We have been watching these hay bales all winter. They are located just north of County 16, on the east side of Hwy 58, between Goodhue and Zumbrota. This is part of our regular commute between Red Wing and Rochester.

These bales have been our seasonal metric this winter. The snow began disappearing in mid-February and it looks like it will be another early spring.

Wow. It has rained nearly every day for the past two months.

We had a very heavy and wet snowstorm in early May and it has been raining almost every day in June.

But this is farm country and this is the growing season, so nobody is complaining.

This year spring was about 16-18 days later than normal. It was an especially long winter with a heavy snowpack and it was a very slow warm-up this year.

Normally the reaction would be that a late spring works against the economy. Crops are planted later and the overall growing season will be shorter.

But the benefit of a late spring is that postponed projects and maintenance issues can be addressed and then when spring finally does arrive, we can sit in the sun and read a book.

The ice on the Mississippi River has broken up enough to allow for barge traffic to begin moving upstream. This is significant in this area because it officially signals the end of the winter weather.

We had a significant blizzard in December and we never had a mid-winter melt. This means the snow accumulated all winter and we eventually had the fourth snowiest winter on record.

This creates flooding concerns up and down the Mississippi River, but just as the days starting getting longer, we sunk into a prolonged period of weather that hovered around the 32 degree mark. This slowed the melting substantially and the river crested to just below the flood point. Another crest is expected in about three weeks when the run-off from up north reaches this area.

This photo is taken from the Eisenhower Bridge.

A rule of thumb in the creativity industry is that if you hit a creative mental roadblock, run as fast and hard as you can into the nearest wall. This head-on collision will reset your entire mental wiring and you will either have cured the writer's block, or you won't even know writer's block is anymore.

Or, look out your window and write what you see.

I have a small mountain of snow immediately outside my work window. It has been larger and was actually completely removed at one point. It will probably just melt in place for the rest of the year. It won't be pretty, melting snow usually isn't.

But it is a hopeful sign of spring. This winter was typically atypical. We had several significant snow falls and a couple of serious deep freezes. We will have flooding and it will be a messy spring.

And the weather forecast today is for more snow.

Back in early December 2010 there was a blog entry that discussed the love-hate-love relationship with the Minnesota Winter (The paradox of the Minnesota winter...).

This morning the temperature dipped to -25 degrees Fahrenheit. That falls squarely in the "hate" category, although it does have a certain scientific curiosity.

Weather this cold has some very unique properties. You can take a cup of coffee and launch the coffee in the air and it will freeze before it hits the ground. Also, because the air is so dense, all kinds of ground effects occur with exhausts fumes. Animals continue about their business and almost seem unaware of how cold it is. However, the dog didn't care for it. It was impossible to keep the car warm.

This photo was taken at 6:30 in the morning. It was the only bank that had a working clock/thermometer, as the cold weather made the other electronic signs fail.

But outside of the science, weather this cold kind of sucks.

This is a photo I try to capture every year. It is the largest and brightest full moon of the year and is called the Wolf Moon.

Last year I missed the opportunity, but the year that (2009) I captured it, but about 5 minutes after it was at its most dramatic (Full Moon over Barn Bluff).

This year I suddenly remembered it was Wolf Moon time and I jumped in my car and drove all over town trying to find an interesting perspective. I pretty much ended up where I shot this moon 2 years ago. You have to be quick becasue this moon rises very quickly.

Shot in RAW, 47mm, 1/200 second at f2.8 hand held.

Winter in Minnesota is an emotional roller coaster of love-hate-love.

Winter begins beautifully. It is the whitest white, very light and very gentle. Everything looks different and fresh. This is the first 'love'.

This first 'love' will last hopefully through December. Or until the first day in which the high temperature doesn't get above zero. Or the first time you have to jump-start your car. Or change a flat tire.

This is the first 'hate'.

For six to eight weeks you need to be able to tolerate this because there is no escaping it. You can try heading south for a couple of weeks, but you are only running away from reality. And reality will be here when you return.

And you know you will be returning.

And then very suddenly, things begin to feel positive again. Usually it is a bright sunny day in March or the first time you hear a robin sing, but it is enough to give you positive momentum. This is the second 'love'.

Minnesota winters have a sinusoidal rhythm and there is a comfort in that regularity.

This time of year creates some beautiful opportunities for panorama photography. The light is becoming longer and the trees are just beginning to turn color. The Mississippi River in particular is a good panorama subject in this area because there are plenty of river bluffs to capture the wide expanse of the river.

The photo above was captured at Buena Vista Park above Alma, Wisconsin. It is a spectacular overlook. The weather was borderline inclement, which creates wonderful atmospheres for the camera lens.

