Volunteers Add New Chapters to Steamboat Minnehaha’s Story (part 1)

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Les

On Saturday, May 7th, I drove out to Excelsior, Minnesota, to photograph the launching of the steamboat Minnehaha. It was a perfect Minnesota spring day: sunny skies, cool morning air, and the trees beginning to budding.

A crew of 25 volunteers gathered at 8:15 a.m. and, after coffee and donuts, started the process of moving the Minnehaha from her barn to a slip in a marina a quarter of a mile away. There, the crew carefully slid the old girl into the chilly waters of Lake Minnetonka.  By 11:30 the Minnehaha was moored to the dock and the process of wetting the hull timbers begun.

All winter, while the Minnehaha sat in the barn, her hull planks had slowly dried out and hairline gaps formed. When she slipped into the lake her hull immediately began to leak. This was expected and extra bilge pumps sat on the dock, ready to assist the Minnehaha’s own pumps with the job of keeping the her afloat. Over the next 24 hours, the oak timbers absorbed water, swelled, and formed water tight seams. An overnight vigil monitored the bilge pumps and followed the progress of the swelling timbers. In time, the Minnehaha was floating high and dry.

While the Minnehaha was being eased in to the water, other volunteers fired up a grill and laid out food. The annual spring launch wouldn’t have been complete without the smell of grilling brats and burgers.

The air was alive with bird songs, the rumble of the truck that had pulled the boat to the water, and history as the volunteers told each other about their experiences working on or riding in the Minnehaha.

The Minnehaha had begun her 16th season on Lake Minnetonka.

This photo may be purchased as a signed print or downloaded  from Flickr.*

* Images on Flickr are copyrighted by Les Phillips who retains all rights.
Images downloaded from Flickr are for private display and may not be reproduced or distributed in any manner. Contact Les Phillips for stock photo licensing information.

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Fascination

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Les

Last January, I went to the 90th birthday party of my wife’s aunt. I wrote about it in an earlier post Green Bay Touchdown at the Barley Club. I enjoy being with my wife’s family and there is always something going on.

One of the subjects that I like photographing is young children. This is because they are totally immersed in their world. Their brains are physically developing at an incredible rate, building the neural pathways that form their various intelligences and memory. At the same time, they are absorbing immense amounts of information and mastering: their bodies, self awareness, language, social rules, and everything else that we, as adults, take for granted.

This young fellow is fascinated by a conversation between two men standing near him. I don’t know what they were talking about but it was obvious that they had his undivided attention. It must have been important because he had forgotten the birthday cake that he had been eating a minute before.

Note:  David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, has a new book out, The Social Animal. It explores human nature and how we develop into the people we are. While I don’t agree with all he says, it is a worthwhile read.

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Terroir – Essence of Place

Posted on March 30, 2011 by Les

If you’ve walked through a vineyard at harvest time you may have sensed the essence of the place.  The rich sweet smell of the grapes, warm sunlight, and the color of the plants and earth merge to create a transcendent moment. This is Terroir.

When you talk to the French about wine they often use the word Terroir as an ingredient or essence of wine. It is a word derived from the French word terre which means land. But terroir means much more.  If you ask a farmer who grows coffee or tea or  grapes for wine, they will say that terroir is untranslatable. In its simplest form it is the spirit or soul of place, often a small area. It is a complex mixture of attributes.

Terroir embraces the physical geography: the composition of soil, the location in relation to the sun, hillside or flat land. Terroir includes the history of the land, not just the last growing season or last decade but centuries when the land was tilled or lay fallow. It implies that the land has a memory and that it remembers the aspirations, joys and sorrows of those who have worked the soil.

In a good wine, you can see, smell, and taste the essence of the land: the terroir.

This image is available for purchase, see my store, or contact me for details: Lesp@Les-Phillips.com.
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Spring?

