Back To The Earth
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Sun Pillar #2
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Extreme Pano (1:10 ration) – Bay City, WI
From left to right – Isabelle Creek | Mississippi River | Catharine Pass
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Sun Pillar
A light pillar is a visual phenomenon created by the reflection of light from ice crystals with near horizontal parallel planar surfaces. The light can come from the Sun (usually at or low to the horizon) in which case the phenomenon is called a sun pillar or solar pillar. It can also come from the Moon or from terrestrial sources such as streetlights.
source: wikipedia.org
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32 degrees on a January morning is always welcomed to me. It is also an invitation to get out and shoot a sunrise. Winter vs. Summer sunrises are a toss-up for me. One plus to Winter sunrises is they happen later. I am not opposed to getting up early, but 6 a.m. is always seems easier than 4 a.m.
Cyndie and I initially planned on shooting at a favorite spot in Lake City, MN – a quick 20 minute drive from where we live in Red Wing, MN. We arrived at the point (off of Chestnut St) and just down from Ohuta Park. We made good time and had plenty of time to spare. Giving ourselves plenty of time was a good plan as there were minimal ice heaves present off the point. There certainly were not enough to fill in the foreground of a photo.
Like any plan, it is good to have a backup. We back-tracked to the boat landing in Old Frontenac on Lake St. I had stopped there on MLK day while driving around Lake Pepin after shooting the sunrise. I noticed some ice fishing houses on the lake; I thought they where closer to the landing. I was envisioning them as a nice foreground for the sunrise shoot. Upon arrival the parking lot was already full and folks where lining up on the ice to park. The ice fishing houses where out further from shore; not in an ideal position unfortunately.
If you were thoughtful enough to have a back up plan, chances are you have yet another idea if the first and second option doesn’t pan out. We still had plenty of time and decided to head back to Red Wing and then across the river into Wisconsin and to a favorite sunrise spot in Bay City. This place works well any time of the year; with its close proximity to Red Wing, it is easy to reach if in a hurry. The springs along the shore leave open water throughout the winter. The open water affords local Mallards a quiet resting place as well as enable beautiful cloud reflections.
// TPE – The Photographer’s Ephemeris //
I shot the sunrise in three different sequences. I have not shot any time lapse in a while, but felt inclined to do so because he the clouds were pretty epic this morning with nice gradual movement. I wish I would have set up different cameras in the three locations and captured longer amount of time.
First sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Second sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Third sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Here are some other shots from the morning.
And finally, some shots from the iPhone. You need another camera to keep yourself occupied when shooting time lapse – you have some time on your hands.
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It was a perfect morning to explore Willow River State Park. Photographing Willow Falls has been on my list for a long time 
now. At only 45 minutes from Red Wing, I am not sure why we haven’t been sooner. After seeing numerous posts on facebook, I could not resist any longer. The trail to Willow Falls is short, but steep. The steps up to the lookout after you cross the river via the bridge appeared to be numerous. We’ll have to explore the three lookouts on a return trip. I’d like to explore more of the entire park. In looking at the full map, there are several trails to hike throughout the parks 2,891 acres.
The trail to Willow Falls is short, but steep. The steps up to the lookout, after you cross the river via the bridge, appeared to be numerous. We’ll have to explore the three lookouts on a return trip. I’d like to explore more of the entire park. In looking at the full map, there are several trails to hike throughout the parks 2,891 acres.
The centerpiece of the park is Willow Falls, a powerful cascade in a 200-foot (61 m) deep gorge. Another popular feature is Little Falls Lake, a shallow reservoir on the Willow River. Because of its proximity to Minneapolis-St. Paul it is one of the most visited state parks in Wisconsin. Trilobite fossils found in the lower layers of the gorge indicate the rock is around 600 million years old.
History
Santee Sioux and Ojibwa lived in the region and clashed over rights to wild rice lakes. European explorers witnessed one of their battles in 1795 at the mouth of the Willow River.
Settlers moved in, and by 1830 logging and wheat farming were common in the Willow River Valley. The river was invaluable for the former, as logs were floated downstream to the St. Croix. A German immigrant, Christian Burkhardt, realized the river could also be harnessed for the latter industry, and built a grist mill here in 1868. Burkhardt became a wealthy landowner and followed developments in water-powered industry. He traveled home to Germany to examine hydroelectric power plants and returned in 1891 to build his own on the Willow River. Burkhardt eventually built four power plants and dams on the river, which provided electricity to Hudson. Northern States Power purchased Burkhardt’s power company in 1945 and operated its sites until 1963, when damage to one of the plants from a lightning strike prompted the company to liquidate their Willow River holdings.
In 1967 Northern States Power sold the land to the Wisconsin Conservation Commission for a state park, and stabilized the dams at a financial loss. The state park opened in 1971. Some of the dams were removed in the 1990s to improve the scenery and trout fishery, and now only one remains. The land is still being restored from damming and farming. source-wikipedia
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Twas the day after Christmas and all over the ground a fresh new coating of snow could be found.
