Kaposia Landing- May 2015

Many a times I have roamed the trails of Kaposia Landing while waiting to pick up Matt from work.  Rehabilitated around 2006, Kaposia park is located in South St. Paul.  What once was a construction and demolition landfill, the park now includes hiking/biking trails and a large dog park.  I have found that it offers great views of the Mississippi River while jogging around the paved trail.

 

The Mississippi River view from the trail.

Barges on the river.  

  

A nice distracting view while on a run.

The South St. Paul Swing Bridge; sometimes you have to bend the "no trespassing" rules to get a good shot! I snuck on to the tracks to get this view of the bridge. (The risk paid off; I had this photo featured on Capture Minnesota's Instagram page!)

 

 

 

Backtracking

Whoa.  It's already September!  Clearly I am way behind on blog posts.  This summer was jam packed with lots of events and photo opportunities; it is time to catch up and post!  For the next few weeks, I hope to backtrack and post everything that has been going on over the last few months. 

 

So in the meantime, a photo I recently took of the turn of the season; the first signs of autumn upon us.  The neighbor's walnut tree is beginning to litter our backyard with touches of gold foliage; making for great color interest in this shot.  

This is the neighborhood stray (for a couple years now) whom we've recently nicknamed "Tux".  Over the last couple months, we have been slowly gaining his trust, which in turn, has lessened his feral ways.  He now meows when he sees us, and we've even caught him purring a time or two.  Earlier this year, we could hardly touch him without him nipping at us or growling; now we can pet him, pick him up, and even play with him.  He's taken such a liking to us, that he seldom leaves the yard. I have found that he's very photogenic as well, as you can see in this photo I snapped of him.  Such a great subject to practice my "portraits" on!

 

More Minneapolis Cityscapes

A couple of weekends ago I took some time to get back to Minneapolis again to shoot some more landscapes.

Boom Island and the lighthouse.

The Wisconsin Central branch bridge. I was terrified to walk across this, but slowly did it!

 

Boom Island pedestrian bridge.

Boom Island lighthouse

The side of the Wisconsin Central branch bridge, graffiti. 

 

Later, a walk through Minnehaha Falls park.  Looking up from under a bridge along the trail.  A sliver of the moon on the left.

Ford Parkway Bridge

Locks and Dam #1

My first feature!

 

Tonight I had my first ever photo feature! 

I posted this photo to my Instagram account tonight.  I really didn't know what to think of it, but posted it anyway, tagging my usual hashtag accounts along with it.  Best of Minnesota (#bestofminnesota) liked it so much, that they featured it on their Instagram page!  I was pretty flattered none the less! 

 

This weekend was great for photographing!  Saturday evening I ventured over to Minneapolis to photograph the Minnehaha Falls area.  Right at dusk, I headed down to the Lock and Dam #1 to get some reflection shots along the river.  As I was headed back to my car, I stopped and shot this final shot of the night of the Ford Parkway Bridge through the trees.

Selective Colorization

I created this photograph the other night in honor of Arbor Day this year. I thought selective colorization would make this Maple seedling really stand out. I've only experimented with selective colorization one other time; I'm still in the early learning stages!

 

Thanks to Matthew for getting his hands dirty and modeling for this photograph! :)

Minneapolis Cityscapes

This past weekend brought us above average seasonal temps in Minnesota, which made for a great day for an outing!  Matt and I made a trip over to Minneapolis Saturday morning so I could do some photography.

Minneapolis skyline viewed from Boom Island Park

Minneapolis and St. Anthony Falls viewed from the Stone Arch Bridge Walkway

Minneapolis skyline

Mill Ruins/Stone Arch Bridge

Friday night we ventured over to Minneapolis to take some photos around the downtown area. 

Mill City Ruins and Gold Medal Flour

 

A long exposure of the Stone Arch Bridge walkway.  It was a beautiful, calm night!  Many people were out and about and can somewhat be seen as blurred images in this photograph.

The Stone Arch Bridge at dusk.  We walked down a rickety flight of wooden stairs to get to this view. It was fun watching the lighting change for a good half hour before I began shooting.  Well worth the wait!

 

Lilydale Park

Sights around Lilydale Park in St. Paul

Smith Ave High Bridge and the St. Paul Skyline

A big Oak tree along the Mississippi River

An old rusty chain along the river bank.

Mississippi River Swing Bridge #15- still in use today!

St. Paul Sunset

Sunset this past Saturday (April 11th) over the St. Paul skyline.  View taken from Mounds Park.

St. Paul capital

St. Paul

St. Paul Skyline viewed from Harriet Island earlier this afternoon.

Apostle Islands

Last weekend, Matt and I took a day trip to the Apostle Islands near Bayfield, WI to see the ice caves. The caves were finally open for the first time this season.

 

To get to the ice caves, you have to trek a mile over the frozen Lake Superior.  A lot of the lake was clear of snow, giving us a chance to see the clear glass ice.  There were also big cracks, like this one all over the lake.  But not to worry, the ice was at least 8"-10" thick!

Matt climbed up an ice shelf to get this photo.  He had a nice "slide" down.

A great wall of ice.

Lots of ice hanging from the rock cliffs.

To get this shot, I laid down on the ice and shot this looking up at the ice hanging from the rock cliff.

 

Bubbly ice formations.

 

Some of the ice from this huge formation had broken off.

More interesting ice formations looking above.

Matt by the ice.

Several hundred (total of 10,000 over the weekend) visitors came from all over to see the caves last Saturday. I captured a few of them checking out this cave of ice.

A cool collection of icicles.

 

Another shot looking up inside the ceiling of one cave. 

Mother nature's artwork!

A youngster checking out the caves.

This was my favorite find inside a tiny cave!  Frosted icicles!

 

 

Inside the frosty cave, looking out to Lake Superior.

 

Lots of big ice!

 

Spectators of the ice caves.

It was a chilly 20 degree day with blustery winds, but we were bundled up enough to enjoy the day.

On our "glide" back to the beach parking lot, we stopped so I could get a photo of the ice on the lake.  Little bubbles forced their way up to the surface of the ice as the water froze, giving it this cool "pins" look.

Old boats along a wayside rest in Cornucopia. Boats that once ventured on Lake Superior.

The Eagle

Twin Sisters.

An old blue boat.