First attempt

I had this idea in Duluth last weekend.What would flying gulls look like with a long shutter speed? They were being fed in Canal Park and the light was perfect. I risked getting bombed and sat on a bench to try.

Sometimes it is fun to just play and not sweat trying to get a perfect image.

 Technical: handheld at 1/5 second.

Duluth Lift Bridge

While in Duluth we walked the Canal Park side of the jetty to see Duluth's night lights from a different perspective.  It was also one of the only places we could find a parking space. On our way back the bridge was raised for a sail boat. This side of the canal is quiet and has very few visitors on it, try it the next time you are visiting Duluth.

Duluth Tall Ships

We planned a North Shore trip earlier this year and were disappointed to hear there were no rooms in Duluth this weekend, only to find out it was the Tall Ship Festival. We made our plans and came back through Duluth on Thursday just in time to see ships coming into the harbor. The crowd was thinned out by a drizzle and we had a leisurely stroll through the art show and got to see the ships up close.

Spring Melt

The challenge of recording this stream was conveying the sense of motion.  A slow shutter speed would have been too calm, a fast one would have frozen the action losing the sense of movement.  I tried several speeds and settled on 1/10 second.  Recorded at Lester Park, Duluth.

Boreal Owl Waking Up

February has been a good month.  I hope the owls make it back home.

These beautiful birds are here for one purpose, to survive.  Unfortunately not all are making it.  For those of us who do not live in the Duluth area Sam Cook has been a great source of regular information.  This is a link to one of his recent columns and I would encourage you to read his earlier columns as well.
Boreal Owls Dying 

Boreal Owl Yawning

This owl seems to be yawning. When seen with its other behaviors of stretching and preening the owl appears to be waking up.

Technical: frame pulled from video, ISO about 5000, 1/60 sec.,f 5.6.  WB corrected in Lightroom

Boreal Owl Preening in Forest -Raw footage from Dale Bohlke on Vimeo.

The challenge of an irruption is to find an owl in natural habitat, doing what it normally does.  I found this guy in the woods late one afternoon and recorded it while it went through its wake up routine.  This unedited footage, with its flaws, is one of 30 video files currently being arranged into story form.

Boreal Owl

I spent some time with this guy over the weekend.  The temptation was to fill the frame but after the first question asked by my wife was, "How big is it?", I decided to show it in context to demonstrate how small the owl actually is.  The owl was deep in the trees and woke up as it became darker.  Technical: ISO 1600, focal length 275 mm

Serendipity

The astute observer will see the "catch light" in the eye on this overcast day.  It was snowing lightly in Canal Park and a flake just happened to be in the area of the eye when the image was captured.  What is he thinking?

Simplicity

Two white diagonal lines anchored by a circle in a sea of blue.

Hot Ice

Rumor has it that the temperature has been so warm in Duluth recently the ice is almost too hot for the gulls to walk on.

The Winner

Competition is intense for the slices of bread at Canal Park, occasionally there is a clear winner.  Technical: soft image, included because of storytelling value

January Stretch

I went Duluth this week for the first photo trip of 2013.  I've been to Canal Park a couple times with no success in photographing the gulls but have heard they arrive at about 3 PM so this visit was timed for them.  I don't know if the gulls can tell time or have been trained to arrive for their daily meal of loaf bread.  In any event the light was sweet.  Technical: 100-400 mm, handheld, WB=cloudy