Twincy Photoblog

25/365: eFolio

2012-01-25T20:26:00.000-08:00

This is my professional portfolio, which I need to submit to get my teaching license. It contains about 101 different standards that I need to prove I am capable of teaching, using a combination of coursework, lesson plans, and anything else I can dream up even vaguely related to biology. I've been working on it for a solid month, and it's due on Feb 1st. It's incredibly frustrating; there's a tremendous deal of copying and pasting, enough so that completing the form for a single class that I've taken can take an hour and a half. In addition, the crappy eFolio system is buggy, and I lost a few DAYS worth of work, which I was unable to recover.

Luckily, I'm nearly done. At this point, I only have 4 out of 101 standards left, and I should be able to get that done tomorrow. Just in time for vacation!

24/365: iPad 2!

2012-01-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

Here's the iPad, with the case Julie bought for it. Every sentence Julie said today contained the phrase "my iPad". She may be trying to make me jealous.

24/365: iPad!

2012-01-25T20:21:00.000-08:00

Julie's company got everyone free iPads to celebrate their sale, and it arrived today! Considering she only found out she was getting it on Friday, that's pretty quick. She was so excited she tried to tear into it with her bare hands, because she couldn't wait for me to get scissors.

22/365: Pocketwatch

2012-01-25T20:20:00.001-08:00

What did I get for a groomsmen gift? A POCKET WATCH, BOYS AND GIRLS. Whenever I use it, I'll always know that the train is late.

21/365: Wedding bowtie

2012-01-25T20:18:00.000-08:00

Art before the wedding, about to drink some 21 year old scotch. Delicious.

20/365: Rehersing

2012-01-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

We rehearsed in Plymouth before #allenthefamily. Not included in the rehearsal: Shouting "So say we all!" when asked a question by the priest.

19/365: Captured

2012-01-25T20:13:00.000-08:00

We captured Art Allen for his bachelor party, and held him in a hilariously well-constructed interrogation chamber for nigh on 3 hours, in the freezing cold. We were pretty much the most inept interrogators in history, and Art outfoxed us on several occasions. A good time was had by all.

18/365: Climbing!!!

2012-01-18T19:02:00.000-08:00

I got to visit the Minnesota Climbing Coop with my cousin Shawn today, and it was AWESOME. Julie and I climbed a lot in college, and it's fallen by the wayside since then. Super happy to get out and try it again.

17/365: Phoning it in

2012-01-18T19:01:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when you realize right before falling asleep that you're in need of a picture for the day. Odds are, I'll cut it closer than this before year's end.

16/365: Laundry

2012-01-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

One benefit of staying at home a lot with no work is that I can keep our house immaculately clean. This is a mere fraction of the laundry that I did this day.

15/365 The Sad Chair

2012-01-18T18:59:00.001-08:00

This is the sad chair that holds up our sad crappy antenna, so we can watch the Packers get their asses kicked by the Giants. Sad.

14/365 Sadie

2012-01-18T18:57:00.000-08:00

Since I sit at home a lot, waiting to get called in to work, Sadie is the living creature I spend most of my time with. Which is not a bad thing, since she is wonderful.

13/365 Old Fashioned

2012-01-18T18:55:00.001-08:00

We bought a jug of Jim Beam, and ever since life has been wonderful and full of Old Fashioneds. I'm about to drink one now, in fact.

12/365 bowling beer

2012-01-18T18:52:00.001-08:00

This is another picture in my life's masterpiece: "Get drunk and take pictures of beer with a camera phone"

11/365

2012-01-11T18:13:00.001-08:00

A freshly baked loaf of bread! I tried out baking the bread inside a metal pot, which was recommended by a friend, and it was AWESOME. Nice crispy crust, with a soft, tender inside. I slathered on some peanut butter and jelly and ate some while it was hot. OM. NOM.

10/365

2012-01-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

Balloons tied up outside a store, spotted on a walk outside when I was taking advantage of the nice warm January day.

