Memorial Day - unofficial start of summer

Here in Minnesota, summer is defined as Memorial Day to Labor Day - no matter what the calendar tells you - and I'm sure it's that way elsewhere too. But the way the weather works here, odds are that Memorial Day weekend weather is going to be GORGEOUS and for outdoorsy folk here, there is nothing better than an extended weekend with a chance to play outside unhindered. Just about every town across the state has a ceremony or a parade to honor the locals who have been laid to rest there and the everyone goes off to be with family and friends for some grilling and fun in the sun.

Even better for me, my holiday weekend almost always involves my birthday as well. Sometimes I get folk together for a big picnic at the park to enjoy the grilling and games that are so common to the weekend. Other times, like this year, I prefer to just do a fun activity myself and keep things simple with no need for elaborate plans or coordination. It's taken almost 40 years to convince people of that! But this year was just a baseball game at the new Target Field with a friend and nothing more.. but it was so beautiful, it even felt like God was saying 'Happy Birthday' and I had to snap this shot of the city skyline at sunset from my seats in the park:



My Memorial Day was just about as classic as you can get without going to the cabin up north. I started in the morning watching one of my young brothers march with the high school marching band in a short parade and play patriotic music at the local cemetary. I spent my time walking amongst the crowd and taking a little time to reflect on why we were all there and the cost someone else paid for all the privileges I enjoy. Here's a few of the shots I got from the morning:











Then it was off to enjoy the freetime of the day. I had planned to bring along my camera and visit a local nature area that is walking distance from my house. I go there often and you never know what you will see - most notably great bird varieties. A few weeks ago, I walked there with my mom and in addition to several species of water fowl (one of which took a couple hours on the internet to identify) and song birds, we saw Bald Eagles, Osprey and other hawks circling overhead. It KILLED me that I didn't have my camera along that day. So the 13 yo budding photographer brother, Ben, and I hauled some gear along and went for a walk.

Who knew that predatory birds ALSO take Memorial Day off?? Nothing.. nada.. no ducks, no cranes, no egrets, no soaring wings in the sky. *sigh* We did find some very pretty wild flowers however.





We were a little bummed that we didn't get to try for the skyward shots on such a gorgeous day but we headed back to my parents' house for a little family meal. Drove into the driveway to find my mom all excited and dancing around her hanging baskets of flowers. A Swallowtail butterfly had decided to pop in for a visit and chose to hang out for awhile.







This one is slightly unusual because with the sun that day, I was able to get a picture of him with backlighting - and even shadows of the blossoms on his wings.



All in all, it was a WONDERFUL holiday weekend.

Kestrals at Target Field

If you know me, you know I'm a HUGE baseball fan. Recently, I attended a day game over at Target Field in Minneapolis that went into extra innings. Now, I almost always have my camera along at baseball games - in addition to my binoculars, my glove, my radio, etc. This particular game, the weather conditions were perfect and I just happened to have brought the big lens just to see what kind of fun I could have from the nosebleed seats.

For those who are familiar with the new Target Field, a pair of kestrals have taken up residence in/near the park and often delight fans by showing up during games to sit and watch. I was lucky enough to have them show up with great light and good luck.

When they first flew in, I thought that there was just no chance I would be quick enough to catch them in flight with the big lens but I thought I would try anyway. The first shot wasn't great but it surprised me that I could FIND the bird and focus quick enough to catch them.



It's hard to see the silhouette but that gave me the confidence to keep trying. Then the first one of the pair settled down onto the big field lights that were just coming on to deal with the changing light as the sun started to set. I knew I could catch a sitting bird!



here, I blew it up a bit and cropped it for you so you can see the bird a bit better.



But then, the mate flew in and started circling - here was my chance to catch the bird in flight!



I had to zoom this one it too just so you could see the great face on the bird.



I just desperately tried to keep the bird in the frame and follow it across the open sky as it turned and flew across and I got my favorite shot of the day!



and then, he turned and flew away... It's even pretty to see him leave!



I took a LOT more pictures of the baseball game, but it was a lovely break in the middle of the action to stop and look up instead of down. If you want to see the pictures of the baseball game, they're on my other blog: Knuckleballs

Jeremiah's Senior Pictures

It has been a LONG time since I posted anything but honestly, it's because it has been a long time since I took out the camera for anything other than recording a family event or whatnot. But since it's that time of year again, it was time to take yet another little brother out to collect some shots to use as his senior pictures!

Poor Jeremiah. A) He's extremely photogenic BUT he really doesn't like being in front of a camera so he loses some of his natural charisma, B) I'm always challenged by potraiture since it's not natural for me and I was seriously out of practice. The first day, I really had great shots lined up but just couldn't get the results I really wanted. Everything was soft, out of focus, or just not properly lighted. It was most definitely not my best day. I still got a few shots I liked but I was disappointed. A couple days later, we hit the high school again and my brain and hands remembered the whole process a bit better and I got some of the shots I had wanted to get the first time around.

Here's my two favorites:




If you want to check out the others I managed to get, here's a slideshow of the rest.

Scavenger Hunt Week 10+

Week 10's topic was Wheels - with the restriction that it couldn't be automobile related. After a visit to the MN State Fair (from which I got a few different shots) this is what I chose to submit:



As always there were extras...



and here's a quick catch up because I never got around to posting Week 9.

Week 9 - Mechanical (with the restriction of no electronic)

Model Photoshoot

In August, a photog friend of mine organized an event for a group of us to go out to a local lake and practice shooting a few volunteer models. I will readily admit that this is the weakest area in my shooting skills for whatever reason. But that means that practice opportunities like these are good for me to go out and stretch my thinking.

