Winter Skyline

Happy New Year and enjoy the day.  My plans include un-holiday decorating and probably a little photography.  I have taken this shop before and I am sure I will take it again. What caught my eye this time was the frosty haze over the river, all the snow and the refection of the water in the mighty Mississippi.

cold feet

This is @schnapsi of Twin City Photos.

Taken in Rice Park downtown St. Paul.  I have figured out how to keep my hands warm for winter shooting but my feet get cold after about an hour of standing on the snow.  It was fun . . but it is time for new boots

Benches in the snow

I like to think of March as the march toward spring. It may not look like it from the photos but we are making progress, the snow was covering the seats.

Robert Street Bridge & Shepard Road

The Robert street bridge is the most photogenic bridge in St. Paul. This one was taken on a day when it was very cold.  A little river steam in the background and a little early morning light on the bridge.  It was too cold to get out of the car but I did pull over to take the shot. If you live around here and see me pulled over stop honking, it won’t make me move any faster.

Comcast Building

I got some photos last weekend early in the morning when it was well below zero.  The clouds in the photo are not really clouds but steam from the power plant which is more than a mile down river, maybe two from this spot.  The cloud hangs in the air and blocks some of the sun most of the day.  The river was steaming too because it doesn’t freeze solid and there is open water.  The building is the Comcast building as viewed from across the river.

Wet Paint on Grand

I got this one walking from a restaurant to the car.  Wet Paint is an  art supply store on Grand avenue in St. Paul near Macalester College.  I was surprised that the shot came out.  I took it with a 50mm lens using the widest aperture setting of 1.8.  If the corner had not been so well lit I could not have gotten by with a hand held shot like this.   It isn’t a great shot but I wasn’t expecting anything more than some blurry lights on a black background.   The snow in front gives it some depth and I like the colors.

Cafe Marine on St. croix

Yup it is at least as cold as it looks.

Bench

The days are very short and the shadows are long, at least they are when the sun shines.  I am not a fan of winter but this is where I live so I make the most out of it.  I think astrological winter begins at around noon today, watch for it.

Cold

Every winter I try to capture what cold looks like.  I can see the cold and it is beautiful but not worth freezing my feet for.  Thursday night I had a chance to go on a photo walk on a bridge close to my house.  I passed on the opportunity.  I can get photos from that bridge any time and I have.   My camera doesn’t perform all that well in sub zero weather and neither do I.   This photo was taken from mounds park, and it was below zero but I only got out of my car once.

Frosty

I took this yesterday at the south end of the Smith Avenue Highbridge on Cherokee Avenue. It was 16 or 17 degrees below zero so I didn’t linger very long.  The sky looks grey from all the steam from chimney’s and from the power plant a half mile down the river.  The shadows are also caused by the steam.  There is still open water on the river and some of it was creating steam.  For anyone seeing this who doesn’t live in the area the river is the Mississippi river just East of downtown St. Paul. I would rather not go out at all on days like that but since I had to go out I brought my camera.