Moody Minneapolis

Just above St. Anthony Falls looking south across the Mississippi River into downtown Minneapolis along the 3rd Ave. bridge.

Braces

Hennepin Ave Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

Birdman

A nesting Flicker

Scarlet Tanager

Colored Waters

Big 559

Rather intimidating to stand in front of a train engine.

Lemon and Basil Sorbet

Sorbetto di limone e basilico
The recent hot and humid weather put us in the mood for something cool and refreshing. We had been enjoying root beer floats, but I wanted something more savory. In my August issue of La Cucina Italiana, I found the perfect recipe to make a refreshing sorbet. The recipe calls for this sorbet to be served on peach wedges. But we didn't have peaches, and I couldn't wait.

2 cups water - 1 cup sugar - 14 fresh basil leaves - 1 lemon.
Cook water and sugar on medium until sugar dissolves. Transfer to a metal bowl adding basil leaves. Stir and let cool to room temperature. When cool, remove basil leaves. grate lemon zest into water/sugar syrup and add 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Chill for several hours. Then add to your ice cram maker. Be sure to follow the directions provided by your ice cream owner's manual.

Enjoy! this is a refreshing lemony sorbet with a hint of basil. Tomorrow, I make another batch!

Reflection Red

Park trail bridge reflection across Elm Creek
-
Our fellow City Daily Photo blogger 'A.', photographer and webmaster, is missing in Tehran!

He has done a remarkable job covering the protests in the streets of his city. His blog, Teheran 24, has been daily updated until it was blocked in Iran last wednesday. From then on he has used his page on Facebook to spread the word. His last message dates from saturday, 10h20 am...
Family and friends think the police took him and they have no news until now: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-278349

White Balacing

Sunset over the Mississippi River

Below are the differences in a few of the White Balance Settings.
Choosing a different white balance setting can make striking results. These four photos were taken at the same settings and post processed in the same way. The only difference was the white balance setting on the camera.

White Balance: Daylight

White Balance: Shade

White balance: Tungsten

White Balance: Fluorescent

Locking on to Green

A 50mm wide open shallow depth of field project. All images taken at f1.8
Kayak lock at Lake Calhoun.

Dock Reflection

Fluid Dock

-

I have been scheduling my daily posts to submit shortly after midnight each day. For some strange reason that is not happening. Is anyone else having problems with scheduled posts not posting?

Day Trader

Can You Hear Me Now?
Only the fish are continuing this conversation.
This poor economy has affected everyone. Someone was upset enough and threw their cell phone into Lake Calhoun. I'm guessing he was a day trader and lost everything. No, I don't know that for sure. But that is my story and I'm sticking with it.

Blooming Time

Sometimes we need a splash of color

-

Bocce or Petanque?

What do you call a fun outdoor game using Bocce Balls and playing in the style of Petanque? Petocce?

The game is competitive and fun; challenging when the yard is uneven full of tree roots, rocks, dips and depressions. The ball in play was difficult to predict which way it would roll from all the natural obstacles. Our remedy was to build our own boule pitch of sorts.
Being a non conformist, I made our court wider, longer, and irregular. Makes for a more challenging game anyway.

Besides, we are not officially playing Bocce nor Petanque. Four yards of sand were spread over the area and boundaries lined with rocks and wood beams. The play is much better, a slower game without the tree root hazards and such.

Seize the Carp

Carp swimming in the shallows. Often I have enjoyed fishing from shore with nary a bite. But leave the fishing gear at home and fish are plentiful. Even if they are just carp.

Jaws

"You're gonna need a bigger boat."
-
Tiger Muskie in Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, MN.

Cove

Lake Vermilion

Bridging

Bicycle trail crosses under Route 169 along side the Mississippi River

A Fawn Is Born

Continuing on my hike along the Mississippi River, I caught movement on the island across the river. This doe was glaring at me and watching over her fawn.

View Coon Rapids Dam Park in a larger map

Sentinal Heron

This Heron is standing on the spillway of the Coon Rapids Dam. High above on the dam walkway, I got a pretty good shot of him.

Champlin Bridge

The Mississippi River flows under U.S. Route 169 in Champlin, MN

Glassware

Street side dining at The Duplex Restaurant and Wine Bar, Uptown - Minneapolis. The tablescape near Mitchster, Snapshutter, and I caught my attention and demanded a photo.

Diferente - Gotan Project

Pisa, Italy

Flashback 2006

La Piazza dei Miracoli as seen from our hotel room window at Grand Duomo Hotel

Night view of the Duomo in Pisa, (a one minute exposure).

Cafe next to Grand Duomo Hotel's rooftop garden. The wine was excellent, the gelati even better, (tre gelati).

Travel Tuesday

The Point

From the shores of Lake Vermilion

A photographic experiment. Why, you ask? Because we can.
I enjoy learning and trying new techniques whether the result is spot on or not. The fun is in the learning.
This image is a combination of a 7 photo HDR image and Orton imagery. I have shown you many HDR images, and I'm sure you've seen plenty across the blogiverse. I have tried the Orton Effect technique with mixed results. Here I wanted to see what would happen if I combined both techniques in black and white. I'm not crazy about the result, but it was worth a shot and spent some time on it that I simply didn't want to delete it. Besides, photography is a form of art whether or not we simply record what we see, or manipulate the camera settings or processing for a desired affect.

Spring Revival

Sometimes I think the colors of spring rival the colors of autumn.

Shore Fishing

Every day there are people lined up on the banks of the Mississippi River spending a pleasant day of fishing. The equipment is varied, minnow buckets, worm canisters, coolers, and a Tidy Cat litter container. this square box makes for an excellent way to take home their catch. This couple caught my eye as they were dressed fashionably rather than the typical shorts and t-shirts.

Boardwalk

On the north loop of the Elm Creek Park Reserve bicycle trail.
A study in lines , curvature, and vanishing point.

A Walk In The Park

Are we there, yet?
Newborn fawn struggles to keep up with it's mother. They left the grasslands of the park and headed across the parking lot. The mother was cautious as there were plenty of people around. Two people were watching from a picnic table, two were rollerblading, five bicyclists, and us to walking roving photographers.

The little fawn scrambled to keep up with it's long unstable legs. She hopped and bopped around with here legs comically moving about.

If I can't see or hear you, you're not there.
then she got tired. Instead of following her mother across the parking lot, she sought refuse in the shade of this tree.

Too tired to move.
And move she didn't. fifteen minutes later, we left the park, driving by this little deer by the tree. She didn't flinch as other cars passed by.
I have taken and posted a lot of photos from this park since I have been laid-off from work. T is a whole world to enjoy during the day, and I'm taking full advantage of it. This outdoor photography fun will end when the economy changes and jobs are available. Then I will miss this little deer.

View Untitled in a larger map

Spooled

Interesting to find things along the shore of the Mississippi River.

Travel Tuesday - Paris

Hotel Des Invalides

Seine River cruise and Pont Napoleon

From our trip in April 2008

Route 169

Minnesota U.S. Route 169 crosses the Mississippi River from Champlin to Anoka on the other side.