That Old Man (on the) River



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 there.  We eventually went back under the bridge where Jerry, Debby, and Mrs. Dodger went for a dip.

Photographic notes:  I brought along the Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 ultra-wide and took a half dozen or so shots with that, mainly vistas.  The lighting presented lots of challenges with the sun dipping in and out of clouds, sometimes even between exposures!  Full sunlight means high contrast so Photoshop was (as it is always) my friend.  When we were cruising full tilt, it was interesting to see how my shots would turn out with all the bouncing.  Surprisingly well, I would have to say.  I used real high shutter speeds, 1/1000 and 1/2000, f/8 and (mostly) f/11 to keep more area in focus.  The 24-120mm Nikkor with VR was used for those shots.  Oh, and the D700, or course.
Lessons learned (or should have known in the first place):  Either shut off auto ISO or turn the max down low in full daylight.  Too many pics at too high a ISO.  Makes for labor-intensive Photoshop work.

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