Twice As Nice

Tomorrow is my Theme Day photo in the Daily Photo Community. Water is the theme for the month of April. While this is not my selection for tomorrow's theme, this would be my second choice. I went out a little over a week ago with this shot in mind to use for the theme day. I found the location I wanted and I'm very happy with the results of the photo. I used a photo technique that Chris from Minneapolis Daily Photo often used in his shots.

So if this is my second choice for the theme day of 'Water', what is my first choice? Well, you'll have to stop back tomorrow and find out. It was a bit more of a challenging photo to take than today's photo is.

My Daily Photo Favorites: London, United Kingdom | Torino, Italy | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Grenoble, France | Minneapolis, Minnesota

Liftbridge Control Center

This control center lift bridge crosses the Mississippi River. Downtown St Paul is to my right. I couldn't imagine sitting in that small building all day for a job, waiting for boats to pass so I could push a button to lift the bridge and allow large boats to pass through. I certainly could not, but would this be something you could do for a living?

Ice Lake

This is the south end of the lake at Hamlet Park. This is the smaller inlet, there is a much bigger area of water the more north you walk. By looking at the water, I believe this part of the lake had warmed enough to melt. I could be wrong, perhaps just the top layer melted away. The reason I say that is the ice is clean, flat, and appears undisturbed. Plus it currently is partly frozen, I wouldn't dare walk on a small on the surface. Oh I wish I would have charged my batteries before this snow storm fell. There was so much to photograph that day.

Walk The Line

There is a great little park in Cottage Grove called Hamlet Park. There is a natural lake with an excellent walking path around the lake. The walking path starts in Hamlet Park, around the lake and back. This particular path starts from Hamlet Park.

If you've been view the photos this week, you've noticed the snow collecting on one side of objects. Today's photo is another great example of how the snow was falling. This was one great storm for photo taking.

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Kicked To The Curb

Believe it or not, I took this photo from the bottom of my driveway. This was a day after last weeks snow storm rolled through the Twin Cities. The streets were very clear by that time with plenty of melting of the snow. What stands out to me is the amount of sand one can see at this low angle. But it's vital for driving on icy roads during the colder winter months.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Las Vegas, Nevada | Flagstaff, Arizona | Athens, Greece | Mazatlan, Mexico

Weee, More Snow

More from the latest snow storm that passed through this area. Have you ever seen snow collect on an object in this manner before?

My Daily Photo Favorites: St Louis, Missouri | Juneau, Alaska | Washington, DC | Terrell, Texas

It Was Snowing Sideways

We had a fun little snow storm pass through here at the end of last week. The temperature was right at the freezing mark, the wind was blowing east to west of all directions. The wind speed had enough gusto to give the appearance of the snow falling sideways. It was a heavy, wet snow that was clinging to anything in it's path. When I drove down Cliff Road on my way to work, I did all I could to see what color the stop light was. In reality, I had to look at what the lights on the cross streets was to decide what the color of my light was as I approached the intersection. When I made a return trip down the opposite direction on Cliff Road, the heat from the 'green' light was enough to melt the snow off, but the red and yellow shows what all three of the lights looked like.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Bagor, Indonesia | London, United Kingdom | Cypress, Texas | Minsk, Belarus | Torino, Italy

Pinewood Derby Cars

A closeup of all of the 2008 Pinewood Derby cars entered by the Cub Scouts, Tiger Scouts and the 'open division' for family members. We entered two cars this year and both faired very well. My son's car placed second in the Cub Division, while my car, I mean the car I entered under my daughters name also placed second on the Open Division.

  

My Daily Photo Favorites: Sharon, Connecticut | Cleveland, Ohio | Torun, Poland | Székesfehérvár, Hungary | Detroit, Michigan

Made In The Twin Cities

This freshly made snowman was created in the Twin Cities area of Cottage Grove on a snowy weekend in March. Wet, very heavy snowfall covered a good portion of the state of Minnesota on Friday and Saturday. We were left with snow that was a perfect blend to make snowmen. This one was made by my two kids, with a little help from dad. I post this photo to make you warm weather climate areas jealous. We can do something that you cannot do.

I'm Seeing Stars

This out of focus shot is of the rotunda ceiling at the Mall of America.

My Daily Photo Favorites: St Louis, Missouri | Albuquerque, New Mexico | Seattle, Washington

The Source Is Frozen

"The Source" is the name of the statue on display in Rice Park, located in downtown St Paul. I took this one back in December 07 with cold temps and quite a bit of snow at the time. If I were to visit there today, I would find no snow as it's been above the freezing mark for a good week or so. Slowly the life of the Twin Cities will begin to grow and we can put another winter behind us. Yesterday marks the first day of spring, my favorite time of the year.

For more information on "The Source" please visit Visual St Paul by Kate.

My Daily Photo Favorites: St Kilda, Australia | Las Vegas, Nevada | Lisbon, Portugal | New Orleans, Louisiana | Stockholm, Sweden | Hilo, Hawaii

Somebody Get Me A Mirror

I took this one a couple of months ago in downtown St Paul. The building is so distorted in the reflection, I cannot recall which building it is.

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Interesting Links Of the Day: Free Office Pool | Blank Bracket | Printable Bracket

The North Counterweight

The rail road counterweight mechanism as seen from the Robert Street Bridge.

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Interesting Links Of the Day: March Madness | Blank Bracket | Printable Bracket

Gophers Tubby Smith

The regular season for the Minnesota Gophers has come to a close. New head coach Tubby Smith in his first year brought the basketball team from a seven win team to a twenty win team. It was a very welcome improvement as the majority of the players were leftovers from the previous coach. Tubby was able to get them to play very well together, something the previous coach was lacking.

