Photography

Misc Pictures

~ Guy Hall

Above is a picture I took years ago with an earlier version of the iPhone. It was incidental—that is, I took it without much forethought. I looked, snapped a few, and moved on. Honestly, I don’t know exactly where I took this on the St. Louis River. I suspect it is right after crossing the swinging bridge in Jay Cooke State Park.

Cinnamon on my wrist
Cinnamon is upset I’m not paying attention to her

One morning, I was working at my computer, and Cinnamon, the cat who chose me on 10/23/2004, decided I was paying too much attention to the screen and not enough attention to her. One day, I will write about how she came into my life.

The original incidental picture.

This is the original incidental picture. I was at the Como Conservatory in St. Paul early on a Sunday morning with Caleb, the son of my then-girlfriend. The flowers caught my attention, so I stepped back, held my digital camera (my first one) over them without even bothering to look through the viewfinder, and snapped a photo.

The sun shines on a rainy day. Snapped from the front door of the house I owned in Hastings, MN.

This is the water flowing over the dam on top of the Vermillion Falls in Hastings. Snapped the summer of 2024.

The outside shot of water flowing over the dam just before the Vermillion River Falls in Hastings, MN

Here is the outside shot of the flow over the dam.

So, there you go—just some random images taken over the years, with little connection to each other.

Some Nature Pictures

~ Guy Hall

This is a sea cave at Clay Point County Park surrounded by Clay Banks State Natural Area in Door County, WI. It is a little, out-of-the-way park with a small green and a gazebo.

Temperance State Park

Temperance River
~ Guy Hall
  • Temperance River
    The Highway 61 Bridge
  • Temperance River
    Slow, lazy flow into a slight rapids.
  • Temperance River
    A widening of the Gorge
  • Temperance River
    Not as narrow, but still tight.
  • Temperance River
    Narrow Gorge
  • Temperance River
    The Gorge
  • Temperance River
    Temperance River
  • Temperance River
    Temperance River
  • Two Harbors
    Two Harbors

iPhone Camera Problems

~ Guy Hall

Well, it seems that WordPress and the iPhone Camera don’t communicate well. In fact, not at all. I like to switch from Portrait to Landscape (you know, turn the phone sideways) when taking picturtes. Unfortunately, it seems WordPress doesn’t, or can’t, read the orientation information that is embedded in the photo. So, all the pictures I took sideways are showing up sideways. Anyway, instead of posting a ton of pictures all at once here on my blog, I just posted them all directly on Facebook.

I’d rather post them here. But, until I figure out how to get WordPress to show them properly, I guess it’s to Facebook I go.

Still, let me show you one.

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Photo Blogging Part 5

~ Guy Hall

So, in Part 3 I mentioned there were some 80 to 90 year old poplars in the Lost Valley Natural Area. I did some digging and managed to find a few. For the purpose of perspective I am in the pictures. I took these with a very old HP digital camera. Unfortunately, it was stolen from me shortly after these shots were taken. My next digital camera didn’t have a timer for taken shots like this. Oh, and these are not High Definition shots, yet they’re still pretty damn clear.

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Now, what looks like fallen tree on this 100 year old bridge is actually a branch from the tree I am standing next to in the first picture.

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And here’s the shot showing you where the branch used to be before it was blown off the tree.

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And here’s another one with me. And yes, I have a hell of a lot less gray hair.

Photo Blogging Part 4

~ Guy Hall

100_0028Because, you know, nothing counters the winter doldrums than a picture of summer. This, by the way, is the Vermilion Falls in Hastings. It’s right behind the Con-Agra mill.

Photo Blogging Part 3

~ Guy Hall

Lost Valley 005This Natural Area was once part of our old farm. The majority of the land is now a rural housing development in Southern Washington County. What I used to jokingly call the back 40 is really only about 5 acres, and is now prairie restoration. North of that are valleys created by centuries of run off from spring melts. It’s really quite beautiful. I’ve got close to 50 or 60 pictures I’ve taken over the years. Some of which I’ve lost. Hopefully I’ll be able to locate them, because down in the eastern end of the valleys are some 80 or 90 year old poplar trees that are stunning.Lost Valley 043

Here’s a picture from the north side of the valley. If you click on the picture you can just make out the back of the sign that’s in the first picture.

Advice

~ Guy Hall

I’m looking for a Photo editing app for my MacBook Air. Does anyone have any suggestions? I don’t usually do a lot of editing so I’m not interested in a monthly fee. I’d rather have something that allows me to crop, resize, etc. Don’t really need any layering or filters at this point.

Photo Blogging Part 2

~ Guy Hall

This is one of my favorite pictures. I took it in 2003. There is an old trestle bridge converted into a walking/biking path crossing the Vermilion River about a mile downriver from the falls. I was on the ice just under that bridge when I took this shot. I’ve long lost the jpg version, but this bitmap is nice and sharp. It used to adorn my old desktops before the advent of widescreen monitors. In fact, I might edit it so that the running water can sit on my current desktop.

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Photo Blogging Part 1

~ Guy Hall

I’m going through my old pics from over 10 years ago. I’m going to post some from time to time. Nothing more than making use of pictures that otherwise are just sitting in the cloud doing nothing.

My Favorite Pic

This particular picture was just a whim, as the description notes. In fact, I didn’t even look through the view finder. I just held the camera over the plant while walking by and clicking. When I got home and looked at it on my computer I realized just how beautiful it was. I’ve used it on my PC and MacBook Air desktops ever since.