The woods was alive this afternoon. Deer, turkeys, juncos, and bluebirds... I don't recall ever seeing bluebirds this late in the year before. When I stopped to take a photo I noticed this youngster in a nearby tree. No snowys yet but with this great horned juvenile and another one spotted on the drive out it has already been a year of many owls.

My Ft. Snelling Flickr Link

Sharing my Flickr link to Ft. Snelling to our group. Enjoy the show :)
Wishing all a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and Joyful New Year!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/franklinphotos/sets/72157606912827552/show/

iPhone camera recommended by famed photographer Annie Leibowitz

iPhone camera recommended -click here!

Thanksgiving Day 2011

"Who cooks for you?" 

Halloween in the Park

I thought I had a photo of my campsite with the tent for all you non believers but I don't. This is from last year, my tent is just visible on the left. That red splotch is my tent. I must give most of the decorating credit to my sister, Barbara, that is really into halloween.

Oct pics

I had some awesome pics from North at the end of Sept, but the task was for Oct. I was out in Virginia (just before the snowstorm), so 2 of the pics are of the Shenadoah River and the other in the Shenadoah National Park.

Big smile

Trails

"On top of OLD Smokey"
Clingmans Dome Trail, Roundtrip : 1 mile paved, Total Elevation Gain: 350 ft, Highest
Elevation: 6643, Trail Caution: Steep
VERY STEEP. Half way up I was wondering "Why am I doing this?" The Dome trail intersects the Appalachian Trail at the top, of course. DD

The Boys Club

OH, Look, what we found!!!!

The Rock

Before Sept. 10 go to the huge boulder on the west side of Lake Snelling ( see link above). Take photos and send your 3 favorite to fsspcameraclub@gmail.com. We will share all on Sept. 10th.


For location see:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205629261220477440994.0004aa06bcfa37a8562cf&msa=0&ll=44.878896,-93.190965&spn=0.001097,0.001703

Older Photo, From 8-23-2008

This same time of year is fast approaching, lighting conditions, tree stress, deer on the move. Taken on 08-23-2008
Interesting photo note: I originally thought there were two saw horses left from some park worker. The joys of being near sighted, (and only recently gaining knowledge to fix the camera viewfinder and compensate) Only when looking at the photo on the home computer did it reveal the two wildlife figures.

Fawn & Turkey 06/29/2011

Bridge over wildlife.

2011 Photo Contest Rules

2011 Rules as posted on our web site

Recent Images from the park.

I found this interesting

150 Year Old Photos......If you are a history buff these will be interesting to you. THESE PICTURES ARE VERY PROFOUND It is fortunate that these have survived. Most probably a million wet plate photos were made during the civil war on glass plate. Popular during the war, they later lost their appeal and many were sold for the glass. Many used in green houses. Over the years the sun caused the images to disappear. These are pretty amazing considering they were taken up to 150 years ago: A collection of photos from the era of the War Between the States. Run the cursor over the photograph and the picture caption will pop up. Click on the photo to enlarge and to read the story. Click Here Please

Field Trip Photos

 These are some of the photos I took during the field trip on April 2. It was a beautiful day and perfect for exploring with your camera. Enjoy.

Mendota Bridge overlooks the flooded parking lot.

Another view of the flooded parking lot

This is the head of a trail just past the bridge. There is a patch of snow patiently waiting to add to the flood waters.

No Parking!

Wish I could have had a better shot of this river otter that ran across a log and quickly slid into the water.  

These two followed me along the Snelling Lake trail for a little while. I think they thought I had some food.

A lonely picnic table stuck between flood waters.

Smithsonian Museums annual photo contest 1-8.  Here is the link to the 7th and a photo I really like.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/7th-annual/7th-travel-9.html#IMAGES

Couple Flood Pictures

The one of the Visitor Center is Tues 29th and one of Pike Island Bridge is Sun 27th

Ice

On Sat sitting on Pike Island enjoying the Mississippi, I noticed some ice melting underneath 1 of the benches. Below the ice was a lone blade of green grass and on top was a drop of water. Looking at it at home I noticed the water had some color to it, so I zoomed in and noticed shapes in the image. So with cropping and rotating I captured what I was looking for. Do you see what I see?

Before the flood

I took theses pictures on Thursday, March 17th. John

Macro Boxelder Bug

Just wanted to mention that I appreciated the good humor and great questions at the macro discussion at our last meeting.

While chatting with you, I took a few quick shots of the boxelder bug in the insect studio and thought I'd post one of them. The fact that I just got around to processing the photos says something about how busy I've been.

This photo was taken with:

Canon 5DmkII
Canon MP-E65mm macro lens
Canon 430 EX flash

Aperture f10, Shutter 1/160, ISO 250

As a recap, I shoot on manual allowing the TTL functioning to set the amount of light from the flash. This is really a nice way to do it as I get to set both to my parameters. As a result, I choose depth-of-field and motion stopping shutter speeds (although the flash stops most movement as it is the main light source). The flash and camera act in concert then to set the amount of light from the flash.

I like the background in this shot. It was just far enough in the distance that it's nicely blurred but still light enough that the dark boxelder bug is nicely set off against it.

The River

Two photos for "The River" photo assignment. I decided to play with my flash later in the evening during the last snow storm to see if or how I could capture falling snow. Although the darker of these is considerably under exposed, I like the gritty, dark feeling of it and how it puts a little more focus on the falling snow.

River Shots (2)

Found this in a crack of ice the other day to the left of the Pike Island bridge.

Water is amazing in so many forms.

River Shots

Love reflections...off of Pincic Island on the Minnesota side

Tutorials on Photoshop

Thanks Quinn for giving an overview of Photoshop and everyones questions and input. Always good to learn something new...at least for some of us :)

Thought I'd expand on the 'watermark' question that came up. I did find something under
...//tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-9/adding-a-watermark

I didn't check them all, but the links that Quinn had in his document tended to point to ...//tv.adobe.com. This website gives a good overview for any Adobe product.

New Year's Eve

I was working inside the Visitor Center during the walk so I didn't get many photos taken. It was so warm and toasty inside but I did run out and tried my hand at getting some photos near the building. Here are two of my favorites.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season and that I will see you all on Saturday.