"Minneapolis Fire" Photography Post: September 21, 2015

"Minneapolis Fire." After class one evening last week I was walking to my car when I noticed the stunning sunset that was beginning to take place overhead. I made my way over to the Washington Avenue Bridge on the University of Minnesota campus and shot countless frames as the colors deepened over the horizon of the Minneapolis downtown skyline.

I did minor editing on this photograph. As always, I used editing to bring the photos as close as possible to the way that the image looked to the naked eye. The incredible colors and natural saturation that was present was jaw-dropping!

The photographs above and below were taken the same night among the extraordinary curving facade of the Weisman Art Museum designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. The building with the vertical "stripes"  is another gorgeous piece of architecture on campus, Bruininks Hall (formally STSS). Isn't the way that the sunset interacts with the facade gorgeous?

"Small Town Skyline" Photo of the Day: August 28, 2015

"Small Town Skyline." Taken in Waterville, Minnesota.

"Rainy Spirits" Photo of the Day: August 16, 2015

I hope everyone is having a good weekend! Here is a photo that I took a couple of weeks ago right after a fairly intense rainstorm here in Minneapolis. I honestly would love to go back and reshoot this sometime as I feel like I did not do enough to draw attention to the cloud-shrouded skyline in the distance.

Photo of the Day: August 12, 2015 "Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis"

I rarely post photos not taken on my Nikon, but this is one that I shot from my iPhone this past February. Taken on the East bank of the Mississippi River - facing downtown Minneapolis - the centerpiece of this photograph is the historic Stone Arch Bridge. The illuminated stone arches created all sorts of interesting shadows on the frozen river. Despite it being one of the coldest nights that I have ever been out shooting, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the photos that I got, including this one taken on my iPhone. I lightly edited it to remove as much of the noise (grain) as possible from the dark areas of the photo.

Photo of the Day: August 5, 2015 "Tower in Winter"

While wandering around Loring Park near downtown Minneapolis this past March, I photographed this apartment tower amongst some beautiful cloud cover.  The way that the clouds appeared to be painted in the sky is one of my favorite things about this photo. 

Photo of the Day: August 3, 2015 "Heights"

Reaching towards the sky...at varying heights! This photograph was shot in Chicago within Millennium Park. Finding unique perspectives to shoot common subjects at can be a challenge in photography, however it is always rewarding to capture something unique!

Photo of the Day: July 20, 2015 "Foshay Tower Amongst IDS Giants"

The Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis is one of my favorite buildings. The historic 447 foot tall tower (607 feet tall counting the antenna mast) was completed in 1929 as one of the tallest buildings in the world. The gorgeous art deco facade was kept perfectly intact when the interior was renovated into a hotel in 2008 and it is under the National Register of Historic Places. This was shot from Nicollet Avenue looking in between the IDS Center's main tower on the right and one of its smaller office highrises on the left.

Photo of the Day: July 7, 2015. "Vivid! Sydney" fireworks and laser show at Darling Harbour

Darling Harbour, Sydney. The Vivid! Sydney festival is an incredibly unique experience, and this was on of my personal favorites. Each night there was a fireworks/laser/lights show all set to several songs and music scores played over speakers throughout the harbor. This was shot during one of these shows behind a series of movable walkways for getting on and off of boats.

Photo of the Day: June 17, 2015

I shot this a couple of nights ago in Circular Quay, Sydney. Each harbor in this city has a distinct character and aesthetic. All are beautiful!

Photo of the Day: June 15, 2015

Gold Coast, Australia. This photo was taken from the top of Q1, the tallest building in Australia. The way that the architecture of the city interacts with the ocean and rivers was gorgeous!

Photo of the Day: June 9, 2015

I took this photograph during a laser/light show at Darling Harbor during Vivid Sydney 2015, an annual festival that celebrates light, music, and ideas. For my full post on the experience, follow this link:http://wyattproschphotography.blogspot.com.au/…/vivid-sydne…

Vivid Sydney 2015!

Sydney Opera House with its world-famous sails being projected upon during Vivid Sydney 2015.

I was lucky enough to arrive near the beginning of arguably Australia's most popular festival: Vivid Sydney. It is a multi-week festival celebrating light, music, and ideas. This alone speaks volumes to me about why this city is so wonderful to me. The fact that a city would hold a festival like this says a lot to me personally.

A shot from the laser/firework show at Darling Harbor several times each night.

Vivid Sydney is absolutely beautiful; when the sun goes down images and video designed by artists are beautifully projected onto the facades of buildings and structures throughout the city. The showcase in Circular Quay remains my personal favorite, seeing the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge illuminated is absolutely stunning. There is also extensive interactive exhibits around the harbor for all ages to explore. The best way to experience the visuals is via ferry, gliding through the water. Seeing the reflections of such saturated colors on the water gives the experience a film noir feel. To top it all off, all of the ferrys have colorful lights on them to, so the busy harbor is illuminated with color from the movement of hundreds of boats.

Another shot from one of Darling Harbor's laser shows.

Lights and Reflections

My obsession with HDR shooting at night has continued to preoccupy my photographic endeavors recently. Overall I am very pleased with the way that this specific set of images turned out after capture and post-processing. I believe that there is a way to do HDR right and a way to do it utterly wrong. Because of the incredible detail of not only the subjects themselves but of the color range in an image possible with HDR, too frequently people abuse this by creating photos of immense color and tonal detail to the point where it looks so unreal that it is ridiculous. That is just a personal opinion though...