9/365

2012-01-11T18:08:00.000-08:00

This is a fancy looking arraignment Julie made for Christmas, out of a vase we found at Savers. It looked so nice, we decided to keep them up after Christmas.

8/365 Camera

2012-01-08T17:26:00.000-08:00

This is my new camera for this project. As always, I have my trusty 50D, but now I have this as a more pocket-able alternative. The first one I bought had a bad sensor (I got it used) and now this one has a dial that doesn't work quite right. Kind of a bummer.

7/365 Wife

2012-01-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Julie just bought a dress for an upcoming wedding and was trying it on when I remembered I needed a shot for the day. She was, as you can see, reluctant.

6/365 Wine

2012-01-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Friday night was spent drinking wine and watching Contagion, which was a pretty decent movie. The wine was pretty good, too.

5/365

2012-01-06T18:38:00.001-08:00

This was shot at my disasterous return to out bowling league. I'm holding strong onto my coveted "Most Unimproved Average" title.

4/365: Frantic

2012-01-04T17:27:00.001-08:00

Today I worked for once! It was great to have something to do. Unfortunately, the only plans I received was this right here. Nothing like a day of winging it to keep you on your toes.

3: Movement

2012-01-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

So, for the last 3 weeks and 2 days I've been subbing. Or rather, I'm SUPPOSED to be subbing. With the Christmas holiday, I've only worked 3 days in the last 3 weeks, which is nice for a few days, but at this point I'm going a little crazy. Today I cleaned out the house and moved around the furniture in the living room. It's nice having things clean, but I'm pretty much at the end of my rope as far as things to do at home.

2: Edits

2012-01-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

I shot Amanda and Pedro's wedding on the 31st, and it was a blast. I've got loads of images to tear through, so editing them all will take up a big chunk of my time. I'm using my brand new tablet to do edits in Photoshop, and I love it. It makes working on photos a breeze. Of course, I have a can tasty beer to help me on my way. I'm working on the theory that optimal editing occurs at around 3 drinks; anything past that and I start to get a bit sloppy.

As a bonus, here's the completed version of the photo I was working on.

1/365: Lucky

2012-01-01T15:20:00.001-08:00

This is what happened at the Knight Cap last night. I was playing Andy in darts, and the only space that wasn't cleared was the bullseye. Andy only needed 1 more bullseye to win. He threw 3 IN A ROW. It was the most incredible sports feat that I have personally witnessed.

Ground rules for Twincy 365 in T-minus 4 days

2011-12-27T19:19:00.001-08:00

First: A photo needs to be taken every day. Duh.
Second: Each photo doesn't have to be posted the day it was taken. I'll have plenty of days without internet access, so that's just not possible.
Third: Once a week I need to shoot a photo with off-camera lighting. This will keep me from only shooting crappy camera phone pictures and posting them.

I'm bringing it back! Again...

2011-12-21T13:50:00.001-08:00

So I've been looking at a few Photo-a-day/365 projects the past few days, and with the new year right around the corner, this is as good a time as any to start it up again. I'm done with school, so conceivably I should have a little more time, and I've never been able to keep up any long project like this, so here we go! Stay tuned...

Julie at the sculpture garden

2010-11-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

From earlier this year, when @julielyda and I visited the Sculpture Garden with Sadie the Dog. A prominent new piece of work in my series "Photos of the back of Julie's head."

I'm back, baby!

2010-10-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

Nearly a year after Ol' Twincy had its last post, I've decided it's time to dust off the cobwebs, slap on a fresh coat of internet paint, and bring this old girl back to life. Following the marathon last year, I was married a month later, went on a honeymoon, took the GRE, applied to grad school, and have now actually started said grad school. All of this didn't leave me with much of what is conventionally called "free time". As such, my beloved photoblog fell to the wayside, and before long I had forgotten all about it.

