Lake Superior Wood Lily

My dad told me about these nice Wood Lilies that were blooming on the shoreline in front of their house... of course I had to check them out! I intentionally shot this "wide open" (aperture f5.6 at 400mm) with my Canon 100-400 lens to create a shallow depth of field and give the image a "dreamy” look.

Little Brick Lichen

Little Brick Island - Grand Portage, MN. We had really nice clouds the whole evening, which made it one of the most enjoyable photography outings I've ever had to the Susie Islands. The sun was at my back and behind the clouds when I made this image, which meant that the foreground was very dark. I used my Singh-Ray 3-stop reverse-grad neutral-density filter to help balance the exposure. I got some nice images of the sunset as well on this outing, but this is my favorite image of the day. This was taken about an hour before sunset.

Lovely summer day on Lucille Island

Today Lake Superior displayed an incredibly calm mood that is rarely seen. I couldn't pass up the opportunity the lake was presenting, so I headed out in my boat and spent the day photographing and exploring the islands that are near my home. In the afternoon some really nice clouds started to show up. Adding a polarizer filter to my lens really helped to accent the clouds as well as cut the glare from the water, so the shallow rocks and reefs could really show up in the images. It was an incredible day to be on the water!

Black Bear crossing the Pigeon River

I caught this guy swimming across the river just upstream from the mouth today while kayaking on the river. This was the third time I've seen a bear swimming across the river!

Moose Meadows, Pigeon River

(Click the photo to view a larger version)

This photograph was made from the Pigeon River Helipad and Overlook on Otter Lake Forest Road in Northeast Minnesota. Ever since the forest service created this helipad and overlook, I've been stopping there whenever I'm in the area in the hopes of seeing a Moose down along the river. Being quite familiar with the river from the seat of a kayak, I knew that this bend in the river was quite popular with the Moose. However, I had never seen one from the overlook until today! I watched through my telephoto lens as the Moose moved throughout the shallows for several minutes. Eventually he turned and gave me a nice profile of his body. It was cool to finally see a Moose from this vantage point! This marks my 18th Moose sighting of this year!

Mating Damselflies, Swamp River

I paddled 13 miles on Swamp River yesterday and saw several critters but the highlight of the day was seeing all of the damselflies in the grasses and on the lily pads along the edge of the river. They are so small, most people probably wouldn’t even notice them. These little guys are only about an inch and a half long. Once you notice them, it’s hard to take your eyes off them (they are also quite hard to photograph, since they usually don’t sit still for very long). Adding to the difficulty was the wind. It was quite hard to capture these critters when the grasses were blowing around so much!

Border Bridge

The international bridge between the U.S. and Canada over the Pigeon River in Grand Portage, MN. I made this image right after it stopped raining today. The bridge's reflection on the water and the fog in the background really caught my eye.