Last Pine Standing

This tree really caught my eye while I was out exploring the backroads of Ontario, Canada last week.  

November, Mt. Josephine Summit

Supremely beautiful view, even in the gray month of November.  One of my absolute favorite places on this Earth.  Grand Portage, MN.  

Early Winter on the Gunflint Hills

Earlier this week I did some exploring on the Ontario backroads and found my way to the north side of Gunflint Lake.  In May of 2007 the Ham Lake Fire ravaged through this area, ultimately burning 75,000 acres of forest. Now, 12 years later, the forest is in full recovery mode but this time of year as winter sets you can still very clearly see how the fire changed the landscape. 

Log Abstract

Sometimes you find beautiful things in some pretty unexpected places.  Like this collection of logs with really intriguing cross sections I came across recently while scouting Canadian logging areas for good aurora shooting locations.  

The gray season is here

The gray month is officially here.  Most years it seems we see very little of the sun in November.  The days are dominated by gray skies and precipitation which varies between rain and snow.  This month does have a beauty all its own though.  And some of that beauty was revealed to me today.

Good Morning from Grand Portage

October sunrise at the Spirit Tree in Grand Portage, MN. 

Note: Access to the Spirit Tree is only available to Grand Portage tribal/community members.  

Late October Morning at Partridge Falls

The other morning I brought a few friends up to this waterfall on the Pigeon River.  It was actually only my second time visiting this location this year.  Sometimes I come here often, other times not so much.  I had actually been up the road to this spot quite a few times this year, but I was always focused on biking so I'd ride my bike in then turn around and ride right back out.  It was good to actually walk down to the waterfall once again as the last time I had done that was back in June. 

We had some nice cloud movement so I decided to take a "standard" exposure which stopped the motion of the water, then I took a second exposure which was 15 seconds long.  The long exposure smoothed out the look of the water and also caught the movement of the clouds.  I've often heard these types of photos referred to as "fake".  Well, just because the camera is recording something that we cannot see with our eyes doesn't make it "fake".  It makes it more of an artistic rendition of a scene. I like both photos, but my preference definitely leans more towards the long exposure version.