So, why start now? Well, to be honest I miss taking pictures. Without the constant drive to make content for my blog, I find myself forgetting to go out and take pictures. Sad to say, I squandered an entire Minnesota summer, the one time of year when walking around taking pictures is pleasant, without taking very many pictures. So, I am striving to break that trend by committing myself to providing high-quality photographic goodness. With another cruel Minnesota winter looming, perhaps this project will keep me sane.

Here we have a game of beanbags played up north this summer, while at a friend's cabin. Emily and Becca vs Art and I. I don't recall who won, though this toss looks pretty good.

Can YOU run 26.2 miles?

2009-10-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

Because Zach can!

Being pretty occupied with running, he was unable to take his own pictures of the TC marathon on Sunday, so I, his soon-to-be-wife, have gladly stepped in for a little blog take-over. I'm also the resident marathon expert in our home, even though I've never ran more than 16 miles without crying. I come from a family full of marathoners, and can't even count how many I've cheered at. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are of running events, or of riding my bike alongside my dad when he went on his weekend training runs. I love the marathon more than any spectator should. This year was the first in a long time that a bunch of my relatives decided to run. Originally, I was going to join them (and Zach was roped in), but I had to bail out on training so he had to go it alone with all his new in-laws. Altogether, it was Zach, my dad, five of my uncles, one cousin, my parent's neighbor and two of my friends! Quite the crew to cheer for, but I was up for the task.

My non-running relatives and I staked out a spot near the bunny on Minnehaha, just past the mile 10 marker. We practiced our high fives on one of my uncles.

Here's a shot of Zach (red shorts), coming along looking fresh & chipper - a sharp contrast to his haggard self at the finish line.

In the past, we'd bop around to four different points on the course to watch everybody, but with so many people running different paces, we opted to go straight for the finish line after the last of the crew (Zach!) went by. The end of the course comes up Summit and goes by the Cathedral with a nice long slope down towards the finish at the Capitol building.

My dad ran this year, the 20th anniversary of the first time he ran the TC AND for his 50th birthday. He did a fantastic job for someone who hadn't ran a marathon in 15 years - he finished first out of our whole crew and all his younger brothers, coming in just under 4 hours! He looked pretty chipper while closing in on a great finish time (blue jersey).

Everybody looked great finishing out the race. I love the finish line - it's amazing to see people's faces when they come towards the Capitol and realize not only are they done running 26.2 miles, but they've accomplished a pretty incredible physical and mental feat!

At the end, we had to get a picture of the finishers (minus my gal pals, who I couldn't find). I've spared Zach the humiliation of posting one where everybody is standing. Aside from my dad's neighbor Tracy, he's the shortest in the photo, despite being 6'2''. I come from a family of beanpoles.

If you've never gone out to watch the TC marathon, you better put October 3rd, 2010 on your calendar! I don't know if Zach will tackle it again, but it's worth going anyway.

Afton, and the photo that Emily has been yearning for.

2009-10-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, @julielyda and I spent the last nice weekend of summer in the best place to spend any time of the year, Afton State Park. As anyone who reads this blog or engages me in casual conversation knows, I have a total prairie obsession. I love to be in it, and on more than one occasion I've nearly wrecked my car and endangered the lives of my passengers pointing out native prairie on the side of the road. ("Hey, check out that sweet purple prairie clover! Man, she's a beaut- OH SHIT" *swerve*) You could say I'm gay for Andropogon gerardii.

Fall is the best time to get out and do some prairie-creepin'. Many of the flowers are still blooming, and the Big Bluestem (seen here) is in prime form, over 6 feet tall.

This one's for Emily, who is relentless in her hassling of me simply because I impose a photographic burkha on my fiance, who is clearly seen here watching a turkey vulture circle ominously overhead.

Speaking of birds, after my last post google adsense decided that the audience that I draw is SERIOUSLY concerned with bird assault. Words of wisdom: keep your friends close, and your bird repellant closer.

