Hello potential Minnesota tourists!  Now that we've had our first significant snowfall of the season, it is safe to officially declare the beginning of winter.  As such, there might be a traveler or two out there who has Minnesota on their upcoming agenda and might be thinking, "I wonder what the driving is going to be like there?"

Wonder no more.  This blog will present you with the photos and a few well-chosen words to sum up driving during the four seasons.  

First off, let's set the record straight.  There are actually only two seasons in Minnesota: winter and summer.  Fall only lasts for a few weeks and we like to call it Indian Summer around here, as it occurs sometime in September or early October, long before any leaves have dropped and the pools probably still have water in them.  Yes, we really do have pools.  Every Minnesotan either has a lake or a pool.  It's one of our residential rights.  Then we play hockey or skate on them in the winter.

The last few years, it's been snowing in April and May, therefore, so much for Spring.  The mosquitos will be biting by the time the snow melts.  That means it's officially summer.  Now for those pictures I promised.

Here's what you can expect driving in Minnesota in the Summer:

Since you might be coming in Winter, it's helpful to know about "White Knuckle" steering.  To keep with the times and at least appear hip, let's hereinafter refer to it as WK.  It's a simple procedure, you'll be able to learn it quickly and it will come in handy right out of the rental car parking lot.

First of all, put your hands in the proper 10 and 2:00 position.  Never mind what your teen's driving instructor (the paid one) is telling them about 8 and 4:00.  You won't be able to achieve a proper WK doing that.  Get your hands at 10-and-2.  Now grip the steering wheel as tight and hard as you can, until your knuckles start to turn white.  It might take awhile for them to turn white, just keep hanging on.

There you go, now you've got it.  The reality is, you won't have to practice WK much at all.  Once the car starts sliding out of control (what we in Minnesota like to affectionately refer to as "fish-tailing"  and it's not something that happens in a boat) WK is an auto-reflex and your hands will immediately know what to do.  It doesn't really help steer the car any better, but you will feel more in control knowing that you are hanging on as tight as you can.  If you see a patch of ice, do not, I repeat, do not hit the brakes. Engage the WK and start praying out loud as you "glide" across the ice.  Taking several deep breaths or breathing rapidly, whatever works for you, might help too.  When you come out the other side of it, a small celebration will be in order.

Well, there you go.  That's about everything you'll need to know about driving here.  If you come in the summer, the driving will go as slow as it does in the winter, oh I'd say around 10 mph, 20 if you're lucky on account of all the cones and barrels and lane closures.  There's a lot of road repair to be done here after the snowplowing and pot-hole formations (to be explained in a future blog).  The road crews do not waste a second getting right to work on fixing the winter damage and coming up with new projects.  The roads need to be rebuilt regularly after what they go through every year.  You'll have plenty of time to find your way around going at that speed.  There might be some horns blaring and fingers flying.  Don't be fooled by "Minnesota Nice" and misinterpret it for waving when you are driving.  We are one of the top states for Road Rage incidents, particularly in the summer.  You can probably see why just looking at the pictures.  There is much less road rage in the winter, probably on account of the WK we're all doing.  It's best to ignore it and fast forward to the end of the blog.

The moral of the story is: leave more time than you think to get there.  Double or triple the time it would take you to drive that distance in most other places.  If Mapquest tells you 20 minutes, make it 60.  You will impress everyone by being on time to your destination.  Don't tell 'em you heard it from the Queen of IML8.

And on a final note, after all that driving, you deserve to relax.  You're likely to see one of these along your route or many other alternatives.  We have  A LOT of liquor stores here, not like some other states.  Pull an immediate right or left and take care of business. You'll thank me later!

I've been reading up on Charlie Parr's Facebook page because I just found it and I'm thinking a lot about Charlie this week cause I finally got to see him play and meet him in person.  Reading all his Facebook posts made me wish I could write like him and I think one way to emulate his writing style is to simply write from the heart and talk about whatever is happening that day or the next day.  It can be hard to do that sometimes cause it's tempting to use a lot of smoke and mirrors when you aren't sure who your audience is or if you even have an audience bigger than your Mom.  So in a way I guess I could just say "Dear Mom, " but then you're not really sure if anyone besides your Mom might be reading it and then it shouldn't be too personal.

