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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October 19th, 2008 Fort Snelling State Park

I went to the main park.  Took most of my shots from two locations the Beach and along the main entrance drive.

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October, 18 2008 Fort Snelling National Cemetery

I was initially headed to Ft. Snelling State Park (the Main Park off of 5) for some fall sunset photos but, having passed the Cemetery so many times I thought I would check it out, I had not been their for maybe 20 years.  While it was quite a few entrances only one appeared open facing West.  Fort Snelling National Cemetery was established in 1939 by Congress.  The first residents were transferred from Fort Snelling a frontier fort established in 1805 on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.  Over the years it has grown to 436 acres and over 172,000 interments as of April of 2007.  The place is pretty huge headstones as far as the eye can see standing on the hill with your back facing the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.

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