Cold Lake Superior Winter Morning

Last weekend I 'needed' to get back to the North Shore  so I went and visited my friends Travis and Jessica.  It turned out to be a cold cold weekend and this being my first outdoor adventure in cold cold Minnesota I very much over dressed, but that is a different subject.  When the temps get so cold, -10 to -15, the already cold Lake Superior becomes a warm spot and steam rises.  It creates an eerie effect as it undulated across the surface of the water.  I was playing with time lapse this weekend and made this time lapse from the Hwy 61, Mt Josephine overlook of the Susie Islands.  The wind was blowing rather briskly on this cold cold morning.

Roger
(-:)

Swan Viewing Park

Since I was off from work today I decided to head over to the Swan Viewing Park in Monticello, MN.  Each year over 1,000 Trumpeter Swans, along with Canada Geese and an assortment of duck, gather along the Mississippi River for a daily meal of corn.  What started as a homeowner, Sheila Lawrence, winter feeding some ducks and geese, a few decades ago, turned into a Trumpeter Swan spectacle attracting people, especially photographers, from around the nation.  

Usually feeding time is around 10 am and it was a little after 11 so I wasn't expecting much.  But the sounds coming from the water indicated alot of activity. Sure enough it was feeding time and the swans were swarming the feeding buckets. Swans do not normally congregate but when there is food for the taking they tolerate each other.  One of the side shows is when two families face off.  They'll squawk, bob their heads, ruffle their their feathers before one family charges the other then it's all over.

Roger

(-:)

Time - Water - Earth, The Complete Project

Time ∙ Water ∙ Earth

“....the distinction between the past, the present

and the future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”

Albert Einstein

Time becomes evident through motion.

Sunrise, sunset, the changing seasons,

the movement of the celestial bodies,

being born, growing old, reclamation.

All are indicative of continuous change.

Millennia will pass.

Water will course, freeze, evaporate and move.

Earth will shift, become supple, shape herself and yield to change.

These intimate black and white images of frozen water and desert sand

show us the beauty of sameness in such opposites.

They help us to see more clearly how the earth holds

the memory of change allowing us to bear witness to our past

and the prepossessing harshness that is the cycle of time made visible.

________________

,

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2013
-----

Head of Sinbad Petroglyphs, Utah

Mar 2013

Artist Point, Minnesota
Feb 2013
-----
Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico
Mar 2013

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota
Feb 2011
-----
Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah
Dec 2011

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota
Feb 2011
-----
Goblin Valley, Utah
Dec 2009 

Hollow Rock, Minnesota
Feb 2013
-----
Antelope Canyon, Arizona
Dec 2009

Artist Point, Minnesota
Feb 2013
-----
Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument, Utah

Mar 2013

Artist Point, Minnesota
Feb 2013
-----
    Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument, Utah
Mar 2013

Hollow Rock, Minnesota
Feb 2012
-----
Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument, Utah  
Mar 2013

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota
Feb 2011
-----
Antelope Canyon, Arizona
Dec 2011

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota
Feb 2011
----
The Wave, Arizona  Dec, 2011

Grand Portage, Minnesota
Jan 2009
-----

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Utah

Apr 2012

Stoney Point, Minnesota
Feb 2009
-----
Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico
Apr 2012

Hollow Rock, Minnesota
Feb 2009

Zebra Canyon, Utah
Mar 2013

Hollow Rock, Minnesota
Feb 2013

Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah
Dec 2011 

Gooseberry Falls State Park, Minnesota
Feb 2013

Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah
Dec 2011 

Artist Point, Minnesota
Feb 2013

Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah
Dec 2011

Artist Point, Minnesota
Feb 2013

Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument, Utah
Mar 2013

Hollow Rock, Minnesota
Feb 2009

Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument, Utah
Mar 2013

Hollow Rock, Minnesota
Feb 2012

Goblin Valley, Utah
Dec 2009 

Hollow Rock, Minnesota
Feb 2013

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Dec 2011 

The complete Project can be downloaded as a PDF at
www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #20

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota

Feb 2011

The Wave, Utah

Dec 2011

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #19

Artist Point, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #18

Artist Point, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #17

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Dec 2009

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #16

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota

Feb 2011

Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah

Dec 2011

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #15

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota

Feb 2011

Goblin Valley, Utah

Dec 2009 

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #14

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Head of Sinbad Petroglyphs, Utah

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #13

Artist Point, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #12

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Dec 2011 

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #11

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2012

Goblin Valley, Utah

Dec 2009 

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #10

Artist Point, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah

Dec 2011

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #9

Gooseberry Falls State Park, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah

Dec 2011 

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #8

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2013 

Wahweap Hoodoos, Utah

Dec 2011 

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #7

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2009

Zebra Canyon, Utah

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #6

Artist Point, Minnesota

Feb 2013

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #5

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2009

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #4

Stoney Point, Minnesota

Feb 2009

Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico

Apr 2012

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #3

Grand Portage, Minnesota

Jan 2009

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, Utah

Apr 2012

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #2

Tettagouche State Park, Minnesota

Feb 2011

Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Dec 2011

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Image #1

Hollow Rock, Minnesota

Feb 2012

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

Mar 2013

Download PDF at: www.rogernordstromarts.com

Time - Water - Earth, Intro

Time ∙ Water ∙ Earth

“....the distinction between the past, the present

and the future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion”

Albert Einstein

Time becomes evident through motion.

