Personal Favorites
On this page you'll find a few of my favorite images. Click on the photo to learn the story behind it. Feel free to email me any questions and be sure to visit the entire online collection.
"Kenosha Streetcar #4615" Kenosha, WI, brought streetcars back in the form of 1951 cars from Toronto. Kenosha had streetcars until 1958, then went the way of many cities by replacing the original light rail with new buses out of Detroit. In 2000, the town brought back five streetcars that currently run in a loop around the central downtown and harbor areas. This photo was chosen for the 2005 Minnesota State Fair fine arts exhibit.
"Arches, Busch Stadium"
This isn't a typical photo of Busch Stadium in St. Louis: usually those seats in the outfield are filled, but this picture was taken after a two to three hour rain delay. The rain didn't last long, but it
came down so
quickly that the infield could not be covered before it was flooded. Ten
minutes after it began to rain the sun was again shining, but the field
needed a few hours to dry out. The game also featured Mark McGuire's
550th career home run (off Oral Hersheiser in one of his last
appearances). I swear I called this homer: Oral was struggling and had
thrown two inside balls, and before the next pitch I told my friends to
watch McGuire whack an outside fastball out of the park. McGuire hit
the ball 485 feet, a nice line drive shot. Soon after this game,
McGuire would injure his knee and his career would come to a gradual
close. You can see McGuire at first in the photo. Shawn Green is at bat
here in the top of the sixth. As noted by the title, there are plenty of
arches on and around the field. I visited the ballpark with my
friends Richard and Kaori Aguirre.
"Lake Superior Circle Tour #3, Gooseberry Falls"
The third of several photos taken on a trip around Lake Superior. The toughest part of this photo was actually getting around to taking it. I was perched on top of the falls, which wasn't much of a problem due to the lack of water. The camera was on the tripod, everything focused, but it seemed as if every time I was ready to take the photo, someone would appear on the other side of the falls and start taking pics with their camera-phone. Nothing at all wrong with this, but that even on a wet and rainy weekday evening, it shows this spot gets plenty of people admiring the falls. A wonderful place, nonetheless.
"Split Rock Lighthouse, Lunar Eclipse"
While the 07 blizzard was occuring up on the North Shore, my wife and I decided to make a weekend visit. We were a bit surprised to find that most people canceled their travel plans due to the weather. The good news was that there were fewer people to navigate around, and plenty of photo opportunities.
This photo is one of twenty or so images I took of Split Rock Light during the trip. Our timing couldn't have been better--the wind had blown much of the ice off the lake in the shallow bay, the sky was clear and the weather tolerable, and, as noted by the title, there was a lunar eclipse on this particular evening.
"Squall Line Approaching St. Paul" On this night, I was hoping to get a few lightning shots, but unfortunately most of the lightning stayed in the clouds. In this image, you can see St. Paul to the right as a squall line of an approaching storm settles in ominously near the city. The dramatic sky looks worse than it turned out to be. I believe this was a 15 -20 second exposure. If you look closely, you can see a lightning strike in the background.
"Gold Medal Flour"
I've struggled with this photo for a long time. It was my first attempt at photographing this particular spot, and though I've gone back several times, I've never been able to improve this photo. Besides the Gold Medal Flour sign, you can see the new Mill City Museum as well as the Guthrie Theater being built in the background.
"Federal Leda at Anchor off Duluth"
This ship sat just off Duluth for the better part of two days. This is one of several attempts to get a photo of the ship with something interesting in the foreground, which ended up being the tower at the old Central High School.
"Minnehaha Falls"
Minnehaha Falls may be the most photographed location in the Twin Cities. I think everyone who has a camera within a forty mile radius has probably taken a picture of these falls, located in southeast Minneapolis. I decided to take a crack at it myself. It was a nice morning to take photos of the falls--overcast, early, calm wind, not a soul around.
"Lake Superior Circle Tour, Altocumulus Undulatus" The twenty-eighth and final image from a trip around Lake Superior. On the way home, we were treated to this unusual sky--a cloud formation technically known as Altocumulus Undulatus. During the entire trip, I was hoping to get a more eventful sky--storms, strange clouds, northern lights, etc. It seemed odd that on the very last day of the trip, we ran into this. I struggled to find something interesting to put in the foreground, so I finally pulled over and simply pointed the camera skyward. I adjusted the levels after the fact to show a bit more contrast.
"At Upson Falls"
This was taken in far northern Wisconsin. I was hoping to capture a nice shot of the waterfall, but the lighting was pretty bad. I turned to leave and noticed this scene. This is a 2-3 second exposure showing the current just below Upson Falls, taken from a precarious position on a rock in the middle of the river.
"North Coast - Crisp Point Lighthouse"
We weren't planning on traveling from Grand Marais to Crisp Point, but the last-minute decision was a good one. After forty plus miles of dirt road driving in the UP, we arrived just a half hour or so before sunset. The lighting and interesting sky made for some good photography, and perhaps the best part - no one else was there.