BIRD!

2009-09-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I get a little uneasy around birds. Once, when I was just a boy, I was eating a delicious cinnamon pretzel in Disney World. It was the perfect food at that instant; chewy and filling, covered in a cinnamon glaze, the perfect snack after a hard day of walking around and riding Space Mountain. I had that one first divine bite, the kind of bite that overwhelms your senses, causes your eyes to roll back in your head, and all you want to do is cram that entire pretzel down your gullet as fast as you possibly can.

It was then, while I was in the rapture of this delicious pretzel, that a SWARM of seagulls descended upon me. It was a scene straight out of The Birds. They were swooping and diving with an utter disregard for me, any other humans, or their own safety. My dad knocked one out of the air, sending it crashing to the ground. In the midst of this, one of the seagulls swooped down, flew close enough by my head that I could FEEL it, and snatched the pretzel right out of my hand. In doing so, he became too heavy to fly and crashed about 10 feet in front of us. The swarm redirected their attack, and the thieving seagull was stuck in the middle of a seagull feeding-orgy. I'm not sure he even made it out alive.

So nowadays, when I see a menacing bird who has clearly had a run-in with the law before (why else would he have a numbered shackle on his leg if he wasn't a common criminal???) I get nervous. "Hey, @julielyda," I''ll say, "Hold this pretzel for me, would you?"

A delightful stroll in Afton

2009-09-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

@julielyda and I went for a picnic in Afton state park last week. We hiked some of the southern parts of the park and broke the one cardinal rule of the state park system: No booze, you filthy hobos. Sometimes, you have to exist outside of the "law", especially when you're the proprietor of THE INTERNET'S #1 BADASS PHOTOBLOG

Upper Sioux Agency State Park

2009-09-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend @julielyda and I packed up all our camping gear (a lie, as my camping gear never leaves my car. Nice for camping trips, shameful when people ask you for rides) and we made the trek out to Upper Sioux Agency state park. It was a delightful park, with a combination of prairie, wetlands and river. We snagged a nice walk-in campsite (protip for any prospective state park campers: walk-in sites are ALWAY the best site. They're beautiful, far more isolated, and in this case you are allowed to actually drive your car to it, providing that you don't park it there) and spent some time hiking about.

Turns out, you can rent a canoe from the park office for a measly ten american dollars. Turns out, the Minnesota river is a wee bit shallow this time of year to be canoeing. Turns out, when the park tells you the whole trip takes "about half a day, or 2-3 hours" it's a hell of a lot closer to "half a day" than "2-3 hours". And, as it turns out, when you spend hours upon hours on a river without food or water, dragging your canoe across sandbars, your lovely afternoon paddle down a lazy river turns into a potentially homicidal event.

@julielyda hiking

2009-09-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

@julielyda always looks stylish while hiking, or camping, or leaving me in the woods for dead. "We're just having fun!", she'll say. "I'm going to hunt the most dangerous game!", she tells me. The joke's on her, however. Manatees are simply not native to Minnesota.

The Barn

2009-09-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

This is the barn at my folk's place in Wisconsin. It's pretty empty these days, with only two barn cats and a flock of barn swallows, going about their merry way and pooping all over my canoes. It makes for a great photo, however.

State Fair postraveganza...on a stick

2009-08-31T18:38:00.000-07:00

It's time for the state fair! Everyone who lives in Minnesota inevitably returns there every year (not unlike spawning salmon) to see the sights, ride the rides, and FEAST. I didn't want to bring my camera there in the first place since neither my camera warranty nor my health insurance covers grease burns, but fortunately @julielyda convinced me.

These people wanted to charge me 3 AMERICAN DOLLARS for a one way ticket on what is, in essence, a colorful ski lift.

This is somewhere in the international bazaar, which is significant to me because it is adjacent to the Summit beer garden.

It's the Brass Kings! I automatically approve of any band that consists solely of a washboard, washtub bass, and guitar.

