Summer Blues

We are nearing the end of January 2009 and I'm longing for the warmth of summer. I needed to post a photo taken near the beginning of summer last year in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on a relatively calm evening with a 5 second exposure time. Summer is almost here....hang in there....

Calm

A photo to help us all keep calm after a crazy week in the Stock Market, the financial institutions, Wall Street and the US Government.

Theme Day: "No . . ." signs

The first of the month and the City Daily Photo has elected for the Theme Day: No [fill in the blank] signs. You know the signs, "No Parking" "No Trespassing" something along those lines. Well, I went to great lengths for my sign. I went to the end of the road in Ely, Minnesota. Essentially, I went to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and snapped a shot of the sign in the photo. I wanted something different, something no one else would have, and something that wasn't easy to obtain. Granted, the timing was perfect as I had planned a trip to the BWCA in June and I knew ahead of time July's theme day. See some of my favorite BWCA photos I've taken.

Stop by the other cities participating in the July Theme Day via the links below the photo. Do remember that there are timezone differences between the other cities. Or you can head over to the portal page to see a thumbnail view of blogs that have posted their corner store photo.


American Fork (UT), Anderson (SC), Ararat, Australia, Arradon, France, Ashton under Lyne, UK, Aspen (CO), Athens, Greece, Auckland, New Zealand, Austin (TX), Avignon, France, Bandung, Indonesia, Barrow-in-Furness, UK, Barton (VT), Belgrade, Serbia, Bellefonte (PA), Bicheno, Australia, Birmingham (AL), Bogor, Indonesia, Boston (MA), Brantford (ON), Brighton, UK, Brookville (OH), Bucaramanga, Colombia, Bucharest, Romania, Budapest, Hungary, Budapest, Hungary, Canterbury, UK, Cavite, Philippines, Chandler (AZ), Château-Gontier, France, Cheltenham, UK, Chennai, India, Chennai, India, Chesapeake (VA), Christchurch, New Zealand, Cincinnati, (OH), Cleveland (OH), Coral Gables (FL), Corsicana (TX), Delta (CO), Duluth (MN), Durban, South Africa, East Gwillimbury, Canada, Edinburgh, UK, Folkestone, UK, Forks (WA), Fort Lauderdale (FL), Gaia, Portugal, Geneva (IL), Grenoble, France, Gun Barrel City (TX), Hampton (VA), Haninge, Sweden, Hanoi, Vietnam, Helsinki, Finland, Hobart, Australia, Hyde, UK, Jackson (MS), Jefferson City (MO), Jerusalem, Israel, Katonah (NY), Knoxville (TN), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kyoto, Japan, Lakewood (OH), Larchmont (NY), Las Vegas (NV), Lisbon, Portugal, London, UK, London, UK, Lynchburg (VA), Mainz, Germany, Melbourne, Australia, Menton, France, Mexico City, Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, Minneapolis (MN), Minneapolis (MN), Misawa, Japan, Monroe (GA), Monrovia (CA), Monte Carlo, Monaco, Monterrey, Mexico, Mumbai, India, Munich, Germany, Nashville (TN), Nelson, New Zealand, New Delhi, India, New Orleans (LA), New York City (NY), Newcastle, Australia, Newport News (VA), Norfolk (VA), Norwich, UK, Ocean Township (NJ), Oklahoma City (OK), Orlando (FL), Palos Verdes (CA), Paris, France, Pasadena (CA), Pasadena (CA), Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, Petoskey (MI), Phoenix (AZ), Poplar Bluff (MO), Port Angeles (WA), Portland (ME), Portsmouth (VA), Posadas, Argentina, Pretoria, South Africa, Quincy (MA), Ramsey, Isle of Man, Reykjavik, Iceland, Riga, Latvia, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Rouen, France, Saarbrücken, Germany, Saigon, Vietnam, Saint Louis (MO), Salem (OR), Salt Lake City (UT), Salt Lake City (UT), San Antonio (TX), San Diego (CA), San Francisco (CA), Santa Fe (NM), Seattle (WA), Seattle (WA), Selma (AL), Sequim (WA), Sesimbra, Portugal, Setúbal, Portugal, Sharon (CT), Silver Spring (MD), Singapore, Singapore, Sofia, Bulgaria, Springfield (IL), Stanwood (WA), Stavanger, Norway, Stayton (OR), Stockholm, Sweden, Stouffville, Canada, Stratford, Canada, Subang Jaya, Malaysia, Suffolk (VA), Sunshine Coast, Australia, Sydney, Australia, Sydney, Australia, Székesfehérvár, Hungary, Tamarindo, Costa Rica, Tel-Aviv, Israel, Tempe (AZ), Terrell (TX), Terrell (TX), The Hague, Netherlands, Tokyo, Japan, Torun, Poland, Toulouse, France, Trujillo, Peru, Turin, Italy, Twin Cities (MN), Victoria, Canada, Vienna, Austria, Virginia Beach (VA), Wailea (HI), Washington (DC), Wellington, New Zealand, West Paris (ME), West Sacramento (CA), Weston (FL), Williamsburg (VA), USA by ptowngirl, Willits (CA)

Good Night BWCA

We say good night to the BWCA photos, or at least for a while. One final shot from Ima Lake in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, taken from our base camp on the camp sight before you enter Alworth Lake.