And I know this is supposed to be a blog about Photography or something like that but I'm not the kind of person to be teaching about photography.  There is plenty of that on the internet and I am no expert.  And I don't really see Charlie doing that either, he isn't talking about how he writes music or what chords to play he is talking a lot about his dog and his kid and his repair blues around the house and his wife and life in general.  So I like that and it makes sense to me and it's easy reading and at the end I feel like I know him a little bit better.  But of course a lot of people want to know Charlie Parr because he is one of the hottest guys on the music scene right now and I can't really say the same is true for myself.

So in Charlie Parr form I would like to talk about the snow slowly melting outside.  It's Minnesota and we are obsessed with the weather here.  Probably because it is such a big part of our lives and it affects everything we do on a daily basis.

There is no happier place on the planet than the first warm day in Minnesota at the end of winter.  It's been a long winter and we had something like 50 days below zero.  As the old people used to say when I was little "it puts hair on your chest."  It's a rather quirky saying if you think about it.  

The bird bath actually resembles a bird bath now and not a frozen pond.

The icicles that started hanging from the roof are gone and most of the snow has disappeared off the shingles and onto the ground but in the form of water running through the gutters.  I managed to get a run outside and it sure felt good to breathe in all that fresh air (yeah, some car exhaust too) but a lot better than a cooped up old tiny running track that is so small I have to run 98 times around it to meet my goal.  Talk about running in circles!

I'm getting prepared for my night photography course and working on how to light stuff up at night with flashlights and gels and I'll be flying to California for that class.  I'm a little nervous cause I have to get on one of those little planes in Utah and I don't really like them so much when they are too small and so I asked the airline people what happens if I can't get on the plane?  And she says well, you'll forfeit your ticket.  I've never really visited Utah that's worth talking about but the pictures I've seen are real pretty and everything.   I heard on the radio that they have the lowest per capital consumption of beer there (North Dakota is #1 by the way, and Minnesota comes in at a paltry 29) and I have a feeling I might not fit in very well.  So she says well you can go to the doctor and get something for that but I'm not really the doctoring type so I'm thinking well if I start feeling anxious about it maybe I should just have a beer before I get on the plane.  But now I'm not even sure they have beer in Utah so I'm thinking the odds just increased that my posts in April might be coming from my new home in Utah.  Could you send some beer if that happens?Let's hope I can make it through and get to sunny Cali and back alright.  It's kind of funny because when I'm going to be there, Charlie Parr will be playing just down the road from where I am staying.  If I can figure out how to drive the rental car there I just might go see him play.  It should be a decent temperature in California in April and since I won't know anybody and I'll be sitting in a hotel room by myself it might feel alright to go out and see Charlie Parr play.  Won't he be surprised?  Maybe I can have a beer while I'm there.  It should be a lot easier than going out to see him play on a cold, dark wintery night in Minnesota.

It's hard to go out in the winter in Minnesota at night.  It's dark and it's cold.  Did I already say that?  And I'm gettin' old.  So I would prefer to stay inside and make my way back to bed somewhere around 9:00 and settle in with a book.  It's warm and comfortable and if I get tired I can reach over, turn out the light and go to sleep.  That is the opposite of going out somewhere for entertainment.  It might be good when the entertainment is happening but when it's over you have to go out in the dark and the cold and get into a cold car and wait for it to warm up.  Or just head out but then your eyes are on the engine temperature waiting for it to warm up cause if you turn on the "heat" when the engine is cold it will just blow cold air into the car and that doesn't feel very good when you are already freezing.  So you wait for the car to warm up and then you start inching your way home.  And then you might wake up the next morning and not feel so great because you stayed out WAY past an old person's bedtime and maybe you had a beer or two or three and now you slept too late but it was all worth it cause you have good memories and maybe had a few good laughs too.  Maybe they were at someone else's expense like a guy with a red hat who kept smiling the whole night no matter what except when he came in later with a black hat on and then he wasn't smiling anymore.  And you know the next night you'll be back to 9:00 in bed with a book.  So once in awhile it is worth it to make an effort and go out and see some live music or whatever, and thanks Charlie cause it sure was a real good time.

