Steve Murphy Photography

See Gallery Here Having grown up in Minneapolis, I have always felt safe there. Although, it has been decades since I actually lived there. Last Saturday was a balmy summer night and I got the urge to photograph some of the scenery and night life. There is no more life downtown than Block E, that's for sure. Mrs. Dodger, ever the trouper, let me drag her along with for her role as Lovely Assistant. Thanks, Karen! You ever notice how comical it is when it seems like you are the only sober person in a room full of drinking people? There was a Twins game that day, which might have accounted for a lot of the crowd. Our first stop was at this restaurant on Washington, next to the Milwaukee Road depot: I wanted to be sure to get at least one shot at dusk, before it got completely dark, because I love the deep blue hue of the sky at that time. It can be more dramatic when there is a small cloud or two, but I like this look. The second shot, taken facing east, actually has the

Your Photographer, with Karen, Liliana and the villainous Blackrapid strap See the Gallery here Nice day today with Karen and Family.  The Painters & Tapers union annual picnic at Lake Phalen.  It's scaled back from previous years - no face painters, no clowns/jugglers.  Attendance more sparse than before, too.  Oh well, it was fun anyway and we had the Little Lady Bug there to keep everyone entertained. Catastrophe:   I was fiddling with the Blackrapid strap and let go of the camera.  I felt that sick feeling as my very expensive pro camera clattered to the concrete deck.  Bent the hot shoe bracket.  Mike Z helped me pry it open.  I was able to operate the SB-800 speedlight that night but that bracket is going to have to get replaced. Karen's Mom is going to put some stiches in the strap so this never happens again. I used the Gary Fong Lightsphere on the speedlight to soften and spread the light around.  Another thing I like about those is that I can use the TTL se

See Gallery Here It seems ages since I went on a long boating excursion.  We went to Bayport (south of Stillwater) to meet my good friend Jerry Brayton and his wife Debby.  You could not ask for more gracious hosts.  Nice folks, nice boat, nice afternoon.  We traveled down to Prescott, WI on the St. Croix River.  For you non-Minnesotans, this river keeps Minnesota and Wisconsin at arms' length from each other for a good portion of their shared border.  It eventually meets up with the Mississippi south of the metro area.  Lunch at Muddy Waters Bar & Grill at this multi-tiered restaurant.  A shame all the power lines get in the way of a nice panorama. Weather was pretty close to perfect - a few clouds, breeze, not too hot, no humidity. We made it up to Stillwater while Lumberjack Days was in full swing.  Made it under the lift bridge without having to wait, although they were lifting at the top of every hour so we would not have had to wait long. Nowhere to berth around

See Gallery here Neither Mrs. Dodger nor I realized the Aquatennial Torchlight Parade was last night when we forayed downtown Minneapolis to do some night HDR shooting.  Oh well, everyone loves a parade, right?  As these go, this one was not the most exciting, but the price was right. I let the full Auto-ISO fly on most of these and the majority ended up at ISO6400.  A little clean-up using Noiseware , not so bad.  I did get a couple of HDR's done.  Later, I am going to do one on the above image, even though it is a single shot. Equipment used this trip: Nikon D700 DSLR Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 G-AFS VR ED-IF Lens Nikon ML-3 remote control Sherpa 750RA travel tripod Smith-Victor BH2 Ballhead ReallyRightStuff quick release L-plate Blackrapid RS-4 camera strap

Click here to see the Gallery Good gravy, what a mixed bag of luck!  I got these way-overpriced tickets from stubhub almost 3 months ago and waited in breathless anticipation of taking Her Ladyship on a night on the town. Good luck:  We got to use Diane Lee's parking pass.  Bad luck:  It started raining on the way downtown and all the way to the ball park. Good:  A guy dressed in Target red & white offers to give us a lift on 9th & Marquette to Target field on his bike-rickshaw thingie.  Free of charge, no tips!  Away we went.  Bad:  It's raining too hard to take any pictures downtown. Good:  It stops raining well before first pitch. My friend Kurt from work is in section 325 but we did not make it up there.   Bad:  I slop mustard, sauerkraut and ice cream all over my Morneau jersey.  Mrs. Dodger will Shout it out. Good:  Great game, pitchers duel.  Buehrle had the one bad inning but otherwise pitched well.  Pavano was a little bit better, Twins win, 3-2!   Bad:

This is how I do it: Use a tripod. Or, at the very least, set it down on something, you are not going to get anything good with hand shake.  Bean bags are good for propping.  And if you can bungee it to a railing, that's even better.  Set camera to manual mode.  Aperture f/8 -f/16 (experiment), shutter set to 1.5 or 2 seconds.  Maybe even more.  Auto ISO off. If you have a remote cable, that's better yet Focus, then set to manual focus.  Infinity is probably good here. Watch your horizon so your shots are level If you have pop-up flash, make sure it is turned off. Take lots and lots of pictures, you are going to have some duds. Take some shots of the surrounding environment, crowd, buildings, etc. ISO100, or lowest you can go, to ensure clean shots.