A.D. Drumm Images, LLC – Landscape, Portrait, and Fine Art Photography in Rochester MN Photography

Once again, I was a sponsor and official photographer for the Pond and Garden Tour in and around Rochester. The tour includes some commercial locations, but it is mostly private gardens at homes around the area. The focus is sustainability, so there are several rain gardens included along with more traditional waterfalls with and without ponds.

The gardens range from fairly modest but lovely gardens, often with the soft sound of falling water…

to much more elaborate, extensive gardens covering vast spaces.

And, mostly, there are gardens in between. It’s fun and interesting to photograph, looking for something different or maybe a different angle, or a flower which catches my eye in some way.

Or a racing flock of pink flamingos running out of the woods.

The weather this year was hot – like it’s been since the cold June – and was mostly dry except for a line of storms that blew in and blew out after a half hour or so. I found myself sitting in my car contemplating the pond that was growing around me during the rainfall! Afterward, there were water droplets all over the plants which isn’t bad for photography.

Just due to the timing of the tour, most of the photos were shot with the sun fairly high overhead. We deal with that lighting as best we can. Clouds and drizzle after the storm helped for a while. Then it became hot and the rain added to the humidity. July in Minnesota.

The ponds were interesting. Many are home to some colorful fish and water lilies and other flora.

Statues were more common this year than I remember seeing last year. Many were religious, like Mother Mary in the grotto above or St. Francis or St. Anthony. Some were the small children, or the occasional frog.

I enjoyed the waterfalls. Even fairly small falls produced a nice water sound, which I’d imagine could be soothing to listen to while relaxing on the deck or porch.

There were some gardens on the tour this year which had been on last year’s tour as well. One I particularly liked then, and again this year, forms a labyrinth. It’s well kept, beautiful, and filled with hope and faith. As you can see.

Different folks enjoy different holidays. The Galaty’s enjoy Halloween. Each year, they spend countless time and effort converting their home into a haunted house. I’m talking about most of their home. At a party there early this year, we had a tour of the house. In several places, the discussion was something like, “this is for the haunted house,” or “we will use this room for the haunted house this year.” That was last winter. Planning is basically a year-round activity.

They now even have a web site for the event. Part of the proceeds this year went to support Rochester Water Ski Shows which had heavy losses during the recent flooding.

As I mentioned in my last post about the drive-through Halloween event, shooting in darkly lit places and conveying a spooky mood require some thinking about lighting. The haunted house had lots of moody lighting already, although it was pretty dim as you’d expect. If you look at the background in the top photo, behind our greeter, you can see some of the red light that filled the room with the casket.

I decided to bring along my strobe attached to the camera via a cord. That let me aim it wherever I wanted. And I added a deep blue gel to keep a cool, nighttime undertone to the shots. I had to be careful not to overly compete with the great colored lighting already there, but sometimes my blue is the most noticable light. However, I think it still matches the scenes, conveys the feelings, but is just a bit different than the live experience. If I have to compromise, I want to compromise artistically, I guess.

Groups of visitors were guided through the haunted house. Each room had a different theme. The clown room must have been designed with my son in mind. He always hated clowns as a kid!

Both of the Galatys are fitness nuts, so it’s no surprise to find a room filled with fitness equipment. Apparently, some exercisers have been at it too long.

Black lights were used in various parts of the house. Mixing with other lights and my blue flash, the images I captured are almost surreal. They looked pretty cool in person, but the photos are amazing. I had someone ask about this image wondering what work I’d done in Photoshop. Turns out, no pixels were harmed to produce this image. It’s basically what came from my camera.

There were quite a number of actors helping throughout the tour. The costumes and makeup were great.

I particularly enjoyed this zombie boy as he crawled across the floor. Here you can see my blue flash providing just enough light to brighten his face. I would often fire the flash down or behind me to achieve the balance I wanted.

There were some rooms in which the group was treated to a brief performance such as this room with an electric chair. You can imagine what was shown. Special effects, especially smoke, were used throughout the house.

This kitchen was well stocked, although the cook was a tad ragged.