And thanks to Mikkel Beckmen too, keeper of the beat.

This video was made by Lisa Bond Photography...you are more than welcome to link back to it!

The last morning on my trip up north in October, I was at a location for sunrise that was near a bay in Lake Superior.  I was really struggling photographically with the contrast in the scene, despite having and using my split filters, and decided to back off and shoot some video.

There are two videos, one showing the beautiful sunrise and one shortly after the sun came up.  This is a sunrise that photographers dream of when they are on trips so I was very aware of how lucky I was.

The highlights of these videos are the bird songs that can be heard.  Towards the end of the first video (at about 1:02), you can hear but not see a bird flapping its wings so loudly that I think it might have been related to a pterodactyl.

As always, thanks for stopping by and I hope you will visit again soon.

How do you like to travel?  Do you pick a destination and then spend every spare minute researching what to do and where to go and what to eat?  Sometimes that is the best way to make sure nothing important is missed.  A lot of people have one opportunity to get to a location in their lifetime and no one wants to get home to find out they missed the Grand Canyon when they were in Arizona or Mount Rushmore when they drove through South Dakota.  The internet has made trip researching and planning easier than ever with the advent of such sites as TripAdvisor and Google.  Experiences by other travelers are openly shared on the internet helping to point the compass in the right direction.

I decided to approach my last trip more like a wandering nomad with only a general sense of driving west or east today, north or south tomorrow.   It went against every grain of Type A personality planning that I have carried around since birth. This was not easy...at all.  I find comfort and security in plans.  I know what I'm doing.  I don't have to worry about what might happen if...    I decided to do it because someone I admire a lot used to travel that way.  That person was Ernst Haas.  He talked about it in his film documentary "To Dream With Eyes Wide Open":

Could this really be true, I wondered?  Had I been behaving like a banker my whole life and worse yet, on my photography trips?  Taking out every ounce of creativity as I marched through my itineraries, checking off my to-do list one by one?

I decided to put my trust in Ernst Haas.  Just once.  I took comfort knowing that if it didn't work, I wouldn't do it again.  I knew where I was sleeping at night and that was it.  I let the car do the driving and if something piqued my curiosity I explored it, letting myself be available to any whim that arose.  From the very first photo of my trip, it lead me to off the beaten track places like this:

to the very last photo of my trip:

Was it successful?  I don't know, but I felt like this method of travel worked out very good for me and I will definitely try it again.  On repeated occasions I remember thinking how lucky I was and being grateful for every moment I had and working like crazy before the clock ran out of time.

I hope you enjoyed this blog and I thank you very much for coming by.  As you may have noticed I am test driving a new logo.  Comments are open so feel free to let me know your thoughts.  Thank you!

I made a trip up north last week to focus on the fall colors and my landscape work.  This is where my passion in photography truly resides and it is ironic how much time I spend doing everything but landscape photography.  When I get around to it, it feels like coming home.  Once I shake off the city armor that a lot of us urban types don, and it takes a good day or two, life becomes in sharper focus, the questions change and little concerns seem to melt away.  Everything feels right.

I have lots of work to process and share, but while I was there, I made a point to make some videos for this blog.  It occurred to me that while I can talk about how great a waterfall is, it is different to *HEAR* the waterfall too.  I can talk about the roar but you will understand so much better if you hear it yourself.   Can you feel the misty spray of water on your face and arms, so fine you can't see it but you feel it's presence?

[note: these are HD videos.  Depending on internet speed, it may be best to let them load before pressing play.]

Here is a video of the waves coming in and out of Lake Superior one morning.  Please enjoy a 43 second power vacation.

