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:

• August 16-17 - Art Crawl through the Gardens - Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, MN

• August 23 - Northwoods Art Festival - Hackensack, MN

 I look forward to seeing some of you soon!

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.

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!

• June 28-29 - ArtFest Midwest - Varied Industries Building, Iowa State Fairgrounds, Des Moines, IA
• July 12-13 - Art Fair on the Square - State Capitol Square, Madison, WI
• July 17-19 - Downtown Fargo Street Fair - Fargo, ND

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:

• May 31-June 1 - Rivertown Art Festival - North Lowell Park, Stillwater, MN (Booth #1)
• June 6-8 - Edina Art Fair - 50th & France, Edina, MN (Booth #146-147)
• June 14-15 - Art on the Lake - Excelsior Commons on Lake Minnetonka, Excelsior, MN (Booth #137)

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!