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.

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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.

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December 28th, 2008 More Eagles

I was originally going to take my kids to the Wabasha area but, it was a pretty windy today so opted for some Eagles a couple blocks South of me in the Minnesota River Valley.   I chatted briefly with two other photographers, both had prime’s/Canon a 500mm(a monster, I could not afford to even rent one) and a 400mm.  The kids were getting a bit board after setting up in two spots so we packed up and took the 5 minute drive home.

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December 28th, 2008 Minnesota River

I took a quick drive down Blackdog road and back, I saw 4 eagles, a hawk, some pelicans, and a swan.  I ran into a Father/Daughter pair who almost slid into the River.  They were driving up to the River bank near a the West end of the dam and it was a slight grade towards the River glaze ice, they hit the brakes, things started going in slow motion thinking they would plunge off the size and into the River but, were able to stop in the snow but, were entirely stuck.  I gave them my phone to call his wife for a tow out but, he had the keys to the other vehicle, so I gave them a ride home cutting my trip short a bit early.  I was going to head to the Cedar Bridge side where the water is open and just setup a tripod.  I have the day off tommorow, I am thinking about taking the kids down to Wabasha tommorow for a few hours.

Handheld @ 400mm (644mm with crop factor, overexposed & shutter speed was way too slow for handheld shots at 400mm).

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December 18th, 2008 Shooting The Holidazzle

Shooting available light of moving objects in the dark seemed like an attractive learning opportunity, toss in 0F temps and it was off to the Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis.   I parked at the 28th Avenue LRT Station in Bloomington and took the train to Nicollet Mall the quickly fell asleep somewhere after the airport and waking up at the metrodome.  The plan had been to arrive 90 minutes early to stake out a claim before the crowds grew but, for the most part the crowds don’t show up until about 5 minutes before the parade begins (except for the skyways, stores, and buildings along Nicollet Avenue).   I sat down at Starbucks as the people arrived one by one finally going outside and staking our claim 50 minutes before the event which gave us an opportunity to setup, chat, take some test shots, and discuss probable outcome’s of the photos we were about to take.   (thanks to Doug Heimstead for providing these, for some reason I am never in any of the photos I take, I am the guy wearing the fashionable holiday blaze orange hat.  9th & Nicollet)

Another vantage point courtesy of Toni Johnson.

I ended up taking a few long exposures and a few stop action shots, I should have had one battery wrapped in a handwarmer (or simply in my pocket) as I used the other one, I was not able to find the third before I left the house.  Both batteries had it by about 5 minutes into the parade, it was not really a lesson learned having spent many a night in the winter taking astronomy/etc photos for hours at a time more of a lesson ignored then paid for.  I continued to shoot with the SD1000 but, I have yet to look at those.

After the parade we hit the M&S Grill on 6th and Nicollet to thaw out for an hour or two.   The original plan was Pizza Luce which I was actually kind of looking forward to but, I could not resist hitting Potbelly’s in the IDS on the way to the Holidazzle having not eaten for a day or so.  But, M&S was able to easily accommodate the 12 or so who could make it for dinner/apps/etc (I was stuffed from earlier).

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