Sunset on the North Shore - Grand Marais, Minnesota

Favorite Places - Minnesota's North Shore

June 30, 2017 in June 2017, Other

There are very few places that inspire my creative eye like Minnesota's North Shore. While Superior is a freshwater lake, the adjacent boreal forest and rugged rocky coast is reminiscent of the Atlantic Ocean's juxtaposition to Maine's Acadia National Park.

Bordered by jagged igneous rock, the ancient Sawtooth Mountains that once stood as grand as the mid-continental Rockies, are the perfect corridors for wildlife and water. Heavy rains and snowmelt produces a cornucopia of ephemeral streams as water flows downhill towards the Great Lake.

Swirling Fals - Sawtooth Mountains, Minnesota

Weather during spring and early summer is as unpredictable as winter in this border region of state. Temperatures can soar as high as 85 degrees Fahrenheit to only fall into the mid 40's within a single hour. Unpredictability is the charm and curse of this area. Often enveloped by clouds, fog, or rain, predicting climate patterns in the Arrowhead region is an exercise in futility. So if you are planning to travel to Minnesota's North Shore, be prepared and pack a bit of everything.

Fern Falls - Cascade State Park, Minnesota

Photographer's Notes - All images were made between June 24th and June 28th, 2017. The weather was an unpredictable mix of rain, clouds and sunshine. During our stay, temperatures hovered between 45 and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. An unusually wet spring produced stunning fields of lupines and numerous ephemeral waterfalls. All pictures were made from a sturdy tripod with my Nikon D810, 16-35mm f/4VR lens.

Icy Cascade
Nikon D810 + Nikon 16-35mm f/4

Winter's Last Gasp... a February Gallery

March 01, 2017 in February 2016, Block

Ice Art
Nikon D500 + Nikon AFS 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII

Icy Cascade in Black and White
Nikon D810 + Nikon 16-35mm f/4

End of Spring

Sunrise at the Pond

Surviving the Edge

Dispersal

Cautious Friend

Morning Dew

Red Tree

Reflection

King

Dawn of Autumn 2016

October 02, 2016 in October 2016

Falls at Willow River State Park, WI
Nikon D810 + Nikon 18-35mm G

Close to Home, Summer 2016

August 24, 2016 in August 2016

You know that little ditty by Johnny Cash? The one that begins with “I’ve been everywhere man, I’ve been everywhere, man…?” Well, there were times this summer when that song could have been my anthem.

Barred Owl *(Strix varia)* - North Central Minnesota
Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-400mm f/4.0 VR

June belonged to Iceland where I spent nearly two weeks photographing the southern coast and midnight sun. Home for only a day and suffering from sleep deprivation, I boarded another plane, but this time it was pointed to New York.

Just a Pastoral Landscape under Stormy Skies, MN
Nikon D810 + Nikon 18-35mm G

July began with a camping trip to the headwaters of the Mississippi River and ended with seven days in and around Santa Cruz, CA. By the time I was home long enough to re-established my position in the pecking order with the dogs, it was time to leave for Munich, Germany. Ironically, this trip was via Iceland; so, should you need advice about the best restrooms in Keflavik International Airport, send me a note… I’m your man.

Deceptively Small Falls
Nikon D810 + Nikon 105mm f/2.8 Micro VR (9 image focus stack)

Despite the travel and opportunity to make images in some fairly exotic locations, I do enjoy practicing my craft close to home. While I still have thousands of photos to edit and process from my Icelandic adventure and paddle throughout the Elkhorn Slough, I can’t suppress the urge to shoot the places that I know best. So while it’s likely the next few blogs will focus on the flora and fauna of Iceland or California, this gallery is all about the upper Midwest.

Sunrise Over the St. Croix River
Nikon D810 + Nikon 300mm f/2.8 AFS II

Ice in the Lagoon - **Jökulsárlón, Iceland**

Jökulsárlón Lagoon - Icelandic Portfolio One

July 27, 2016 in July 2016

I spent three blocks of time over three days photographing the Jökulsárlón Lagoon. The photos pictured here were all made during a magical moment that lasted nearly five hours. Transfixed by the changing, sky, light and water, I could have spent days photographing these ice sculptures carved by wind and water.

