A few pics from Minneapolis
Discussion
I'm over in Minnesota on business in the Minneapolis/St Paul area - just landed yesterday (Saturday) evening, but decided not to waste the day today and got up bright and early to make the most of the exceptionally warm weather over here at the moment (only due to last another day or so before it starts to plummet towards snowtime).
First on the cards was a drive into Minneapolis itself to visit the Sculpture Garden that can be found there, but on the way I spotted a rather nice looking church/chapel (can you tell I'm in no way religious) so I pulled over to grab a few pics first before heading onto the Garden.
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After the brief stop it was back into the car and a matter of 500m drive to the Sculpture Garden (had I realised it was so damn close to the church I would just have walked over instead of driving). I had heard about this place a while back due to the centrepiece of the park being a huge Spoon and Cherry sculpture, but there were plenty other interesting (and weird) scupltures to be found around the park also - including a giant fish made out of hundreds of square pieces of glass, which was found inside a greenhouse section of the park.
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There is a bridge which runs from one side of the park over the freeway towards the centre of Minneapolis, the bridge itself was quite cool so I popped up to grab a quick snap of it before heading back to the car.
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I was in two minds on where to go next - either to Minnesota Zoo or something more eductaional - Historic Fort Snelling, in the end the latter won out as I fired the car back up. When I arrived at Fort Snelling it was only around 11am and with it being Sunday the Fort grounds weren't due to open until 12 noon, so after doing a quick scan of the map I could see that there was a trail leading me to "Pike Island" in the middle of the Mississippi (I would later discover this was a few miles away), but there were some nice views along the way to be found.
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I had heard of the Minnehaha Falls back in 2002 when I was last over here with my job, but had yet to pay them a visit, so after discovering they were several miles in the opposite direction from Fort Snelling where I set out on foot from I got the old legs moving once again back past the old Fort (that was hard not to write fart there
) and onward to the "Hidden Falls" of Minnehaha. The first section of path to the falls was a nice smooth sheet of tarmac, a welcome change to the cross country style paths that made up the first 6 miles or so of the days adventures, but it didn't last too long - about a mile and a half past the Fort it was time to descend back into the woods and down the steep slope to the side of the Mississippi once again and head along it's bank to the waterfall.
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I would be lying if I didn't say the falls were a major letdown, but with the exceptionally dry and warm weather over here recently it was only logic that the falls would be less intense than what you can find during the winter and spring months when the snow is in melt mode. By now I had notched up several more sore-leg miles getting to the Falls, and a little more slowly than earlier in the day I started to make my way back to Fort Snelling to have a look around.
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All images are completely unprocessed and straight from the cam (Sony DSC-R1) - only resized down to 650px wide.
Monday through Friday I'm always hectic with work, but I plan to make the most of the next few weekends while I'm here and have pencilled in a trip North to Duluth and the North Shores of Lake Superior, and if time (and weather permits) also to try and visit a few other states nearby as there are around 7 states that can be driven to and from within the confines of a day (albeit a long day behind the wheel of a car, but hey I wouldn't be a car nut if I didn't like driving long distances).
First on the cards was a drive into Minneapolis itself to visit the Sculpture Garden that can be found there, but on the way I spotted a rather nice looking church/chapel (can you tell I'm in no way religious) so I pulled over to grab a few pics first before heading onto the Garden.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
After the brief stop it was back into the car and a matter of 500m drive to the Sculpture Garden (had I realised it was so damn close to the church I would just have walked over instead of driving). I had heard about this place a while back due to the centrepiece of the park being a huge Spoon and Cherry sculpture, but there were plenty other interesting (and weird) scupltures to be found around the park also - including a giant fish made out of hundreds of square pieces of glass, which was found inside a greenhouse section of the park.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
There is a bridge which runs from one side of the park over the freeway towards the centre of Minneapolis, the bridge itself was quite cool so I popped up to grab a quick snap of it before heading back to the car.
21.
I was in two minds on where to go next - either to Minnesota Zoo or something more eductaional - Historic Fort Snelling, in the end the latter won out as I fired the car back up. When I arrived at Fort Snelling it was only around 11am and with it being Sunday the Fort grounds weren't due to open until 12 noon, so after doing a quick scan of the map I could see that there was a trail leading me to "Pike Island" in the middle of the Mississippi (I would later discover this was a few miles away), but there were some nice views along the way to be found.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
I had heard of the Minnehaha Falls back in 2002 when I was last over here with my job, but had yet to pay them a visit, so after discovering they were several miles in the opposite direction from Fort Snelling where I set out on foot from I got the old legs moving once again back past the old Fort (that was hard not to write fart there
) and onward to the "Hidden Falls" of Minnehaha. The first section of path to the falls was a nice smooth sheet of tarmac, a welcome change to the cross country style paths that made up the first 6 miles or so of the days adventures, but it didn't last too long - about a mile and a half past the Fort it was time to descend back into the woods and down the steep slope to the side of the Mississippi once again and head along it's bank to the waterfall.31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
I would be lying if I didn't say the falls were a major letdown, but with the exceptionally dry and warm weather over here recently it was only logic that the falls would be less intense than what you can find during the winter and spring months when the snow is in melt mode. By now I had notched up several more sore-leg miles getting to the Falls, and a little more slowly than earlier in the day I started to make my way back to Fort Snelling to have a look around.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
All images are completely unprocessed and straight from the cam (Sony DSC-R1) - only resized down to 650px wide.
