Day 305...Day Off....Unfortunately

DAY OFF

I'm not going to do a photo tonight.  My plan was to bring the kids to Valley Scare and then head to the bridge to photograph it with Halloween colors lighting it up.  Needless to say, I didn't make it to the bridge and now I'm very upset.

So I'll pick up tomorrow.

Day 304...Burn Out

BURN OUT

I don't know how everyone else feels about wool spinning.  I personally love light painting of any kind.  I love spinning fire.  Today I didn't have time to get out in the day.  It's the dilemma I had last winter when this project started.  And it's not yet time for holiday lights or anything like that.  I also had very little time this evening.  So I decided I was going to try really hard to find something new for spinning.

I hopped in the car and decided to drive through our neighborhood.  The initial plan was to scope out a gazebo and spin under that.  But right away when I got to the round about, I saw the lights lighting up the trees near the porticoes.  I thought it would be cool to squeeze the fire in between the porticoes, and shazam!  

I shouldn't point this out, but the only thing I don't like about this one is there are a few distracting lights about that kind of made the image off balance.

Day 303...JORDAN

JORDAN

If I knew enough people, or had a stronger desire to market my skills, I would photograph people every day.  I love it for some reason.  One of my very dear friends, Valerie Jardin, is a street photographer, and while I love to make street photos, it's just neither my strength nor my favorite genre.  And the reason I bring up Valerie's name is because she doesn't really care to do portraits.  And I always find it really interesting what people's favorite are of photography ends up being.

While being on the Minnesota Photography Club Facebook page, you see lots of landscapes and wildlife photography.  But you see a lot of other things that make you realize there's just so many areas of specialty in photography ranging from concerts, weddings, sports, animals, astronomy...the list seems endless.

I like to dabble in a little of it all, but in the end, I love to shoot people.

Day 302...Beauty and the Beast

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Another shot I've done before.  I've heard a lot of people say they think the refinery is ugly and beastly.  I like all the lights it emits.  And I've seen it look quite cool a few times I've been by.  Tonight, obviously the sunset sure helped to enhance the vision of it.

Day 301...The Diner

THE DINER

Pretty sure Mickey's Diner is one of the most photographed icons in downtown St. Paul.  I've done it a few times myself in this very project.  But my project is soon coming to a close.  

As I was walking in to work from a different route than I usually take and now that the sun is rising later, the lighting on Mickey's cast a different vision for me.  It looked like the set of a movie to me, and almost cartoon-ish.  I did add a little "effect" to enhance that mood, but I adore how Mickey's, not matter when you walk by there, always looks like they're set up to film some old-fashioned movie there.  It's the outside, AND the staff and customers you see through the windows.  

It's just so curious that when you pan out from just the building, the restaurant is sort of "glued on" to the corner in front of a large office building right across the street from other modern buildings.  It's certainly fun!

Day 300...Farewell to Fall (series)

FAREWELL TO FALL

We had a horrible winter.  A less than mediocre summer.  But the fall this year...OH BOY!  There were days it seemed incredibly magical.  The day I took these photos was one of those magical days.  I got off work to do a photo gig, and when I finished with that, I walked outside and was mesmerized by my surroundings.  I think I may have already used photos from that day, but this is the finishing off of my rendition of the fall colors.

After this, the trees are bare.  The weather is turning cold.  We have to prepare for winter.  

Enjoy this last look at color before most of what we see is white and gray.

These photos were all taken at Lake Phalen on the Eastside of St. Paul.  This is a lake I've spend hundreds of day at in my lifetime, walking around it alone or with a friend, swimming in the lake as a teen, visiting the Ice Palace the year it was there, etc.

I have photographed this lake in the recent past during summer sunsets and autumn days.  The lake is no longer near where I live, but I like to visit the old 'hood from time to time and enjoy the transformation it's taken over my lifetime.

Today marks a really big milestone in this project.  I know that I haven't done the project perfectly by posting every single day on the day I took the photos.  And I fudged a little a few times with my "theme."  But I have made it 300 days and I'm on the home stretch.

There have been many days where I felt uninspired and found it nearly impossible to come up with an interesting image to post.  And then there are days (like this one) where I worried I would use up my whole memory card with images and have a tough time deciding what to choose.  Now my hope is to finish the last 65 days strong and use what I've learned to make interesting, well composed, well executed shots that pique the interest of anyone who visits here.