This is a 4:1 print. Large format printing is ideal for a very narrow print like this. In order to really appreciate a print like this, it does require some height to the image, which means it will grow very wide, very fast. A 12" high print becomes a 48" wide print. Add some mat (typically 3" all around) and some moulding, the overall image is nearly 5 feet wide. This is a 'high drama' image that demands attention as soon as you walk into the room.

I go home and then get to work this same morning when my friend Tim e-mails me the following photos and asks me if I knew who was on the bridge (look close). The first photo was taken within a minute after mine, judging by how his sun seems ever so slightly higher (factoring in the difference in height) and the wake from the fishing boat. The second photo was a minute later (I keep a corner of my eye on those oncoming tractor-trailer mirrors).

Photos courtesy of Tim Alms.

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Back to the barber; we don't know who cuts his hair. It is a self-contradiction.

Does the barber cut his own hair? No, because the barber cuts only the hair of those that don't cut their own hair.

Does the barber not cut his own hair? No, because then the barber would then cut his own hair, because he cuts the hair of those that don't cut their own hair.

Using an even more difficult explanation, the barber is trying to be a part of his own set, those that do not cut their own hair. But the set cannot include the barber because he is the set. This is the contradiction.

Barn Bluff vigilantly watches over Downtown Red Wing immediately from the east. This means the bluff casts a shadow every morning and says goodbye to the sun every day. The bluff is a long and narrow rock and the length of the bluff runs east and west for about a mile. It is an easy hike along the south side to the lookout over Downtown Red Wing. The top of the bluff is about 400 feet above the Mississippi River (immediately to the right in the above photo).

There was an unusual thaw this February and that opportunity was leveraged to get this photo. Once the tree buds start popping out, the details become hidden. If you look closely, our shop is the small triangle of lights in the upper left corner.

As with most mid-winter thaws, it toyed with our emotions, giving us a taste of nicer weather, only to slap us with a cold front and a dump of snow.

Back to muc-lucs and stocking caps.

Last night (Saturday, 01-10-2009) the moon was full and it will be the largest and brightest full moon of 2009.

This month's full moon is known as the Wolf Moon, from Native American folklore. The January full moon is also known as the Old Moon and the Snow Moon.

A full moon rises right around sunset, no matter where you are. That's because of the celestial mechanics that produce a full moon: the moon and the sun are on opposite sides of the Earth, so that sunlight hits the full face of the moon and bounces back to our eyes.

At moonrise, the moon will appear even larger than it will later in the night when it's higher in the sky. This is an illusion that scientists can't fully explain. Some think it has to do with our perception of things on the horizon vs. stuff overhead.

This shot was taken at 5:06 pm. f3.2, 1/320 sec, iso 1250, -1.67 EV, 70 mm focal length, hand held. I used levels to pull some details back into the image, but not so much to destroy the polarized sky. A very modest amount of unsharp mask.

This is my favorite time of year. The vernal equinox season (+/- 1 month) provides some of the most exciting light for a photographer. The early evenings, the long light and the brilliant colors are amazing. The challenge for a photographer is to capture this essence and almost all efforts fall flat. There is no substitute for the real deal.

The above photos were taken from the 'baldy' of Maiden Rock. This is the exposed rock at the bluff top that is very obvious when looking up from the ground. The leaf colors were at full peak and my intention was to collect some seasonal stock photos. I went just before sunset (6:24pm on 10-16-2008) and started shooting. I wasn't really capturing anything inspired (above left) and soon I lost all my light (note to self: bring a flashlight next time).

Then it dawned on me to try some long-exposure shots. The shot on the right was taken at 6:54pm and in about 5 minutes it was too dark to focus. It took about 20 shots before I captured the effect I wanted. This shot was captured at 100 iso, a 30 second exposure at f7.1 and a -1 ev exposure. The light blur in the lake is The Port of Lake City paddlewheel boat on its way home.

I think I actually missed one of the best photo opportunities. As soon as I completely lost my light I headed back to my truck about 1.5 miles away. it was pitch black and I was using the silhouette of a tree as a homing beacon. When I finally got back to my truck I noticed a full moon had risen and an entirely different light, mood and shadow was available. I didn't feel like falling off a cliff, so I summed it up to a learned lesson.

Actually, July is the only month in Minnesota to never have recorded snow. The earliest snowfall in Minnesota was August 31, 1949 (Duluth, MN) and the latest snowfall was June 4, 1935 (Mizpath, MN...which is also interesting because mizpath is Hebrew for watchtower).

The photo on the left was taken this past March 31 from the front shop window. It was the day before the new shop opened and it was one of these last-gasp March snowfalls that we get every year. They are kind of sloppy, but very pretty. The photo on the right was taken moments ago from the same vantage point. The view from the shop is worth the visit alone.

Interesting difference in just three months. Tomorrow I will begin taking exterior and interior shots.