Twin Cities Photoblog

Out on photo shoots, Mitch has reminded me several times that shooting into the sun isn’t necessarily the best thing to do. A bad habit of mine. The camera simply can’t make the adjustments our minds make when looking from dark areas to light areas. For example my eyes saw plenty of detail in the shady areas of the trees across the lake, while at the same time seeing the details in the sky. With the camera you have to sacrifice one or the other, in this case the shade in the trees. Sometimes though it does work out. No one probably cares about what’s going on in the distance.

This shot is from Lake Calhoun. It was very windy that day, and these sailboarders were zipping back and forth at amazingly high speeds.

For other skywatch photos go here

Riding around on my bicycle I continue to discover hidden graffiti areas. This one was taken under University Avenue near St. Anthony Blvd. Quite a bit of train traffic at this spot.

Really roughing it here, aren’t we? Just sitting around at our campground, I mounted the much maligned kit telephoto on my Canon Xti and pointed it in Rissi’s direction. Got some other shots too that surprised me. Maybe it actually is worth the $200 or so it’s reported to cost, not the $29.95 I thought one might be willing to fork out for a paper weight that looks like a telephoto lens.

Overnighted at the camper up north, and got a chance to visit this steam locomotive in the Duluth area. One of the few things that wasn’t swaying given the very gusty winds all day long. These machines are a mechanical engineer’s dream. Covered with mechanisms and steam powered actuators. I would love to drive along side one of these as it goes down the track and watch the operation of all those parts.

For other Monochrome Monday photos check here.

Our photo meetup on Saturday as usual was a ton of fun. Met a couple of new people, Alison, and Dan J. It was pretty toasty out there, around 90, but at least the humidity was down. We ended up at the Guthrie Theater, where a couple of nice cold Blue Moon beers really hit the spot. This photo looks out of a mirror lined window from the top floor at the Guthrie Theater, capturing St. Anthony Falls and the Stone Arch Bridge.

I don’t think this variation of Cirrus clouds is to common. They normally are fairly well lined up in the same direction. These seemed to originate from a central band and then extend laterally in both directions, depending on their elevation. Since they’re shaped by the winds makes you wonder just what kind of wind pattern would do that.

For other skywatch photos go here

As promised, the car in the background from the previous post, a 1932 Ford. It is owned by Mike from Minnetonka, who was there with some friends, including the owner of the red corvette. These guys love chatting about their street rods. I would too if I had one.

BTW, View from the Tundra is shutting down, being replaced by Carbon Silver, more oriented towards professional photography. I don’t have a category for that, so hope you don’t mind I keep it in the blog category.

A Prince song for a title? Just came to mind while I was uploading. This is 1962 Corvette, in beautiful shape. The car in the back, well that’s for the next post.

Added a couple of local links. Check out Sopheava’s archive page. Awesome.

Had a great family/fathers day barbecue on Saturday. We did it Saturday because we thought I was going to be out of town Sunday, but that trip got delayed. Since it was already scheduled (bad language I think, but I’m irreparably trained to think in schedules) we went ahead.

That left Sunday open for me to roam as oldest was working, and wife and youngest ones were setting up at girl scout camp. I returned to the MSRA car show early morning, and took many more photos. This time I actually took notes! Feels kinda stupid to sit at home and go ‘ehh… what car is this?’.

Before I knew it was early afternoon. Touched base with the wife and concluded it didn’t make sense to go home, only to leave an hour later to pick up my oldest at the Megamall (she had scheduled to work on Sunday, based on the original assumption I would be heading out of town).

So instead I stopped at the Stone Arch Bridge Art Festival to kill an hour or so. Quite a fun setting. Almost phoned a couple of my photoblogger buddies ‘hey come on down’ but then thought that would be rude. Just because I like to do things on the spur of the moment doesn’t mean others do.

I recognized many of the exhibits from the Uptown Art Fair (another favorite of mine), especially the photography ones. Seeing that stuff make me realize just how much of an amateur I am. If I could go back in time I would choose the photography path, instead of the engineering. But who knows, maybe the photogs down there say exactly the opposite :)

BTW, I just love the name Bonneville. Don’t know why, just do. And I suspect I will be just be bit sore from walking all day with a camera halfpack (with a heavy tripod hanging from it). I need an assistant.

For other monochrome monday check here.

At least it looks like a bottle to me. Sorta. This is the west side of the Walker Art Center. Multiple exposures blended for HDR, plus a fair amount of cleanup to eliminate some internal lights that almost looked like flaws.