Tag Archives: Minnesota

2011 Twin Cities Marathon – a few photos

By admin | Published October 4, 2011

Sunday was a beautiful day for the 2011 edition of the Twin Cities Marathon. Temperature started in the 40′s and were near 70 by noon. With very little clouds in the sky it was one of the better editions to photograph compared to previous years. As I have done for the last several years I was out taking photos as part of the photography team assembled to cover the event for the race organization. Here’s a sampling of some of my photos from Sunday’s event.

Posted in Sports | Also tagged fall, marathon, Minneapolis, race, running, Saint Paul, twin cities Leave a comment

Out photographing the night sky…

By admin | Published September 24, 2011

In between the cloud and fog banks, last night turned into good night for seeing and photographing the night sky. With a lot of attention focused on where the NASA UARS satellite would come crashing down had sort of hoped to see it streak across the sky but alas Northern Minnesota didn’t see anything. Did get to see a nice showing of the Milky Way, played around with a few star trail photos, and was working on photographing the Andromeda galaxy before the last batch of clouds rolled in at Midnight. A few photos from last night, two different shots of the Milky Way and one 15 minute star trail photo.

Posted in World Around Us | Also tagged astrophotography, Duluth, galaxy, Milky Way, Moses Images, night, photography, space, star trails Leave a comment

August 5th Aurora Borealis over Lake Superior

By admin | Published August 8, 2011

Wow, the August 5th Aurora display was simply breath taking. Through out the day I kept getting the space weather alerts courtesy of Spaceweather.com. The last one I got that day said the Planetary K-index had hit an 8. I can’t even remember ever getting an alert beyond 5 or 6. I was hoping for clear skies but as I headed into Duluth to join others for a night photography shoot it was raining on the northern horizon. We spent time inside at the DPI with a presentation by Bob King (“Astro Bob”) from the Duluth News Tribune. After the presentation we headed to our first location Brighton Beach on the shore of Lake Superior. The evening started out photographing the nearly 2nd quarter moon but as the clouds started breaking up a small glow to the north started around 2145. From there the aurora faded in and out for a while until the really brilliant pillars and pulsing glow kicking in round 2245. Near midnight the green aurora display went from the horizon to completely overhead. Finally, around 0130 the show was fading and the camera get got put away. It was an amazing display to watch laying there on the beach watching the sky shimmer and pulse. Unlike my first experience photographing the Aurora back in November of 2004, this time I was better prepared. Below is a gallery sampling some of the many views of the aurora that were seen Friday night. In most cases my exposures where ISO800 at F2.8 and focused at infinity on my camera lens.

Posted in World Around Us | Also tagged aurora borealis, brighton beach, Duluth, lake superior, northern lights Leave a comment

NVGP Stage 6 – Stillwater Criterium – Stillwater, MN

By admin | Published June 20, 2011

Well the 2011 Nature Valley Grand Prix is now in the books. Some great racing in Stillwater gave us Amber Neben (HTC Highroad) and Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies-Optum Health) as our overall winners. From the photographer perspective it was a great event to photograph, plenty of emotion and exciting action. Will be interesting to see what next year brings. Here’s the final race gallery from stage 6 in Stillwater. Over the next few days I’ll process a larger subset of files to round of the coverage of this year’s event. Thanks for looking and the comments I’ve received.

Posted in Sports | Also tagged Amber Neben, criterium, cycling, HTC Highroad, jesse anthony, Kelly Benefit Stratgies-Optum Health, nature valley bicycle festival, nature valley grand prix, stage 6, stillwater Leave a comment

NVGP Stage 4 – Uptown Criterium – Minneapolis, MN

By admin | Published June 18, 2011

Tonight was the Uptown Criterium. The rain held off until after the event had concluded. The women’s race saw several break attempts sit out front for a while but the Peanut Butter Co/Twenty 12 team worked the front of the peloton and never let it get too far ahead. In the end things were settling down for a field sprint until 200m from getting the final bell a mid-pack crash took out nearly half the field blocking the road. With multiple ambulances on the course to tend to the down riders the stage for the women was neutralized and doesn’t count for the overall. Several riders were transported and last word is that there were no serious injuries. On the men’s side United Healthcare proves tough to beat. An early break saw a rare case of the GC leader being present and he grabbed a time bonus from the first sprint. United Healthcare patrolled the front of the race and much like Saint Paul, in the end it was a field sprint with UHC taking the top two podium spots. Here’s some photos from tonight’s action.