LeeAnn's Garden in July

Earlier this week I was back in LeeAnn's garden. After the storm we had a few weeks ago I was concerned LeeAnn might have lost some of her garden but she grows strong plants. They withstood the fierce winds marvously.












Hope you enjoyed these latest images.

Roger
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Radio Tower along the Shore at Midnight

A few weeks ago, July 4th weekend to be exact, I was heading up the North Shore rather late on a Thursday night. Approached Palisade Head I decided to take some time and see if I could compose a star shot with Palisade Head in the composition. It was almost midnight so the sky was about as dark as it was going to get and moon was just starting to rise. I went down to the overlook and didn't see anything compelling. The angle was just to great trying to get Palisade Head, which you photograph down, and the stars, which you photograph up, in the field of view. So I went back to the car and on my return saw the radio tower with the stars in the background. This looked rather cool so decided to do some shooting here.

The first image was a 30 second exposure. I tried to get the to light on the top of the tower to match up with the last star in the handle of the big dipper. The alignment was close but not where I really wanted it. Backing up any more would have put me over the embankment.


I made a couple of 30 second exposures then decided to do a star trail image. There are a couple of ways to shoot star trails. One is to open the shutter for the length of the exposure and the other is to take a series of shorter exposures and blend them together. I hadn't done the blending method in a while, at least I hadn't done a successful one in a while, so decided to do one here. The exposure was set for 15 minutes and the image above consisted of 5 of these 15 minute exposures. The images were then blended together with a program called Image Stacker that resulted in this composite.


After the series of 15 minute exposures the moon was up to the point where it was providing some illumination so again I made another 30 second exposure. A little more of the ground around the tower can be seen.

It was almost 1:30 by now and there was still a good hours drive to the trailer at Grand Marais. Got all of the gear into the car and we were off.

Roger
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Beautiful Gardens

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting two wonderful gardens. On Saturday I visited Brenda and we enjoyed a beautiful Saturday morning, along with our combined 4 dogs, in both her back yard and her front yard. I had brought over some Peonys for her to add to her garden.

(Before I left she fed me this wonderful beef au jous sandwich. It was heavenly.)

I had brought my camera with me but didn't take any pictures. We just yacked all morning. (-:)



Then Saturday evening and again Sunday morning I headed down the street to LeeAnn's garden. I walk by LeeAnn's every day on my daily walk and it always tugs at me to stop or at least come back. With the other projects I'm working on it's hard to get over there but I made time last weekend.


It was breezy both days which made for a few challenges. Doing the kind of close-up work that I like to do is an exercise in patience waiting for the subject to stop moving. Since I also like a shallow depth of field you hope when the subject stops moving it is still in focus so you can snap the image.


One thing that works really well in this situation is the magnified mode of live view. Not only can you get precise focusing but you can also monitor the movement of the subject and when it quits moving snap off an image. It's also a good time to use my plamp to 'help' steady the flower. It's not perfect but it really helps alot. Not only is the plamp useful for keeping the plant from moving you can also use it to reposition the subject compositionally.


I'll quit talking now and let you look at the rest of the images in silence.







Till next time, Thanks for looking.

Roger
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Thule's Big Adventure

This summer I was determined to do more kayaking than the previous years. But there was a lingering problem, what to do with Thule while I'm out kayaking. A couple of weeks ago Travis and I were checking out our kayaks and I decided to sit in mine, we were on dry land. It had been a couple of years since I'd been in the kayak and I noticed how open the cockpit was. So I decided to get Thule and put him in the kayak with me. Well it seemed to work but how would he react to being on water.





A few years ago I had a ski boat. Thule would go out with us and he really liked it. But on one occasion I was fishing and surprise surprise I caught a fish. Well as soon as the fish came into the boat and started flapping on the floor of the boat Thule got spooked and jumped over the side of the boat and to the surprise of everyone ended up in the water. I keep a harness on him so it was easy to bring him back into the boat. Not knowing if he really learned his lesson I've been a little concerned when introducing him to new water adventures.



A few weeks ago we went out to the Susie islands and took Thule with us. True to my form I was a bit concerned as to how he would react. After all Lake Superior is alot colder than an inland lake. At first he wasn't exactly sure what was going on but it didn't take long for both of us to get comfortable with this latest adventure. Now he can't wait to get into the boat and go for a boat ride.



So last weekend I confidently approached taking him in the kayak with me. I had thought he would have to pretty much sit on my lap so I was wondering about the comfort factor but it was worth a try. I got into the kayak, almost tipping it over on the process which must have given Thule a lot of confidence, then pulled him into the kayak with me. I could hear him say 'what the hell's up with this' as he looked around for a quick exit. Once in I quickly realized there was plenty of room for both of us with him between my legs. We puttered around a bit by the dock working to ease his anxiety. Using his harness I strapped him into the kayak which made it impossible for him to get out even though he was obviously getting more comfortable with this new adventure. We paddled up the Pigeon River to the Grand Portage State Park area and once it got shallow I unhooked him.




Once unhooked he was able to stand up and turn around so he could see where he was going. By this time he is totally comfortable with the kayak. The next thing I wondered about was how he would react to seeing animals. He showed an uncharacteristic interest in the Canada Geese which I found rather interesting. As we kayaked toward Pigeon Bay we ran across a group of 3 otters. As soon as Thule saw those he perked right up and followed their every move but didn't try to move about or bark. A while later we saw a bear swimming across the river. Thule didn't see the bear when it was in the water but did once it got to shore and went bounding into the brush he perked right up. Of course he came was very interested but didn't get real excited. The next test will be when we see a moose. The moose will linger giving Thule more time for his excitement to grow. But I think he'll do just fine.




During the kayak trip he would want to lay down and relax. However the kayak is not like his bed at home and when lying he had to strain to get his head above the opening in the kayak so he can see what's going on. I couldn't believe how much he had to strain to keep his head outside the kayak and was thinking he was going to have a sore neck that night. A couple of times he just put his head in the cockpit and rested it on my leg. But most of the time he was sitting up having a ball.

We paddled a couple of hours that day. It was a really good first trip of what will be many more. So my problem of figuring out what to do with Thule while I'm paddling is solved. I'm looking forward to our next adventure together.

Roger
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Thanks to Travis for these wonderful images.

It was a Bear of a Weekend

I have been to the North Shore of Minnesota dozens of times. In all of those trips I have seen 2 bears, and one of those bears was just a few months ago. Usually the best view of the bear is of it's rear end as it quickly dashes into the woods never to be seen again.



Travis noticed the bear as we drove south on Hwy 61 just a mile from Grand Portage State Park and the Canadian border. I quickly turned around thinking the bear would already be gone but no it was still there.



Having been caught without my camera in similar situations I keep it close now ready to pull out and start shooting. As we pulled off the road I started shooting and to my surprise the bear just continued his business of searching for food. It was totally unfazed as I crept the car a little closer every once in a while looking up from its digging efforts.



It moved to a couple of spots while slowly building an audience. Thule got quite excited and just had to let out a bark or two, actually more than one or two. Eventually the bear retreated into the woods after putting on a show for a few minutes.



It didn't stay in the woods to long before bounding across 61 stopping a few more cars in their tracks.

We saw this bear on Saturday. As we were kayaking the Pigeon River returning from Pigeon Bay we saw a another bear. This one was in the river swimming from the Canadian side to the US side. I first thought it was a moose but Travis quickly corrected me. WOW another bear. But for some reason the bear turned around and swam back to the shore where he came from. Once there was sufficient footing the bear disappeared into the brush.

So it was really a Bear of a weekend.

Roger
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