Dancing In The Moonlight

Another photo from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area set. I've featured the BWCA for a good portion of this week. This one is a 6 second photo capture and was taken well after the sun had set for the evening.

Small Things Growing In Nature

This is one of my favorite daytime shots I took using the macro setting. How large is this mushroom? About an inch to an inch and a half wide. There were many signs of growing mushrooms in the heavily moisture of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. There has been quite a bit of rain in the midwest as many of you are aware of. I was surprised when I returned from my week in the BWCA to find so much rain and flooding in many of the midwestern states.

Boundary Waters

I wanted to answer Dusty Lens of the North Metro Minneapolis Photo Blog, his question was what lakes do we travel to. We usually enter the BWCAW around the city of Ely. The access lake we enter is Snowbank, then into Disappointment Lake. Once through these two lakes, which are the longest two lakes we have to paddle, the rest are fairly small. Adventure, Jitterbug, Cantyman, Asaub, Jordan, and we either end up on Ima or Alworth Lake. We like to make a base camp and then take day trips from there. We like to stay on Ima to fish for Lake Trout, plus we caught some Northern Pike in the range of 40-43 inches on this lake in the past. It's lowest point is 140 feet and typically has a 40 foot average depth about 20 feet from shore.

I See Skies Of Blue, Clouds Of White

From my 2008 BWCA trip that I just returned from. This one I sort of need to explain the shot. I'm sitting on a rock, a very large rock. I'm about 10 feet above the water level from the lake in the background. There was a small pool of water that I took this shot into. It may look a bit strange, but there is a large lake behind the rock near the top portion. In reality, the rock is only about an inch in height, it just looks large in the photo.

BWCA Trip 2008

I've made my 11th or 12th trip into the BWCA [Boundary Waters Canoe Area] last week. Thanks to Blogger for adding scheduling posts, my site updated successfully while I was away! So bare with me for a couple days as I post some of my favorite trip photos. This is a night time photo from our camp site. The light reflection in the water is the moonlight. Camera settings: 15 seconds, ISO 80, f/2.8. I used my Joby flexable Tripod, was perfect for the rocky and uneven surface.

Quick Way To Cool Off

Hot summer days, cool water. Why prolong getting your whole body wet? Just jump right in and get it over with. This is my son jumping into a Minnesota lake, we have 14,000+ lakes in our state. Heck, there is a group of Minnesotans who take a jump in the lake on New Years Day to start the new year off right....if you know our winters, we have snow, ice, and bitter cold. It is on my list of things to do once in my lifetime.

My 5 Daily Photo Favorites:
Toronto, Canada
Little Rock, Arkansas
Wellington, New Zealand
Crystal Lake, Illinois
Ystad, Sweden

Woolly Mammoth Channel

At least that's what we've always called this stretch of rocks as we leave Jordan Lake and make our way up to Ima Lake. It's the most unique stretch of any part of the BWCA that I've personally seen. There is a long channel and one side of the channel is made up of rock that looks as it's been painted in some sort of prehistoric bachelor bedroom cave. It's really a site to see. Some of the rock walls have collapsed over the years, but they all have this similar look to them. If you look closely, there are diagonal lines grooved into the rock. We've always assumed when the glaciers of the ice age was here, it made the cuts in the rock. I'm not sure how else they would have gotten the look that they have, but I've never been able to confirm this. It's always been our story as we pass through this channel.

Natures Engineers At Work

This photo is one of my favorite places to visit in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. We generally make our way through the same areas each year and will visit certain areas every couple of years. Since I had brought my son for the first time, I had to bring him here and point out a few things you may not notice or cannot see because it is behind where I am taking the photo from. If you look close, there are the remains of trees sticking out of the water. This body of water, at some point was a thriving part of the forest, but was altered by natures engineers, beavers. Behind me where I am standing for the photo is the bulk of the beaver dam that they built. I suspect there is more to it in a couple other areas, but I've never been able to go further than this point, there just isn't away into it that is manageable.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
Bath, UK
Novara, Italy
Moscow, Russia

It's True, I Was On Vacation

I made a visit to the BWCA this past week. For those of you not familiar with the BWCA, it stands for Boundary Waters Canoe Area. This was my eighth or ninth trip to the BWCA and this year was the first time I brought my son with us on our trip. He will be turning nine years old in a couple of months. I thought perhaps it was a bit too early to bring him up there as this type of camping trip isn't for everyone. There is no electricity, no phone service, no restaurants, nothing except for what we bring into the BWCA for a weeks trip. Portaging canoes, a food pack, our personal packs. Throw in the wilderness, bears, moose, raccoons, wolves, not to mention the weather and what it can bring. Could an eight year old handle it? He survived, I survived and our bonding time together was well worth the trip. I felt it was fitting for today's photo to have a photo of my son fishing, or at least his silhouette.

My 3 Daily Photo Favorites:
Madison, Wisconsin
State College, Pennsylvania
Delta, Colorado