work I very much admire, is an active member of the site and introduced me to it. The POTD contest is a very competitive one as there are some very fine photographer participating. It is quite an honor to have your image selected as the POTD.

The first 10 POTD are rather easy to capture. An 'appetizer' section is open to all members with fewer than 10 POTDs. These 'appetizer' groups have a fraction of the images from which the judges make their selections. For instance, the regular Scenic category has upwards of 500 images from which the judge makes her/his selection.

Now that I have my first 10 'appetizer' POTDs the real fun begins. If/when my images win POTD I will 'brag' about them here. Today I had 2 images selected as POTD, a rare event indeed.

Tillamook Bay



This first image was taken last May when my brother Ralph and I met Jack Graham in Oregon for a weekend of shooting. Our first day was spent by the Pacific Ocean and was started in Tillamook Bay. The morning was quiet, calm, overcast and had a nice soft blue cast. A wonderful Oregon morning.

The Chase Is On



Great Gray Owls by the hundreds, if not thousands, migrated south to Minnesota due to a food shortage in Canada during the winter of 2004-2005. I traveled two hours north 6 weekends in a row to watch and photograph these beautiful creatures. Rarely would the owls encounter each other but when they did you wanted to make sure you had them in your viewfinder. This was the one encounter I was able to capture.

Roger

Gutter Beauty

This morning Thule, my soon to be 10 year old Aussie, and I went for a walk. We were out for a long walk to take a couple of DVDs back to the stores from where they were rented.



Of course I took my little Canon G9 along with me to capture anything I found interesting. It didn't take long to find an interesting subject. Actually it started right at the end of the driveway.



We're finally experiencing the first glimpse of spring and there is alot of snow melting going on during the day with refreezing at night. Looking down at the gutter there were some very interesting patterns.



Here are a couple of the images from this mornings walk. All were taken in the gutter of the streets we traversed. You never know what your going to find in the most unlikely places.

Roger

Northrup King Building

Howdy...



After a bit of an absence from my blog I think it is time I get back to it.



Today I spent some time at the Northrup King building in Northeast Minneapolis. This building was built back in 1917 by the Northrup King & Co seed company.



Northrup King occupied the building until the late 1980's before selling it to private owners.



It is now the home to about 150 artists and is one of a number of older buildings that make up the Northeast Minneapolis Arts district.



A particular draw for me is the Icebox Gallery which always has a photography exhibit in progress. Howard M. Christopherson, the owner, is currently showing his images from Peru.

Roger