There are no Billboards

June 21, 2016 in June 2016

Having traversed1098 km (682 miles) from western Iceland to the eastern-most fjords, the absence of roadside advertisements has been a refreshing departure the norm. Anyone who has driven one route or another from New York to California knows that American highways are littered with billboards begging for attention. Rising from earth to sky, these monuments to consumerism feed the endless need to be entertained by human constructs rather than nature. In place of billboards, Iceland and the Icelandic people have strategically distributed mountains, volcanos, rivers and waterfalls across the landscape. Should one become bored with these geologic wonders, tired eyes can gaze upon fields of sheep, majestic horses and ruins past Icelandic peoples. We are eight in an eleven day journey and I already know that I will miss the beauty of this country that has entered the modern age more eloquently than my own.

More waterfalls than people - From the highlands of Eastern Iceland

Channeling Jim Brandenburg

June 07, 2016 in June 2016

In 1998 Jim Brandenburg published “Chased by the Light,” a photographic essay spanning the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. Burdened by his prior success and fearing a creative rut the artist/photographer was searching for a way to reignite his passion. Like a disciplined Zen master seeking to live in the moment, Brandenburg challenged himself to document a north woods fall by making only one photograph a day. Shooting in the pre-digital era, this meant getting it right in camera with each squeeze of the shutter.

Five years later Brandenburg released “Looking for Summer.” Much like “the 90-day project,” this was an exercise in vision and patience. While having survived his self imposed “one-a-day” rule, in this exploration of summer Brandenburg modified the prior model by shooting every day and selecting one “best” from the set. In the shadow of “Chased by the Light,” this project was also about revealing the changes in light and life as a season progresses.

In April 2016 National Geographic published the latest in Brandenburg’s quest to document the phenological changes of his Minnesota home. Titled “93-Days of Spring,” the article includes the largest number of images by a single photographer published in one issue. As with the prior seasonal projects, this is a modification of the original meme. Shooting every day and selecting bests from the set, this time Jim included photos from each ecological region in the state. Still shooting like the kid he once was, at age 70 the current project reflects the life of a man who has lived behind a camera. Brandenburg’s impeccable timing, willingness to shoot unconventional compositions and capacity to find the right subject continues to amaze this fan.

3/25/16 - Sunrise

4/3/16 - Trees

4/10/16 - Savana Grassland

4/16/16 - Egret Dance

4/17/16 - Domestic Squabble

4/22/16 - Yellow-rumped Warbler

4/23/16 - Foggy Sunrise

4/29/16 - Meeting of Minds

5/1/16 - Walk to Fairy Falls

5/7/16 - Muskrat & Cattails

5/8/16 - Curiosity

5/14/16 - Reflecting Pool

5/15/16 - Flying Phoebe

5/20/16 - Bob the Builder

5/21/16 - Graceful Model

5/29/16 - Black Tern in Fog

5/29/16 - Rising above Bird

6/3/16 - Reflections

Channeling the wizened master, this gallery is my modification of the “one-a-day” model. While I’d like nothing more than to shoot each day, teaching is my calling and photography is my pastime. Relegated to weekend warrior and after hours opportunities, this is as close as I can get to shooting every day during a school year. With the exception of a brief excursion to southeast Minnesota, the photographs presented are “selects” from a day’s outing only miles from my St. Croix Valley home. I'm no Brandenburg, but I feel his influence every time I raise the camera to my eye.

Fires to the North
Nikon D810 + Nikon 50mm f1.8 AFS-G

Good Work

May 17, 2016 in May 2016

During one of those all too frequent moments where I was waxing poetic about some prior exploit, a student asked me if I regretted my decision to become a teacher. As these queries often appear in a flurry, I was not surprised when the topic turned to my decision to live in Minnesota rather than my childhood haunts of New York City and Southern California. I suppose that if I grew up in a midwest suburb and my teacher was from a heavily publicized city and appeared surprisingly competent, I might wonder why he chose to stick around rather than pursue what seemed to be a more exciting life. Were I was asked to reflect on these choices twenty years ago you might here a hint regret, but today I am rather sanguine when it comes to my plight. Teaching has been good to me. While it is very hard work, emotionally demanding and can be painfully redundant, the rewards far outweigh the costs. There is a real purpose to my life, as I have the opportunity to share my deep passion for how scientists do science. While I love to lecture about all things ecology, evolution and molecular biology, my real creativity is borne from those rare moments when I can frame an exploration that fosters naive discovery.

