Longtime readers and those who know me understand that I spend most of my behind-the-camera time on Lake Superior's North Shore, trying to capture that elusive image that I had, or perhaps had not envisioned. It's sometimes difficult to imagine how anything else can compete with the grandeur found in that region we aptly refer to as "God's Country." Well, sometimes there are great images begging to be made right outside our doors.

May is the month when the tulips bloom where I live, and several are currently in blossom right beside my home. I happened to become intrigued with them this year and took a few photographs. Capturing these tulips in a pleasing manner had its own challenges since the flower bed as a whole was not exactly beautiful with last month's spent daffodils situated just behind these lovely fresh flowers.

I decided to take a semi-abstract approach by composing very close and keeping sharp focus only on the tip of the closest petal and letting the rest of the flower and background fall off into a soft blur. By doing this, I also all but removed the location context of these images.

Interestingly, I made these photographs on the evening of the severe thunderstorm outbreak in central Minnesota. Luckily, we were not impacted by the storms, but the clouds to the east created some unusual light that was perfect for these images.


Tulips have an interesting economic history. "Tulip mania," as it is called, was a period in the early-mid 1600s in Europe in which certain varieties of tulip bulbs became extremely valuable in the marketplace, some reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars in today's dollar value. It is the first recorded economic bubble in human history. After reaching these lofty heights, their values quickly plummeted as it became evident that the extreme prices were quite irrational. Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania.

As a photographer, one of the greatest challenges is taking full advantage of the medium's capabilities to produce imagery that is beyond the ordinary "postcard" shot. I'm not trying to disparage postcard-type images – I make lots of them, they are beautiful, and some are challenging in their own right. But, some very interesting effects can be made by utilizing light in unique ways with the camera. The image above was made at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park in January as I was anticipating making those postcard-like photos of the full moonrise. Just before dusk, I found a stand of birch in the park that I liked and set up my tripod. The effect was created by using a slow shutter speed and panning the camera up and down during the exposure. I was able to use the slow shutter speed since it was late in the day with lower ambient light.

A bit less abstract is this image of floating ice platforms in the Grand Marais Harbor. It is interesting how the movement of the water and ice within the bay results in these varied ice formations.

Lake Superior has some expansive stretches of stone beach. Iona's beach between Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse is one example. Here you can find stones of seemingly most any shape and natural color.