There are also apparently rides at the fair, which I cannot attest to, since I have never ridden them. If it costs money in the fair and I can't devour it, I am NOT INTERESTED.

PERT' NEAR SANDSTONE was also there! EVERYONE should go and see them once in their life. Banjo? Check. Mandolin? Check. Clog Dancer? CHECK. They'll be at the Cabooze in a few short weeks, and it will be delightful. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY FOR ALL CITIZENS.

Grain Belt

2009-08-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture from the Grain Belt brewery, where apparently the date 1891 hold some sort of significance. Maybe that's when they built it, but I'm clearly too busy to google something like that. The brewery is cool because it was built in a time where the people building it didn't say "let's build a functional building, one that brews beer and doesn't care if it's an eyesore." No, these men and women (Men.) were just drunk enough to think "Let's build not just a brewery, but a magnificent monument to beer and those who drink it." As the descendant of those beer-swilling builders, I'm glad they made the choice they did.

Skyline from Broadway

2009-08-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

HDR is a fascinating thing. I only discovered it about 6 months ago, and I enjoyed it so much that it can largely be credited with fueling the "Twincy Renaissance," as it is known in the fanciest-pantsiest of fine art circles. It's definately a valuable tool to have hanging off the ol' toolbelt, and can be used to create some stunningly beautiful photographs. Unfortunately, it can also be used to create horrific eye-abortions the likes of which the Good Lord himself could not forgive (comedy sidebar: it's watermarked!)

I was a tad bit apprehensive taking this shot out on Broadway, since I was informed that the area was kind of shady by @julielyda. She was quick to clarify "Like mugging-shady, not murder-shady" That put my mind at ease.

Signs in Northeast

2009-08-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Taken while walking around town just across the street from Surdyks, whose fine liquors fuel this very blog. Delicious beers, fine wines and cigars, all a short distance from my home. Although in the interest of full disclosure, I've never bought beer that cost more than 8 dollars for a six-er, nor wine that costs more than 10 dollars a box. Classy? You know it.

Necklaces

2009-08-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed by now that I'm not what you would call a "person who comes up with halfway decent titles for uninteresting blog posts" Much like when I was a child, I look at something, blurt out the first word to dance across my synapses, and mash the keyboard until the words that I see match the picture in front of my face. We could just fool ourselves and call it some sort of artistically minimalist statement about the photos, but then I'm no better than that jerkoff trout fisherman on NPR the other day talking about how making squiggly lines for titles was sticking it to the scientific binomial nomenclature.

Frankly, I'm not clever enough to pull anything like that off. These are necklaces, and that's what I called them.

Butterfly Milkweed/Duluth, Two for One

2009-08-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

One of my prairie favorites, the Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa interior if you're so inclined) grows all over the midwest. It has a tight cluster of orange flowers that seem to make them irresistible to insects and prairie-philes.

Here's one of the piers in Duluth. I typically don't have much faith in my ability to make black and white photos (meaning that when I hit the "convert" button in Photoshop, they don't tend to look too great) but I like the way this one came out.

Northeast Church

2009-08-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

After a bit of a hiatus, we're back! Had a very successful trip to the BWCA, but sadly only took a few pictures, opting to spend most of my stay in that most epic of battles: Man vs. Fish. The historians shall mark it as a triumph for man, as I managed to eat fish without being eaten in turn. After cementing myself atop the food chain, I can return to my regular blogging duties. This is a church, in case you just thought it was a photo of a man carrying a giant letter "T", perhaps typesetting for a race of giants. It was taken as I was riding my bike along the Grand Rounds

A very merry Willow River postravaganza

2009-07-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

Hooray for Willow River Days! It's a small town summer festival in Northern Minnesota that is similar to many other small towns and their summer festivals. What's that? You've never heard of Willow River Days? Why, it's the most fabulous day of all!

There's a five mile run!