Day 299...Fall for the Fallen

FALL FOR THE FALLEN
w cemetaries are often Im kind o fascinated how one of the most beautiful places in Autumn. Tonight I was out with my mom and we took the" scenic" route and drove to places we knew would have beauty of fall still lingering. We ended up at the cemetery where mbrother are buried and it was very beautiful!y grandparents and my

Day 298...At the End of the Day

AT THE END OF THE DAY

It is by far one of my favorite things in life, the sunset.  Tonight was a crazy tease.  I had to leave the house at 5:30 to drive Tiana from Blaine to Inver Grove Heights.  I didn't get home from work early enough to plan the frequent stops that might be required by a crazy obsessed photographer such as myself.  I also didn't realize that the sunset was going to be magnificent.

So I start on the road, and I felt like the universe took all the color it had available and started to slowly pour it out of the sky in muted amounts.  As I drove along, I thought I was going to veer off the road at least ten times when I became distracted by the burning sky.  So I started to accelerate hoping I would get to the meeting spot before the sun went down all the way.  

I did it.  The sky was much darker than I wanted it to be, but it was still just so dazzling and beautiful.  

Tonight's post was really supposed to be the fall shots I took at the lake last night, but I found this sky too spectacular not to share, and I'm having a hard time weaning down the ones I want. 

Day 297...Autumn is Leaving

AUTUMN IS LEAVING

I set out this evening to do a practice run at doing Residential Interior photography for a friend who is in real estate.  It was a fun practice run.  Then I got in my car about 5:30, and I felt like I was on a crazy good LSD trip with colors and lights surrounding me in such a surreal way.  I needed to get home to get some things done, but I kept winding and weaving and turning down side streets because I kept seeing more and more beautiful fall colors as I went.

I ended up at Phalen Lake, and what lay before me was as if the Universe knew I was hoping for one of those magical photographic moments and delivered it to me on a silver platter.   Now, when you look at the photo above, you're probably thinking, ummm, not that magical, and I see no lake.  Well, guess what tomorrow's blog post will be?  

The grand finale of the Autumn of 2014...to be continued in tomorrow's blog post.  It won't just be one photo because there's no possible way I will be able to choose.  So stay tuned.

Day 296...Just Sky

JUST SKY 

I watched the clouds all the way home.  I could tell it was going to be a great sky.  Perhaps a photo of only the sky is boring to you,  but to me,  I could probobaly shoot the sky, clouds, sun every day .

Day 295...Landmark Time

LANDMARK TIME

I was waiting for the bus and watching people around me (street photography).  As I was watching people, a huge flock of pigeons took flight and went soaring in circles right above me.  When they flew past the clock tower, they reminded me of the movie Hunchback of Notre Dame.   Lord knows why.  

Next year I might do a project on clocks.  I love clocks.  I always have these crazy visions of collages of things, clocks, for example.  I always notice them in St. Paul when I'm wandering around downtown.  It's a thought.  I think I have too many projects swirling around in my head.

Day 294...69 Dodge

69 DODGE

I did a family portrait session today.  They were so beautiful.  I love doing portraits the most.  I know I've said that a bunch of times.  But this family did not want their photos published.  They keep photos of their baby off the internet, so I have to comply.

But this beautiful truck was part of our shoot.  Dad asked me if I would take pics of it for him.  It's fantastic!  It was the absolute perfect fall day for photos.

Day 293...Tiana Marie

TIANA MARIE

I spent the day doing my favorite thing, taking portraits.  It's even more my favorite because it's a most amazing fall day.  It's mid October and it was 65 degrees, partly cloudy, and peak fall colors.  I met with the most beautiful young family and shot hundreds of photos of them because they wouldn't stop being cute!

But they did not want their photos publicized so that's why they are not featured here.  But when I returned from that, I arrived home to see my daughter looking gorgeous.  (She usually does, but she looked really primped this evening.

So I said, we MUST go take photos of you.  Luckily for me, she was in the mood.  And this was one of my favorite shots of her today.