©2013 Lisa M. Bond Photography

The second floor of the Capitol is described as the "grand floor" by the Historical Society.  This is the level that houses the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives and the Senate Chambers.  All of these areas are richly appointed with dark woods, golden embellishments, detailed murals and solid hardwares of yesteryear.

I decided to explore the West Corridor first leading me to the Senate room. 

 This area is gated and locked.  Fortunately the bars are wide enough that I can get my camera lens through them enabling some images to be captured but only one view of the room can be made, for the most part.

Turning directly around from this gate provides a spectacular view.

If we were on the first floor, the corridors would be adorned with Governors' portraits.  On the second floor, the hallways feature quotes about proper governing principles leaving me wondering where those missing paintings are located.  These are very thought-provoking if one takes time to stop and consider them.  If you are in a rush, then photographing them is a great idea so you can read and consider them later when you return home.  I often do that when I am visiting somewhere and don't want to take the time to read something at that moment but I am interested in what it says.  Let's look at some of them now.

But what about those missing portraits?  A quick stop by the information desk answered my question and provided me with a single sheet of paper listing every portrait (wish I would have asked earlier), the year each governor held office, who painted it, and the year it was painted. Information people are always amazing!  They told me that there should not be any gaps in the portraits so let's see.  Well, after comparing their list to mine, I find that I am missing portraits of Winfield S. Hammond who only held office for one year in 1915 and Theodore Christianson who was in office from 1925-1931.  It is possible I have unearthed a mystery but it is more likely that I missed them somehow so will have to look on a return trip.

They also said that it is standard procedure to have a governor's portrait commissioned after the term is over.  So our current governor, Mark Dayton, will have his portrait done when he is out of office.  That explains why I couldn't find it.

Continuing on then through the building brings one to the Minnesota Supreme Court.  This room is opened for tours and otherwise the greeting is another locked gate.

The area immediately outside the entrance prominently displays the bust of an important Minnesota native in U.S. judicial history: Warren Burger.

Turning around provides another breath-taking view of this level.

And another corridor filled with quotes on jurisprudence for contemplation.

If you happened to notice that there is one more plaque in this hallway than the previous hallway, you are right.  It is because there is a quote directly outside the MN Supreme Court on the wall opposite where Warren Burger's statue is located.

The last area to explore on this floor is the House of Representatives.  For anyone from the public, the best way to view this room is from the gallery on the 3rd floor, as the 2nd floor perspective is through another locked gate.

Now that all the corridors have been visited, there are only 2 areas left to mention.  The first is what would be the South Corridor if there was one.  Instead on this floor it is a balcony which I imagine could host some wonderful events except that it is in need of repair.

And last but not least is the 2nd floor view into the Rotunda.  This space provides a different experience on each level of the Capitol and they are all fabulous!

Thank you for viewing this blog and for those of you who have been waiting, next week it is time to talk about the animals at the Minnesota State Fair.  I hope you are enjoying the last days of summer and first crisp days of fall.

If a person had to choose one thing to do at the fair, eating food or people watching, I'm not sure which I would pick.  Every year the fair gets about 50 new kinds of food. Many of them are on a stick.  This year the one new food I really wanted to try was something called Comet Corn.  It was described as a futuristic caramel corn flash frozen with nitrogen.  Since this sounds like something that you can't get at any other time of the year, I was willing to drop the money and calorie allotment on a serving of it.  I forgot to photograph it because it's hard to operate my camera while I am holding and eating food.  And when I am at the fair I do not sit down, at least rarely.  There is too much to do and see for any breaks.  I am always moving.  But I did photograph the nitrogen tank that freezes it while I was waiting for them to freeze mine because they do it one batch at a time.

The next food I had to try was a couple things I had read about from a place called Mancini's.  I had the same problem though.  I ate it before I photographed it.  It was becoming evident that I needed a new strategy.

Here is some food I did not eat but I did photograph.

Does beer count as food?  I think in Minnesota it does.  Barley, hops, barley malt, malted barley...

