Spring in the city

The lovely spring green leaves frame downtown St. Paul.  Mother nature is being very kind to us this year.

wind in the willow

The weeping willow trees are among the first to green up in the spring.   They have such a nice color.

Thingy

I was in the woods last Sunday hunting for wildflowers and I found some but I also found this thingy so I shot it.  It isn’t a wild flower but it posed for me so I went for it.

Dancing

I always have trouble shooting black statues.  This one is in HDR which kind of helps.  Actually it helps a lot, almost feels like cheating.  The statue is part of a water feature at the Como Park Conservatory.  I love palm trees.

LeDuc Estate - Hastings Minnesota

The first day of March has me thinking about how wonderful it would be to take photos of architecture without snow in them.  There are some advantages to this time of year.  In the summer this shot would have showed more tree than building but I long for green grass, flowers and warm weather.

The home pictured is part of the DeLuc Estate in Hastings Minnesota, and is in the Gothic revival architectural style. Kind of busy but I like the combination of wood and brick, and those wonderful huge old oak trees.    Hastings is a small town of about 30,00o.  There are many wonderful historic buildings churches and houses to photograph.  I need to go there more often.

Gingerbread on a shed

They don’t make them like this anymore. This shed is in Hastings MN and part of the historic and well preserved LeDuc estate.  The buildings are Gothic revival.  Hastings is just south of St. Paul on the Mississippi river.  This barn isn’t as pretty as the house but I liked the shadows on it from the ancient oak trees the surround it.

Oak Tree

I took this same shot last Fall.  The tree is close to a home that I had for sale. The people who live there saw me out in the street pointing my camera at the tree.  I should have stopped and talked to them when I took this photo. I used my 50mm 1.8 lens.

The Barn

I have been searching for barns to shoot because I like the way the red looks against the snow. This one is at the dodge nature center which is close to home.  Mayne over the weekend I’ll go a bit further away to the big barns that sit out in the open fields.

Oh look a tree

People love the tree in the IDS center in downtown Minneapolis. Some take family portraits in front of it to be used as holiday greeting cards. Other stare at it from the skyway . . and it gets it’s photo taken often.

Highland Park Golf Course

Sadly I have never been in this building, just driven by it. Located on Highland Park golf course in St. Paul, of course. The city web site doesn’t have any information about the buildings in the parks or about the parks for that matter. Highland park has an 18 hole golf course, and this building is on it . . kind of.  I will guess that it was built in the 20′s or maybe 30′s but will do my home work before I post other photos of it.

Happy December.  Usually we have snow here by now.  I guess it is on the way.