The Ken and Steve Chronicles: Dawn at the Baptism

[Steve Foss]

Hey all:

Ken and I hit the road at 5 a.m. yesterday to get down to the North Shore before sunrise. Spent a couple hours watching the sun come up and bathe the shore, including the mouth of the Baptism River and Palisade Head, in wonderful light.

We ranged up the shore nearly to Grand Marais over the course of the day, down as far as Hawk Ridge in Duluth, and hit a lot of inland fall color, too.

Sooooooo many images. So I'll start with the birds.

Enjoy!

Mergansers near the mouth of the Baptism River, sunrise

Hawk Ridge crows and ravens on the dodge

Blue jay in the morning

Breakfast for an osprey

Osprey II

The loon of Palisade Head

A merlin courses Hawk Ridge

[Steve Foss]

And here are the rest of the birds.

Flicker crossing open water

Lincoln's sparrows work North Shore rocks

[finnbay]

Fun day as usual, Steve! I've only gotten to one card so far, and most of that was color so will post those now. Will add later as I get them done.

We were to the shore EARLY:

Most of the good color was on top the the hill, away from the Lake:

Hole in the canopy:

Woods full of color:

Can you see us?

Painter's palette:

Chasing the dream:

Near Trestle Inn:

[Steve Foss]

Here are some folks, some critters, and a couple other scenes.

There'll be fall color images to follow and, later today or tomorrow, some stitched fall color panorama images.

Hawk Ridgers

Alone on big water

Ken at work

Baptism River angler tries his luck

Otters in the gloaming

It wouldn't be a Ken and Steve outing without at least one deer shot.

[Steve Foss]

Here's my fall color, with panos to follow at some point.

These are all at various points inland between Ely and the North Shore. Color along the shore itself is not close to peak, nor is it peaking yet in Ely/Babbitt, though I expect excellent color this weekend. These really hot colors were about 4-10 miles inland from the North Shore, mostly up in the ridges of the Sawtooth Mtns, where I'd say peak definitely will be this weekend. Hope today's rain and wind doesn't knock too much down.

[finnbay]

Okay. Here's card 2 - one card to go. Steve, that merlin REALLY turned out well!

Early morning geese over Lake Superior:

Shadow boxing:

On Golden Pond:

Breakfast:

Breakfast 2:

Riding the Honeymoon Trail:

Across Lax Lake:

Lax Lake Deer:

Forest Fire:

Immature eagle:

[Steve Foss]

Good ones, buddy! I'm still wading through the panos. Takes awhile for the computer to chew on them.

Here they are:

A 12-image pano from captures composed vertically and overlapped slightly, using a tripod and the 70-200 at 200mm. Never did get the name of the lake.

A 7 image pano from the public landing at Lax Lake, same lens at 200mm, but with horizontal captures.

The point east of Palisade Head, with the head being the farthest left piece of land. In the interests of full disclosure, I used photoshop to clone out the monster radio/cell tower on top of Palisade Head. This is a 4-image pano using horizontal captures from the 17-40 at 40mm.

Panos generally don't show to good effect on the screen. Way to big and full of detail to see that way. It IS a lot of fun to finish a pano and zoom in to 100-200 percent and look at all the detail in the individual trees, rocks, etc.

[Cyberfish]

Holy moly, I got to move! I love it up there!

Excellent shots guys!

[finnbay]

Here's the last of my odds and ends:

Sprucin' up in the morning:

Lincoln sparrow with orange lichen:

A very fortunate flicker shot:

Sailing into the Harbor at Duluth:

Whatever it takes:

Storm coming into Duluth:

And a couple of panos:

[Vicki_Jones]

It's like I'm there again...Thank you. Vicki

[SkunkedAgain]

Nice shots guys

[MN Shutterbug]

You dudes took more pics today than I've taken in the last 2 months. Nice variety and I love the colors and am really envious. The only thing we have around here right now is water, water and more water.

[HawgMan]

Very Impressive Guys!!

[Spearing Machine]

Absolutely stunning guys!! Looks like its one of the better years as far as vibrant colors go. At least half of those I wouldn't be afraid to hang on my wall. Sure hope I can get some free time next week to check out the leave if the 6 inches of rain we got in central WI didn't tear them all off.

[micpic]

Ken, Forest Fire is one great shot!

Steve, I see what you mean about taking raptor pics in the sky and in flight. Can't wait to practice.

Mike

[Deitz Dittrich]

Holy cow.. awesome.. breathtaking.. Although it was not hard for me to pick a fave.. Steve your fall shot with the lone evergreen towering above in the sea of color was a winner for sure!

[DTro]

I love following along on your trips. Thanks for sharing. Great Shots!

I like Steve's Merlin and Ken's Forest Fire

Looks like Steve is taking a beer bong in that one pic. LOL

[MN_Pilot]

Unbelievable. Great work!

[Dbl]

Great stuff guys!

[dockothebay]

Inspiring work Gentlemen! Things are just beginning to change here in the metro area.

I sure can't pick a favorite from these - just so many beautiful images. Thanks much for sharing.

And it's always fun to see a couple of shots with you guys in them

[Steve Foss]

Looks like Steve is taking a beer bong in that one pic. LOL

Good one! Wouldn't be the first time.

Canon and other companies make coffee mugs that look just like Canon lenses. Maybe I could get them to produce a beer bong that looks like the 300mm f2.8L, with hood included. That'd hold a lot!

[Hwood]

Steve, Really liked pano of Palisade, very nice. The jet trails great.

Ken, The flicker shot, awsome colors.

Lot of nice stuff guys.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks for the support, everyone.

Hwood, those contrails gave me fits. I've got two panos after the contrails drifted out of the composition, but the God light had dissipated by then. And we tried calling the otters back after the sun came up, but they wouldn't come. Durn uncooperative critters!

I was down along the shore again with an excursion client today. Rivers are running like crazy, some fall color has come down up over the escarpment from wind/rain, but there are a lot of yellow and orange maples still to peak that weren't knocked down, so tons and tons left. I think this weekend will be the peak up top, with the peak along the shore coming a week from then.

[eyeguy 54]

Nice! Me still stuck on couch. I miss my trees and sunsets in ND.

[ShawnZ]

Some VERY beautiful work gentlemen. The first image, intense....color, scale, totally killer shot. The in flight shots, very cool, excellent job on the exposure with the merlin images, and Ken, very cool bg color for your in flight flicker image,

suprising that the AF locked on with that bg! Steve, the huge curving line of the poplar tree juxtaposition to the thick old maple in number(?) looks totally awesome, great low shooting angle to enhance the height and grandeur of it all.

All sparrow images in this excellent series so far are savannah sparrows

Though it would be awesome to get Lincoln sparrows out on the rocks by the shore!