It's been a fun run, but I'm not done

Recently it occurred to me that getting snapshots of one-room school houses is getting  harder and harder.  It is more time consuming driving further distances from the city.   I spend a good deal of time finding schools that are still standing by using Flickr and plat maps of each county.  I contacted the history center and they advised me to contact each county.  NO one person knows how many one-room schools are still standing.
If you want to feast your eyes on some great images of school houses...check out Earl Leatherberry on Flickr.  Man O live!  He does great work and record keeping. Earl doesn't give over-detail of locations of the school houses he finds but usually he names the county.  I have spent countless hours tracking down several of the houses that he has captured.  In today's world of gps, smart phones and Google maps this has become my new relaxing hobby.  I'm somewhat obsessed.  I thought it was all about getting the image...but I'm learning that the real high for me is locating another standing one room school house!   This month I'm dreaming of buying one for retirement.  Something like this...

Happy Anniversary

In October, Tim and I celebrated our 35 wedding anniversary.  We had a wonderful time on the North Shore of Minnesota.  The colors were just past peak, but the birch trees popped out and paraded their existence.  I love birch trees.  I tried very hard to get a great shot.  Not sure I got the perfect shot, but I sure had fun trying.
Great airal video of the North Shore during autumn color  http://vimeo.com/109409296

Hollywood School

This school is located in Mayer Minnesota.  When I looked inside the desks and chalkboard, lighting and piano were all there...a bit in disarray but there.  The township will have to spend some money and time restoring the school soon as the roof on the south side was in pretty rough shape.

The Goodhue County Historical Website is awesome!

 Featherstone Brick School or District #115. Organized in 1865 and building was 

built in 1870. Consolidated with Red Wing in the 1950’s. 

And today....

Minnesota, Chisago County, Meadow View School 

Elsa's Received the Crown

Marathon Sewing Weekend!  September 20-21, 2014

Happy 6th Birthday Ruby!

Jack Frost Already?

September 12, 2014

Rumor has it Jack Frost is coming tonight.  Seems a little early but not unheard of.  Tomorrow I have a gig shooting at a hoedown.  I'm looking forward to shooting an event.  I was out practicing in the yard with my flash and Gary Fong light dome.  The idea is to "drag" your shutter to capture the ambient light in the frame and fill your subject with flash from your camera without blasting the scene with too much light.

Here is my sunflower I rescued from my mint patch earlier in August.

ISO 3200   f/2.8   1/30   50mm   Flash -1.75 stops

It's Name was Sunnyside School!

Geocode for Sunnyside School (historical): Latitude: 44.7619121 - Longitude: -92.7221438

 The school is across the highway from the Stirrat Cemetery.

At it Again....Landmarks of Learning

A short drive along WI Hwy 10 to Ellsworth you will find 

this beautiful partially restored Forestvills School House.

 Geocode for Forestville School (historical): Latitude: 44.7871896 - Longitude: -92.5379707

HOPS

If your hands quickly take up the smell and are slightly sticky 

due to the yellow powdery lupulin, that cone is ready for harvest!

Have you heard of Fair Maiden nail polish?

Product photography is hard.  I think I could get good at it if I spent as much time as I did learning portrait photography and my subject would sit still!

This nail polish is amazingly smooth, dries fast and doesn't chip.  Here are some proofs I took as I learn the trade of product photography.

Just look at that shimmer!

Landscape Photography

Editing landscape photography is not as easy as I thought.  I took this photo knowing I'd see how I could put it into Lightroom/Photoshop and enhance it's elements.  Color, texture after editing fall a little flat here.

Tweets

Tweets by @bairli1

The end of a pleasant week at reed lake