Monday through Friday I'm always hectic with work, but I plan to make the most of the next few weekends while I'm here and have pencilled in a trip North to Duluth and the North Shores of Lake Superior, and if time (and weather permits) also to try and visit a few other states nearby as there are around 7 states that can be driven to and from within the confines of a day (albeit a long day behind the wheel of a car, but hey I wouldn't be a car nut if I didn't like driving long distances).
Edited by baz7175 on Monday 20th October 05:17
baz7175 said:
A few pics
Nice set of pics - lucky you actually going somewhere for work and making good use of the time, too!Can you pop that sign back with you - we could do with one or two of those in London
I am pretty sure I've had dealings with that Law firm, Messrs Malingerer, Shirker & Thief - Criminal lawyers?
A bit of constructive feedback basd on something I've been trying to keep in mind myself recently. Quite a few of your shots are slightly compromised, shall we say, by things in the background which could be removed either by framing the shot slightly differently or by waiting a few seconds. Some specifics:
6: A slightly different angle would have removed the orange fencing stuff in the background.
8, 35, 49: All I think would have benefited from waiting a few moments for random people to get out of the shot. I've had quite a few strange looks recently as I've stood looking through the viewfinder for 2 minutes or more waiting for the right moment when no-one else is in shot.
But it's a nice set generally and I love some of the large sculpture stuff.
6: A slightly different angle would have removed the orange fencing stuff in the background.
8, 35, 49: All I think would have benefited from waiting a few moments for random people to get out of the shot. I've had quite a few strange looks recently as I've stood looking through the viewfinder for 2 minutes or more waiting for the right moment when no-one else is in shot.
But it's a nice set generally and I love some of the large sculpture stuff.
miniman said:
A bit of constructive feedback basd on something I've been trying to keep in mind myself recently. Quite a few of your shots are slightly compromised, shall we say, by things in the background which could be removed either by framing the shot slightly differently or by waiting a few seconds. Some specifics:
6: A slightly different angle would have removed the orange fencing stuff in the background.
8, 35, 49: All I think would have benefited from waiting a few moments for random people to get out of the shot. I've had quite a few strange looks recently as I've stood looking through the viewfinder for 2 minutes or more waiting for the right moment when no-one else is in shot.
But it's a nice set generally and I love some of the large sculpture stuff.
6 - Even though it's bright orange it never really caught my attention at the time when I was hitting the shutter release button - the Sony R1 is an awesome camera for bringing colours out - just at times it does it when you don't want it to as well 6: A slightly different angle would have removed the orange fencing stuff in the background.
8, 35, 49: All I think would have benefited from waiting a few moments for random people to get out of the shot. I've had quite a few strange looks recently as I've stood looking through the viewfinder for 2 minutes or more waiting for the right moment when no-one else is in shot.
But it's a nice set generally and I love some of the large sculpture stuff.
8 and 35 - I know what you mean about the people being in the pic, if the places had been a little quieter then waiting would have been easy enough, but they began to get busier with time as more people began to come out for the day due to the nice weather
With 49 I wanted to make sure I caught the guy in the old army uniform before he walked out of shot with the other guy on the crutches - a catch 22 situation with that one unfortunately.
Comments much appreciated though
Edited by baz7175 on Monday 20th October 19:39
Baz,
I spent some time in Coon Rapids just down the road from where you are in Feb' 1994. If you get the chance, go to the Weir/Dam on the Mississippi. I got some fantastic shots while there, although to be fair the river was frozen over at the time......but it would be interesting to see the contrast at this time of the year.
Great pics posted tho, they have brought back a few memories!
I spent some time in Coon Rapids just down the road from where you are in Feb' 1994. If you get the chance, go to the Weir/Dam on the Mississippi. I got some fantastic shots while there, although to be fair the river was frozen over at the time......but it would be interesting to see the contrast at this time of the year.
Great pics posted tho, they have brought back a few memories!
Stickers said:
Baz,
I spent some time in Coon Rapids just down the road from where you are in Feb' 1994. If you get the chance, go to the Weir/Dam on the Mississippi. I got some fantastic shots while there, although to be fair the river was frozen over at the time......but it would be interesting to see the contrast at this time of the year.
Great pics posted tho, they have brought back a few memories!
Cheers for the heads up Vince - snow is currently forecast for Sunday over here (first of the year), but they reckon it could even kick off today (and going by the nip in the air when I came over to the customers facility from the hotel they could well be correct). If it holds off a bit longer I'll head on down for a looky I spent some time in Coon Rapids just down the road from where you are in Feb' 1994. If you get the chance, go to the Weir/Dam on the Mississippi. I got some fantastic shots while there, although to be fair the river was frozen over at the time......but it would be interesting to see the contrast at this time of the year.
Great pics posted tho, they have brought back a few memories!
Edited by baz7175 on Wednesday 22 October 14:18
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