Photographic postings.
Just as the light was fading, we came across this cow and calf alongside the track portion of the Track and Tower trail, causing a stop that meant we had to make the last of the trip in the dark. The light was almost gone, the rain slanted into the lens of the camera, so I was not able to get the quality of photos I would have liked, but it was wonderful to see the moose in such a natural habitat, and at such a reasonable distance.
A chipmunk peeks through grass to keep an eye on the camera, as it roots through the duff for food.
There’s this giant metal goose in Wawa, Ontario, which is in fact the town’s major claim to fame, as said goose is apparently famous in Canada (you’ll just have to take my word on this one). Theoreticallly, the goose commemorates the completion of the Trans-Canada highway, but the real reason behind it was to have some big thing to actually make tourists care to come to Wawa. It has worked–somewhat. THe goose is really on the edge of Wawa, so you don’t need to go into town to visit it, and I am not sure what percentage do or don’t. But there it is: big goose in Wawa–stop by if you’re in the neighbourhood. You can even donate for the replacement, as this goose is apparently cooked. . .
This historic interpreter at the Grand Portage National Monument (the site where traders met to send furs, especially beaver, from all over the West back to Montreal) makes and paddles his own traditionally-made birchbark canoes (and has even canoed/portaged for 1000 miles in one). If you are in the neighborhood of Grand Portage, he gives and excellent presentation, and is very interesting to talk to (he seems very committed to the era, and even lives in the bush).
Falls in the Cascade River State Park, alongside the North Shore Highway in Minnesota, just outside of Grand Marais.
A pretty set of rapids along the trail at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park.
A monochrome (technically a quad-tone, withcool tone shadows and a very slight warm-tone to the highlights) version.
A shore rock and a mist-shrouded islet on a Lake Superior morning, on the Sea Lion Trail, in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.
There are a variety of rather kitschy pieces of art amongst the modernist pieces at St. John’s, and this sculpture, entitled “Our Lady” and constructed by Oblate Catherine Smith in 1960, really stood out for me. I am not even sure what the religious message is–“Mary will cut you, so stay away!”? Broken glass of the kind you put atop a wall to cut the hands of thieves seems like an inappropriate medium for showing Marian devotion.
A close-up of the broken glass making up the sculpture of “Our Lady” by Oblate Catherine Smith, showing the sharp edges.
The full inscription (all four sides) on this granite block, near the refectory, reads:
To the Men of St. John’s
Who Have Served
Their Country
in Peace and War.
A summer electrical storm lights up the night over the modernist abbey church on the campus of St. John’s University, in Collegeville, Minnesota. The impressive storm raged for many hours, but I was unable to stay even an hour, as the driving rain was rendering all my photos blurry, and could not be kept off the lens, and rising winds threatened the stability of my tripod. Not to mention that standing in an open field in an electrical storm is somewhat disconcerting. . .
20 seconds at f/5.6 iso 400.