Another Kind of Trinity

I took my Photo/Media students to the Twin Cities last week and one of the stops was the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. While they were wandering on their own, I wandered, too.This glass display case has been part of the Design collection for many years and I have photographed the beautiful glass before. But I've never posted anything to this blog.As you can see, I used a large aperture (f4) to blur the background. The dark purple jar stands out because of the color but the blur does even more to emphasize this specimen. What I like about the display case that the glass is sitting in is that everything else is pure white. It's as if the glassware is floating in space.

The Family

My photography students and I were at Holy Name Catholic Church this afternoon looking for good photos. After they took off to various places in the church, I looked around the room I was in and this was the first photo I took.This is a smaller copy of a bronze version of this statue that graces a small outside seating area near the church. The light in the room I was perfect for taking a portrait. In this case, my subject were made of stone.I don't know the name of this work of art or who created it but I will post both when I know.

It's Getting Old!

You say "winter wonderland" and I say "I've had enough!" Yesterday the high temperature was -8 F.I say bring on the green grass and the daffodils. . .

Carlos

This is what South Dakotans do in their spare time - shovel snow from roofs. This is a shot of our acquaintance, Carlos, who seemed to be a little more enthusiastic than I was when he took shovel to snow on top of our house.Carlos is from California and he told me that where he used to live, he could drive a short distance to the beach. But he also told me that he could see snow on the mountains and that's how he preferred snow. For most of the winter, I've been able to look up and see snow on my roof but with all of the stories of roofs collapsing under heavy snow, I decided I needed to do something.I shoveled some of the snow but hiring Carlos was a better plan. Here's another photo that shows that in some places on our roof, we have at least 3' of snow!

Peace

The Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis has many fascinating architectural details, including the confessionals in the vestibule I walked through. Each confessional door had "Pax" carved into the stone that surrounded the door. Pax means "peace" in Latin and I thought that it was the perfect way to welcome a parishioner to the sacrament of reconciliation.

Basilica of St. Mary

This photo started out in color but on a whim I converted it to a fairly high contrast black and white photo. The light was certainly marginal and I think the B&W turns the photo into a better study of the impressive architecture of this basilica, which is located on the west side of downtown Minneapolis.On a technical note, this is hand-held at 1/10 sec with a non-image stabilized lens. I teach my photography students that it is unwise to shoot below 1/60 of a second without a tripod, but I guess it is OK to test the limits once and a while.Canon 5DII 1/10s f/4.0 ISO1000 17mm

Objects In Mirror. . . .

As the legend says on some passenger side rear-view mirrors, "Objects are closer than they seem." In this case the sun is at least 93 million miles away and the horizon is probably 10 miles off. I took this photo after my wife (who was driving) commented on the sunset. I was inspired by one of my Photo/Media students, who took a much cooler photo of the landscape reflected in her side view mirror.

Jake

Jake came to the studio the day I took Reagan's photos (see yesterday). He wasn't intending to have his portrait taken but Jill (see two days ago) was there to help Reagan get the right photos. And it was Jill who told me to take a few photos of Jake since he seemed to be photogenic. So I took a few photos.

Reagan

This was taken in 2004 for a modeling portfolio that Reagan was putting together.

Jill

This was a photo that I took in 2004 to update a modeling portfolio for a woman named Jill. She had done quite a bit of modeling and so she told me exactly what she wanted and I just took and processed the photos.

Lucy

Getting a portrait of a of a subject that keeps moving and refuses to listen to instructions isn't easy - especially in low light.This is Lucy, Brian and Katie's cat. Lucy lived with us for a few months but doesn't really act like she knows me. But, being a cat, she didn't generally act like she knew me then, either.Canon 5DII 1/40s f/1.2 ISO1000 50mm

01-29-11 Efficiency

Sometimes this blog attempts to be an artist enterprise but I'll have to admit that after over 700 posts, I'm running low on art. So today I am using this blog to document evidence of a lifestyle very different from our big-pickup-4-wheel-drive-our family-of-4-has-5-cars mentality.What you are looking at is a cute, yellow car parked neatly along a backstreet in Rome, Italy. If you saw the price of fuel and the size of back streets in Rome, you'd know what this car would be a smart choice.Notice that it has three wheels and that it's plugged in. How's that for efficiency?