I was able to explore somewhere new over the Christmas holiday. Surely there was a shot to be had at Run River Central Regional Park. Indeed there was. This lovely park is just minutes away from Cyndie’s mom in Ham Lake, MN.
A very scenic and natural park on the Rum River, Rum River Central Regional Park features a diversity of river, prairie, and woodland settings covering 434 acres. It also provides a wide-array of outdoor recreation and access to the pristine Rum River canoe route.
My cousin Jeff and his wife Lisa live only a few minutes away from them gem of a recreation are. I was delighted to have Lisa join me on this morning for a photo walk.
This park has nicely maintained trails; I fully intend to visit this park again.
Here are a few shots from the morning.
I found a few other spots of interest after leaving the park. Really pretty country.
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Trimbelle River.
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It was a bone-chilling 19 degrees when we awoke Saturday morning. It felt cold, but it wasn’t the cold that chills your core and burns your face, you know that type of cold that hits you around the end of January when you wish Winter were over. Cyndie & I, along with our good friend Linnae, arrived at Fort Snelling State Park shortly after sunrise. Traces of Autumn can still be seen, but for the most part the brilliant colors are gone – almost. We found some lovely color enhanced by the rising sun along the western shore of Snelling Lake.
Our primary purpose of this trip was to photograph Whitetail deer – specifically [& hopefully] big bucks. It is that time of the year when bucks break away from their traditional habits and venture out of the thick stuff in search of receptive does in the day light.
We found such activity quickly on Picnic Island. We noticed several scrapes and rubs. Pre-rut signs galore. There were no shortages of photographers on-hand to witness this spectacle. We spent a good amount of time watching a dandy 9-pointer pursue does all over Picnic Island. There were other smaller bucks darting about and avoiding direct contact with the bigger buck.
We decided to delve further in and explore another area of the park. Pike Island, a walk in only area, was just down the road. I am glad we opted to do this. The temperature was rising as was our excitement; we had buck fever.
We walked around the perimeter of Pike Island (mostly; except the eastern third) without seeing so much as a yearling. We decided to walk a game trail up the center. There were brush piles everywhere – all kinds of places for deer to bed down for a mid-day rest. It wasn’t long and we located a small buck. As I began to photograph him I noticed there was another buck behind him – a much bigger one. I continued to shoot and eventually saw the doe that was hunkered down in the grass next to them. I think we spent the next hour hanging out with those three deer. At one point a dozen or so turkeys came wandering down the trail and just walked on by like we were not even there. That was fun. What a great day.
*Just a side note on gear, you regularly see photographers hauling out the big lenses for wildlife. Thousands of dollars of gear. With the exception of the first few landscape shot, the balance of these images were shot with a Tamron 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 – a $449.00 lens; not a $2500 or $10k lens. The 70-300 was attached to a Nikon D700 shooting at ISO 2000 between f/5.6 – f/7.1. I am not going to lie, I would gladly shoot with a $10k lens if I had it. This is a simply demonstration that you do not need all that if you want to get out there and have a great time – especially at this location. The high-ISO performance of a full-frame sensor was beneficial given the low light.
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SD – Black Hills / Custer State Park | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7
Our last day in the Black Hills we headed to Spearfish. Our travels brought us through Hill City on our way to our first stop, Silver City, situated on the West side of Pactola Reservoir. It is a cute little town nestled in the hills with a small one-room church. We existed the town through Nugget Gulch on Edelweiss Mountain Road – the wrong direction – and ended up quite a ways south of the reservoir need Clear Creek. It was a beautiful drive and worth the time; the kind of back-roading I had wanted to do if not for the snow.
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway was delightful as anticipated. I hadn’t been here is quite some time (Cyndie’s first time here), but it was as I remembered. We stopped at the first dam to stretch our legs and take in a bit of the canyon. There was a nice little reservoir and cascades below the dam. Our second stop heading down canyon road was at Roughlock Falls on Little Spearfish Creek off of 222. Another picturesque place to get out, tromp about and snap some photos.
Further down the canyon we had brief roadside stop at the apply named Bridal Veil Falls.
My favorite stop along Spearfish Canyon had was Spearfish Falls. Once we found the trail to it that is; the trail to the falls was a bit obscured by trees.
After a lengthy stop at the DC Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery we made our way back up the canyon. We took the long way back to Custer, crossed into Wyoming for some different, but similar views. It was a long day and I was enjoying sitting back and driving. I couldn’t resist shooting this pano at the Salt Creek Overlook off of Canam Hwy (Wyoming 85) on our way to Newcastle.
We had a wonderful week in South Dakota. The next day we woke early, packed quickly and began the 10 hour drive back home.
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