Struggles

I’ve struggled for a long time trying to make presentable images of the Minnesota River bottoms in the Louisville Swamp unit of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. In spring, fall, and winter, this place is stark to say the least. In the summer its humid and dark. This area of the river bottom sees significant spring flooding as you can see by the horizontal bands on the trees pictured below. As a result of the flooding, the area has very little underbrush. What it does have, is lots of dirt and debris that washes in with the flood waters and a number of tree species that are week and like to drop limbs  or  just tip over. Add to that the mosquitoes, giants that vacation here from Alaska. I once hiked in (about a mile) doused in 100% DEET insect repellent wearing long sleeves and jeans and left with over 100 bites. But that’s another story. What you end up with is a chaotic mess that doesn’t make landscape photographers flock to it.I’ve tried wide, ultra-wide, telephoto, panoramic, view camera, medium format, film, digital, you name it. Not much inspired me.Enter the Lens Baby Composer. I’m certainly not the first to blog about the creative fun you can have with this little lens. But what better way to photograph chaos than with a lens that imparts even more chaos into the image? I made this image early spring, before the canopy fills in and blocks most of the daylight.Its a start. Being so close to my home, I’ll keep going back. Someday, I’ll get that keeper I’m looking for. If you want to go and see for yourself, here’s the link. Show me what images you make in the bottoms and don’t forget the insect repellent! You can see more images from the refuge at www.joemamer.com

Display Images at MN Valley Wildlife Refuge

The Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge held its grand reopening today. With the refuge being only a couple miles from my home, I spend a fair amount of time hiking and photographing in its diverse landscape.  I was pleased to learn a few months ago that two of my images were being licensed to decorate the newly redesigned visitor’s center. Each image was printed on fabric for area dividers. The first is a view from Eden Prairie overlooking the valley.

The second is a boardwalk near Cedar Ave in Bloomington. The image has small images of wildlife and flowers composited in a mosaic fashion. Each image is about 10′x20′.

The Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge is located within the urban and suburban areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is a green belt of large marsh areas totaling approximately 14,000 acres, spanning 99 miles of the Minnesota River. This is one of only four American national wildlife refuges in an urban area, and the largest.

New Images

Aspen trees in black and white

We’ve posted some new images to our stock site. Stop by and take a look.

www.joemamer.com

Striving for Perfection

If you ask my wife, I’m never satisfied with anything I create. Whether its a woodworking project, photography, or even dinner there is always room for improvement. When others see a well executed piece of work, I see the places where I want and need to improve. We’ve had plenty of “discussions” about being too hard on yourself (her argument topic of discussion) or always striving to do better (mine…and the correct one in my opinion…).

I’ve heard people say you must aim for perfection but settle for less. I liked this when I first heard it and thought “Hey! I can do that!” Not so fast. What sounds good in theory is usually difficult to practice and this is no exception. How much less do you settle on? When is good enough really good enough.

Without continually pushing yourself towards perfection, you grow in your skills. We’ve all heard that practice makes perfect. Settling for good enough feels more like slow stagnation to me. When the real answer is distilled, I’m sure it falls somewhere in the middle of the extreems. Depending on your personallity it may land closer to one side or the other. For me, its way up against the ‘wanting to do better’ side.

Where do you mark your line? Are you being too hard on yourself or striving for perfection?

New Book Cover

Allow me a bit of shameless self-promotion.

I recently licensed an image to St. Martins Press for the cover of a novel. The book, Jelly’s Gold, was written by Minnesota Author David Housewright. It will be released on May 12.

The image shows the St. Paul Minnesota skyline with the Robert’s Street arched bridge crossing the Mississippi River. The original image can be seen here at joemamer.com. Heres a panoramic image from the same shoot.

See more Minnesota images

Joe Mamer Stock images

Joe Mamer Photography is a professional stock and assignment photography agency located in Shakopee, Minnesota. Our stock image library is a continually developing resource for travel, landscape, editorial and fine art images from Minnesota, the Midwest, and throughout the United States. We specialize in beautiful images of Minnesota.

License stock images and buy prints at http://www.joemamer.com and at our Stock image Library

Please contact us if you cannot find what you are looking for.

Ansel Adams America

Pianist and jazz legend Dave Brubeck along with his son Chris have written a new musical composition inspired by the works of Ansel Adams.

Read more at NPR:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102656153