Weathered Abstract

I'd almost like to have a Guess What This Is contest.

This is actually a red wood door that is intentionally installed out in the woods so we can watch it weather.  It is standing in the woods in a position that invites one to ask "Does the door open up into the woods or Close the door to the woods?"

Lawn Art That's Pretty as a Postcard

I cannot tell you where this is located because everyone would drive there.

Suffice to say, this humble little home is well loved and well decorated and I'm happy to be able
to see it and photograph it.

It's pretty as a postcard, if I may say so myself.

Ode to Rain Soaked

Memorial Weekends are notorious for spring rain storms and this one was no exception. 

I love the documentary storytelling capabilities that present themselves when I document what is hung up on the clothes line during my visits to the cabin.

In Transition

There is one moment in time when the leaf falls and is temporarily poised on a pine tree branch.

Those are the photographs that I love to capture. 

When I know that, like many of us in this life, we are in transition.  We've been at Point A and are on our way to Point B.  But that middle transition time is both gentle and yet a moment of risk-taking.

The End and The Beginning

The end of one season brings the beginning of another.

On this day I couldn't get enough of the dried flowers at the end of their cycle while surrounded by all the fresh new greenery growing around it.

StormSister Spatique wants to get on Sharktank

Love to help my local small business owners.
Some times I don't know 100% what I'm doing and how I can best help.

But Becky Sturm of   #StormSister Spatique asked me to help her with this post.
She wants to get on #Sharktank and I'd love to help.

#sharktank  @3waybeauty

For more information, go to
http://stormsisterspatique.blogspot.com/2012/05/shark-tank.html  

Good luck, Becky.

Minnesota Lady Slipper

Minnesota Lady Slipper

Have you ever wished someone didn't do you a favor?

We have a very humble cabin about 120 miles away from the Twin Cities with an intentionally wild landscape.  We drive up there as often as we can but we're not there enough to do the grounds care that we would like to do.  Over the years we have been very fortunate that the retired landscape worker that lives nearby has volunteered to rake up our leaves and branches and mow the small area that still has grass.

Unfortunately, one year he made the mistake of cutting down our small, fragile Lady Slipper plant and it never grew back.

I miss that plant.  Every year I walk over to where it grew and fantasize that I see a new bud returning.  But it hasn't happened yet.

Orchids in May

Orchids in May

Bridal Shower Shoes

Bridal Shower Shoes May 5, 2007

Nothing like an image of a dozen women's shoes placed at the front door to be the memory of a bridal shower.

What a fun way to express the personalities of the different women, from pink heels to running shoes to senior aged support shoes.  I wish now, years later, that I had labeled who's who.  But, oh well.  It's still a fun memory.

Memories of the Florida "Bride" May 5, 2000

Florida "Bride" - - May 5, 2000

I cannot believe how long ago it was that we took our very first weekend workshop from the now-deceased Monte Zucker, world famous portrait photographer and teacher.

Karl and I had gotten married  in September 1999. We came home from our honeymoon in Jamaica and decided I would take my severance package and time off to officially work our new photography business full time.  We studied like college students all the latest photography  "how to" books.  We signed up to attend the first of many Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) conventions in Las Vegas.  We met and became enamored with the charismatic and incredibly talented photographer Monte Zucker.  And like they say in the movies "the rest is history."

The image above is from our first weekend portrait photography class that Monte taught, this one was in Sarasota, Florida.  Everyone was shooting film, preferrably expensive medium format film cameras or high-end 35 mm film cameras. 

This was the first portrait created of a model dressed as a bride that became a favorite for me and stayed in my portfolio for a decade.

Thanks for the memories!

May Day Parade

May Day Parade

The Powderhorn Park neighborhood of South Minneapolis is known for its annual May Day Parade.
People come out in their regular weather dependent clothes because it can be unseasonably cold.  Nonetheless the special revelers come out in costume.  Large,  non-traditional floats are created usually around an earth-friendly, mother nature centered theme.

It is an event that we all look forward to because it symbolizes spring, rebirth and Minnesotans, like bears, coming out of their caves.