Day 292...Taking Flight

TAKING FLIGHT

I went to northern Minnesota this weekend, the iron range.  The colors were past peak, but it was still incredibly beautiful up there.  And so I spent two days taking photos of things I certainly though would make the blog, colorful trees, sunsets, meandering streams, reflections in the lakes.  But on the way out of town on the way back home, and enormous Bald Eagle flew right in front and above us.  

I quickly pulled off to the side of the road, and watched it perched up in the tree on the side of the road.  Then after a minute, it took flight across the road and then perched itself on the tree pictured above.  I really wanted a photo of it close up with the color of its plumage, but the sun was on its way out for the day, and all I could get was a silhouette.   But then the bird took off again, and when I reviewed my photos at the end of the day, I decided I had enough landscape photos in this project and I should post something I've not had here before.  

So this was what I chose.  Lately I've been feeling like I just had a week to wander around alone in the north woods, or somewhere, anywhere, and just shoot photos of stuff!!

Day 291...Up North

UP NORTH

Spending the weekend in Biwabik, or in other words, on the Iron Range of northern Minnesota.  Spent my time here with one of my very best friends in the world.  We travel great together.  We have tons of laughs, and she never irritates me.  We took our daughters and spent two days just having fun.  The colors were a little past peak, but the Tamaracks were in amazing contrast to the evergreens, and every now and then we would spy a deep red oak.  

Today I had to post two because they were both equally beautiful to me.  I loved them both so very much that I just had to let them share the spotlight.  Which one do you like better?

Day 290...Autumn Road Trip

AUTUMN ROAD TRIP

Typically, in northern Minnesota in the fall, you would hope for the fall colors.  This shot was actually taken driving down the road, and the reason I took it was because the colors were amazing.  But this was taken out the window of the car and on my iPhone and then Tiana rendered it to black and white and I loved it that way, so I kept it.

Tomorrow, I'll probably spend then day looking for photos to take.  

Day 289...Season Three

SEASON THREE

I know there are actually four seasons, but somehow I managed to entirely skip summer for this particular shot.  I would have thought that throughout this project, there was plenty opportunity for me to do the four seasons for many of the "scenes" that I see.  This is a scene I see five days a week currently.  It's taken from the parking lot in front of where I work.  I guess for the sake of completion, next summer I'll have to fill in the summer shot, but this project will have that missing piece.

The colors are on overload right now around me everywhere, and I managed to forget my camera at home today.  Luckily this morning, I had my spare in the car, but the battery was on it's last blinkie light.  I squeezed out a few beautiful shots but am kind of irritated that it's going to be an utterly gorgeous day today, and I'm left with only my iPhone camera, which doesn't seem to be functioning properly, and I certainly don't want to commemorate my fall photos via iPhone.

There's always tomorrow, and I hear it's going to be grand as well.  So all is not lost.

Day 288...Bursting Color All Around

BURSTING COLOR ALL AROUND

The colors are near their absolute peak in the Twin Cities right now.  When I was driving home today, I noticed the bursting colors are all around.  It is supposed to be a really great day out tomorrow as far as weather, so I'm most definitely going to try to utilize my lunch hour to make the most of getting some fall colors in. 

I want to try to find things that aren't totally cliche in fall color photos, but not sure how.  We'll see what I come up with.  I'm also heading up north this weekend, and I think it's past peak there, but we'll see what the weekend brings me.  

Day 287...Are Your Ducks in a Row?

ARE YOUR DUCKS IN A ROW?

Watching ducks is so cute.  I love their oranges little floppy feet.  When you see them standing on something, like this log, their feet just pop out at you.  And if you watch them in the water when they're trying to feed, they pop their little rears out of the water and "moon" you.  They're just funny little creatures.  

The water fowl are getting ready to migrate, and in this lake, the ducks and geese were mingling in great crowds all over the lake and flying over head everywhere.  I liked how the colors of these cuties is reflected in the bright green water.

Day 286...Autumn RIP

Autumn RIP

Why are cemeteries one or the more beautiful places in autumn?  Seriously?  My mom went driving into the cemetery today to see the gorgeous foliage.  I'm really not that enamored with cemeteries in general, but they're just so beautiful in fall and winter.  

I think there's something kind of cool about having a place to go to meditate over your lost ones.  My dad isn't buried anywhere because he gave his body to science.  We'll get ashes back eventually, but he wants to be laid to rest in Canada, so I won't really have a place like this to go visit him.  But it's okay.  

