A couple of months ago, I met up with Jeff Prose and Bill Kuhn. They’re a pair of photography buffs that I met on Instagram. We had no designated places to aim our cameras and ended up wandering around Saint Paul for half the day. We met up in lower town, walked and snapped pictures a little bit. Then opted visit a few different spots, in search of pretty pictures..
August 24, 2015 | Categories: Photography | Tags: afternoon, andor, andorius, bridge, bridges, buidlings, burial mounds park, casual, cathedral, cities, city, concrete, downtown, dusk, evening, eye, glow, highbridge, hill, image, images, landmarks, light trails, lights, long exposure, longexpo, lowertown, midwest, minnesota, mn, park, paul, paul's, photo, photograph, photos, picture, pictures, picturesque, pigs, pigseye, pillar, pillars, saint paul, scenic, shoot, shot, shots, skyline, st, stone, sun, sun light, sunset, twin, twincities, under the bridge, urban, view, views, walk, walk around | Leave a comment

August 19, 2015 | Categories: Photography | Tags: city, freight, frogtown, image, images, infrastructure, lines, logistics, long exposure, longexpo, midway, minnesota, mn, night, photo, pics, picture, power, rails, saint paul, sky, st paul, tower, tracks, train, twin cities, urban | Leave a comment

August 16, 2015 | Categories: Photography | Tags: andor, andorblogs, andorius, bridge, bridges, buildings, capitol, cars, city, downtown, evening, eye, freeway, glow, highway, i94, light, lighttrails, long exposure, longexpo, midwest, minnesota, motion, night, nights, photo, photographer, photos, pic, picture, pictures, pigs, pigseye, saint paul, skyline, still motion, traffic, trails, twin cities, urban, views | Leave a comment

July 23, 2015 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 35w, 36, city, freeway, highway, light, lights, long expo, long exposure, nights, photography, pictures, traffic, trail, trails, urban | Leave a comment

May 5, 2015 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 2015, 35e, buildingsbridge, cars, church, city, cityviews, downtown, evening, exposure, freeway, highway, i94, in, infrastructure, interchange, junction, light, light trails, lights, lighttrails, line, long, long expo, long exposure, longexpo, longexposure, metro, middle america, midwest, minnesota, mn, night, of, photo, photograph, photographer, photos, pic, picture, pictures, pig's eye, pix, post, saint paul, shot, shots, sky, skyline, spring, st paul, traffic, trails, twin cities, twincities, urban | Leave a comment
I have gotten a bit behind on posting here, but this should be the last of the things I shot before the snow and ice melted. Really liking the icey arch at Minnehaha Falls, earlier this spring.
May 5, 2015 | Categories: Photography | Tags: arch, bed rock, bedrock, bridge, creek, drop, falls, flow, flows, fluid, formation, formations, ice, icey, icicle, icicles, liquid, long exposure, long exposures, longexpo, melt, melting, middle america, midwest, minneapolis, minnehaha, minnehaha falls, minnesota, mn, mpls, nature, photo, photos, pic, pics, picture, pictures, ravine, river, spring, still, still motion, stream, twin cities, twincities, valley, water, waterfall, waterfalls, winter | Leave a comment
Over the winter, I went on a bit of a sunset time-lapsing spree. I am hoping to continue this trend, but have been kind of lazy about finding nice places to shoot from. The overlook on the north end of Burial Mounds Park, here in Pig’s Eye(the original name of Saint Paul, MN) has been My go to spot thus far. It’s a seriously awesome view of My home town, but I’m left feeling the need to change up the scenery..

