Go Mustangs! Scrimmage 8/29/2009

My MN State Fair Fine Arts Entry

This is my Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts photo entry. I will find out tomorrow or Thursday if it is accepted. There are over 1000 entries with fewer than 100 accepted. I named it 'untitled.' Jimmy says that it has strong religious overtones. God bless that boy. I took this picture at the Cloisters in New York last fall.

Eagle Scout

SteveO's Eagle Court of Honor with Masters of Ceremony, John and Jake; color guard, James, Michael, and Jim. Music by Molly. Be there or be square. Friday, July 24 at Sucker Lake, Pavilion 1, 6PM. A-M bring salad, N-Z bring a side dish.

Trip to Laureen's PhD Defense, Sept 2008

I believe this bridge that you see from the Cloisters is the George Washington.


I shot all of these pictures at the Cloisters in Manhatten, except for the iguana. The iguana is PJ's now deceased reptile. He had had the beast for many years before it sadly passed away during the winter. As the headline suggests, these photographs were taken when I went to NYC for Laureen's defense. Instead of naming the post "The Cloisters and PJ's iguana," I choose to include Laureen in the title because I want her to know that she is special and I'm not neglecting her. I should also add that the hand belongs to Laureen. The Cloisters are a very special place to spend a rainy afternoon.

A boy and his dog

These are SteveO and Snickers on Snail Lake in December, 2007.

More Minnehaha Falls

"Can you say the name of this falls without laughing?" Believe it or not, that was one of our daughter's lame jokes when she was about seven or eight. I won't say which one because she is all grown up now and starting graduate school; and I wouldn't want her to be ostracized.In the interest of NOT fooling the public, there was a guy in the path on the left side of the next picture who simply did not fit in compositionally. I took him out. Whooosh.
Moral of the story: Try to fit in.The last picture in this set is a Ghanian family that Mary and I met last week at Minnehaha falls. We also went to Sea Salt.

Still obsessed with my new macro lens!

To be honest, no one should look at arugula flowers this close. But go ahead and click on the picture and you will REALLY see them close up. These are reseeded from my weed garden where I grew arugula last year. The next three photographs are a preview of this year's tomatoes.


The rest of these are from Troop 626 Colorado Rafting Trip. I came across them while looking for something that I could put into SteveO's ECOH invitations.


Oh, and by the way, did I mention that it's my birthday? Happy birthday also to Messrs. Haffely and Rafter.

Indonesia

Actually, none of these pictures are from Indonesia. We are, however, hosting Jimmy's friend, Matthew, who is moving to Indonesia. He will be here until Friday. I hope he survives ;-), us, that is; I know he will be fine in Indonesia.
This is Long's Peak, taken from the trail to Gem Lake, near Estes Park.

Adolescent elk in my parent's back yard, Estes Park, CO. Estes Park was on national news this evening for being an elk playground. These are some young guys getting in practice for when they get older.

Today Jimmy and I went to Wisconsin to see Big Manitou Falls. At 165 feet, this is the highest water falls in the upper midwest. Although it is right off of highway 35, 12 miles south of Superior, it seems kind of neglected. You can't get too close to it and the trail along side the river had very few visitors, even for a Sunday afternoon. The ranger who takes your money is also unfriendly. He seemed suspicious of outsiders. This made me suspicious of him.

Variegated Iris

This is from my front yard. Do you think it is gaudy?

Shadows

I shot these photos in Minneapolis in late winter of 2007 for my photography class with Stephen Haynes at the Edina Art Center.

Falls

Minnehaha Falls, Minneapolis
Cascade Falls, Hovland
Funny thing, I took these two pictures exactly one year apart. Jimmy and I took our annual North Shore trip three days ago on the Sunday before Memorial Day. We had never been to Cascade State Park, mainly because we normally take just one day from Shoreview and it is 500 miles round trip. We likewise hiked around Judge Magney State Park, which also has amazing water falls -- check out Devil's Kettle. Unfortunately, I left my midrange lens at home and was left with a choice between my macro and telephoto lenses. I shot Cascade Falls (second photo) with the macro lens. Minnesota has some great water falls. Wouldn't it be fun to travel Minnesota with the objective to photograph all the big falls! (Maybe take in Big Manitou Falls in Wisconsin as well.... Mat -- notice one 't' -- my new colleague at SCS, told me about the Big Manitou in western WI last week.)

The Brule River below Devil's Kettle