Getting ready for flugtag

The days are getting a little shorter.  I was able to get a “golden hour” shot after a meeting this week.  August is on of the best months for golden hour, twilight and night shooting. It is still warm out and I don’t have to stay out so late.  I am a morning person. This is a tent on Harriet Island in St. Paul.  This weekend is the Red Bull Flugtag, so I am cleaning my lenses and charging my batteries.  Homemade flying machines will be launched off of a 30 foot ramp on Harriet Island over the Mississippi River.  If anyone reading this is planing on going please let me know.  I plan on watching from the North side of the river. I think the view will be better and there are not as many hills to climb with my bike.

Duck

Quack

Golden Leaf Tobacco

Walking home one evening I had to stop and take some photos.  That might be why my ten minute walk took and hour but it was a nice night.  Golden Leaf Tobacco is located at 277 West Seventh street in St. Paul in the lovely historic Rochet building.  It was built in 1880 and I have to say they don’t build them like this any more.

Muscle

Muscle is a twenty six foot tall statue by Amy Toscani.  It used to be located on Broadway street downtown but vanished one day to make way for the new light rail line.  I figured maybe it fell into one of the big pits that used to be the streets of downtown until I found it in the sculpture park on Marion street.  I think it looks better in it’s new location.

Chicago River

I kept finding this photo on the media card in my camera and I wasn’t going to process it but I kept noticing it and finally I decided to do something with it.  I could have removed the distortion but I would have lost too much of the photo. I love how blue the sky is and the color of the water.  It is a lovely city.  Next time I go downtown I will bring my wide angle lens. It was too heavy to carry all day and I walked miles.

spider wart

The pretty flower with the funny name.  This is a tradition for me. I love these flowers.  I found this one downtown in Mears Park.  On the way to Illinois a couple of weeks ago I saw bunches of them growing along the road.  They are wildflowers. The plants kind of look like spider plants with long thin leaves and the flowers grow in clusters.  It doesn’t seem like each flower is open for very long.  I found some last year in the rain and went back the next day to take some photos and all of the flowers were gone.  I guess that is why I like to keep my camera handy and stop to use it when I can because we don’t always get a do over and sometimes later, someday or tomorrow never arrive they are just excuses.

Blue Columbine

I have a friend who sometimes has trouble with colors especially blues and lavenders so I got in the habit of labeling some of my flower photos by color so that there wouldn’t be any confusing.  This beautiful flower is in a sea of flowers next to the pond that runs through Mears park in downtown St. Paul.  It is one of the places I like to go to on the weekend when I really don’t get a weekend. It is an oasis.  It is a strange place though.  If you walk through it with a camera in your hand you will be asked if you are going to take pictures.  I have no idea why people ask but they almost always do.  Maybe they think there is some other reason why a person would carry a camera around.

Fourpaugh's Restaurant

I have a love hate relationship with my wide angle lens. There is distortion in this photo but it was for fun.  I noticed that someone took pictures of the inside of this restaurant with a wide angle lens.  I think they would look better if the photographer would have kept the lens level or straightened the photos before publishing them.   Sometimes distortion can make a photo look artistic at other times it can look the the person taking the shot is having trouble.

Door

I have a collection of pictures of doors.  They represent opportunity and of course there is the old dilemma of trying to decide between door number one and door number two.

Pepsi