There's a car show! With cars!

Soon, the rednecks set up shop. If you're looking for a bumper sticker about loving guns or hating PETA, you can bet they have it!

Is there a parade? Of course there is!

This band played The Final Countdown Great marching band song, or the greatest marching band song?

Throw candy to the crowds, watch Lord of the Flies play out in front of your eyes

...and then there's this gentleman. Who is he? I don't know, but he is my king now.

These children are promoting driving around with open containers. They don't look like they've split an entire bottle of Jag, but you can never tell with children.

And what's a festival without the Hell's Angels? Happy Willow River Days!

Memorial

2009-07-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

This if from a war memorial along the lake up in Duluth.

@julielyda, yet again with high fructose Jay Cooke for flavor

2009-07-21T18:53:00.000-07:00

@julielyda clearly enjoys spending time by Lake Superior, watching the waves roll in and allowing the sound of the surf to drown out the jabbering noises I attempt to pass off as communication. With one final longing gaze towards the lake, she lovingly utters a string of curses at me as we continue our hike.

The rocks in Jay Cooke are always amazing to me. In a crack no wider than my pinkie finger a whole family of grasses and plants have been able to put down roots and thrive. Seeing this always impresses me, showing the struggle and tenacity of nature and whatnot, but if any sentient being ever had to endure this it would be miserable, not a noble struggle. Can you imagine living so close to your neighbors that your bare naked reproductive organs were touching at all times? Nothing noble about that.

Lumberjack!

2009-07-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a memorial to the lumberjack in a park along the Grand Rounds. You may not know this, but for a time I was a lumberjack for the Forest Service, and like this fellow here I cut down trees the lumberjack way: no chainsaws, just a crosscut saw and some high-proof alcohol. Unlike lumberjacks, I rarely ate pancakes and I NEVER had an un-natural relationship with any livestock with a glandular problem. Despite what you may have heard.

Jay Cooke State Park Rapids

2009-07-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things about Jay Cooke is all the rocks jutting out of the river. In a lot of places, you can climb out to the middle of the river on some rocky outcrop. It makes for a great sense of adventure, as well as some great photos. Too bad I have a crippling fear of climbing, water, heights, rocks, daylight, and molemen (with which Jay Cooke State Park is INFESTED)

Great Lakes Aquarium

2009-07-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

This was shot outside of the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth. I almost missed these guys as we headed back to the car (where we had to PAY FOR PARKING. In Duluth? Madness!) I got close and took a series of shots of these fishes, fixed into the rock outside.

I then got up, and while trying to exude my suave, hip, photographer persona I tripped over the rock and crashed down onto the gravel in front of my gypsy-leprechaun paramour and a group of other tourists. I, like a protective mother bear, took most of the damage, but my poor Canon got nicked and received its first battle scar in a less-than-dignified way.

We're back, baby!

2009-07-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus, it's time for more Twincy. @julielyda and I went to Duluth on Thursday, spent the day wandering the town, and then made our way down 35, visiting some of our majestic state parks along the way. EXPECT MANY PHOTOS, as I will try and milk this photogenic sucker for all it is worth.

Here's a photo taken outside of Fitger's brewery, where we sadly did not get a chance to eat or drink, due to our horrifying poverty. Fitger's often hosts Charlie Parr and all his musical goodness, and they also sell beer by the growler.

This is a picture from the bridge in Jay Cooke State Park. I've only been here once before, but it's easy to see why @julielyda loves this park more than she loves me. 1. I am not a river, let alone a Minnesotan river. 2. I have no distinguishing rock features 3. State parks do not threaten her with a watery grave

Gold Medal Flour/In response to Emily

2009-07-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

Took a few shots of the Gold Medal Flour sign when @julielyda and I were downtown. That sign is such a cool part of the skyline, in my humble opinion. It's a nice throwback to the olden days, when a man could come to the city, work hard, earn an honest wage, and be blown into tiny flour-coated morsels

Also, there has been some speculation by notorious she-blogger Emily that I don't take any pictures of @julielyda's face. Clearly she is a rumor-monger, spreading lies because she simply does not care for the name of this fine blog.

