Autumn at Itasca

Jessica and I just returned from a long weekend of exploring some of the state parks in the northwest region of Minnesota.  We spent the first two nights at Itasca State Park in the Itasca Suites.  These are wonderful facilities that are open year-round and just a short walk away from the visitor center, the bike trail and some of the hiking trails.  We went for a morning hike, then checked out the Jacob Brower visitor center which has a lot of really well-done interpretive displays.  After that we got on our bikes and spent a few hours riding the paved bike trail and wilderness drive road.  After 17 miles of riding we had circumnavigated the park, rolling through a variety of beautifully diverse forest. 

Itasca is known for its pine trees, but it also has a nice mix of oak, birch and aspen.  And, the trails were awesome!  Really a nice mix of hills, and the downhill sections were a blast!  We really had a lot of fun at the park and can't wait to go back!  Here are a couple of shots from our full day of adventure at Itasca.  The first was taken on our morning hike along the shores of Lake Itasca via the Brower Trail.  The second was at sunset, taken from the picnic area near the Itasca Sports shop.  Enjoy!

October Rain Drops

Away from Lake Superior in Grand Portage, most of the leaves have fallen to the ground.  While a lot of people would argue that things are now quickly becoming "ugly", I would argue that there is still plenty of beauty to be found, you just have to look a little harder to see it.  Such as this leaf, found on the forest floor with some rain drops still clinging to it. There are countless treasures such as this to be found on the forest floor.  You just need to get out there and look :-)

Autumn in the Pigeon River Valley

From a hike yesterday along the Middle Falls Trail in Grand Portage State Park.  The Middle Falls Trail is a wonderful hike with a nice variety of terrain, both lowlands and higher elevations along the ridge that you cross to get to the falls.  This photo was made from the high point on the trail, on top of the ridge overlooking the Pigeon River Valley.  You can see a short stretch of the river in this photo, down at the bottom of the valley.  All of the land that you see on the far side of the river is in the province of Ontario, Canada.  The park is so close to Canada that one of the most common questions asked by visitors to the park is "We don't have to cross the border to see the park, do we?" 

My favorite falls

I know over the years I've probably shared too many pictures of this waterfall, but I can't help it.  It's my favorite!  Part of the reason for that is because of its remoteness.  It's not an easy spot to get to, therefore not very many people visit it.  Also, it's another image with which I can showcase the capabilities of the Sony RX100 Mark III camera.  I promise, I will soon stop talking about the amazing nature of this little "miracle" camera.  For now, though, I simply must rave about it once more.  This is one of the first waterfall images I made with the RX100, and I must say it performed very admirably!  This is a 1 second exposure at f11 and ISO 80 with the in-camera ND (neutral-density) filter turned ON.  The resulting image is incredibly clean.  In fact, it's hard to tell the difference between this and a file from my Canon 5D Mark II.  Anyway, enough about that... I'll just let you enjoy the image :-)

Backlit Treetops

Here is a recent sunrise capture of the forest in Grand Portage, MN.  When the rising sun illuminated these treetops the lighting around the edges of the trees really jumped out.  It sure was a lot of fun photographing these trees in such beautiful light!

The Fallen

What a strange year for fall colors.  The maples seemed to peak overnight then fall just as fast, now the birch and aspen colors along the Lake Superior shoreline seem to be taking their sweet old time changing.  We are seeing more and more color each day along the shoreline but there is still plenty of green as well.  Here is a shot that I made when the maples were already past peak.  We stopped by a local lake and the surface of the lake was peppered with fallen maple leaves.  Some of the leaves were "marching" across the lake, pushed by a gentle breeze from the north.  Others (like this one) were stationary, presumably hung up on an unseen piece of vegetation just below the surface.  I noticed that my wife Jessica was taking close-ups of the leaves with the telephoto range of her camera and she was getting some spectacular shots.  I couldn't resist getting my telephoto lens from the truck and making my own images of the floating leaves.  It helps to have more than one set of eyes around... everybody sees something different when they look at the same scene :-)

Aurora Activity 9-27-2014

In the early morning hours of September 27, 2014 I was helping my friend Bryan Hansel Photography conduct a special night sky session of his fall color photography workshop.  We started off the evening shooting the Milky Way but just after midnight the northern lights started to flare up.  By 1:00 AM (the time this photo was made) the lights were pretty active, waving and dancing throughout the northern sky.  We took the group to the Cascade River where it crosses The Grade since that location is perfect for photographing the lights in the sky as well as their reflection in the river.  While I was busy most of the time making sure the workshop participants were tended to, I did manage to make a few images of the lights for myself.  

At one point a car showed up on the road much to everyone's delight (moans and groans were aplenty as the car sat idling at the intersection of The Grade and Bally Creek Road).   I thought it might make an interesting shot so I clicked my shutter and made an image of the car in the foreground with the aurora in the background.  Every night where the lights are out is a memorable night and this was no exception.  I was glad that the aurora showed up for our night sky session, it was a special treat to an already sublime night!