Live, from St Paul, Xcel Energy smokestack is demolished as it is no longer needed. This contribution photo from Claydough shows the 570 foot, highbridge tower as it falls to the ground. Explosives were used for the initial blast, then gravity took care of the rest as the tower fell leaving a great big cloud of dust. Claydough took over 100 photos of the day's event. To see the rest of the photo set, you can visit his flicker website.
This morning at 7:30 am, St Paul will lose another piece of it's skyline. The old NSP plant, now the Xcel Energy Plant, which is no longer a coal burning power plant will demolish it's 570 foot smoke stack. This will wake the neighborhood. I know the plant is being converted to a different type of energy plant, but I cannot recall exactly what type at the moment. Whatever is to become of the energy plant, the smokestack is useless for the future. Down it will go with 200 pounds of explosives. I unfortunately will not be able to attend the demolishion. This is my busy season at work and I must pass up this event. Though, I do have several photos of the smokestack, I will take some photos after the event has taken place with the new void in the skyline.
One thing I've always enjoyed about old style buildings is the details and craftsmanship that went into a building like this. They just don't make them like they used too. I seriously doubt that we'll ever see buildings made in similar to designs like this.
I had a customer, a few weeks ago, that I was giving some technical support. He had taken some photos earlier in the morning of a black bear and it's baby cub. He asked if I wanted to see them, I couldn't pass them up. I know he was about two hours north of the Twin Cities where one could find a bear in their backyard. Finding one in the Twin Cities area can only be found in a zoo.
This odd looking contraption can be found on the Wabasha Street Bridge as you enter downtown St Paul from the West Side neighborhood. To me, these are some strange looking contraptions that have been added into the bridge design. It blends well with the rest of the bridge, but strange non the less.
This vandalized wall, I mean, this artistic graffiti can be found in St Paul, under highway 61 at a roadside park which leads into Battle Creek Park. Whomever tagged this wall, had an issue with their black spray paint can. The paint was too thin, or they over sprayed. There are some serious drips with the blank spray paint. See all of the runs now when you look close? This is a terrible job by the vandal who wrote their name on the all. Blah! The white shading effect around the lettering, another terrible job I must say. Very uneven, double sprayed, plus a few places where you went WAY off track of the letter. Perhaps someone finished this for you at a later date? If you're going to vandalize a wall, and then later on have my tax payer dollars clean it up, at least make it look outstanding.
Seven Corners Hardware, since 1933. Oddly enough, it's on the corner of Seventh Street and Chestnut Street in St Paul. Just on the fringe of downtown. To be fair, the landscape has changed quite a bit since it's opening, plus I do believe the intersection it gets it's name from is just out of frame to the left. That end of the block is home to many intersections coming together.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hummm, it's either the Hayes Model EB device attached to the train track or it's the bird seed sprinkled on the side. Take your pick.
I really don't have any information about this eagle building, but it caught my eye the other day as I drove past it. I had to turn around and get a shot or two of it. It's located south of downtown St Paul between Wabasha Street and Robert Street. I think the street I was driving on is Plato Boulevard if I'm not mistaken. It's located right next to the railroad tracks that cross the street. As a child, I remember being stopped at this railroad section at times one the way to pick up my dad from his work at the American Hoist Building.
I would be safe to assume that this mural of an eagle landing on a cactus was planned and not the work of a graffiti vandalism/artist like I posted in yesterday's photo. I do wish I would have come back earlier in the day to catch the sun on the side of the mural instead of the face of the building. The contrast between the two sides was really tough to photograph.
One thing I've always had trouble with about graffiti, aside from it being vandalism, is the meaning of some of the messages. Does anyone, but the author of this act of vandalism understand the message? "Another solo mission X-Mas eve in MN" signed "BOS ONE". See, what does it mean?
What I can tell you about this home is it's location and the approximate build date. It is located in St Paul in the West Side neighborhood. I would figure the house was built somewhere between 1910 and 1930 as were many of the homes in this neighborhood. It does look like it is made with brick, obviously painted over. But wow, the detail painting someone has taken on this home. Plus the brass roof on the left tower and in two other areas as you progress down to the ground level. I'm not sure what the 'fruit salad' like thing above the two side by side windows is suppose to be, hummmm. That's odd to me. Someone put a lot of time into restoring this home. Unfortunately this is the only photo I took of the home so far. The lower half is covered quite a bit with trees and shrubs, so it was tougher to photograph from the street. I'll make a return visit in the winter when all of the leaves are off of the trees.
I was thinking of making this a guessing game for the locals. But I've decided against it, though I am curious if anyone has visited this location. I am standing under Highway 61, [click here for an aerial shot] in St Paul. I stopped at the roadside park, which I believe leads into Battle Creek Park, and was surprised to find this tunnel filled with spray paintings of all sorts.
After too long of a delay over funding, the Wakota Bridge replacement project is back in full action. While originally scheduled to complete in 2007, the south bridge is scheduled for completion in the year 2010. Yeah, that's a very long delay don't you think for road construction? The big square is where the foundation will be formed. If you look closely, you can see the other side where the bridge will connect.
A quick shot from my car window as I wait for the red light to turn green. This odd looking tower, also called the 'Witches Hat' located in Prospect Park is actually a water tower. What you might not know is, this water tower was also designed as a bandstand. Constructed back in 1913, the bandstand, incidentally, only held one concert. Carrying musical instruments to the top of the sixty foot climb proved to be quite difficult for the musicians. I must admit, this is one really cool way to hide a water tower.
An audience of over 550 gathered at the Mall of America in Bloomington to watch the 2008 Northern Star Council Pinewood Derby. The event—which is the largest Pinewood Derby in the country—was held on Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 2.
Well, we made our first trip to the Cottage View Drive-In theater in Cottage Grove off of Highway 61. We saw the new 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skulls' movie as the feature movie. This was followed up by 'Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian'. Having seen the previous three Indiana Jones movies when I was much younger, I was looking forward to the latest release. Well, while it did keep up with the action from the previous movies, I was a bit taken back by the story line. I won't give the plot away, but it was easy to figure out where the story was going. Some of the other Indiana Jones movies, sure, there is a lot to believe for the viewer. This was a bit over the top for me. My kids enjoyed the movie and want to see the first three movies now. I can easily sit through them. As for the second Chronicles Of Narnia movie....having not seen the previous movie, I was unsure of any of the characters or what had taken place previously. I was able to follow the story line and if you have not seen the first movie, this one is has a decent enough story line for the viewer.
Normally shooting photos directly in the direction of the sun is not a good thing. For this shot however, not sure why or how it happened, but the green is extremely brilliant in this photo. Perhaps the sun is reflecting off of the leafy greens, I just don't know. The location for this shot I will be returning to at night. I can envision some great nighttime photos from this higher vantage point. For those of you familiar with St Paul, this intersection is Highway 61 from left to right in the photo. The street making an upside down 'T' would be the beginning of Sheppard Road as you head into downtown from the East Side of St Paul.