Red Cedar River

2009-07-05T19:30:00.000-07:00

This is from last summer on the Red Cedar river with @julielyda. The Red Cedar is great. We put in up by Menomonie and floated down for a few hours. There's a bike trail that follows it most of the way, and it's almost completely wooded, allowing us to see a ton of eagles at a uncomfortably close distance. The single greatest part of taking a trip down this river is the bar that's strategically placed midway between where we started and finished. They even have a boat landing for easy access.

After a short lunch break at the bar, drinking unusually strong drinks, we got back on the water to complete our trip, while @julielyda decided (with the help of her 9 parts vodka 1 part lemonade) her job was no longer paddling, but being the rock spotter, shouting out about rocks all over the river. Rocks posing no danger to us, or anyone for that matter

Mill City

2009-07-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Took this outside of the Mill City museum, while inside the main ruins. I really like the lines that run all over this picture, from the lines on the windows and bricks to the girders and that fancy-looking design on the glass. I HDR'd it, as is my wont.

Happy 4th of July! Off to drink and watch fireworks. AMERICA!

THE EYES....

2009-07-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

George Bernard Shaw watches over the unwashed masses at that most hippie of all weekend institutions, the farmer's market. On our way back through the covered part of the market, where I purchased some delightful strawberries, I looked up to find myself locked into his socialist gaze. A quick picture, some dodging and burning, and here we go.

Now, off to deal with the sunburn I earned while fishing. @zwjohnson 2, tiny bass 0.

Bowling

2009-07-02T05:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of @Levon03, about to lay down some bowling destruction on the unsuspecting pins, because @Levon03 is a SERIOUS BOWLER. He has his own bowling ball (which has its own FEMALE NAME) but this is not that ball. He forgot it at my apartment because, I don't know, he was drunk or something. Cautionary tale, ladies. @Levon03 will leave you for something he can rent at the bowling alley.

Campventure 2/Bonus Badass-ery

2009-06-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-28T20:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

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

Northeast: Elsie's

2009-06-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T05:24:00.000-07:00

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!

Still moving, so more non-Minnesota

2009-05-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well, still in the early stages of unpacking, but hopefully soon I'll be able to take my camera and do some walking around Northeast. I've got a few ideas lined up already.

Here's a HDR from Colorado, on the gondola from the Village hotel to the ski area. Of course, it doesn't actually take you to the ski area, instead setting you down about a quarter of a mile from the closest lift. Because that's just what you want at the end of a exhausting day of skiing: walking a quarter mile in ski boots.

I made an HDR of this and since it was shot at a fairly high ISO it was noisy as hell. The gondola cars looked like checker boards, spotted with white and red noise. Not owning any fancy noise-reducing software, I made do with the poor man's noise reduction: made a red background and sloppily blended it with the red of the cars

Non-Minnesota: Utah

2009-05-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

Moving to a new apartment this weekend, so this post will be short and sweet. This is from Canyonlands, Utah. It's one of my favorite places, with vast expanses of canyons and desert. The whole area is covered in a living bacterial soil, which is the only soil available to plants living there. This is the area around Big Springs, one of the backpacking areas.

Fort Snelling Winter

2009-05-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

There comes a time every year for all Minnesotans when the horrors of winter have slowly been forgotten, washed away by pleasant weather, sunshine, and temperatures suitable for sustaining human existence. At such a time, a Minnesotan can start to think about winter in the past tense, instead of having terribly vivid flashbacks of feet upon feet of snow, miserable driving conditions, and cold so chilling it causes your testicles to hibernate. We get to thinking "Well, winter here isn't that bad. Sure, I haven't been warm for 6 months, but was it really so terrible?" This collective amnesia is the only reason anyone actually lives here.

