Campventure 2/Bonus Badass-ery

More photos from our brief campventure this weekend. As we were taking our brief hike-let, a large group of canoes and kayaks floated down the river. As they paddled by, I not-so-inconspicuously grabbed a few pictures of the folks on the river, prompting the rest of our hiking party to decide that I was, in fact, a little creepy.




Speaking of which, here is @punsultant threatening me for not enjoying one of his many hilarious and terrible puns. He may have forgotten to bring a proper tent, but don't think that he won't cut a bitch. In this case, me.

Campventure/Bonus #campfail

Went camping this weekend up at St. Croix State Park with @julielyda, @emilysaysso, and @punsultant, and had a pretty good time. The weather didn't cooperate, and we only went on one little hike-let, so I didn't get too many pictures. I did learn a few things, however. Camping beer = good, walk-in sites = good, good scotch = good, torrential railfall = sad, no tent in torrential rainfall = sad for some, comedy for others.



Hence, we have @punsultant, a strong proponent of the name of this prestigious blog, looking downtrodden and a little bit soggy after trying to weather the storm in a bottemless, apparently non-rainproof picnic shelter that was mistaken for a tent.

Cars at the Art Fest, plus bonus Henly-Noir

Since Twin Cities Photoblog has been running a few classic cars the last few days, I thought I'd post one from the Arts Fest yet again. I didn't spend much time taking pictures of the cars, mostly because the older gentlemen who owned them looks fairly surly. In these situations , I usually walk by, looking nonchalant, before a lightning-fast crouch down to snap some shots as fast as my camera can. Stand up, walk away, pretend like nothing happened. Probably the owners don't care, but I'm tired of starting fights with septuangenarians. Tired of losing those fights, that is.



Bonus shot! All that's missing here is some blood splatter and a cigarette and we'd have a pretty rocking graphic novel about a gritty detective with a love for math. Did you ever see Mathnet? Basically, this is exactly the premise for Mathnet.

More Arts Fest

More art fest goodness, with this shot that I snagged off a pottery stand. It was a bit of an awkward experience, because as I was closely examining these pots and snapping pictures the proprietor was trying to hock pottery to me. Sure, I smiled and nodded, but seriously? I am clearly not in the market for pots. I'm disheveled and unshaven, and I clearly can't afford the exorbitant price you're charging for what, in essence, is a place to put other things. When I need to store something, I use modern technology and throw my crap in a cardboard box.

Stone Arch Arts Fest

Spent Saturday walking around the Farmer's Market in downtown, as well as the Stone Arch Arts Festival. Expect a lot of pictures from there in the coming days. Here's the stunning @julielyda doing what she loves to do best: walking in front of me, pretending that she doesn't know who I am : )

Just outside of Anchorage

This was taken last September outside of Anchorage. Alaska was a great time, and I can't wait to get back there. While we were here, two bald eagles flew in close, landing just over 100 feet away

People post: Franke

He's even more jolly than he looks! Franke and @levon03 are among the more photogenic of my friends, making them the subject of a large number of my people shots, and filling them both with a growing sense of unease over what I actually do with said pictures...

Construction Graffiti

Now I'm no graffiti virtuoso like this gentleman here but I did manage to grab this shot here a few days ago. I love the shape and coloring that you see in graffiti, especially the really well done stuff, but tagging is something I don't understand. I just assume they are left by the lone remaining soldiers from the great hobo wars wandering around, communicating with each other in code, undecipherable to those who have never ridden the rails

Fort Snelling

Took this shot while on an evening cross country ski adventure in Fort Snelling. I hate to take my poor camera out into the cold, but it was certainly worth it. Whenever I bring the camera back in from the cold, I usually have it closed in its bag, hoping that the extra temperatue protection will slow down any condensation that happens. However, I usually don't have the patience to let my camera warm to room temperature, so I give up after a few minutes and my camera is fine to this very day. Moral of the story: NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS

Boom Island

If you judge the success of a pub crawl by how terrible you feel the next morning, then our attempt to visit the bars in my new Northeast neighborhood was a smashing success. Here's a shot I took at Boom Island to ease the hangover.

Alaska, and a stone-cold canoeing badass

This was shot last September when me, my friend, and his poet-mechanic father went up to Alaska. It's the Minto Flats, a huge flat plain stretching out as far as you can see. It's an enormous area filled with lakes and wetlands, and it looked amazing in the fall. We stopped halfway on our drive to Fairbanks and I took nearly 100 shots at sunset.



Secondly, there was some concern that my post yesterday may have made it sound like my paramour isn't a grizzled wilderness veteran. That is hardly the case, as she has effortlessly out-camped several of my other camping partners. Here is further evidence of this, as she scrubs a pan clean with dirt

More BWCA longing

In about a month, @julielyda and I will be heading off into the great North woods, paddling Ol' Blue up the Lake 1-4 chain. This was taken on our return trip last year as we paddled out of Fall Lake, snagging another great site with a big sandy beach. Our trip this year will be on small, calmer waters, compared to last year on Fall lake and Basswood Lake, two very large and windy lakes. It's not the relaxing Boundary Waters experience when you have to fight wind on a huge lake, while the person in the front of your canoe weeps softly, constantly in fear of capsizing (and slow demise at the hands of TERRIBLE LAKE SHARKS

On Lake One this year we're hoping to find a more relaxed experience. I am, of course, a salty sea dog who fears no wind nor wave, but @julielyda does not enjoy more dangerous waters, probably even less than she enjoys my singing of the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as waves are rolling over the canoe

Bonus people post: @emilysaysso

I call it "Portrait of a woman staring at a lucrative job offer" Good luck!

Northeast: Elsie's

I took this yesterday on my way down to Boom Island Park. Just a few months ago @julielyda and I were planning on having our wedding reception here, because the reception hall was pretty nice and it was cheap. Jax cafe is the planned site now, which is great because it's a beautiful restaurant and now I don't get funny looks like I did when I was telling people I was having part of a wedding at a bowling alley.

You know the gag on Arrested Development when George Michael points Ann out to people, but he always has to qualify it by adding '...she's really funny"? That's what having a reception at Elsie's is kinda like.

Skyline

Finally had a chance to go walking around Northeast and take some pictures. I took this 3 exposure HDR around sunset, when the Mississippi Queen was docked.

An homage to @punsultant: What is a pirate's favorite photographic technique? HD-Arrrrrr!