Well, here’s another sunset from said location, taken in late March. I was shooting a pretty good sequence, but stopped it at an awkward spot, in order to shoot the second sequence. Which turned out to be pretty magical, less the single frame with an airplane in the foreground. =\ Suppose that’s the price You pay for shooting through the landing path of a small airport. Above, is a layered image. Using StarStax to merge every 25th picture from the second time lapse. Below are the first and last shots from the day. If You hit the “HD” button on the media player and watch it on vimeo’s site, it looks slightly better…

May 4, 2015 | Categories: Photography, Time Lapse | Tags: afterglow, andor, andorius, bold, capitol, city, cloudporn, clouds, colors, downtown, edit, epic, evening, glow, hometown, image stack, lens flare, light beams, light trails, lights, long exposure, longexpo, march, minnesota, mn, night, photo, photos, picture, pictures, pig's eye, pigseye, rays, saint paul, setting, shoot, shot, shots, silhouette, sky, skyline, skyporn, sol, spring, st paul, st.p, starstax, still motion, sun, sunset, time lapse, timelapse, tl, twin cities, urban, view | Leave a comment
After the failed attempt to shoot hot air balloons on Saturday, we headed 15 minutes north. Neither of the guys I was with had been to the waterfall on the Willow River and since we were already three quarters of the way there, it seemed silly not to go. There was a lot more ice than the last time, but the falls were still flowing steadily. Here is a quick time lapse of it and a few pictures. Such a gorgeous place!
February 11, 2015 | Categories: Photography, Time Lapse | Tags: angle, angles, awesome, beautiful, bedrock, chasing, cliff, clip, close the the twin cities, cold, cool, creek, edge, exploration, explore, exposure, falls, flow, flowing, flows, forest, frost, frosty, hike, hiking, ice, icey, icicle, icicles, lapse, levels, logs, long, long exposure, lovely, moss, natural, nature, near the twin cities, photo, photograph, photos, pics, picture, pictures, rapids, river, river bed, rock, rocky, scenic, snow, state park, stepped, stone, stream, sweet, tiers, time, time lapse, timelapse, travel, tree, trees, valley, video, view, water, waterfall, waterfalls, wi, willow, winter, wisconsin | Leave a comment

February 8, 2015 | Categories: Photography | Tags: above, andor, andorius, below, braving the cold, bridge, cars, city, downtown, fence, freeway, glow, highway, i94, interstate, light trails, lights, long exposure, looking through, minneapolis, minnesota, mississippi river, night, night time, pattern, photo, photos, pics, picture, pictures, railing, shot, shots, skyline, street lights, traffic, trees, twin cities, urban, winter | Leave a comment
December 29, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: angle, angles, awesome, beautiful, bedrock, chasing, cliff, close the the twin cities, cold, cool, creek, edge, exploration, explore, exposure, falls, flow, flowing, flows, forest, frost, frosty, hike, hiking, hoar, hoarfrost, ice, icey, icicle, icicles, levels, logs, long, long exposure, lovely, moss, natural, nature, near the twin cities, photo, photograph, photos, pics, picture, pictures, rapids, river, river bed, rock, rocky, scenic, snow, state park, stepped, stone, stream, sweet, tiers, travel, tree, trees, valley, view, water, waterfall, waterfalls, wi, willow, winter, wisconsin, wonder | Leave a comment
December 29, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 35e, angular, architecture, art museum, bridge, building, campus, cities, city, cityscape, cityscapes, cloudy, contrast, dark, downtown, evening, fog, foggy, frank gehry, freeway, gehry, glow, haze, highway, i94, icon, iconic, image, junction, landscape, light, lights, long exposure, metal, metro, minn, minneapolis, minnesota, mist, misty, mn, mpls, museum, night, nights, northern, photo, photography, photos, picture, pictures, reflection, saint paul, scenic, skyline, skyscraper, skyscrapers, stairs, stairway, steps, structure, style, traffic, train, transit, twin cities, u of m, university, uofm, urban, view, walk, wander, washington ave, weisman | Leave a comment
In the past, I would take long exposure shots of the night sky. 30 minutes for a single photo was a normal affair. Last summer however, I started shooting time lapse sequences. Setting up My camera to automatically take a picture at what ever interval is desired, changed things up a lot. I found Myself going camping and letting My camera run, aimed toward the heavens while I slept. At first I was taking the resulting photos and making videos. Which is quite cool, watching the stars fly by at high speed. Not very long ago I found a free program called StarStax and have added another dimention to the time lapses I’ve been shooting. There is a video in the works, but it won’t be ready for a while. So, here are the stacked still images of a few of the night sky time lapses I captured this year.
Starting with this gem, which was a 5 and a half hour long series of 1,000 images. Nearly a quarter of earth’s rotation, viewed in one still shot. For those who are curious, The moon was on the other side of the earth and My Canon 6D with 24mm lens were set up as follows: Manual mode, f/1.4(focused on the stars), ISO 640, white balance 5400K, shutter speed of 13 seconds, taking a picture every 15 seconds. There is no edit involved, except running the images through StarStax. The second shot is the same image set, with “comet mode” selected in StarStax, no other edits…

