Of all the photo inventions from the last several years, my favorite has to be Photo Booth. It is an app that can be found pre-installed on most Apple products. I'm not sure if other devices use it or not, but if so, I highly recommend trying it. My favorites are thermal camera and kaleidoscope. Great images can be made from the most mundane of objects. If you have an iPad or iPhone, give it a try the next time you are waiting in a doctor's office or in the car (not driving though) or just looking to boost your creativity levels.
I hope you enjoyed this post and as always thanks for stopping by! I attend a photo group on a monthly basis and a recent assignment was handed out as a prelude to a more difficult assignment that is coming up. The future work is to take a self-portrait without showing ourselves. The current work is to photograph something we love without showing it, in honor of the forthcoming St. Valentine's Day. Here is one thing I love. Can you tell what it is? I'm not sure if I was successful (i.e., ambiguous enough) in not showing it but I guess I'll find out when I attend class in February. I have a feeling people will follow similar execution, i.e. showing elements or abstractions of the things they love.
Hope you are keeping warm and enjoying the quiet days of January. Thanks for visiting! It's a new year, and a new holiday season, so you can be sure there is new photography gear to go along with it. Here are a few of my favorite picks from the ever wonderful people at the Photojojo website. Rescuing photos everywhere, the pocket flash, only $30. Works with iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Android phones. The iPad telephoto lens. At $25, it's considerably less than some glass from the big guys. The iPhone Boom Mic. 40 dollars. Now I just need an iPhone! Bokeh kit for $25. It's already in my shopping cart. The Phone-o-chrome: a $15 color filter for your phone. Love this one too. A Wifi card for your camera. You'll want the $95 Pro version to send RAW files to your computer. Photojojo is offering free shipping until Dec. 18 on orders over $50. No coupon this year, but if one pops up I will post it here.
Thanks for stopping by! 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": I was always accused of not knowing where I am going and what I'm doing. This is really true because there is an element of surprise which for me is very, very important. 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! 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.
This post originally published Feb. 9, 2013
When I went up to the BWCAW (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness) last week, the purpose of my trip was to attend a Plein Air Artist Retreat organized by The Art Colony in Grand Marais, Minnesota. This was my first time attending an event where the majority of the participants were painters. I have always admired painters and the work they create and when I visit a museum, I tend to gravitate to the old oil paintings. They are so captivating with their shiny, glossy texture that make the painting come to life. The fact that many of them have survived the test of time and are still beautiful after hundreds of years is amazing to me. I learned a lot from watching this Plein Air group of artists. Unlike capturing a photographic image, which can occur in a hundredth or even a thousandth of a second, it can take a painter several hours to recreate a scene. Certainly there are those who can do it faster and some take longer. It almost made me feel careless about my work, moving about so quickly here and there, one composition after another. Like I wasn’t studying hard enough. Painters, on the other hand, set up their tripod (easel) in one spot and there it stays until the piece of work is completed. Painters must spend a lot of time engaging in an in-depth study of color. If they are trying to replicate what they see with their eyes, they will mix their paints, adding and taking away, until they find the right match for each element in a scene. I think they must develop an intimate relationship with color, fully understanding highlights and shadows, tints and shades, intensities, chroma and saturation. Photographers concern themselves with these things too but not to the extent that painters do, at least in my personal experience. I’m sure there is a photographer or two out there who would argue that they work just like a painter does. I’m just not one of them. Something else I learned is that many of them prefer static light. It is challenging to paint a scene where light is rapidly changing, such as a sunrise or sunset time of day. Where do you stop the color shift and start the painting? It reminds me of how a mood ring changes color. As a photographer, I can attest to this color blending effect as the sun rises in particular. I will take many exposures as the light changes in the sky, especially if there are clouds. Cloud color can go from dark blue to gray to orange to pink and white in a couple of minutes. If you want to show this progression in your images you will be making a lot of captures very quickly. When the sun sets, this happens in a slower and reverse fashion. Clouds will go from white to pink and maybe orange, perhaps purple to a gray/dark blue mix. A painter must also consider the color of the sky ranging from dark to medium to light blue to pink on the horizon line. The degree of lightness and darkness in those colors alters very quickly over 15 to 30 minutes as well. This week, instead of showing my photographic work, I’d like to post website links for the painters who have them and for the rest, I will put a link to the work they made during the retreat that is currently showing in an exhibition at The Art Colony. There are some artists I did not meet because I left before the event was over, so I am only putting up links to the ones I met. I hope you enjoy the work of these very talented professionals. They are listed in alphabetical order. Scott Lloyd Anderson http://www.scottlloydanderson.com/ Lee Englund http://leeenglund.com/ Ken Marunowski http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=231462 Neil Sherman http://www.neilshermanart.com/ Kristin Blomberg, Ron Dietman, John Franz and Carol Holmblad do not have websites that I can find, but you can see Kristin’s, Ron’s and John’s pieces from the event on the Art Colony’s Facebook page. It also includes work from all the artists who attended the retreat and gave pieces to the Art Colony to exhibit. Here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151404843684264.494997.11726089263&&l=3985555793 Thank you for visiting! Originally published Feb. 2, 2013 I finally made it into the BWCAW (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness). Living in Minnesota, I really have zero excuses for not having previously been there, but somehow I managed to rack up over 40 years of them. The BWCAW is a pristine 1 million+ acres of wilderness covering the northern most part of Minnesota and