Those are all some kind of food product that originate out of the ground and if you stopped by the Ag-Hort Building (that's what we say up here in farm country, it is short for Agriculture-Horticulture also known as another food and beer building or get a beer and walk around and look at the giant pumpkin building)

or Adrian Peterson's Christmas tree

you could have had a sampling, literally, of four different types of locally brewed Minnesota beer.  There were 4 or 5 of those stations, each unique, so if you tried them all, then 4x5 = I hope the swinging hammer ride wasn't your next stop.

When it's all said and done though, I think most people would agree that the hands down #1 mandatory food stop is Sweet Martha's Cookies.  I don't get it and I used to be offended when my kids insisted we drop $15 on a bucket of chocolate chip cookies.  What about MY chocolate chip cookies?  I don't care that they are hot and gooey, that they just came out of the oven.  Mine are like that too when they are hot off the press.  Maybe it's a quantity thing.  They say you get 3-4 dozen in a bucket.  When I make cookies, I put half of the dough in the fridge for another day.  So I suppose if I made all the cookies and put them on the table in a bucket and imposed no limitations, then maybe, just maybe, they might like mine as much as her's.

I finally caved in though and had one.   Then I had another.  Then I had another.  And then it happened.  As they say...if you give a mouse a cookie.  3 cookies was my personal limit before needing a drink of some sort.  Some people are really smart and they get a bucket and head straight to the all-you-can-drink milk stand.  Note: the fair did not put the cookie stand anywhere near the milk stand.  It is several fair blocks away.  But the wise get their bucket and bee-line it to the milk stand.

Now that it's a couple of weeks after the fair, I imagine that Sweet Martha has boarded her multi-million dollar yacht funded with cookie money and is sailing off in the sunset to her own private island or vineyard.  She is one smart lady.  Who would've thought a simple chocolate chip cookie could build an empire?  I bet the deep-fried pickle people are thinking the same thing right now.  Or maybe the fried alligator people.  Which raises an interesting question.  Why do the alligator people always run out of gator?  They are giant animals.   I'm just glad they sell frozen grapes there so I can look like I'm getting some gator.  It's one of the healthiest treats a person can get at the fair and look cool doing it.

That is a wrap for my food report from the fair.  I hope you will come back for the animal report and next week to see what the second floor of the State Capitol looks like!  Thanks for stopping by!

Minnesota is in the thick of its biggest party of the year, the Minnesota State Fair.  It is one of the best places besides the Mall of America to do some serious people-watching.  Imagine all the people, usually over 100K and sometimes 200,000 a day.  Now imagine all the places they are and the things they are doing and all the picture potential.  The possibilities are immeasurable.  Here is an infinitesimal percentage of them.

A tilt-shift lens is essential to getting lines and perspectives straight in architectural photography.  Its main feature is the ability to shift up or down without changing the plane of the camera to the subject.  If a photographer tilts their camera back to include more of the sky or building the image will end up with converging verticals, sometimes referred to as keystoning.

Here are some images that demonstrate the lens' capabilities for shifting up or down.  Additionally, since this lens is a TS-E II, the lens can be rotated in the mount to allow for left/right shift without rotating the entire camera body.   In most of these, the subject is much higher or lower than my camera and a normal lens would not be able to produce this type of shot.

Some photographers resort to using perspective correction software with a regular lens which is an option and I have used it in the past.  However, it is always advantageous to get the image correctly in the field whenever possible to minimize post production work and any unforeseen issues that may arise after you've left the location.

I am using a Canon 24mm TS-E II.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are enjoying the warmth of summer!

Our local gourmet farmer's market opened May 11 this year and it has been on my mind ever since.  I found a window to make a quick trip there this Saturday but since it was still snowing here in early May our growing season is definitely a little more behind than usual.  So there really wasn't a whole lot of fresh produce to pick from, but there were plenty of stands featuring sheep's milk cheeses, chevres, specialty jams, smoked trout and salmon, crusty breads, and organic coffees and chocolates.  Here is a little slideshow of what I found.  I think my favorite find from this trip was the ramps.  I've heard they are great in omelets or caramelized, and I think I have enough to try both.

I will plan to head back in a couple weeks to see if I can find any spring type vegetables such as peas or radishes!