Downtown St. Paul I94/35E

I know, I know, another photo from my balcony. This was taken last summer when I was just starting to play around with shutter speeds. I really like the look of the clouds and the lights. Also, I must have caught a plane in the upper right hand corner as it comes into Holman Field here in St. Paul.

Lily pad

Last 4th of July, my gal and I spent the weekend at a friends cabin in northern Minnesota. I was taking pictures of their dog jumping off the dock when I looked down and saw this lily pad. I liked how the water droplets were just sitting on the pad. After a few adjustments in Photoshop, this is what is left.

Body - Canon 50D
Lens - 28-135mm 3.5-5.6
Aperture - f/5.6
Exposure - 1/1600 secs
ISO - 3200
Focal length - 112mm

Minnetonka

 

This photo keeps randomly popping up on my screen saver and I like looking at it. It was taken in a park in Minnetonka that I would drive by while delivering out there. I am not sure of the parks name but it is located on Victoria St just south of Day Place. 

Body - Canon 50D

Lens - 28-135mm 3.5-5.6

Aperture - f/5.6

Exposure - 1/200 secs

ISO - 100

Focal length - 28mm

Basilica of St. Mary

I was asked to take photos of a party in downtown Minneapolis. The party was on top of the Eitel Building on Willow Street. The view from the roof had amazing views of Loring Park and the Basilica of St. Mary. As the sun went down this photo presented itself.

Body - Canon 50D
Lens - 28-135mm 3.5-5.6
Aperture - f/5.6
Exposure - 1/50 secs
ISO - 3200
Focal length - 85mm

Buddies

A friend from work asked a bunch of us up to his cabin on Big Kandiyohi Lake in Minnesota for a relaxing weekend. After a full day of boating, skiing and drinking beer, a storm moved into the area. A couple of buddies, Kevin and Theron, wanted to watch the incoming storm from the end of the dock. I shot this photo as they took in the show.

Body - Canon EOS 50D
Lens - Canon 28-135mm 3.5-5.6
f-stop - f/5.6
exposure - 1/30 seconds
ISO - 1600
focal length - 122mm

Memorial Day

This is the headstone of my Uncle Fred at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. This is one of two stops I make every Memorial Day. The other is to Cavalry Cemetery in St. Paul to say thanks to Josias King, the first man to enlist for the Union in defense of our country in the Civil War.
Please take some time on this day to remember the brave men and women who have given up everything so the rest of us can have our freedom.

Howe Elementary School

As I was delivering in South Minneapolis, I noticed this school. It is the Howe Elementary School on 37th St and 43rd Ave. It looked so empty and deserted. The first thing I noticed was this sign and the bushes that almost completely covered it.
f/4 - 1/125 sec - ISO 100 - 41mm

I liked this photo because of the shoe left in front of the door. I thought that it really captured the whole theme of desertion.
f/4.5 - 1/200 sec - ISO 100 - 60mm

As I was driving by, I could almost hear the children laughing, screaming and running around. I imagined a bell signalling the end of recess or the school day. The school may not be talking now but it's past will speak forever.
f/3.5 - 1/320/ sec - ISO 100 - 28mm

All photos taken with Canon EOS 50D body and EF 38-135mm 3.5-5.6 lens

Split Rock Lighthouse II

I had not planned on posting another photo of the lighthouse until I saw something in this one. As I was messing around with it in Photoshop, I noticed their are two windows that are reflecting the scenery. The one on the bottom of the lighthouse is reflecting the sky and the one on the top is reflecting the lake and the shore. It is probably all nothing really, I just thought it was neat.

Body - Canon EOS 50D
Lens - EF 28-135 1:3.5-5.6
Settings - f/9 1/400 sec ISO 320 30mm
Software - Photoshop 6.0

Music in Mears

Again, I am not sure I really like manipulating photos after the fact but here is another attempt. This was a photo taken last summer at a Downtown St. Paul event called, Music in Mears. This is a friend of mine, Martin Devaney, and his long time band mate, Jake Hyer. You can catch these two playing at almost all of the many clubs around the Twin Cities. 

Split Rock Lighthouse

I normally don't mess around with the photo after it has been taken. Meaning, I don't use software to make it look better. I don't know if that makes me a purist, stubborn or maybe even ignorant. Quite possibly, it is all three. Either way, I did take this cliche photo of Split Rock Lighthouse last year on a trip with my gal and decided to start screwing around with the color saturation and contrast and all of that crap. This is the result of my experiment. I am not sure what I think. I may continue to toy around with some photos but will still try to keep things "real" with the old SOC (Straight Out of the Camera.) The photo was taken with an EF 28-135 mm lens set at f/9, exposure - 1/250, ISO - 250 and focal length - 135 mm