In the Hole of the Storm
Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-400mm VR AFS

As "Teacher's Week" came and went, I couldn't help but reflect on the good fortune that led me into this field. Working as a field ecologist for a university team on St. George Island, Alaska, I was also charged with helping a middle-school teacher on sabbatical to fit in with our group. Not being much of a people person, this was quite a daunting task; yet there was something about the man that seemed remarkable to me. Dwight was not only a middle-school science teacher, but he was an amateur photographer who chose to spend his free minutes documenting life with a camera. After nearly two weeks of collaboration and training Dwight and I parted company, but he left a little something behind. I think it was the midnight dinners and frosty beers that loosened our tongues, and resulted in philosophical chats about living a quality life. This teacher loved his work, believed he was doing good, and enjoyed the small things like so few seem to do. It's been nearly 30 years since I last talked to the man, but I sincerely believe that the teacher I am today can be attributed to my own naive discovery about a guy and his career that evoked passion and a love for good work.

In the Shadow of Fairy Falls
Nikon D810 + Nikon 16-35mm VR AFS

When Light Hits the Water

February 23, 2016 in February 2016

Tamy and I will be displaying nine landscape photographs during March, 2016 at Chilkoot Cafe in Stillwater, MN. The evening of March 4th will be a "First Friday" event where we'll be around to discuss the photographs. Friends, photography lovers and buyers are all welcome to join us. For those interested in purchasing landscape art, we will have wall hangings and artist proofs for sale*.

*Because of our commitment to the places we love to visit and photograph, we will donate 25% of all March sales to the Nature Conservancy.

Notable Moments from 2015

January 01, 2016 in January 2016

2015 is a memorable year for many reasons, but my photographic exploits will not be at the top of the list. While my year in photography included trips to Costa Rica, the Olympic Peninsula, Moss Landing, Badlands National Park and multiple locations throughout Minnesota, these travels are insignificant when compared to the loss that defines the previous 365 days. Watching a parent age and succumb to an aggressive cancer is the seminal memory that now haunts me at unexpected times. While I was fully prepared for this loss at an intellectual level, I failed to grasp the emotional impact this event might have. To date, a day rarely passes without experiencing some fleeting thought about a mother who challenged me to live life as if it were the ephemeral thing that it is.

Image #2: Sunrise Over Lake Superior, MN

Loss and aging are like fraternal twins; two peas in a pod that seem the same yet maintain their unique characteristics. In this year that I said goodbye to a mother for the last time, I also bid farewell to my forties. The decade where I hit my professional stride in teaching and grew as a photographic artist ended with an abrupt and somewhat anxious invitation to join AARP and purchase term life insurance

For this post I scanned my 2015 folder to find ten memorable or transformational images. In the year where I joined The Arcanum as a way to grow and refine my vision, I challenged myself to make images that were something more than technically accurate, well exposed and composed nicely. My goal was to see nature for the story it tells. While I intended to share only ten photographs, the astute observer will see that there are fourteen. To save face, I have labeled the last four as honorable mentions, but this is a bit disingenuous; in truth, I am a lousy editor and have serious difficulties when it comes to defining favorites.

Image #5: Morning Reflections, MN — Image #5: Morning Reflections, MN

Image #6: Gray Tree Frog dressed in Green, WI — Image #6: Gray Tree Frog dressed in Green, WI

Image #7: Los Tres Amigos, CA — Image #7: Los Tres Amigos, CA

Image #8: A Pensive Spider, Costa Rica — Image #8: A Pensive Spider, Costa Rica

Image #9: Bison Dreams, SD — Image #9: Bison Dreams, SD

Honorable Mention #1: After Dinner Stroll, CA

Honorable Mention #2: Watching Mom for the Signal, SD

Honorable Mention #3: Me and My Better Half, CA

Image #1 (top of spread): The Wind, SD

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