It's my shameless annual plug for my other website I run this time of the year. It is a free, online office pool that correlates with the NCAA Men's Final Four Tournament. Hope to see you in my final four pool this year. I also have blank brackets and printable brackets if you're in need of one.

My Website: OfficePool64.com

 

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Interesting Links Of the Day: Final Four | Blank Bracket | Printable Bracket

Hats Off To The Gophers

This isn't a photo from this weekends games during the Big Ten Conference Tournament, it was from this past December when the Gophers faced off against Santa Clara. I took this photo from my seats and they easily won this game. The Gophers has mixed emotions this weekend with a memorable highlight ending shot by Blake Hoffarber versus Indiana Hoosiers. Threw across the length of the court to Hoffarber and sank the winning shot. It was a thing of beauty. Those of you that have never heard of Hoffarber before, you must watch his game tieing shot from the Minnesota State High School Tournament. This is the most amazing shot you'll ever see in your life, trust me on this. It also won the ESPN award for Play Of The Year. Two Miracle shots in ones lifetime! Have you ever seen such a thing before?

The Gophers were not so luck in Saturday's contest, losing to Illinois and should be out of the NCAA Final Four tournament. We shall see, there is a chance, a very slim chance they'll make it in, but honestly I can't see them going very deep into the tournament.

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Interesting Links Of the Day: Hoffarber Game tieing Shot | Hoffarber Game winning shot

"X" Marks The Spot

I've been sitting on this photo since this past Christmas time. I had taken it one evening while I was doing some shopping and while I was listening to Classic Brass Inc perform a concert at the Mall Of America. I had taken this photo of the ceiling which I believe was the area they had performed in. Since I've started this city photo blog, I've been looking and taking different photos that I would normally never take. Ceilings have been a new interest of mine as they are unique from building to building.

With that said, there is a new city blog in the Twin Cities here, "Just Roaming The Twin Cities" is the name of it. On the sidebar they had a guessing game named, 'can you guess where this roof is'? Wouldn't you know it, today's photo was the exact same roof they had for me to guess. I knew it the instant I saw it on the site. I just found it funny I had taken a photo of it a few months prior to this week.

There is a new photo of a different ceiling on the Just Roaming The Twin Cities site. I've made my guess of the Como Park Conservatory. I don't have a photo to post to compare it, but to the best of what I can recall, I am correct, though I have not been there in ten plus years. We shall see in the coming days.

My Daily Photo Favorites: returning soon....I promise

Inspirations For Nerds

I believe this is the building that inspired the video game from the 80's Q-Bert. Or at least that's what I thought of while looking at this photo....

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Not Your Typical View

I've seen countless photos of the Landmark Center located in downtown St Paul, including a few seen on this photo blog. I've never seen a photo of the back side of the landmark center. Here it is in all it's glory.

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Where The Sidewalk Ends

Looks a bit deserted on the Saturday I took this photo. I'm looking west on Kellogg Boulevard.

This is also my 600th post.

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I Took Me Four Attempts

Looking at yesterday's photo again, I must tell a quick story. The night I shot both today's and yesterday's photo, it took me four attempts before I timed the big "1" to be lit up as it is today. It's a three sided neon lighted sign and each bank is lit up one at a time to save energy and the cost to run all three sides at once. Getting the timing down to take a photo of it proved to be a challenge in the cold temperatures. In the end, I actually preferred the unlit photo better. It's a capture of this tower at night that I had never seen before. Plus the neon lights were very bright in the photo, but being as it was very cold out, I didn't want to tweak my camera settings any longer.

Which do you prefer?

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Night Shot Of The First National Bank

Nighttime capture of the First National Bank Building in downtown St Paul. I am at the corner of Kellogg Avenue and Wabasha Street.

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Six Feet Maximum

Why six feet? Who decided a six foot leash was the maximum length allowable by law in St Paul? Why not five feet? Seven? What type of fine is there if you exceed the six foot leash length? What if your leash was six and a half foot long. Who is going to inspect this?

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Tin Roof Rusted

When I saw the roof and all of the rust brewing out from the weather beaten building, it looked like a great photo opportunity. An old building with lots of character.

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Union Pacific Railroad

Captured this one, from this past spring, of the passing train. The tracks run along the Mississippi River and Sheppard Road. If you follow the buildings in the background up, you'd see downtown St Paul.

Wordless Wednesday

Close Up Of The Facade

Zoomed in on the entrance to the Old Pioneer Press building. I've noticed the plaque in the corner of the building since taking this photo. I'm going to have to make a return trip to this building and get a close up of the dialog on the plaque. If I want some history of this building, I would bet I can find it there.

Sunlight Stripe

This one was sort of tough to photograph. I really wanted to capture the sunlight on the old Pioneer Press building, but had to stand back far to capture it all. However, if I went too far back, I would lose the stripe into the white building. I do like the building design. It's a fairly common look on the older buildings. I'm not sure when they left this building, but they are now located about three miles from here. "Here" is downtown St Paul. I believe it's the corner of Robert Street and 4th Street if I'm not mistaken.

Theme Day: Graffiti or Street Mural

Yeah! I finally have internet connection!

I couldn't resist this train graffiti I found in Hastings, Minnesota while on a walk back in the spring of 2007. This one is quite funny to me. The enormous eyes, the detail that went into just the ears alone. great shadowing technique with spray paint. It's very well done to whomever the artist was.

Please be sure to visit the other participating Theme Day bloggers listed below the photo.


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