On this note, I can finally post a picture I took this winter without hating the climate it was taken in. This is just off a ski trail in Fort Snelling State Park, done as a hand-held HDR that actually turned out pretty decent.

This photo was also snagged off my flickr photostream to be part of a website about Minneapolis and Fort Snelling

Afton camping

2009-05-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

The backpacking area at Afton State Park is one of the greatest places to camp in the state, certainly the best near the Twin Cities. A mile and a half is all you have to hike to get to this gorgeous area with its restored prairie and wide, open campsites. The only catch is THE HILL. The hill is the final obstacle to overcome before you can claim a campsite here, and while you're climbing it you wonder if maybe you should have hired some Sherpas to carry your gear. You wonder if you need to be more concerned with altitude sickness, or at least the heart attack that seems imminent. I've seen a man reach the summit, only to vomit up the port wine he drank for breakfast.

It's well worth the climb, however. In late July/August all the prairie flowers are in bloom, like the yellow coneflowers seen here

Non-Minnesota: Colorado

2009-05-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Shot out in Winter Park, Colorado. Fleeing the harsh Minnesota winters, @julielyda and I took a ski vacation in hopes that the weather would be warm. Warm being a relative Minnesotan term, meaning that we hoped for temperatures in the neighborhood of 30 degrees.

Once we got there, I noticed quite a few of the trees in the mountains were dead or dying, with some areas being completely killed off. Apparentely, pine beetle has been able to expand its range due to global warming. Typically, mountain tops were too cold in the winter for pine beetle to survive, but warmer and warmer winters allowed the pine beetle to move to higher elevations, where the trees that did exist were almost all susceptable to their tiny, gnawing jaws. This shot, I believe, does a good job at giving a sense of the desolation

People Post

2009-05-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

It's the fabulous @punsultant, staring hauntingly into the distance. Is it a brighter tomorrow that he sees, or storm clouds on the horizon? Perhaps he is about to unleash the pervy-est old man wink you've ever seen?

On a side note, my landscape-oriented pictured are getting cut off. Any way to resolve this?

Camp on Fall Lake

2009-05-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

Since we just booked a trip to the Boundary Waters this week, I'm feeling BWCA nostalgia pretty hard. This was shot on our trip last year on Fall Lake. We took a close, easy campsite on Mile Island that looked cool on our map. When we got there, we found the campsite was on a thin strip of land between two long gorgeous beaches, maybe 40 yards wide. We left this site the next morning to travel up Basswood Lake

I shot this right after sunset, with Big Blue the trusty canoe pulled up on shore.

Afton hiking

2009-05-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

Went out hiking in Afton State Park this weekend, which has always been one of my favorite places to go. After a pretty uninspiring attempt at some trail running (drinking tasty beer the night before apparently doesn't count as carbo-loading) we did a quick little hike before taking this shot of my favorite ecosystem, the prairie.

2009-05-21T21:01:00.000-07:00

This is a photoblog. From time to time, I will add photos upon it.

This was shot in the Superior National Forest on the Bass Lake Trail. When I was living in Ely, I never got sick of hiking this trail, and about a mile into it you run into this fella.

Bass Lake is really cool, because it used to be a waterway used by loggers in the early 1900's. There was a canal connecting it to a nearby lake, so loggers could float lumber from Bass Lake downstream. This canal was poorly made (as is the lumberjack wont) which caused the sluice way to break causing Bass Lake to drain 55 feet or so. This also prompted a headline in the local paper declaring (I kid you not) "Bass Lake disappears, as if by magic!" edging out the popular theory that the water was stolen by immigrants.

The result of this is a trail that exists in an area that was formerly underwater, and a lot of the Bass Lake trail follows the former shore line. White cedars, like the one pictured here, have a tendency to grow out over the water several feet when they live near the shore, leaving these bent cedars as a reminder of how the lake used to be