I’m particularly proud of that time lapse! The rest of these were taken with Similar settings, at different locations over the last 6 months. Sadly, the moon was in the sky for all of them but the last one, so there are less stars visible compared to the above shots. Even so, They look pretty cool. If I say so Myself… It’s been cloudy here for weeks, but as soon as I get a chance, there will be more coming.




December 19, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Time Lapse | Tags: amazing, andor, awesome, axis, brush, constellation, constellations, cool, digital, distance, distant, earth's, edit, edited, ethereal, focus, foreground, forest, fun, grass, horizon, image, images, layer, layered, layers, light, lights, long exposure, looking up, natural, nature, night, photo, photograph, photographs, photography, photos, pic, pics, picture, pictures, polar, race track, road, rotation, sharp, shooting star, shooting stars, sight, sky, stack, stacked, stacking, star, star trails, stars, starstax, streak, streaks, the heavens, time lapse, track, trails, tree, trees, turns, usa international raceway, usair, view | Leave a comment
December 15, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: bedrock, brush, cliff, cold, contrast, creek, destination, falls, form, formation, formations, freezing, frozen, grass, huge, ice, iced, icey, icicle, icicles, icon, iconic, icy, laden, landmark, layered, layers, ledge, long exposure, long exposures, longexposure, metro, minn, minneapolis, minnehaha, minnesota, minnesotan, mn, mpls, popular, river bed, rock, rocky, scenic, sheet, sights, small, snow, snowy, stone, stream, tree, trees, twin cities, twincities, urban, valley, view, wall, water, waterfall, waterfalls, winter, wintery | Leave a comment


December 14, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 94, bridge, bridges, bright, buildings, cities, city, cityscape, downtown, downtowns, exhaust, freeway, glow, highway, i94, image, images, interstate, landscape, light, light trails, lights, lighttrails, lit, long exposure, longexposure, minn, minneapolis, minneapple, minnesota, minnesotan, mississippi, mn, mpls, night, nights, pair, photograph, photography, picture, pictures, pig's eye, pigseye, places, reflection, river, saint paul, scape, shot, shots, skyline, skyscaper, skyscrapers, st paul, st.p, stp, street, streets, traffic, trails, twin, twincities, two, urban, view, views | Leave a comment

December 14, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 2am, city, empty, frogtown, green line, lexington, light, light trails, lightrail, lights, lighttrails, long exposure, longexposure, midway, minnesota, mn, night, nights, passing by, photo, photography, picture, pig's eye, quiet, rail, saint paul, st paul, station, stop, tracks, train, university | Leave a comment

