January 16th, 2010 St. Cloud Ice Bowl

I briefly attended the 18th annual 2010 Ice Bowl Frisbee Golf Tournament.   Tons of people showed up for the event, we helped out as spotters while I took a few snapshots of the action.

no comments yet.

January 16th, 2010 Monticello Swans

I took a brief stop at Swan Park in Monticello on our way to St. Cloud where a local resident feeds our local population of Swans from 1/4 to 1/2 ton of corn per day, an enormous expense which she pays for herself and relies on donations.  I spent quite a bit of time speaking to many other friendly photographers where we exchanged some other tips and locations.

(for more detailed information see my March 15th, 2008 post)

The Swans were repopulated in the region after being run to extinction but, they lost their ability to migrate South so a number of feeding stations have been setup along the Mississippi in open water areas typically downstream from power plants.  A number of attempts have been made to get them to migrate which included cutting off the feeding stations but, none have been successful as of yet.

no comments yet.

December 18th, 2009 St. Paul from the Smith Avenue High Bridge

I was meeting a group advising I would be late about 40 minutes. I setup for 5-10 minutes took a few quick shots then headed to Applebies for a late dinner.

no comments yet.

January 7th, 2009 Rice Park

After a photography get together in Edina, I hit Rice Park in St. Paul for a quick walk through the park.  I had wanted to go check out the lights for a couple of years.  It was about five degrees out with a slight breeze?  I am sure I will return for winter carnival.  The rest of St. Paul was really lit up with some of the bigger attractions hopping with the rest of the city mostly in hiding.  The State Capital and Cathedral almost caught me on my way back home in addition to another half dozen hot spots on the brief 5 block drive through town to/from I-35E.

1 comment.

January 4th, 2009 SubZero Hike at Blackdog

The temperature was pushing 1 degree out with wind chills of -10 to -15 below the kids were content with video games but, it was sunny out so we went for a hike.  The kids naturally layer with wind resistant outer gear (were working on it).  I hit Blackdog Road, checking out various spots along the way, nothing.  We stopped at the East end of Blackdog Lake got out and walked the trail.  10 or so Swans out on the lake.  The warm water from the power plant generated ground level condensation (fog, clouds) producing a pretty cool effect, a decent number of waterfowl were swimming around in the heated dense fog rising from the water.  I kept asking the kids if their fingers, faces, toes were getting cold, nope, not a once did they say yes.  We turned around at the State Park parking lot, usually we pass the swamp and turn around at the train tracks on the East end of Blackdog.  On our way back Ali spotted an Eagle across the river, I pulled over, let the kids sit in the heated car, it took about 10 minutes until it took to the air.  On the West end parking lot I spotted a pair of Eagles in the tree.  After another 10 minutes or so we were off to the wild bird store to top off our feeders.

2 comments.