We don’t often get temps above seventy in October but, when we do, it behooves us to get outside and enjoy it. I choose to spend a few hours at Jay Cooke State Park enjoying the sound of the St. Louis River and waiting for the sunset.
Skyline Parkway is a scenic drive through the hills above Duluth Minnesota. It is a 28 mile route that was begun in 1889 and a must drive for visitors to the area. The route has many scenic overlooks and passes by the Enger Tower park where you can climb to the top for an even more spectacular view of the city of Duluth and Lake Superior. In the summer, the gardens are in full bloom.
This gallery contains 2 photos.
One of my remaining lenses for my Canon cameras is a Canon 100mm 2.8 macro. The first image I chose to allow a bit of background bokeh and the other I used focus stacking.
A dry summer has kept most local streams to just a trickle. But, with a background such as this, the trickle is a minor part of the composition.
At the base of small waterfall is a pond which serves as a collection place for the leaves as they fall from the trees. Should we get more rain than we’ve been getting, the leaves will be flushed from this pond and make their way to Lake Superior.
I am in the process of selling my current cameras and lenses. At the moment I have two lenses remaining, my 10-24mm and a 100mm macro. Until I purchase my new gear, I am challenged with using these two lenses for my Canon 5D Mk4 and Canon 5D S. This image was taken using the Canon 100mm 2.8 macro. It takes patience to get the right balance of depth of field and stillness of the subject. Also, the bees don’t pose. I choose a single blossom and waited till a bee stopped by. I realize it is not perfectly focused, but I will keep trying.
One last image before I seek cleaner air. The smoke was getting to be too much for me to handle, checked the air quality index and it was an unhealthy 158. Believe it or not, this is not the worst we’ve had lately, we were over 200 this past week. In many places out west if’s even worse.
Another from a smoky morning on Stoney Point along the shore of Lake Superior. It was difficult to work with the low air quality and I began to get a headache and scratchy throat making this one of the last images I captured before heading home.
Like many places in the U.S., northern Minnesota is experiencing forest fires. Depending on the wind direction, Duluth may have nice, clear air or heavy smoke from the fires. On this morning the smoke was blowing down the lake toward Duluth providing us with unhealthy air quality. The upside to the smoke is beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
A slightly different angle at the same location.