I bought a Canon 6D and their 24mm f/1.4 L series lens to go with it. Anxious to make use of these new toys, I started asking around to see if any of My friends wanted to go camping. An old friend that I rarely talk to opted in, along with Her husband and three dogs. The morning of departure, I shot them a text to see if they were running on schedule. The reply was, “We have to cancel.” Her family rents out a few houses around the neighborhood, one of which was to get new tennants after the weekend. The person who had lived there decided to leave the place packed full of crap, clutter and furniture. It looked like a pack rat was living there. Hell bent on getting out of the city, I met up with them and we had the place mostly empty in under three hours. Happily, we then proceeded to get in the van and drive north. It was already after noon on saturday, but in My book, any time outside of city life is time well spent. It was a lovely drive, just south of Lake Superior’s western-most point, we encountered a thick fog. These pictures do not do it justice, one could barely see a hundred yards for a good twenty miles.
Just south of the lovely town of Duluth, the fog lifted and my friends, who had never been to this part of Minnesota, could see why I love this little city, perched on a hill. The place has an unusually elaborate system of bridges. Partially due to the fact that this is a busy port town, but that still does not explain why the highway has so many bridges, crossing, rising and bending in every which way. Duluth has so many great angles and lines built in to it’s infrastructure. Some time soon I think I shall head up there, just to photograph the genius of those who designed and built the city. Passing through, I snapped a couple of shots through the dirty windows on the car.
For those of us from the Twin Cities, Duluth is the gateway to the north shore. Once You have passed through town, You find Yourself on the red road. The red tarmac doesn’t last long, but is a much welcomed sign that You have left the urban environment behind. From that point, heading north-east along Lake Superior’s coast, is a long, long stretch of rolling hills, rocky shores, winding rivers and endless forest. My favorite place to be! We headed up the coastal road passing through the many State Parks and National Forests. Eventually finding ourselves at Cascade State Park, which is a little more than an hour from the Canadian border. It was already pretty late in the day, but we rapidly set up camp and got a fire going. After filling our bellies, we walked the couple hundred yards over to the lake and spent about two hours just sitting, taking in the vast darkness. It was a foggy night, visibility was quite low, but the sound of the waves rolling onto the rocky shore was just what I needed.
Once back at our campsite, we all went to bed pretty quickly. In the morning, we took a walk up the Cascade River, pausing for Me to take the following pictures and proceeded to head south, Hoping to make a couple of stops along the way back home.
My friend has a bad back, which chose to throw Him into a state of agony on this trip. I felt bad that He was in so much pain, so we took it easy on the return trip. In the end, we passed by all but one of the sights that the North Coast has to offer. I simply would not come up here without a stop at that which has become My favorite waterfall. Which I took a bunch more pictures of.. The overcast sky made taking pictures a lot nicer than the bright, sunny day the last time I was there. I took My time, stopping every couple hundred yards, pondering the angles I desired and taking more pictures, long exposures, all the way up the valley. The place was nice and quiet, we only saw two other groups of people the whole time we were there. What a wonderful place.
After basking in the cool water for a while, we climbed back into their van and headed towards home. Driving back down the coast, leaving behind the natural beauty of this post-glacial landscape and entering the land of human civilaization. The farther south You go, the impact of man kind becomes more and more evident. The lone road gets wider, sparcely placed houses give way to towns, tunnels bring You under towering rocky hills and eventually, You find Yourself looking at the ports and populated hills of Duluth. We paused there to stretch our legs and take a final look at the vast expanse of water, before climbing back into the van and continuing south towards Saint Paul. We managed to ride the leading edge of a storm for a couple hundred miles, all the way home. Arriving back in city life, just in time to see a very bold and beautifully colored sun set. Sorry, I did not get a picture of that, there were buildings in the way…
August 27, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 24mm f/1.4 L, 35 south, 35e, 35w, 6d, adventure, arete 3 asl, beautiful, beauty, blur, blurry, bridge, bridges, camp, camping, campsite, candle, canon, cascade, cascadestatepark, cascading, city, city lights, cliff, close to canada, clouds, cloudy, coast, coastal, cook county, creek, delayed, descent, drive, driven, driving, duluth, earth, explore, exploreminnesota, falls, fire, fog, foggy, foreground, forest, forests, freeway, glow, good times, gorgeous, granite, haze, highway, highway 61, hike, hiking, i35, images, industry, interstate, journey, lake, lakesuperior, landscape, line, long exposure, long exposures, massive, middle america, midwest, miles, minn, minnesota, mn, natural, nature, nature's, north, north coast, northern, park, parks, path, photo, photographer, photography, photos, picture, pictures, port, ports, quarried, quick, rain, rapids, rei, river, rivers, road, roadtrip, rock, rocks, rocky, roots, scenery, see, sharp, shooting, shore, shores, short, shots, sights, silver creek, site, splendor, stairway, state, steps, storm, stream, superior, superior hiking trail, tent, the north, thenorth, town, trail, trails, travel, travelling, tree, trees, trip, tunnel, tunnels, vacation, valley, valleys, venture, view, walk, walking, walkway, wall, walls, waterfall, waterfalls, wayside, weather, wetlands, wild, wilderness, wood, wooden | Leave a comment
July 5, 2014 | Categories: Photography | Tags: 2014, 4th, 4thofjuly, american, andor, andor 2000, andor2000, bang, blowing up, blur, boom, building, burst, canon, capitol, celebration, color, colors, crop, cropped, display, explodes, exploding, explosion, explosions, fire works, fireworks, flash, flashing, foreground, fourth, friends, frogtown, holiday, holidays, hps, i94, july, launch, launching, light trail, light trails, lights, long exposure, merica, middle america, midway, minn, minnesota, mn, mortar, parking lot, people, photo, photograph, photographs, photography, photos, pic, pics, picture, pictures, ramsey county, rondo, saint paul, scenery, shots, sigma 30mm, st paul, st.p, stp, street, t4i, tamron 17-50mm, view, xsi, zoom | Leave a comment