"Bear Butte, Mato Paha"
Bear Butte, known as Mato Paha. It is the spiritual center of the Black Hills for the Lakota and Cheyenne, a place of religious ceremony and vision quests. This photo shows it from the west as sunset gives it the last light of the day.
"Minneapolis, North Star Blankets"
Taken on a very cool, cloudy, and misty evening. I had it in my mind to take a reflection photo, and here is the best I could come up with under the circumstances. The image was taken under the bridge in order to keep my camera dry--approximately a 30-second exposure. This was the third attempt--the first two featured me moving the camera out of the way of traffic at the last second.
"Lake Superior Circle Tour, Rainbow Falls"
Fifteenth of several photos taken on a trip around Lake Superior. This is the first of a few images of the same location, Rainbow Falls, where Whitesand Lake empties into the Whitesand River. I think it would be difficult to find a more peaceful location, especially in the fall of the year when tourists have left for the season. Taken just before sunrise, early October, near Rossport, ONT.
"Man Fetching Dog Fetching Stick"
I had the new camera out with a zoom, trying unsuccessfully to get a decent picture of building down on the lakeshore. I focused on the pair in this photo and took a few pics. It looked as though had decided not to cross back over a stream and the owner needed to jump over to offer further encouragement.
"Fischel Road" This shot is from northern Wisconsin. In the winter, this forest service road doubles as a snowmobile trail. It is a very scenic spot, especially when the snow sits on the pine boughs that line the path. The only thing that a place like this needs is something going on--an animal on the road, people walking, a cabin--something as a point of interest. My goal was to get a snowmobile flying past to act in this role. Unfortunately, after waiting for a half hour, none came by. This photo was actually one of several I took in preparation. I wanted to find the best spot to shoot the image, so I left the camera on the tripod, focused, and set the delay on the shutter release. The person walking away from the camera is me trying to imitate where a snowmobile would be.
"Hiawatha"Chicago has its Sears Tower, St. Louis has its Arch, New York has the Statue of Liberty and Philadelphia has the Liberty Bell. Ironwood, MI--well, let me tell you, it features something on par with all of the above: "Hiawatha, World's Tallest Indian." According to an old post card, "Hiawatha: World's Tallest Indian Located in downtown Ironwood, Michigan, year round vactionland. Hiawatha is 52' tall constructed of colored fibre-glass-cost $10,000. Erected June, 1964 by the Ironwood Chamber of Commerce." I have to say, it's pretty impressive. It towers above the town much like the legendary statue of Zeus at Olympia. This photo was taken within reach of Hiawatha on an ill-fated trip to northern Wisconsin.
"Raising Steam" This is the Julia Belle Swain leaving on its last run of the season, October 2001, in La Crosse, WI. Very cold day for steamboatin'. This same steamboat was piloted by the late John Hartford.
"Eagle Bluff Lighthouse"
This photo was taken for my friends Brian and Kristen (Crocker) Johnson, who were happily married August 6, 2006. They got engaged at the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. Combining 3 or 4 photos with different exposure times produced the interesting sky. The print was made with metallic paper making the final image all the more dramatic.
The Eagle Bluff Lighthouse is located in Peninsula State Park in Wisconsin's beautiful Door County.
"The West, #11 Badlands of South Dakota"We have taken a few trips to the Black Hills and the Badlands of South Dakota. This is one of my favorite images from the Badlands. While it might look arid, this view was captured just after a long rainstorm--the ground was actually a bit mucky.
"Lake Superior Ice Shove #2"
In February 07, a Blizzard hit the north shore of Lake Superior, allowing for fantastic photo opportunities. Here's one: an ice shove that was pushed along the shore between Duluth and Knife River.
"Smolic House"
My Grandparents moved from their farm just south of Milwaukee in 2000. This photo, and many others of the property was taken just before they moved.
"Stone Arch Bridge #1"
The famous Stone Arch Bridge of Minneapolis stands in the foreground. This image was taken at night, approximately a 2-minute exposure.
"Wiemiller House"This old place is located near Winsted, MN. It's been abandoned for several years and probably isn't long for this world. We visited along with our friends Alois and Krista (Wiemiller) Heebsh. Krista's grandparents lived here when they were alive, but since her grandmother's death the house has been left to stand. Krista had quite a few stories and memories of the place, which made photographing this house all the more interesting. This picture features a ghost windmill--well, at least that is what it looks like, that little patch of open sky where the windmill once twirled.
"Wreck of the Mary Jarecki"
I believe I had more fun photographing this wreck than any other subject during the trip. The bones of the Mary Jarecki are beached along Lake Superior's shore within Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I took this photo at twilight, just before the weather turned for the worse. I manuevered around the wreck with a pair of waders, and because of the low light conditions the photos were exposed 8-12 seconds.
