Spring: New Life

Spring in the Midwest for me means all the 'white' of snow that was piled up in front of our house and all around the town this past winter is now replaced by "green." New life is all around. Without turning on a sprinkler (like when living in Colorado and California) the grass is a bright, rich green. Trees are beginning to leaf and we have discovered a patch of dirt is now quickly turning into a miniature fern grotto.











Again, I waited until the lighting was "right" to make the images. The setting sun popped out from behind some rain clouds just long enough to bring brightness to the plants and leaves.



All these were shot with a Nikon 300mm on my D200 within a 3 minute time span.

Photography Website

Please check out my website for more examples of my photography work.
www.josephkreissphotography.zoomshare.com

Grain Building Graphics

One thing I enjoy about the Midwest are the many grain and bean elevators that punctuate the skyline.

Some are massive tall concrete skyscrapers, others small, and unassuming. In town (here in Fairmont, Mn.) there are a handful of elevators still in day-to-day operation, and several still served by the railroad (which is very cool).

I love the graphic element these modest-sized structures have.

I hope you'll also see the art in the everyday.

About the light

They say photography, 'great' photography, is all about "the light." I agree. That is the huge line that separates a snapshot and an image with impact. This image is of the double door that leads from the garage to our kitchen. How many times I have open and closed these doors coming and going since moving in this past November is anyone's guess. But now that the sun has shifted as it sets off the western horizon, the light streams through another multi-pane door highlighting this wall. The light of the setting sun coming through the window painted a picture the other evening on this old door and the wall behind it that I hadn't seen before. The 'light' makes the image.

Sign of the Times

One thing that strikes me in the Midwest is the open expanse of sky. In Colorado, we saw a lot of sky, but it was rimmed with the 14,000-foot Rockies that surrounded our 7,100-ft. valley. Here in this part of south-central Minnesota, there is a lot of sky to play with in photographs. I think this will be an on-going theme in some of my images. Took the camera out today on a shopping trip and found this sign on a rural road as the overcast sky began to clear. Though far from being original, this image illustrates the concept of everyday objects or people placed in the context of open sky as a graphic element. I used simple fill flash from the built-in flash to add some "pop" to the sign as I metered to keep the detail in the sky.

It's a Brand New Blog...errr Day

Thanks for checking out new my photo blog of the Mid West. Since I'm a new transplant to this region of the U.S., it's a very different landscape visually. I'm making myself get out and shoot pictures to keep the flow going and try to have that connection with my cameras. I hope to share some of what I see here in Fairmont, Minnesota, as well as the surround regions of the state. The one thing that is different from the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado I just left is a wide expanse of open sky. Colorado had a lot of sky, but was rimmed with the 14,000-foot mountain peaks. Here tree lines and the ever-present elevator punctuate the skyline. I see this open expanse of sky as a theme I will try to play upon in some of my images.

Check back often as I will try and be faithful to updating these pages. All images and text are Copyright Joseph Kreiss 2010.Unauthorized use is prohibited