runs 150 miles along the border with Canada. It’s a big deal to go there. You need to get permits which are given out on a limited basis to control human impact on the area. Access is either by foot or with a canoe at designated entry points. There are no motorized vehicles allowed. No motor boats, no cars, no snowmobiles. There is no cell phone service. There is no internet or electricity or toilets. There are no power lines running through your photos. There are no man-made structures, except for maybe a handful that were grandfathered in when the BWCAW was first designated in 1964. In other words, you cannot book a hotel or lodge or cabin in the BWCA. If you go in overnight, you will be setting up camp. There is one road that runs between two BWCA areas. It is called The Gunflint Trail. Look at the green strip that goes in between the two purple areas in the upper right corner of the state. I’m pretty sure that is where the trail is located. Along here there are lots of lodges, cabins, homes, and electricity lines. I was staying along the Gunflint Trail but I was able to walk into the BWCA, where I proudly filled out my first and second Self-Issued Entry Permits. I have a lot to say about that trip, but the most ironic thing happened on the way home. In my last post I talked about a little ice storm from Lake Superior waters and showed some images of boardwalk structures coated in ice. Well, wouldn’t you know I had a car problem and my royal chariot ended up in a repair shop in Duluth. Here’s where the irony comes in. The hotel I ended up staying at was the very same spot where I had taken those images two years earlier. I didn’t know it until the next morning because I checked in at night and it was dark. Sure I knew I was in the general area, but since my reservation was made over the phone, I didn’t exactly know where I was going until I got there. Same hotel, same bench, same light post that I had photographed before. I’ve always wanted to spend some time in Duluth. I wasn’t quite prepared to do it this week but then car breakdowns have a way of altering schedules and life like that. When I woke up the next morning, I could see that there were ice chunks floating in the water. Water freezes at the edge of the lake but as the waves pick up force from time to time, the back-and-forth motion breaks up the newly formed ice from below the surface and that is why you see these various shapes of ice floating around. Sometimes they start stacking up on top of each other and then if a person can get the sunlight coming through those stacks they might be in nirvana because they just got some very beautiful photographic images. I was about to do that, having seen two small stacks of those ice configurations, but decided to do a couple other things first. When I came back a few hours later, I was shocked to look out my hotel window and see that ALL the ice had melted or somehow disappeared. Look at the difference in these photos. Then the call came that my car was done. It had been two days and I was ready to go home. The weather was changing though. The temperature was dropping and ice was starting to form again at the edge. I would have to wait for another time.
Originally published Dec. 15, 2012 With the hope of not being redundant, I am going to add a few more items to my blog of Dec. 11 entitled “Gifts for the Photographer in Your Life” for 2 reasons. First is the WordPress Reader did not pick it up (I was in the penalty box for overtagging my previous post) and second is because the cheap shipping option is still available until tomorrow 12/16. If you missed the previous post, here is a link: Photojojo is an online website dealing in funky camera gadgets and accessories for your iPhone or SLR. My last post showed some of the iPhone add-ons, so this time I’ll show a couple SLR items. Also, scroll down to the end for a $5 off coupon (of $25 minimum order) and they also send me a $5 coupon for referring you on. How about a Holga lens for $30? Works on most SLRs and DSLRs. I like this idea for traveling. You insert this camera bag into another bag, like a beach bag, so it’s not so obvious you are carrying photo gear, as in if you are lugging your Lowepro bag around. $59 This item is intriguing. A camera card with Wi-Fi capabilities! $50-85 depending on capacity. Here is the coupon code. Just click on it for an express trip to Photojojo. Happy holidays!
http://photojojo.com/r/477G Originally posted Dec. 11, 2012 Photojojo is one of the coolest websites on the internet showcasing creative photography ideas through the use of toys and gadgets for cameras. http://www.photojojo.com If you are looking for something great for the photographer in your life (and I’m sure they are hard to impress when it comes to photo gear) or if you are the photographer, buy something for yourself or drop a hint to the right person. Their prices are so reasonable you can probably pick up a couple of pieces for your bag. Just check out some of these cool items: Click to set custom HTML
How about a cable release for your iPhone? Only $23. Here’s a fun one. The camalapse. It takes 360 degree panning time-lapse images with your phone. $45 (I’m not sure what happens if you get a call or text during the exposure. Better not answer it.) What do Nikon shooters do with their old Canon lenses? They make coffee mugs out of them. (Just kidding. They make Nikon mugs too.) $24 or $30. This is super cool. An underwater scuba skin for your phone. $60. I know people who should have this on their phone at all times, for those poolside or lakeside cocktail parties where phones suddenly end up taking the plunge. There is much, much more on their website. Not everything is for the iPhone, there are lots of add-ons for SLRs.
Orders placed by 12/16 still qualify for first class shipping and the shipping prices are very reasonable. Oh and if you want…use this link to get $5 off your order with a $25 purchase and I also get a $5 coupon. Pretty neat! http://photojojo.com/r/477G Originally published Dec. 9, 2012
I really love weekends in December. For me, and I think a lot of other people too, they are filled with shopping, decorating and holiday baking. I’m not sure if guys feel the same way. Now that I think about it, probably not so much. Not to be stereotypical…I’m sure there are some guys who do all of that and more. Speaking to the ones who do not, perhaps they at least get to enjoy the fruits of those labors, sneaking a caramel or cookie here and there and generally feeling the warmth emanating from the glow of holiday candles or lights, cards coming in the mail, the anticipation of opening presents, and the joy of giving a special gift. Here are a few images I’ve made over the years. I hope you too are enjoying this time of year whether you are actively or passively participating in it! |
AuthorI am a photographer who lives in Minnesota. I blog about Minnesota, photography, music, food and miscellaneous topics. Archives
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