Minnesota Views: St. Paul (and Crop Art: Revealed!)

Here's an image I took walking along the riverfront in Saint Paul. The water was particularly calm that day, so this mirror shot was a no-brainer.

Now, my last Crop Art entry gathered some response. In particular, I learned that it is a bit too mysterious, and therefore it leaves the viewer unsatisfied. So, below you'll find the original image. Warning, there is full frontal nudity portrayed here...

Crop Art: Study #3

The clever viewer will recognize this perennial favorite from the Minnesota Zoo. This photo from my "crop art" series is a bit of a photographic joke. It's a tongue-in-cheek rendering of a "reclining nude".

Minnesota Views: Bruentrup Heritage Farm

Here's a photo I took almost two years ago, using an old Kodak Brownie No. 2 box camera. The Bruentrup Heritage Farm is located in Maplewood, MN. It's a nice preservation of an original farm, and offers photographers a chance to have some fun!

Crop Art: Study #2

Another example from my series of "crop art" photos, where I severely cropped the original image. You might recognize this fish from the Minnesota Zoo exhibit.

Travelogue: Hawaii #2

Here's another memorable image from our trip to Hawaii. We drove up the Haleakala volcano on Maui to experience sunrise from the mountain top. We saw these cinder cones on the drive down.

Travelogue: Norway #2

What's not to love about Norway? Even if we wouldn't have had an opportunity to connect with Jan's relatives, we would have found much to fall in love with over there. Making the personal connection to Jan's past and present Norwegian family made the trip all the more special. Of particular meaning was a day spent at Verrafjorden, at the old farmstead of some of Jan's ancestors. The land remains in the family to this day. It's tucked away along a narrow fjord outside of Trondheim. The day we spent there was cool, gray, and rainy. From a photographer's point of view, it could have been a bust. I learned not to give up so easily, and some of my most striking photos were taken on that day. Here is one of my favorites, rendered in black and white. The low clouds cut off the tops of the hills on the other side of the fjord, but the image came out wonderfully all the same.

Minnesota Views: Historic Forestville

Jan and I enjoyed a weekend camping in Forestville State Park a few summers ago, including a nice afternoon walk around historic Forestville. If you haven't been there, it's worth the trip. It's a nice step back in time.

Travelogue: Hawaii #1

When Jan and I vacationed in Hawaii in 2011, we had no idea what amazing sights awaited us. One of our most memorable experiences was hiking the Waimea Canyon on Kauai. Every time we thought we'd seen the most beautiful view possible, we'd go around a curve in the trail and we'd get an even more spectacular view. This image is one of those in the middle of the hike. That means, you realize, it got even better from here...

Crop Art: Study #1

This is the first in a series I'm calling "Crop Art", which is a play on words. It has nothing to do with works of art made from seeds, as all MN State Fair-goers will surely be familiar with. Rather, these photographs were severely cropped from the way the image originally appeared in the camera. I find this to be a good "rescue" technique. Sometimes if an image I shoot has poor composition or simply isn't that interesting the way I grabbed it, I can rescue the image by cropping way down and taking just a portion of the image.

You may have to stare at this one for a moment or two. It appears to be an abstract, and then your eye will catch something that changes your perspective of what is shown. Enjoy!

Minnesota Views: Keller Lake

This picture is from a couple years ago. Ice had formed on Keller Lake, and a group of geese were huddled together. I was experimenting with a lens adapter, allowing me to use some of my old lenses from my Olympus OM1-n with my new Olympus digital SLR. The images were a little grainier than you might normally want, but I like the effect. This is an excerpt showing just one of the geese, reflected in the ice. I like the abstract nature of the image. We get so accustomed to cameras presenting us with blunt realism. I like using a camera to produce something more like a painting.

Travelogue: Norway #1

I'm resurrecting this blog after a long absence. I've decided to feature photos of my travels.

This is one of many favorite photos from our recent trip to Norway. This is on the Sognefjord, at Balestrand. Jan and I stayed at a little family-run hotel here. There is much more to this fjord than we were able to see on our short stay there. This is on the list of places to go back to someday.

I'll have more Norway pictures later. I'm going to mix things up a bit with photos from all over.