Last night, I went out with a friend who is in to time lapse photography. Which basically means You will be sitting in one place for a couple of hours. So, I set up My tripod and proceeded to take a bunch of long exposures. These pictures captured something more than just the lights of buildings and cars passing by. The lights of the vehicles revealed the vibration of the bridge upon which we stood. That bridge being a walk-way, maybe eight feet wide, spanning the ten lanes of traffic on I-35W, just south of the I-94 junction. It was pretty windy early on, but it was the semi trucks that were causing the bulk of the motion. You can see in the cropped image below, the effect of a large vehicle passing underneath. Head lights apear as if the highway was a row of small waves, with increased hight when a large truck goes by.

Despite the constant vibration and the rain early on, I came through with some decent shots of downtown Minneapolis. They are not a crisp as I would like, but the texture added to the streaking lights is kind of nice. A neutral density filter, which I usually do these kind of shots with, was not involved. I will try that spot again sometime, but clearly a more stable position to do long exposure shots with traffic and the city skyline is more desirable. This is a great vantage point though, there aren’t many places in town with such a nice perspective.
June 7, 2014 | Categories: Photography, Random Thoughts | Tags: 35w, andor, awesome, backpack, bag, beautiful, blur, bridge, buildings, camera, canon t4i, cars, city, cityscape, cloudy, cool, down town, downtown, dusk, evening, exposure, fence, fences, fencing, foreground, freeway, glow, going by, hanging, headlights, highway, hole, holes, hue, i35, illuminated, junction, june, landscape, lanes, light, lighting, lights, long exposure, look through, looking through, metro, middle america, midwest, minn, minneapolis, minnesota, mn, mpls, night, odd, orange glow, passing, peer, phenomenon, phillips, phone, photo, photographs, photography, picture, pictures, platform, point, resonance, resonating, scape, scenery, shakey, shaking, sigma 30mm, single shot, sitting, skyline, snaking, south, stability, stand, stool, streak, streaked, streaks, subject, symetrical, symetry, tall, tamron 17-50mm, time, town, traffic, tripod, twin cities, twincities, urban, vantage, vibration, view, vribrating, waiting, walkway, wave, wavelength, wierd, wobble | Leave a comment