Mill Ruins Park

Tim's out of town this weekend, so I took Hogan down to one of my favorite places so far in the city, Mill Ruins Park. I found this place when we were here looking for houses. I had the morning to myself before meeting our realtor, so I started walking from our hotel downtown. And ended up here.

Minneapolis was originally (from my extremely tenuous grasp of Twin Cities history) founded on the water mill industry that grew up around St Anthony Falls. These falls are the only falls on the Upper Mississippi, and have provided a lot of power for industry through the years (and still do, for that matter). It sounds like many generations of mills have been built, burnt, torn down, and left to decay since the beginning. So that's how Minneapolis became "The City that Flour Built". Again, all this is based on my very little knowledge of history, so forgive any errors.

At any rate, the area seems to be a vibrant mix of past and present now. The Corps of Engineers (pronounced Corpse of Engineers by the Albuquerque NPR station) manage the dam that is on the site of the falls now, and many of the old mills are getting rehabilitated into new uses now -- a museum, offices, lofts, etc. And best of all the Guthrie Theater was built next to the Mill City Museum. The Guthrie is the dark blue structure that includes the "Endless Bridge" in some of the pictures.



I think the Guthrie may be my new favorite piece of contemporary architecture. Tim got us tickets to see Jane Eyre there last week, so we got to experience the Guthrie as it was intended - full of drama and spectacle in a breathtaking, sophisticated way. It is a beautiful piece of architecture in its own right, but I also love the juxtaposition between it and the old-school industrial grandeur of the old mills that it stands next to. It somehow seems to acknowledge and take on the geometries and masses of those mills and yet still be completely its own thing.



While Hogan and I were walking around, a few fire trucks made an entrance. I had to take a few pictures -- I knew Jack and Emmett would love them.

Take care! Till next week!

See the full set of photos: Mill Ruins Park

Easter Sunday

We woke up to an unusual (for us) Easter Sunday. We've gotten about five inches of snow in the last few days. So much for an Easter egg hunt!

For the first set in the Weeklies series, it seemed a natural choice to go to one of the lakes. The lakes seem to define the Twin Cities -- even in the winter time, there are always people out enjoying the outdoors. And it seemed like if we were going to have snow on Easter, we should at least go somewhere where we could enjoy the beauty of newly fallen snow.

Today we saw parents out walking with their kids, lots of dogs, cross country skiers, runners, and bike riders. Even when the temperatures were sub zero, we still saw people running around the lake. They're hardier than I am. I'm looking forward to enjoying the lakes when the weather is better. We've heard about concerts they have there in the summer that are supposed to be good.

See the full set of photos from this week: Easter Sunday

The concept

My Weekly Photo Expeditions....

The plan is that once a week, I'll go out on what I call a photo expedition. I'll use this as a way of exploring our new home, the Twin Cities, and as a way to continue to challenge my fledgling photography skills.

Here are the rules (self-imposed) of a photo expedition:

1. I'll limit myself to one roll of film - either 24 or 36 photos.

2. I'll choose before I start whether the "roll" will be black & white or color, and what ISO it will be, and I'll stick to that throughout the roll.

3. When I get home, I'll limit any kind of digital editing to what I'd be able to do in a dark room. Since my dark room skills are limited, this isn't much.

Occasionally I might also focus on something in particular for a roll like composition or framing or the color red, or whatever I might think of.

This idea was inspired by one of the classes I took as a graduate student. I really enjoyed the process, and I think it did help me get to know an area and become a better photographer. There's something about limiting yourself to one roll of film that really forces you to consider each shot carefully.

If anyone is interested in joining me in the journey, I would love the company. Let me know! I wouldn't have been able to do this without my parents, who gave me a Flickr membership for my birthday. Thank you!