Compression

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Clint

30 second photo technique: by keeping my distance from the east blockhouse at Fort Lincoln I was able to “compress” my shot in order to get it in perspective with a couple of other local landmarks: the state capitol and the Cathedral tower.

How is this most useful? When doing things like this: putting the capitol directly in front of the sun. Twice a year the sun sets directly behind the capitol, and in order to get this perspective I had to drive out nearly to Lincoln to capture it with a 300mm telephoto lens.

Once again, with our most prominent local landmark as the foreground object, I found just the right spot – a friend’s yard on a hill in east Bismarck – to line the two objects up correctly. The capitol is very tricky to photograph in this way, because there are few places from which to get both high enough and far enough to accomplish the desired perspective.

The theory here is that I can’t make the object in the background bigger by traveling significantly closer to it, but I can certainly make the foreground object smaller by traveling away from it. After that it’s a matter of having a long enough telephoto lens to get a decent photo of the arrangement. Try it once…it’s fun!

Tuesday sunset

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Clint

Sticking with the Double Ditch theme for another day, I thought I’d share a nice picturesque sunset from beneath the cliffs. I had taken my little towheads down to the bottom of the walking trail to stand along the shore and throw rocks in the water, which they gladly did for as long as I’d allow before going home for story time and bedtime. On the way back I noticed that the sky had some really cool ripples and that the color of the sky was very striking, so we stopped for a second to take it in before heading home for baths, stories, stuffed animals, and blankies.

Unearthed beneath Double Ditch

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Clint

While poking around the river with my little boys a few nights ago, we found this ancient (by their standards) wreckage poking out of the dirt beneath the cliffs of Double Ditch. What kind of car this might be is indistinguishable to all but the most trained eye. It appears as though it has not only been here a long time, but was also likely buried for an extended period as well. I surmise that the dirt covering it was scoured away by the massive flows of the swelling Missouri River last year.

Plenty of dirt remains caked into the recesses of the engine and what remains of the frame and drivetrain of this artifact of automotive archeology. It just goes to show that nature will eventually reclaim what we leave behind.

I don’t know why people of the last century seemed to think it was a valid idea to pitch their cars into the drink, but it seems that there are a lot of old cars from the 40s through 60s rusting away quietly along the river in various places. Thankfully this practice doesn’t seem to happen often any more. As for the relics that do occasionally appear along the river banks and from beneath the river’s surface, they’re just another noteworthy and even somewhat familiar part of life along the Big Muddy.

Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony 2012

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Clint

Yesterday marked the date of the Peace Officers Memorial ceremony here in North Dakota. It’s held annually at the monument on the capitol grounds in honor of law enforcement officers who have perished in the line of duty. Most years it is a solemn look back at distant history…this year it was a reflection on the tragic losses of two officers within the past year. I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said, so I’m just going to share a few photos and let them do the speaking.

Standing at attention

Heartfelt thanks and condolences by Attorney General Stenehjem and others

Wreath presentation before the memorial

21 gun salute

Two names added

I’ll gladly admit that I’m a tireless cheerleader for law enforcement personnel here and all across our great nation. Some of them give it all in the line of duty, and this memorial honors that sacrifice. The national memorial ceremony is next week, and since there are two North Dakota families traveling to attend that ceremony, the North Dakota commemoration was moved to this week. Next week is Law Enforcement Week here in North Dakota and all across the USA, so please take any opportunity you get to thank them for their service on our behalf.

Leaning tree

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Clint

Poking around by the river bottoms a while back brought me to the right place at the right time, which I think is the most important component of a good photo. The sky was cooperating, the tree held a good pose, and it was just a fantastic moment to be out exploring with my camera.

After all the gloomy skies we’ve had lately, I’m ready for some sunshine…how about you?

Apparently I still haven’t posted all my aurora photos

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Clint

The skies have been relatively quiet for a while now, and I’m getting anxious for another chance to go out and capture the night sky in all its glory. There was an opportunity to get the moon at a very close proximity as it traversed the horizon, but clouds and wind shot that down all weekend. I was perusing some of the year’s previous shots while updating my shot log and got one from this old abandoned farmstead during one of the last major solar storms.

A couple of pals and I worked that location for all it was worth, since it offered such an amazing assortment of foreground objects at which to point our cameras. Tractors, windmills, old buildings, stripped cars…you name it, we had it. That includes a skunk which decided to make an appearance at one point, but it scampered back into hiding when it realized it had company.

When you absolutely have to get something lifted atop your capitol building

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Clint

As I drove past the capitol on Boulevard Avenue, I noticed something peeking: the boom of an obviously very large crane. Circling around to the north I found the Wanzek guys lifting materials up to the top of the capitol with a large crane capable of lifting 275 tons. This looks like the same monster that was parked on North 9th Street to help lift new elevator parts and stuff to the top of St. Alexius.

The capitol will be undergoing some limestone reclamation and repair in the near future, making for some interesting closures around the grounds. It’ll be interesting to see this local landmark get a facelift inside and out!

Blast from the (spelling) past

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Clint

I had the opportunity to pore over some boxes in the garage last night which my mom brought to me a year or so ago. I knew they contained old Peanuts paperback books and even some Archie comics, but they contained a lot of other cool stuff as well. Among those items was an envelope of State Spelling Bee memorabilia from 1983, the year I was a semi-finalist. I was the Mandan & Morton County champion that year, which is what got me the trip across the river to eat Beef Stroganoff, play Centipede in the arcade between rounds, and make some new friends as geeky as I.

Aw, nuts

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Clint

This long stretch of rusty fasteners caught my eye while poking around on another of Bismarck-Mandan’s best kept secrets: a bridge to nowhere.

This bridge sits along the walking/bike path by Hay Creek on the east end of town. Apparently it used to carry rail traffic but there are no longer any train tracks leading to it from either end. The rails have been removed from the bridge and so have any structures connecting it to anything, but someone has propped long boards up to provide pedestrian access to it for the brave.

One other rusty nut that I have in my photo collection is this one on the old Northern Pacific railroad bridge across the Missouri. While taking photos of the flood last year I looked up and saw this, and I figured it was a neat photo to grab for later. Here it goes.

I’ve got some other interesting fastener photos around here somewhere, perhaps I’ll cobble together some for a future post.

April showers, viewed from afar

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Clint

I took my boys out to Fort Lincoln to poke around with our cameras and watch the weather roll by. Rolling by is exactly what it did, missing the park entirely. The clouds did plenty of rumbling as they drifted past. My guys thought it was pretty cool that we could see rain and wondered if it was going to hit our house as it started to dump south of Bismarck. It was getting close to bedtime, so we headed back to find out.

Along the way we spotted a rainbow, something that hadn’t yet manifested while we were atop the hill. We stopped for a quick photo op and then headed back to town. Yep, our house got rained on. We had just enough time for a snack and some bedtime stories, then it was off to bed for them. I’m about to hit the pillow myself.

Bismarck-Mandan Blog

Photography , musings, and a love of North Dakota