December Thaw

I went to one of my favorite county parks last week. With no snow or color I recorded the slow moving water under the ice. The mood of the creek seems somber while it awaits a blanket of snow.

September Waterfall

The spring run off is long past and summer rains a memory leaving the slow moving water of fall. This is a roaring stream in the spring and now you can walk across it with ease. The smooth water adds to the tranquility of the afternoon when it was recorded during a 5 second exposure.

Technical: polarizing filter and 2 stop ND filter used.

Ice Lattice

The season is changing! Ice is one of nature's mysteries I return to time and again. The patterns and colors amaze me each time I look at it. The challenge is getting an image to show emotion. Frequently color and design just don't translate to an image. However, I keep trying which is the joy of photography. I like this image for the illusion of depth.

Winter Robins

A flock of about a dozen robins have been active in this seep fed stream for the last several days. Robins are not supposed to be here during December. While recording video I had time to consider their plight. I took this shot, recorded the scene, but what is the big story here?

Fading Color

I was a little late getting to Lion's Park in St. Croix Falls for peak color and had to look for isolated pockets of color. This leaf covered rock caught my attention yesterday afternoon. My eye starts at the bottom, jumps the log, and ends at the diagonal tree in the upper right. 

Technical: 1.3 second exposure, f 16, 14 mm on Canon 7D. Lightroom used for ND filter in upper right. 

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.

Getting a Drink

As this wolf is nonchalantly getting a drink there are two frantic, hyper-excited photographers jockeying to position their tripods in the back of a short bed pickup, with a gear box taking a third of its floor, parked precariously on the edge of the road facing oncoming traffic.