North Shore Photography Show

On March 5, 2010 a show opened at the Johnson Heritage Post in downtown Grand Marais. Seven Minnesota photographers combined to display over 100 photographs in a truely wonderful show.



Travis Novitsky, Don Davison, Bruce Johnson, Bryan Hansel, Paul Sundberg, Jon Wood and myself are the seven photographers in the show.



The Artist Reception last Friday night was very well attended. Over 100 people signed the guest book but it's estimated the more than twice that amount were actually in attendance.



The show continues thru the month of March. If you are in Grand Marais on Thursday thru Sunday be sure to stop by from 1pm to 4pm. Your eyes will be delighted with the vision of seven different photographers.




I've included a pictures of my display as well as the display of Travis. In my haste to get home yesterday I didn't get pictures of the other photograhers displays.

Roger

Foot in the Door 4

Opening on Feb 18, and running thru June 13, Minneapolis Institute of Arts is showing 'Foot in the Door 4'. Once every 10 years aspiring Minnesota artists are called to submit one work of art to this show. The artwork is limited to one cubic foot or in the case of two-dimensional art one square foot. My submission i......s the image you see here, one of my favorite images from 2009.

This image was made on Oct 1, 2009. I was on my way up to Grand Marais. A storm was raging, minus the rain, all along the shore. I just had to stop and figured the picnic area at Cascade State Park would be a good place. Thule and I headed to the shore and found a nice little area to get out of the brutal force of the wind. I had to come out ... ... See MoreSee Moreof 'hiding' to make this image and had to firmly hold my camera and tripod during the 20 second exposure. I made alot of cool images that night but this is my favorite.

Printing the image for the show took a few twists and turns. Being that the size restriction was limited to a square foot eliminated the 12"x12" framed image since the actual frame size is 12 1/4"x12 1/4". In retropect they weren't measuring so I could have gotten away with it but I'm particular about following the rules. I tried cropping the image square but that didn't work. Then I tried printing an image such that I could have about a 1/2" mat all around it. That looked horrible. Then I thought of Minor White and his prints. They were small, something you had to get close to see. I liked that idea and printed an image 4"x6", cut a mat 10"x12", mounted it and really liked it. I usually mat duotone with a standard white color but for this image I used some light brown mat I had laying around. It really sung to me. I had my print. But I had to deal with the 12" frame restriction. I settled for a 9"x11" frame and had to buy two frames, one 9"x12" and the other 11"x14", to construct the frame size I desired.

I'm quite pleased with the way it came out. There is something about the small size that I really like.

Roger
(:-)

The Northern Elephant Seals of Piedras Blancas

I had visited my aunt and uncle in their home in Cambria a couple of times in the 1980s and I had never heard of the Elephant Seals. So I was quite surprised when my cousins mentioned the rookery just a short distance from San Simeon, and Hearst. Now I would have remembered Elephant Seals from a previous trip so I thought something funny was going on.



Well it all started in the fall of 1990, long after my last visit, when fewer than 2 dozen elephant seals showed up in the small cove just south of the Piedras Blancas lighthouse. The spring of 1991 saw about 400 elephant seals coming to molt. January 1992 saw the first pups being born which marked the beginning of an elephant seal population explosion. 1993 about 50 pups were born, 1995 600 pups were born, 1996 almost 1000 were born. Now the rookery is home to about 15,000 elephant seals.



Saying the rookery is home to about 15,000 is a bit misleading since the elephant seals spend the vast majority of their time in the open ocean, from eight to ten months of the year.



From what I understand I visited rather early in the birthing/molting/breeding season as the older males, adults and sub-adults were arriving. During this time there are lots of challenges for prime territory. There wasn't a time when I didn't see at least one but more like a couple pairs of seals challenging each other. It was a busy place.

Pregnant females also arrive and begin giving birth. Birthing peaks in mid-January with about two births an hour by the public viewing area right off Highway 1.



These seals are absolutely huge. At birth they weigh about 70 lbs and gain weight quickly to about 300 lbs by 4 weeks of age. Females grow to 9-12 feet and weigh between 900-1800 pounds. Males grow to 14-16 feet long and weigh in at 3000-5000 pounds, or more.

They look like blobs of blubber laying on the beach but when they want to move they can do so very quickly. One thing I found quite humorous was watching the groups of them lying together. When one seal would move on one side of the group the blubber would shake almost across the whole group so another seal 5 over would also move.

I would have loved to spend more time there and will definitely return.

Roger
(-:)

Hearst Castle

My cousin Joanne works at Hearst Castle, in San Simeon, California. She used to be a tour guide but is now a tour guide supervisor, responsible for making sure your tour of the castle is a memorable and enjoyable experience for you. Joanne is so into the history of the castle and is a walking book on the place.

Joanne took Leah, my cousin and her sister, on two private tours of the castle. The night I arrived we toured the inside which was all made up for Christmas. It was raining outside which created a really neat moody environment. The next day we went over to the castle a few hours before she started her shift and walked around the outside. It is the images I made outside that I've included here, didn't make any indoors.

I'm not going to try to give any info on the castle in this post. If you want more, and believe me there is a whole lot more, Google Hearst Castle and your bound to strike it rich.

The first image is the first sight Mr. Hearst's guests would see having just stepped out of their chauffeured vehicle.



One of the guest houses looking up from the terrace.



And the same guest house from the other direction. Not a bad view, eh. It is in this guest house that Hearst lived prior to his death.



Adam and Eve statue.



I was struck by some of the graphic elements I saw.











It's a beautiful place the Hearst Castle is. I couldn't imagine what it was like to spend time there and have the run of the place, except for the 3rd floor of the main house which was Hearst's private floor.



The view from the top of the hill is just stupendous as you can see. If you're ever along the central Calif coast it's worth a stop. (And say 'Hi' to my cousin Joanne (:-) )

Roger

Zion National Park

Next stop, rather pause, after Coral Pink State Park was Zion National Park. I had driven thru Zion the year before right at dusk. It was quite dramatic with very low light so I hadn't stopped to make any images. I had that memory in my mind when I drove thru this year. The sun was quite high in the sky, not the greatest time for photography, and very different from the previous year. As such I only made just a couple of images.

This first image is Checkerboard Mesa. I used a HDR technique where 6 exposures, in this case, we made 2/3 stops apart. By doing this you capture the full range of tones from hilites to dark shadows. A program called Photomatics is used to blend the images together and gives the photographer controls for making final adjustments. It's a technique I need to work alot more with to get it right.



I was most intrigued by the sky and clouds that day. It was really a beautiful day with the sun shining brightly and the temperatures quite mild. This tree just stood out so nicely with the sky in the background and the clouds really mimic the shape of the tree.



I was struck by the contrast of the green pine trees against the red rock of this area and made a few images along the road. In deep shadow the tones were contained and with a little digital darkroom adjustments it makes a pleasant image.




Unable to take the scenic drive the previous year, well I could have taken it I just wouldn't have seen anything since it was dark, it was on my agenda this day. It was a nice drive but nothing really captured my fancy except for the trees high on the ridge with the sky and clouds behind it. So another tree, sky and cloud image, sometimes things run in cycles.

I left Zion pleased that I had driven thru. It's another jewel in the jewel box of the Southwest.

Roger