This cemetery had some really old headstones that were weathered in a super cool looking way and against the backdrop of the fall colors. 

Day 285...State Tourney Time

STATE TOURNEY TIME

Our girls earned their way to the fall soccer state tournament which took place in Rochester, MN this weekend.  I had to be down there to pick Tiana up at 8:30 a.m. so I left Blaine at 7:00 a.m.  The above photo is what I woke up to.  It was a magnificent morning.  The drive to Rochester was incredible and if I wasn't on a deadline, it would have taken me twice as long to drive down because I would have been stopping ever mile while the sun rose through the fog and mist.  
But the I arrived and the tournament started and I was in sport mode.  

Tiana started the tournament off scoring the first goal of game one and the team went on to win that game.  

They tied the second game with no score between the two teams and then we moved on to the next day.  

There was a three way tie between the teams that were being determined to play up against us and they had to have a three way shootout before the championship game began.  Tiana assisted with Lexi to help Jen score the first goal of game three.

White Bear Lake tied it up after a few minutes, but Blaine dominated the whole game, and we ended up taking the championship by winning 3-1!  It was a nail biter and so much fun.  So proud of my girl and all of her fabulous hard working teammates.

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Day 284...Fall Colors on the Prairie

FALL COLORS ON THE PRAIRIE

I don't hunt.  I'm not opposed to hunting necessarily, but I just wasn't raised around people who do it.  I have no idea what these guys are hunting for, but I assume if I knew something about hunting, I could determine what they're hunting for based on the fact they're wearing blaze orange rather than camouflage.  

I don't know why I decided that this photo would be the one of the day.  I was actually out searching for farmland to photograph and these guys caught my eye, and I thought this was a cool scene.  I love the different shades of muted yellows with the bright orange spot of the hunters.  

While out chasing around fall foliage, I decided that the colors always just seem better in person and when you photograph them you just can't really do them justice.

Day 283...Land of 10,000 Lakes and Beautiful Skies

LAND OF 10,000 LAKES AND BEAUTIFUL SKIES

I don't know why I keep doing these landscapes.  I'm not a landscape photographer.  But when I'm out and about on gorgeous fall evenings, I just want to spend all my time photographing the beautiful surroundings I'm in.  I am absolutely loving this fall. 

Right now, the weather is great, and I know soon I'm going to be freezing to death.  So I just wander around gazing at all the beautiful colors of the leaves, the changing grasses, the calm water of the lakes, the birds getting ready for migration, and the skies with the sun getting farther away from us.  

Landscapes just seem inevitable.  

I love Minnesota.  (at least for a few more weeks)

Day 282...The Leaves are Falling

THE LEAVES ARE FALLING

On all the photography pages on Facebook, I have friends "up north."  So I've been seeing many photos of the leaves changing colors already.  But in the Twin Cities, it just hasn't quite hit full on yet.  

But tonight I was doing a portrait session, and there were quite a few variations of yellow.  On the way home, I just day dreamed about during my drive and noticed that there were some worthy trees and shots.  

So what are the normal things you think of when it's fall?  Bright red maple leaves, dark orange oak leaves, purple red sumac, the beyond colored leaves that have turned brown and dry.  And when they all fall to the ground, they start to smell musty and they crunch when you walk on them.  

That's what this photo made me think of, just kicking the leaves as you walk down the street, and smelling the beautiful aroma of autumn.

Day 281... When the Sky Looks Fake

WHEN THE SKY LOOKS FAKE

I love those times when I walk outside on an ordinary day, and the sky looks like a fake painting or maybe even an imaginary place.  I've seen the clouds that look like this several times.  Sometimes I've seen them right at sunset where the colors are simply captivating.  Sometimes I am able to capture them beautifully when I've been lucky enough to have my camera along.

Tonight, I'm going to be thankful for the technology of modern phones, since this scene fell before me as I got out of my car at Menards (to purchase wool for spinning this weekend!!) and I didn't have my regular camera, so I snapped this baby with my iPhone.  

Not too shabby!!!

Day 280...When the Sun is Saying "Hello."

WHEN THE SUN IS SAYING "HELLO."