I am definitely nowhere near professional quality for these shots but I did end up getting some things I really liked.

Here's my favorite:


The rest of the shots I got vary in quality but they are fun for me nonetheless!



My thanks to Kinsey for setting it all up and Pauline, Josh, Teresa and Pet for being excellent models!

Scavenger Hunt Week 8

So our topic for week 8 was "Church". This is the image I chose.



It is a nearby Ukranian Orthodox Church that I was FINALLY able to capture with clear skies after nearly 2 weeks of rain every day.

This was an especially difficult week for choosing though - I had several that I really loved.

Scavenger Hunt Week 7

This week's topic was "Unusual" and I think that the broadness of the topic made it the hardest one yet. And the rules for this week really didn't seem to help narrow it down.
Rules:
1. The photograph has to make you think about what the image is.
2. Can not be manipulated in photoshop
3. It can be any object, person, place or idea.

This is the one I eventually chose:


Stuff like that is why I think God allows little brothers! As always, I had a tough time choosing once I had a good selection of things I liked. Here's the extras!

Isaac's First Nature Walk

One of the fun parts of doing daycare for my 4 yo nephew once in awhile is that I get him all day and we can do and see new things! In an effort to tire out the wiggles from the little legs, we went on a nice long nature walk to see what we could learn. We got lucky to see a LOT of bird life that day and learned some new trees too - he absorbs everything like a sponge and Mommy was very impressed.

The first thing we encountered was a gorgeous egret. Now we see a LOT of those in this area but I have never seen one this close or for this long. We sat and watched it wade in the shallows and eat for at least 20 minutes.


and by close, I mean REALLY close!


this was actually a pretty low branch but Isaac wasn't so sure about getting up in the tree until he was there - and realized that there were foot and hand holds just like his favorite climbing wall at the park. It was one of many trees he learned the name of that day (he's especially fond of the different kind of birches that line the trailway with Paper Birch as his favorite).


Another very rare sight for me - this is a Little Green Heron. I can only recall seeing one in person once before in my life and Isaac thought it was cool to see it only about 20 ft from us.


he LOVED the lily pads and the flowers.


a very pretty gold finch that flitted above our heads for awhile - Isaac can even tell you that's a boy and how to tell the difference between girl and boy.


This was actually later in the afternoon/evening. This is a juvenile Red Tailed Hawk that was the cause of a royal ruckus at my folks house between his shreaking and all the other birds complaining about him being there.


We got to see a lot of things that day but I couldn't believe how obliging the wildlife was. Here is a collection of stuff we got to see:

Willow River State Park

Back in the spring, May 10th, some folk from the photography group got together to do a trail hike at Willow River State Park in Wisconsin. We hiked about 8 miles, I think - nothing too strenuous except a brief stair climb up a cliff face. But it was worth it. Turned out to be a fun day of playing with light between sun and clouds and a few teaching moments.

It took me a long time to sort through and pick the shots I really liked since I took about 500 frames but now that I finally have, here are a few of my favorites!





















Believe it or not.. that is just the tip of the iceberg! The rest of the album is in the slideslow below.

Scavenger Hunt Week 6

The assignment for week 6 was "Fences" which really had me looking at my surroundings in a different light. I admit that I don't normally NOTICE fences around me all that much unless they are ugly. You could get very deep and philosophical about a statement like that but let's just say that I started to notice the boundaries in my environment a LOT more.

I also went a pretty different direction in my choice of photo than I usually do in my photography. I think that is the point of the hunts so I let myself be a bit more creative. Even though I took some of the standard "cluttered, cuddly" or "artistically colored" shots that I usually do, I ended up going with a Black & White with a more industrial feel:



That's actually layers of fencing from a local zoo around the lion habitat. Kind of glad for all the fencing but it was remarkable that so many layers were necessary in one place.

Here's the extras that I didn't use:

Birth Announcement!!!

with guest photographer: Phillip Thomas

yes, another one... the funny thing about having a big family is that when the next generation starts to arrive, it seems to be one of those exponentially growing things. So I have a new nephew! My brother, Phil, & his wife, Michelle, have definitely been working toward this for a long time so congrats to them both!



Caleb Riley Thomas
born: July 26th, 4:41 pm
Weight: 7 lbs 4.4 oz.
Length: 20 inches

Sadly, I haven't been able to meet him in person yet since they live in another state though it will happen soon. But here's just a few of the hundreds of pictures my besotted brother has taken.



Can't wait to come for a visit Little Monkey!

Scavenger Hunt Week 5 (plus some catch up)

I have missed a couple weeks of posting the scavenger hunt assignments - but I was taking the pictures. So I'll give you Week 5 and the extras but then catch you up with the final selections I used for Weeks 3-4.

Week 5 assignment was Color - focus on a single color in an artistic way. I chose one from the inside of a slide at a local park - I loved the light, color and shape!


Here's the ones I debated and didn't use:




and the quick catch up on the previous weeks:


Week 4 - People at Work





Week 3 - Isolated

Toddler Photoshoot

The process of getting some fun, unique and portrait quality shots of a two-year-old can be traumatic for everyone involved sometimes. So, when my sister-in-law wanted to get some shots of my nephew, Matthew, we decided to find some environments that he would find fun and be encouraged to act more naturally despite having a camera pointed at him all the time.

A local park in June provided a fantastic background for Stage 1 - we still have some ideas for an indoor shoot that we haven't done yet.

Out of all the shots, I think this one was my favorite:


But here is a collection of all the good ones - in my opinion at least.

Summer Scavenger Hunt Week 2

This week's theme was Round Things. The fact that it included the 4th of July meant that there were some fun opportunities.

Here's what I went with:


And like last week, I had some extras that I liked but did not choose: