David Barthel - North Shore Images PhotographyDavid Barthel North Shore Images Photography
David Barthel

Photo Journal & News

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

A Holiday Message

Pine & Moon – Split Rock Lighthouse (2010)

Christmas Eve is upon us once again, and the ground doesn't look so white where I live in Minnesota. But soon, all will be calm as the hustle and excitement of the holiday season gives way to celebration, thanksgiving, and reflection upon another year of life's story.

For me, Christmas Eve represents the midpoint of a sort of "holiday trifecta." Yesterday, I marked my 32nd birthday with a holiday celebration consisting of good food and even greater family. With having a birthday at this time of year, the concept of reflecting upon the past and anticipating what's to come carries an even deeper meaning.

In my world of photography, I feel as though I may be approaching a crossroads of sorts. I participated in twenty art fairs in 2014, the most I have booked in a single season. It was a wildly successful year overall but also one that has left little time to produce new work and explore additional opportunities that photography may offer as my talent further develops. Producing my very best work and scouting new paths will be a priority in 2015. Today is an exciting time to be a landscape photographer, and I've never been more optimistic about what the future holds for the art.

I feel the same optimism about the broader world as a whole on this Christmas Eve. While there are many challenges to global peace, prosperity, and protection of our wild and scenic places, we have much to be thankful for as we celebrate this season and look forward to a new year.

Warm wishes to you for a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Art at Ramsey and Clearance/"Slightly Less than Perfect" Sale

Art at Ramsey

The 2014 art fair season is nearly complete, and it has been a great one! Thank you for supporting my work! There is still one more chance to come and visit (and get a good deal...more about that below).

My last show of the season, Art at Ramsey, will be this Saturday, December 6 at Ramsey Middle School between Summit and Grand Avenues in Saint Paul, MN. My biased opinion aside, Art at Ramsey is the top holiday art fair in the Twin Cities metro. The list of talented artists participating in this year's show is large...


Clearance and "Slightly Less than Perfect Sale"

There are rewards for reading this far into my message!

During the Art at Ramsey event, I will be having a Clearance/"Slightly Less Than Perfect" sale on several pieces that I have displayed in my booth. Some of these are pieces that may have slight imperfections from handling or otherwise that are usually only noticeable upon close inspection. Others are clearance pieces that I intend to retire from my display in their current form.

Details are below. Please email me (dbarthel@northshoreimages.com) if you would like further details on a particular piece or if you are interested in purchasing a piece but cannot attend the art fair in-person on Saturday.


"First Light - Split Rock" - 16x48 Ultra-Premium-Framed Canvas — $250 off regular price of $875


 "Winter's Last Stand" - 16x40 Premium-Framed Canvas — $200 off regular price of $645



"Gnarled Cedars & Falls" - 24x36 Premium-Framed Canvas — $75 off regular price of $595


 "Teton Reflection" - 24x24 Gallery Wrap — $75 off regular price of $275



"Autumn Rush" - 24x36 Float-Framed Gallery Wrap — $90 off regular price of $495
"Morning & the Mittens" - 24x36 Gallery Wrap — $90 off regular price of $395



"Navajo Dawn" - 20x30 Gallery Wrap — $50 off regular price of $275


"Autumn Meander" - 6x9 print, matted and framed to 11x14 — $20 off regular price of $79

"Lunar Light" - 5x7 print, matted and framed to 8x10 — $10 off regular price of $49

"Profile of Light" - 16x20 print, matted and framed to 22x26 — $60 off regular price of $245



"Profile of Light" - 11x14 print, matted and framed to 16x20 — $25 off regular price of $120




Keep up with my latest updates on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NorthShoreImages or search "David Barthel Photography."

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Autumn Festival - Shakopee, Minnesota

http://hpifestivals.com/app/download/7239197442/%241+Discount+Coupon+-+Autumn+Festival+2014.pdf
Good morning!

I wasn't expecting to be making another announcement so soon, but I wanted to let you know about a last-minute addition to my show schedule. This Thursday through Sunday, November 13-16, I will have a booth (indoors, of course) at the Autumn Festival at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN. The hours of the event are Thursday and Friday 11am-9pm, Saturday 9am-7pm, and Sunday 10am-5pm. My booth number is 133.

Here's a coupon link for $1.00 off a single admission to the show: http://hpifestivals.com/app/download/7239197442/%241+Discount+Coupon+-+Autumn+Festival+2014.pdf

Also, if you are on my mailing list and visit me at this show, I will deduct the price of your admission (up to $8) from your purchase of $45 or more. Just mention that you are on my mailing list for the discount.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Artists in the Garden at Bachman's and New Photographs

Artists in the Garden

Artists in the Garden
For those of you in the Twin Cities metro, Bachman's on Lyndale in Minneapolis will be hosting its first-ever Artists in the Garden event this weekend, November 8 & 9 (10am - 4pm both days). This event will be held in the (hopefully) warm greenhouse and feature over two dozen artists in a variety of mediums.

I am excited to be supporting this inaugural event as a participating artist. It's a great time of the year to do some early holiday shopping and perhaps even find something to spruce up your home before the holidays arrive.

More info at: http://www.bachmans.com/store-locator.ep?currentNodeBean=SeminarsAndEvents&pageIndex=_pageIndexToken_ArtistsInTheGarden.

If you want to catch me before the end of the year but can't make it to this event, I will also once again be exhibiting my work at Art at Ramsey in Saint Paul on Saturday, December 6.


Recent Photographs from the Pacific Northwest and Lake Superior's North Shore

With my art fair schedule winding down for the season, I have been able to work on several new photographs I've captured throughout the past year...

"Promise of Dawn" - Rowena Crest, Mayer State Park, Oregon, USA

This past spring, I photographed several areas in and around the Columbia River Gorge along Oregon's northern border with Washington. This particular morning was, for sure, a highlight of that trip. The balsamroot and lupines atop Rowena Crest, overlooking the Columbia River, were at peak bloom, and the sunrise was a top five in my book! I was stoked, to say the least!




"Before Driftwood" - Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington, USA

Rialto Beach, on the coast of the Olympic Peninsula, is well-known for its prominent, just-offshore sea stacks. It is a fantastic location to view sunsets over the Pacific Ocean. The sunset I was hoping for didn't materialize when I was there, so I worked to make the best of the conditions I had before me. These weathered tree branches on the beach really caught my eye, and their silhouette set against the moonlit evening sky made for an compelling semi-abstract photograph!












Not Yet Titled (preliminary edit) - Tettegouche State Park, Minnesota, USA

I captured this image on the shore of Lake Superior during an early fall morning about a month ago. While an explosive sunrise could have made this scene extraordinary, this image exhibits a rather stormy mood that is relatively common on the big lake at this time of year. The rocky point in the background is Shovel Point.



Not Yet Titled (preliminary edit) - Lake Superior, Grand Marais, Minnesota, USA

Lake Superior was peaceful and the sunrise was gorgeous on the morning I made this photograph! I almost gave up with the thick fog that was hanging around. Then, shortly after sunrise, the warm light cut through the fog and created one of the most dreamy atmospheres I have seen in quite awhile! With photography, as in many areas of life, perseverance can make all the difference!


Not Yet Titled (preliminary edit) - Tettegouche State Park, Minnesota, USA

On the second consecutive week that I visited and photographed Lake Superior this fall, I once again found slightly agitated waters, although the overall mood was less stormy this time.

There is something therapeutic about watching and listening to waves crashing ashore. I also find it quite gratifying to capture and portray this energy in a still photograph.












 "Harbor Moonrise" - Grand Marais, Minnesota, USA

Shooting the nearly full moonrise was something I really hadn't given much thought to when I was in Grand Marais last month. I had met up with fellow and local Grand Marais photographer Bryan Hansel after my morning shoot and again around sunset. When he suggested waiting around for the somewhat-late moonrise, I thought it was worth an attempt, even though it would be quite dark by that time.

The disadvantage of photographing a moonrise more than a half-hour after sunset is that it is impossible to obtain an exposure that captures both the detail in the moon and in the surrounding landscape without resorting to processing techniques that would probably result in a rather fake-looking image. Thankfully, there was still enough ambient light to illuminate the harbor landscape and clouds near the horizon to add extra interest. I think the attempt was worth it!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Last 2014 Outdoor Art Fairs, Capture Wisconsin II, and a Preview of Glacier N.P.


Last Chance! Three Remaining Outdoor Art Fairs for the 2014 Season


I want to thank everyone who visited my photography booth at the various art fairs I've attended this year. This has been our best season yet! If you didn't get a chance to do so, you can still catch me at three more venues before we wrap up the outdoor show season and start hibernating! Here they are:

Pewit's Nest Selected for the Cover of Capture Wisconsin II Book

A few weeks ago, I was informed that my photograph "Pewit's Nest" had been selected to be on the cover of the Capture Wisconsin II book! This photograph was captured last October in Pewit's Nest State Natural Area near Baraboo, Wisconsin.


The cover image was selected by editors and voters from tens of thousands of eligible photos on the Capture Wisconsin website. There were dozens of very deserving candidates in the final round of voting, so I feel very honored to have this image selected to represent this book, featuring some of the best of Wisconsin photography.

More info and to purchase the book here: http://store.pediment.com/blogs/news/15201489-capture-wisconsin-ii-cover 

A Preview from Glacier National Park

Between art shows, I managed to sneak away for nearly a week in Glacier National Park late last month and into early September. I experienced favorable light on several occasions during my time there. Here is a teaser image of the Swiftcurrent River at Sunrise that I rather quickly processed on my laptop (therefore, it's not yet final) while enjoying the lobby of the Many Glacier Hotel. There's more to come — stay tuned!
 



Thursday, July 31, 2014

Uptown and other August Art Fairs

Greetings everyone!

I will be returning to the Twin Cities for the Uptown Art Fair this Friday - Sunday, August 1-3. The Uptown Art Fair is Minnesota's largest and most-attended art fair, running Friday noon-8pm, Saturday 10am-8pm, and Sunday 10am-5pm. I'll be located in the same spot at last year, booth # 2114-2115 on the first block of "The Mall" coming from Hennepin Avenue.

I also have two other events slated for later in the month:
 I look forward to seeing some of you soon!

Fireworks with a Twist - Literally!

As most of you know, I'm primarily a [natural] landscape photographer, so I must admit that shooting fireworks is not at the top of my list of subjects to photograph. But after reading a recent post by Sean Bagshaw Photography on the Photo Cascadia blog about a different method for capturing the exploding light bursts, I simply couldn't resist giving it a try and having some fun with it during the local Fourth of July display.


Photographers, read on further...

The technique is simple — with your camera in "bulb" mode and fixed upon a tripod, twist the focus ring of your lens steadily (in manual focus mode) while the shutter is open for a second or two. Begin the exposure with the fireworks well (but not too far) out of focus and end the exposure with the burst in-focus (or very close to that point).


It's not as easy in practice – timing is one of the main challenges. You want to time the shutter to open at the point of the explosion and close before the light fizzles. Also, this technique works better with displays that shoot more single bursts of fireworks, as opposed to those that shoot lots of them in succession. In other words, the grand finale is not the time to employ this approach. This technique definitely relies on a good deal of trial and error, and success will not be on your side all (or even most) of the time.


Thursday, June 26, 2014

Three Art Fairs in Three States

Greetings everyone, and welcome to those of you who are new to my photo journal. Here is where I normally will show my most recent work.

This spring/summer, so far, has been a busy one for me with art fairs scheduled each weekend since May 17. It's been a challenge for me to find enough quality time lately to process more of my latest photographs, but I'm expecting that will change after this weekend, when I will have nearly two weeks between consecutive shows. I will likely be showing some new work in my next photo journal update.

Until then, here is my schedule for the next month. I will be traveling to a triad of Minnesota's neighboring states: Iowa, Wisconsin, and North Dakota (sorry South Dakota - maybe next year). To those of you near any of these events, I hope you'll stop by and say hello!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Three Upcoming Twin Cities Area Art Fairs

This year's art fair season is off to a great start! For those of you in the Twin Cities metro who would like to check out and/or purchase some of my latest work, you can find me at three different art fairs over the next three weekends:
I have 10 new pieces hanging in my booth this year and several more new-release matted prints. Please stop in if you plan to visit one of these great art events!

Sunday, April 13, 2014

2014 Art Fair Schedule Announced, Website Upgrade, and New Images

Greetings,

It's been a long time since I've posted to my photo journal and sent out email updates, so this one is a BIG one. The end is quite a way down, so settle in, grab a cup of...well, maybe it's not that long. Plus, the content is mostly in the form of images. 

FYI: I frequently post new work and announcements to my Facebook page (facebook.com/NorthShoreImages), so you may follow me there as well if you'd like.


2014 Art Fair Schedule

Warmer weather means that art fair season is upon us once again! I am very fortunate to have been invited to a number of fine events throughout Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. This list represents most of the shows I anticipate participating in through the end of the year. More dates will be added to my show schedule page (www.northshoreimages.com/Schedule) as they are confirmed.

Please stop in and visit if you find yourself at or near one of these events. I just might have something for that blank spot on the wall...


Website Upgrade

Website Upgrade

For the past couple of weeks, I've been working hard to bring an updated and improved experience for visitors to my website. The main changes include a redesigned image and gallery browsing experience and major improvements to the way the site appears and functions in mobile devices. I've also made a few other changes (e.g. - the Purchase page better explains and illustrates my fine art canvas offerings) and minor cosmetic updates.

Please feel free to poke around the site and let me know what you think (or if you find any bugs!). I will likely be tweaking a few things over the next several days, so not every detail is carved in stone yet.


www.northshoreimages.com

New Photographs from 2013 and Early 2014

This is the first photo journal and email update I have sent this year, and therefore, I have amassed a number of new photographs (19 in all) to share with you. So sit back and enjoy the scroll to the bottom of this e-mail. If you'd like to receive more frequent updates, please follow me on Facebook here: facebook.com/NorthShoreImages.


Palisade Dawn

"Palisade Dawn" - Palisade Head, Tettegouche State Park, Minnesota


This photograph was captured last July atop Palisade Head in Tettegouche State Park, on the North Shore of Lake Superior. This stretch of greater than 150-foot cliffs is almost certainly the highest and most prominent landscape directly overlooking Lake Superior in Minnesota. I have shot this location on several mornings over the years, but this time the light had worked to my favor...













 
Totem Pole & Yei Bi Chei Silhouette
"Totem Pole & Yei Bi Chei Silhouette" - Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona

I made this photograph in April 2013 in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in northern Arizona. Monument Valley is known for its many interesting spires, buttes, and mesas.

For simplicity, I intentionally exposed and processed the image to maintain the monuments and foreground in silhouette. Their shapes, set against the rich predawn sky, make this a quintessential image of the Southwest.



Navajo Dawn

"Navajo Dawn" - Monument Valley, Arizona

This photograph was captured just minutes after the above, this one depicting the sun breaking the horizon between the Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei monuments. The monuments are spiritually significant to the Navajo people, with the Yei Bi Chei representing Navajo gods. There remain some Navajo in the valley who live without modern conveniences such as electricity and running water, choosing the lifestyle of their ancestors and making their living from tourists.
















 
Storm Over Badlands
"Storm Over Badlands" - Badlands National Park, South Dakota

I was on my way home from several days spent photographing in the Western U.S. and had not intended to make a stop in Badlands National Park. However, with stormy weather in the area, I could not resist the temptation to make a few photographs. There is something I love about seeing a storm over the vast prairie landscape.

The views from the higher elevations within the park are some of the most expansive anywhere, extending for dozens of miles. Between bouts of rain passing directly overhead, I made several exposures to combine into a panoramic photograph depicting the storm passing over the eroded landscape. This particular panorama consists of seven individual vertical shots.



Reach
"Reach" - Monument Valley, Arizona

This image was made at Ear of the Wind Arch, one of several natural arches in Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. I like how this dead tree frames the nearly-circular arch opening. Getting to this location requires hiring a Navajo guide since it is well off of the main park loop.



















White House Ruin

"White House Ruin" - Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

It's hard to imagine what life was like around 900 years ago when the Anasazi people constructed these masonry cliff dwellings within this recess inside Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona. White House Ruin is one of the most famous of all ancient Native American dwellings and also includes structures on the valley floor, just outside the edge of this photograph. The "White House" name comes from the relative lightness of the exterior of the ancient village's largest structure seen in the center rear.

One particularly attractive feature of this canyon wall is the dark vertical streaks on its surface, known as desert varnish. It is a very thin layer of clay and metal oxides that form on stable, unchanging rock surfaces. If you look closely, you'll also see petroglyph figures in the rock face just below the ruin.

As a side note and being a Minnesotan, I couldn't help but notice the large, rough outline in the canyon wall above the ruin. Kinda looks like Minnesota...don't cha think?




Autumn Rush

"Autumn Rush" - Temperance River State Park, Minnesota

I made this photograph last October along the Temperance River in Temperance River State Park during peak fall color on Lake Superior's North Shore. The color produced by the oxidized minerals in the falling water complement nicely with the autumn foliage.




















Brown-Eyed Dream 
"Brown-Eyed Dream" - Superior National Forest, Minnesota

In keeping with the fall theme, here is another new image from last October. I found this patch of Brown-eyed Susan (also known as Black-eyed Susan or Gloriosa) daisies near the Oberg Mountain trail head in the Superior National Forest. Fall-blooming wildflowers tend to bear more warm-hued blossoms, in contrast to their spring and early summer counterparts...at least that's what I've noticed.

I used a very narrow depth-of-field here to isolate a few of the blossoms while giving the image an overall sense of dreaminess.














Caribou Falls II 
"Caribou Falls II" - Caribou Falls State Wayside, Minnesota

This image was captured last summer near the base of Caribou Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in Minnesota, on Lake Superior's North Shore. With the abundant snow pack here this past winter, the North Shore's waterfalls should be raging very soon. 



















Rush Hour
"Rush Hour" - Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona

Seventeen miles of rugged, unpaved road wind through Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park in northern Arizona. As visitors exit the park at dusk, an interesting contrast is created between the fleeting and the seemingly eternal.



Anasazi Art
"Anasazi Art" - Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona

Petroglyphs, such as these carvings of bighorn sheep, were a lasting means of artistic expression for various ancient peoples worldwide. The Anasazi resided in the region in and around Monument Valley, in the southwestern United States, leaving behind dwellings and petroglyphs. These artifacts have provided an understanding of what life may have been like for these people who roamed this land many centuries ago.

Extraterrestrial Communication
"Extraterrestrial Communication" - Stud Horse Point, near Page, Arizona

The American Southwest is filled with incredible landscapes and strange rock formations. This location, near Page, Arizona, feels quite literally out of this world! I had the good fortune of spending an evening here last April with local Page photographer Jackson Bridges. The color exploded at sunset, which made for exciting and productive photography. The hoodoos (balanced rock formations) in this image make me think of (petrified) satellite dishes pointed toward outer space, hence the title.


Fire & Ice"Fire & Ice" - Lighthouse Point, Two Harbors, Minnesota

Lake Superior's surface was up to 95% covered in ice this past winter, which is the most ice seen on the lake in at least five years. The local ice conditions changed daily, fluctuating between ice cover and open water. These fluctuations were largely driven by the wind which pushed sheets of ice onto the shore, where they broke into the beautiful shards that you see in this image.

I'm admittedly not much of a cold weather guy, but somehow I managed to drag myself out of the warm bed and out to Lighthouse Point in Two Harbors for a few minutes on a Saturday morning in February to capture this frozen spectacle. The ice took on a blue glow from the gentle morning light which contrasted nicely with the warm sunrise light entering through the break in the clouds.


Magic of the North

"Magic of the North" - near Royalton, Minnesota

There was some chatter on social media on the night of February 18th about an aurora event that was starting to materialize, but I hesitated to go out, thinking it wouldn't amount to much. Then, at about 1:00 AM and after further reports, I stepped out to my backyard (in town) and could easily see the telltale green glow along with beams in the northern sky, a sign that I knew the aurora would be magical once I drove away from the city lights.

Being the relatively mild evening it was for February, I grabbed by camera equipment and drove to a few locations east of Royalton, about 20 miles from my home, and made a few photographs. The bright landscape was created by the nearly full moon, which rather surprisingly did not drown out the auroral display much. I could only imagine what this display would have looked like without the bright moon!






The Fire Within "The Fire Within" - Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Mesa Arch is a true icon of the American Southwest, one of the top bucket list locations of many landscape photographers. And for good reason. The view of the distant canyons and natural monuments from this location is simply majestic, and the arch provides a nice window into that view. Sunrise provides an amazing warm glow of light on the underside of the arch thanks to reflection from the canyon below.

After capturing a classic sunrise shot through the arch (which I look forward to sharing soon) and waiting for most of the other two dozen or so photographers to pack up and depart, I found this composition. I like how the shrub in the right foreground anchors the composition and adds to the sense of depth.



 
"Pothole Pond" - Temperance River State Park, Minnesota

The ancient basalt lava flows along the Temperance River bed are home to many potholes carved by sediment from the moving water over millennia. Many of these potholes lie directly within the river's channel while others, like the one pictured here, formed when the river followed a slightly different course and now only collect water during rain or high water.



















"Winter Breakup" - Stoney Point, near Knife River, Minnesota

This was the scene at Stoney Point on Lake Superior's North Shore on a beautiful early March morning. Strong onshore winds can send large sheets of ice ashore, where they break into hundreds of pieces, like the shards in this image. Offshore winds can just as easily send most of this piled-up ice back out to sea (or lake), with open water taking its place. What's really amazing is that these transformations of ice/no ice on the shoreline can happen within hours, creating a new experience each time one visits the big lake in winter.

















"Winter Breakup II" - Stoney Point, near Knife River, Minnesota
 
Here's another ice shot from later in the morning at Stoney Point. Even though the sunrise was well short of epic, the sky that morning did not disappoint. Just a few days after I shot this image, most of this ice was carried away by the lake.




















"Seven Bunchberry Blooms" - Cascade River State Park, Minnesota

Winter has been long and cold here in Minnesota, but it won't be long until flowers and vegetation grace the landscape that was covered in snow until very recently.


It will take some rain and a couple of months before we see bunchberry blossoms like those in this image I captured last summer. This is one of the most photogenic groupings of the plant that I have seen. Encountering these blooms on the forest floor is one of the many joys of hiking through the woods of northeastern Minnesota in early summer.