T3 Imagery

The Horse Knows The Way

Here’s another image from the beautiful frosty morning that I spent at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum a couple of weeks ago.  I love bringing this barn into my images – it’s as if they positioned it on the hill above the meadow to make a perfect background to lead your eye into the image.  Yes, it’s not a mountain range – but it’s what we have to live with here in Minnesnowta.

This is actually a pretty severe crop into what was originally a horizontal picture.  I had too sweeping of a vista in the original shot, and the subject got lost.  I like this one much better – it’s a much simpler composition.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L @ 140mm  ISO 200, f/13, 1/250 sec.

Hoarfrost in Minnesota

Today marked a milestone of sorts – it’s the first time in two years that we had a heavy hoarfrost and I didn’t have a prior commitment that kept me from going out to shoot it.  I anticipated we’d get some last night since a pea-soup fog rolled in last evening.  When I woke up this morning and saw the crystalline world outdoors, I bundled up and headed out to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

The tough part about shooting there in the winter is that they close off the 3-mile drive to motor vehicles.  That means a hike in the snow to get anywhere.  Framing up a shot without the snowbank along the road meant trudging through 2 feet of snow with a full load of camera gear.  The conditions were perfect – the sun didn’t burn off the frost and the fog rolled out leaving it nice and clear.

Strangely, this picture is not black and white.  With a white sky, lots of snow, and dark tree bark there’s almost no color in the picture.  A slight blue cast to the snow is about the only giveaway that it’s not black and white.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @26mm  ISO 200, f/13, 1/250 sec.

One Fall Day at the Park

This is Kristina and Glen’s video from their engagement shoot this fall.  I’m really excited to show this to you since it’s something I’m very proud of.  It’s the newest thing in content – a fusion mixture of images and what I call ‘long images’ – short video clips+sound.  It adds another dimension to a slide show that really brings it to life.  Their love and their spunky personalities really shine through on the footage in a way that just isn’t possible with images alone.  I still smile every time I watch this even after hours of editing!  I’m so happy that Kristina and Glen gave me the opportunity to create this memory of their love.

This video was filmed on a chilly October morning at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  We shot the video clips after we completed the engagement shoot since they were relaxed in front of the camera by that point.  Once we started rolling,  the were great sports and started to play around without a lot of coaching.  Kristina and Glen showed this video on the big screen at their beautiful wedding reception in December, 2009.

All footage was shot with the Canon 5D Mark II.  Lenses used: Canon 24-105 f/4L, Canon 17-40 f/4L, Canon 135mm f/2L.  The sound was captured with the R0de VideoMic.  Editing of the footage was done with Pinnacle Studio 14.

The Spooky Tree

There are lots of cool things to shoot at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – pretty much every place you aim the camera.  This cool gnarly spooky-lookin’ tree hadn’t quite got leaves yet this spring when this picture was taken making it look all that much more spooky.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 17-40 f/4L @ 17mm  ISO 100, f/16, 1/25 sec.

The Klein Family

Here is a picture of my friends – the Klein family.  These are their first family photos – and I’m very honored to have been the guy that got to shoot the pictures.  These were taken at one of my favorite spots – the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  This is a spot right next to the Japanese Gardens.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200 f/4L + Canon 1.4x II Extender @ 208mm  ISO 800, f/8, 1/50 sec.

Reflections on a Happy Engagement

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is pretty much Minnesota’s largest photo set.  There are so many fantastic locations here to shoot portraits you almost can’t go wrong.  The landscape shooting isn’t bad either!  This shot worked a lot better in black and white – mostly because the heavy shade with direct sun overhead gave everything a STRONG green cast.  Dan and Jacqie don’t look as good as they could with a green tint.

Vital Stats: Canon 40D w/Canon 70-200 f/4L @ 131mm  ISO 400, f/4.0, 1/40 sec.

Lady Party

You’re never too young to have your first Lady Party.  Elizabeth got together with her two best local gal pals – Eva and Annika.  Now – it was sippy cups and brownies.  In twenty years – Margaritas?

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/24-105 f/4L @ 95mm  ISO 100, f/13, 1/160 sec.

All went well until Eva took out a hit on Elizabeth:

Learning to Fly

A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my sense is real,
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

This shot was taken today at my daughter’s 1st birthday party.  Our friends oldest child Luke was taking great pleasure in leaping off the stone wall near where we were picnicking at the Arboretum.   I love this shot because it captures him perfectly at ‘the decisive moment’ – he’s obviously over the tipping point and is committed to the ride down, for better or worse.

Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 70-200mm f/4L + Canon 1.4x II Extender @ 189mm  ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/500 sec.

A Walk in the Woods

Here’s another shot from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  It’s about a hundred yards down the trail from the swamp picture from two days ago.  This picture was a challenge to get – not because of the subject or the conditions, but because I was pushing a stroller down the path and towing a 2.5 year old that wanted to play in the dirt.  We all loved our walk in the woods!

Springtime Swamp Grass

This shot was taken this afternoon at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum near Chanhassen, MN.  I had the kids out for a little getaway while their mother was playing tennis.  Up until now, I had only scouted the three mile road for shots – this was my first time heading down the trail.  It probably was farther than I should have gone with a 2.5 year old walking and a stroller – but they were troopers!