Sunrise, sunset, the changing seasons,

the movement of the celestial bodies,

being born, growing old, reclamation.

All are indicative of continuous change.

Millennia will pass.

Water will course, freeze, evaporate and move.

Earth will shift, become supple, shape herself and yield to change.

These intimate black and white images of frozen water and desert sand

show us the beauty of sameness in such opposites.

They help us to see more clearly how the earth holds

the memory of change allowing us to bear witness to our past

and the prepossessing harshness that is the cycle of time made visible.

In August 2013 I was one of a two person photography exhibit at the Johnson Heritage Post in Grand Marais Minnesota, titled 'Visual Stories'.  The previous passage, written by my wife Carolyn, puts into words the visual story that I will be sharing over the days ahead.

Roger

(-:) 

Focus Stacking

A couple of weekends ago I made my annual trip north to Grand Portage for fall colors.  It is a favorite time of year when the summer warmth turns to cool days and cooler nights.  This year was different though as the crazy weather made it made it feel more like summer than fall.  But whose complaining, it was beautiful.

I'm always finding intimate scenes with the fall being great times for mushrooms and other types of fungus.  Getting close to show detail is always the goal but as one gets closer to the subject the depth of field gets narrower and narrower and it's impossible to get the whole subject in focus.  Enter focus stacking.

Focus stacking is taking a number of images of a particular item or scene and changing just one thing that being the focus plane.  Focusing on the nearest, or furthest, point you want in focus you gradually work your focus out taking images along the way.  The idea is to make images such that you capture all parts of the subject in focus.  In the digital darkroom you then blend the in focus parts of each image together in a composite resulting in an in focus image of your subject.  Case in point, the following image was made from 8 individual frames.

Click to see larger image

In this case I used a program called Helicon Focus to combine the images.  It does take some refinement to get the focus just right but the resulting image is pretty cool.

Roger
(-:)

2013 Spring Trip - Day 10 - One Last Morning with the Sandhill Cranes

Sunday, March 31, 2013


Well it's the last day of the trip.  A week ago Friday I woke up at home and went to bed in Kearney, Nebraska, today I do the opposite.  I had a feeling this was going to be a beautiful morning and it was.

As I had planned last night I arrived at the Minden bridge well before sunrise.  To my surprise I was all alone.  With this many cranes around I figured there would be a number of people here already, at least in previous years there were.  But I was early and no doubt more would show up.  As light crept across the river I could start seeing the cranes.  The cranes stretched far off to the east.  Just like last weekend there were alot of cranes, alot of cranes.

I soon realized the north side of the bridge, where I was at, was not the side I should be on.  The closest cranes to the bridge were on the south side and there wasn't anything very interesting in line with where the sun was going to rise so I packed up and drove to the other side.  Not long after setting up again I finally I had company.  It was just one man and We struck up a conversation.  He had gotten up very early and drove out from Lincoln, I believe, to see the cranes.  He'd heard about the cranes and decided to come see them for himself.  I told him he picked a good time since there were so many cranes on the river.  I mentioned the excitement when they all take off at once and being surrounded by these noisy creatures.  I was hoping so much that we'd see a blast-off not only for myself but for this fellow as well.  

Sure enough down stream a few took off, then more and more and before you knew it 95% of the cranes were in the air circling and squawking above us.  I said this is it, something everyone with the love of this sort of thing should witness at least once.  He looked like he was enjoying it and I was so happy for him I was beaming from ear to ear.  I've spent time as Bosque del Apache in southern New Mexico, a wintering ground for Sandhill cranes and Snow geese.  The big thing in the morning there is watch the Snow geese blast off from the ponds and head out to the corn fields.  It's a spectacle that is unforgettable but lasts for a minute or so and it's over.  These cranes blast-off as well but many come back and land and do it again.  That is what I witnessed my night in the blind last weekend.

Most of the cranes were gone when the sun finally rose.  It was a beautiful sunrise, as so often sunrises are.  Only one other fellow show up this morning which was really weird but that's fine with me, I like being in nature with few people around.  The sun was getting higher so it was time to head 12 miles east to the bridge I was at last night and get some front lite shots.

I arrived and again was alone.  Where is everyone?  This is the most fantastic time for seeing the cranes and no one's around, oh well.  I was happy to see there were still alot of cranes on the river, many more than there were where I came from.  The sun was behind me and there was alot of dancing activity going on.  It was going to be a good morning for dancing.  I shot a number of videos and included my three favorite here.

After an hour or so I decided it was time to hit the road.  I didn't want to get home to late and I had about 600 miles to travel.  But not before checking out some real estate right by this bridge.  What a perfect place to enjoy the cranes from.  I peered thru the window and saw nothing but a shell of a house.  A fixer upper for sure.  Not only can you spruce up the exterior you can also totally design the interior floor layout without having to knock down any walls.

I've enjoyed sharing my trip with you, hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks for following along.

Roger
(-:)