Twin City Photos

I intended to go out and get some shots of a particular flowering tree, but it was so windy today that would have been an exercise in futility. So instead I took a drive in the Northeast Art District. There was quite a bit of activity around the few bars in the area, some festival going on, so I took some side streets to avoid the traffic jams. Spotted this railroad bridge across Mississippi and intended to get some shots of the bridge, but instead found it’s base decorated with graffiti.

I’m surprised at the letter reversal to disguise the swear phrase. But then they did something similar on Battlestar Galactica. Apparently it’s acceptable on TV to disguise swear phrases by substituting a couple of letters, so I guess we could consider the graffiti swearing socially acceptable.

On the way back from the farmers market this morning, I drove past this ‘store front’ on Lyndale Avenue, and just had to turn around to get a photo of it.

Last Saturday, urban explorer and photographer Ian William Talty and a friend were exploring and photographing a storm drainage tunnel on the banks of the Mississippi near the Lake Street bridge. A thunderstorm nearby caused the drainage tunnel to flood, and both were caught by the rush of water, sweeping them into the Mississippi. His friend made it back to shore, but not Ian, who drowned in the Mississippi. For more go here, here, or here. It’s possible he could have made it to shore any other time, but right now the Mississippi is still in it’s spring mode, with fast currents and eddies, especially along the shore.

Us local photo bloggers occasionally go on photoshoots together, but most of the time we do it alone. Sometimes we end up in situations that aren’t necessarily the safest in the pursuit of a photo. I know I have gotten a little closer to some things than I should have on a few occasions, ranging from stepping out on the Mississippi ice with nearby open water and finding myself sliding towards the open water, or on it’s banks on unstable soil with a raging spring melt just a few feet below, or balancing at the edge of a bluff with a steep drop off, or getting your foot hung up walking down a steep slope. The list goes on.

Ian was particularly interested in photographing graffiti, and I share his interest. There’s a lot of graffiti along the banks of the Mississippi, I’ve been down there. His wife said he often would come home after a photo shoot, proud of what he’d gotten. I know the feeling Ian. This photo is for you.

Update: Some of the comments suggest that I personally knew Ian. That is not the case. If I gave that impression I apologize.

On overtime in the middle of winter. When we do these overtime stints I normally do most of it on the weekends. Just can’t handle sitting in the same chair for 11+hrs to try to get it in during weekdays. So to make it feel not quite like a weekday I do little photo shoots on the way home. This one is a self portrait taken in a parking area under a bridge. Took about 20 shots. Reviewing them at home none of them looked interesting except for this one, staring at an empty bottle laying on ground. One of my colleagues said ‘looks like an album cover’. Hehe, guess I should write a song.