I really don't want to be a landscape photographer,  I mean, at least not like as my mainstay.  But in doing this 365, it's impossible to ignore the landscape.  And it's not only the fact I'm doing a 365 that it's impossible to ignore.  It's just the fact that we live on a beautiful earth and the universe is constantly throwing fantastic visions our way.  

I'm not an early riser.  I don't capture tons of sunrises because I just don't get up early.  But here's a plus for the shortening Minnesota days...often times on my commute to work, the sunrise is in full swing.  The down side to that is that I'm often driving somewhere when I see it and it's often on a highway.  But this day, as soon as I saw the grape and tangerine sky, I decided I would take the route with the least dangerous side road stops!  As I've said before, I need that bumper sticker...you know the one...photographer makes frequent and sudden stops, yada yada.  Why can't there be pull over spots on the freeway specifically for photographers?  (wink)

So maybe now that fall is upon us, not only will there be a few more fall color photos, but perhaps some sunrises too!

Day 279...Soccer All the Time

SOCCER ALL THE TIME

We are at soccer a lot.  I've not posted as many photos as I would like to with soccer as the feature.  I've just been having a little bit of a rough time adjusting to my new camera photographing sports, which is ironic because that's one big reason I bought it.

So this shot is not crystal clear, and I chose this one because I actually kind of like the effect of everything being out of focus and the motion blur because Tiana was definitely flying down the field.  

We have one more tournament for the fall season, and hopefully I'll have something fun to post after that weekend.  It's going to be in Rochester and I'm hoping to get out to see some farmland with some gorgeous fall colors that day as well as shooting the soccer games.

Day 278...Autumn in Minnesota

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA

Tonight I went on a little walk through the woods.  I really wanted to find a typical Minnesota fall scene.  I did.  The woods were wonderful.  It was a chilly and windy evening, but I was dressed warm and enjoyed my quiet alone time.  

I was surprised how many different types of trees in this one forested area.  And even some of the oak trees were already losing their leaves.  The colors will likely be fully developed by next weekend.  I'm sure I'll probably have more fall scenes to share.

Day 277...At the End of the Day

AT THE END OF THE DAY

When I make my way home at the end of the day, I drive down a road that goes right by the small county airport.  And it's the biggest part of the sky around our area.  When the sun is getting ready to leave for the day, I can often see some beautiful sunsets from the location.  This night it was a crazy sunset.  When I took this, I couldn't believe the colors.  I didn't edit the colors at all in this shot.

Day 276....Somewhere Over the Rainbow

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

Okay.  I know it totally looks like I photoshopped this completely fake looking rainbow with fake looking clouds in the middle, but I swear, I cropped it and changed the contrast slightly, and this is what I got!  I'm not a scientist, so I really don't understand the sky on the top of the rainbow being darker blue, but this is by far one of the most amazing rainbows I've ever seen.

I was pulling into a parking lot, and I had just left the Blaine airport shooting a photo of the clearing sky after a rainstorm.  And the sun started to come through the clouds.  And just as I got out of the car, my dear and beautiful friend Burdette sent me a text.  "Do you see the Rainbow?"  It was as if she was standing next to me.  She must have been fairly close to where I was.  So I turned to my left, and WOW!!  

I was going to be late for where I was going, but there was not way I wasn't going to stop and shoot this!!!

Day 275...Holy Autumn

HOLY AUTUMN

So, I'm in a few photo groups.  One of them has 5,000 + members.  And with every passing season, there's usually an overload of seasonal photos, i.e., minimalist photos in the snow, the blossoms of spring, the ever popular flowers blooming, etc.  You get the gist.  

So autumn is absolutely no exception to that rule.  In fact, I sincerely think the abundance of gorgeous leaf-changing-color photos is almost overkill.  I'm not going to lie though.  I enjoy every single one of them.  And I've actually dreamed about the different leaf photos I would take.  I never dream about photography!!!

In the Cities, fall comes a little later than where some of my photography group "friends" are from.  But I've been driving around and as usual distracted by looking for that perfect fall shot that won't look like everyone else's.  Well, tonight, without looking for it, actually, I found one that I have not seen yet and hope nobody figures out where my "secret" spot is.  In fact, until autumn is over, I won't add the location to this blog so hopefully my shot is unique!