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Les

Minnesotans are well aware of Mother Nature’s perverse sense of humor. The arrival of Spring was preceded by several days of warm weather that melted much of the snow and the winter doldrums that everyone was experiencing: the sixth snowiest winter on record, 84 inches, was finally coming to an end. For the first time in over four months we could see the grass and flower beds. Minnesotans were smiling and there was a spring in there step.

However, no sooner did Spring arrive and Mother Nature delivered her punch line: icy rain, sleet, and five inches of snow: biddy-boom. Now we’ve got the fifth snowiest winter on record.

To resurrect my spirits, I worked on this picture of a crimson alpina purpurata that I took in Brazil. In Minnesota, these flowers are exotics that you get from the florist. In Brazil, they are lawn flora. This one was almost six foot tall.

There are several things that I like about this picture. First, and most obvious, is the brilliant red flower: its strong color and shape demand attention. Second, the leaves form a green curving mass that is strong enough to support the visual weight of the flower. Also, the leaves’ textures provide additional interest. Third, the shadows on the wall supply a dramatic backdrop that accentuates the flower but does not dominate it. The earthen colors of the background tie in with the greens of the foliage. The curves of the shadows also mirror those of the leaves.

This print is available for purchase in my store, or you can contact me by email.

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Homage to Henri Cartier-Bresson

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Les

On occasion, I intentionally take a photo that reflects the work of another photographer. Homage to Henri Cartier-Bresson is such a photo. With it I pay respect to a photographer whose images have given me great pleasure and taught me much.

During my early photographic life, I tried not to repeat the work of other photographers. I studied the masters of the field but did not purposefully mirror their work. Looking back on my earlier photos, I now see how strongly I was influenced by others.

About twenty-five years ago, while reading a history of the Impressionists, I began to understand the relationship between history and innovation. Up until then, I had thought that innovative art, science, writing, etc. were monumental breakthroughs: sudden leaps forward in awareness. Such thinking had inhibited me. I am not a monumental thinker, so how could I hope to add something unique to the ageless discussion or art and humanity? I also worried that what creativity I had was finite and would disappear.

I realized that breakthroughs are incremental. It is the creative work of many lessor known people that forms the foundation on which a great innovator builds. I let go of my youthful pretense and decided to follow my passion without worrying about becoming something that I was not equipped to be.

This was a freeing moment. Gradually, subconscious restraints fell away. Photography, which had always given me pleasure now became even more rewarding. I began to think more creatively.

Today, I am in a comfortable place, I know my role, and I’m following a clear path. By nature, I am a plodder with the temperament of a craftsman: methodical, master of my tools, and a stickler for detail. I have always been incrementally creative and now I have confidence that my creativity is not going to abandon me. It is a learned skill.

My passion for photography is as intense as ever and I am free to pursue it in whatever direction it takes me. I am free to pay respect to Henri Cartier-Bresson.

This print is available for purchase in my store, or you can contact me by email.

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Distracted

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Les

I’ll start by stating the obvious, a good street photographer is aware of her surroundings at all times.

In addition, the photographer understands human nature to the point that she can anticipate reactions to events. She can identify both the typical and atypical responses which in turn helps her chose what to shoot.

The street photographer must also be aware of the social rules surrounding the scene. How do the people being photographed feel about being the subjects of the photographer’s gaze? Discretion, not secretiveness,  is almost always the best approach. At her finest, the photographer is an observer whose goal is to collect and share insights into the human condition. At her most base, she merely exploits a situation, showing people as caricatures or stereotypes.

The picture above is an example of situational awareness. The real drama is not shown.

While walking through the Tuileries I had just been approached by a Gypsy scam artist (the second in less than an hour). Horse mounted police had been watching and they swept in to arrest the man that had been harassing me. As they led him off, I noticed the man in the chair watching the mini drama and took his picture.

Why didn’t I take a picture of the police and the Gypsy? The Parisian police are well disciplined and very helpful to tourists. However, they are often less than happy to have their photographs taken. In the past, I’d had encounters with them while photographing demonstrations or other street scenes.

While a picture of the mounted police with the arrested man would have been interesting, I found the man sitting in the sun, distracted from his reading, a more universal image.

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