Anyway, comment and let me know which of these images you like the best and what your thoughts on HDR photography are (if you are unsure of what HDR is, don't worry I'll be doing a post just on the ins and outs of the craft). Thanks for looking everyone!

Benches

As night fell on Loring Park - the largest park located near downtown Minneapolis - I was doing my best to capture the sights in the frigid weather. The benches in the park made for interesting subjects, albeit nonliving ones. It is incredible how important the snow and ice are in these compositions; adding to the overall feel of the scenes. For those of you from warmer climates, I will let you know that while out shooting the windchill was below 0 degrees fahrenheit!

Nightfall Above Chicago

Sunset Over Chicago

Throwback Monday? I guess that is what I am doing with this post about an experience that I had while visiting Chicago this past summer. As a college kid studying architecture, exploring downtown Chicago for the first time was an absolute blast for me. One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting the Willis (Sears) Tower observation deck. The 1,454 foot tall building is the second tallest in the United States and watching the sun set over Lake Michigan and Chicago from such a high perch was truly a breathtaking experience.

Yes, we do look extremely tired. We had several very busy days!

The gridiron urban layout of Chicago.

The lights were captivating. 

P.S. I just did a post dealing with me photographing the sun set while atop an observation deck in downtown Minneapolis the other day. I thought that it would be interesting to post this "throwback" close to that one to compare the two series. Let me know your thoughts!

Sunset over Minneapolis

The At&t Tower (left) and the Target Tower (right)

Earlier this week I spent a portion of my evening in the observation deck atop the Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis. As the sun began to drop closer and closer to the horizon line, I managed to capture some of the effects that it had on the surrounding buildings. 

The IDS Center rises into the sky, reflecting the sunset in its deep-blue glass.

A view from within the observation deck. The tallest building on the right is the Capella Tower. 

The setting sun casts the shadow of an American flag on the glass facade of the IDS Center.

Lincoln Park, Chicago

The Chicago skyline stands in the distance. Lincoln Park, Chicago.

 Earlier this year I had the privilege of traveling to Chicago, which included spending several days downtown. I could go on and on about the architectural significance of this city, but in this post I will show one of the most beautiful places that I visited during my stay: Lincoln Park. Amid the chaos of downtown, this gorgeous piece of landscape architecture provides refuge for tourists, residents, and wildlife.

Young ducklings, Lincoln Park, Chicago.

Chicago skyline from within Lincoln Park, Chicago.

Captured Moments

When I was young, it was a family tradition for my parents to take my sisters and I to the famous Stone Arch Bridge in downtown Minneapolis to watch the "Red, White, and Boom" fireworks light up the sky each fourth of July night. I remember sitting in my little lawn chair being absolutely overwhelmed by the sights that surrounded me; the colorful fireworks, the beautiful skyline shining like the Emerald City in Oz, all the while everything being mirrored onto the mighty Mississippi river below. This swarm of color, light, and reflections was astonishing, wonderful, and perfect. I remember never wanting to forget what I was seeing. I wanted to remember.

Our world is beautiful, and ever since I was a young boy I have felt an urgent pull to capture beautiful  moments in time; to rescue them from the oblivion of forgotten memories. To save them forever so that they could be enjoyed by many.

Enter photography. Photography allows for us to freeze moments in time and share them with others; to allow other to take part in our memories. That is an absolutely beautiful thing to me! That is the purpose of this blog, for me to share moments which I have captured with you. Thank you for coming on this journey with me! -Wyatt

Marina City Towers, Chicago, Illinois

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

Wooden Canopy, Minnehaha Falls State Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota

California Sea Lions...in Seattle?

Despite not being known for its beaches and tropical weather the city of Seattle, Washington still manages to attract hundreds of young "surfer dudes" to its  frigid waters every year. Except those surfers aren't even human, they're California Sea Lions to be exact. 

I recently returned from a week and a half trip to Seattle and I absolutely loved the wildlife! I'm not used to photographing wild marine life here in Minnesota, so the opportunity was very exciting for me. One of the most unique photo opportunities came when I was on a harbor cruise of the Bay that the city of Seattle is built on. These young male California Sea Lion were taking a break from the 50 degree waters on this small floating platform (I honestly have no idea what that thing is).

But why in the world would these wave loving mammals be up in Seattle when they could be enjoying tropical paradise elsewhere? Well the true story goes like this: it just so happens that it is breeding season for these guys right now and that means that back home all of the larger, stronger males are fighting each other for females. Young male sea lions are smart and recognize that they don't have a chance of beating any of their elders in a fight for a girl, so they all take a vacation and head north where they will wait out the breeding season in peace. Once the breeding season is over they will return home, only to repeat this process until they are big enough to compete for the females.

Hey everyone!

Okay, I admit it. I haven't posted in like, forever. Oops. BUT I have a good excuse! I just recently returned from an amazing trip to Europe. While on my travels I very rarely had internet access and never for a long enough time for me to write a post. However now that I'm back home in the States I'll start posting again regularly. This is obviously a place for me to post my nature photography, but I want to begin to spend more time writing about how YOU can improve YOUR photography. All in all, I had an incedible time on my trip but am glad to be back on Blogger!