The tour ends downstairs at the back of the house, and other props such as cemetary and the Galaty’s new hearse provide more for visitors to enjoy as they walk back around the house. As I left, I was struck by all the work they put into this production and the dedication of the folks who helped make it happen. Walking back around the front of the house, the line had grown substantially since we arrived – we came early.

In one night, I shot two Halloween events. Although they had the same scary theme, they were vastly different in so many ways. As a photographer, it’s this variety that keeps me shooting. It’s not just the desire to grab a few good images but the planning and exploration of light and lighting that make it fun. When I’m all done, I look at the photos and consider whether I achieved what I set out to do. Do they match the pictures I had in my head before the shoot began?

That’s the final test. I’m happy with the results making it a good night of shooting.

This year, we had at least two Halloween events happening around Rochester. There may have been more, but I know the folks involved in creating two events. I managed to shoot a few images at both.

It’s fun to photograph events and situations that are unusual and have unusual challenges from a photography point of view. Dark haunts count as challenging. How do we deal with existing light or how do we bring in light without changing the mood, or at best, enhancing the mood?

The History Center of Olmsted County put on a drive-through event. A large group of actors were set out along a gravel pathway through the back part of the History Center property where farm buildings and equipment dot the landscape. Appropriate costumes and make-up, lots of props, and the scary drive was ready for visitors.

And visitors they had! We arrived a little before closing time planning to drive through as the final vehicle of the night. Two hours later, we were finally at the starting point. It was a cool, windy night, but much better than some of the late October evenings we’ve seen in Rochester.

I planned to walk alongside the car and do the shoot from outside. This would let me shoot the car as well as the spooks, put it in perspective, and provide a documentary feel to the photos. Now, what about lighting?

When I asked about how the area would be lit, the response was a few lights from the buildings plus the vehicle headlights. That’s not a lot to work with for photography and doesn’t provide any control to let me highlight the various actors, make-up, costumes, etc.

One thought was to use an external flash, maybe gel’d, and try to simulate headlights. I then came up with the idea to use a powerful flashlight to do this. We could keep it down sort of at headlight height, it would have a similar color temperature as headlights, and it would let me move and adjust it as needed.

My friend Lance agreed to be my grip, handling the flashlight for me. I think it worked well, and Lance did a great job of working the light. We did cheat a bit with some shots, blasting the light a little higher than a headlight might. But, well, think of an SUV with its high beams on! Yeah, that works.

The light was nice and direct, centered, with good fall-off. All of that appears to mimic the headlights exactly as I wanted. Having the car in many of the shots does the trick, too. All-in-all, I’m pretty pleased with the results.

Photography is all about light. No light, no photo – it’s pretty simple. But just having some light, perhaps enough to burn some photons on the camera’s sensor and make an image, isn’t always enough. For me, photos need to evoke some sort of feeling, connection, mood. And a scary Halloween event would be totally missing those characteristics if we’re not careful with the light, shaping it as needed. Hopefully, I’ve achieved my goal here.

I attended another event the same evening with a completely different feel. I’ll blog about it later.

Olmsted County Fair (click for more photos)

 I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, home of the great Ohio State Fair. When I was young, I took art lessons from an artist down the street. It was fun, and one thing he always had us do was enter our artwork in the fair. So, I would go to the fair every year and visit it multiple times since we had to take our work there and pick it up. I also learned to enjoy aspects of the fair apart from the rides (which, by the way, I did enjoy) and the Grandstand.

An aside: For a time, the Ohio State Fair raised the entry fee, but made the Grandstand free. During that time, I saw some very cool acts: Hermin’s Hermits, The Association, Rare Earth. Just had to arrive early!

I dropped the lessons as I got older, but once I was driving age, the Fair would be a fun thing to do on a steamy summer evening. I learned all the back ways to the place and could almost always avoid much of the traffic. It would be easy to visit the fair two or three times during its run. I would always visit the fine arts building, see what the current crop of kids were doing as well as the professionals. I’d look up what my old art teacher had submitted that year. I learned from him that the artwork you are most invested in, spend the most time on, and feel the most attached to, isn’t always the artwork that catches the judges’ eyes. That painting you did on a whim in 20 minutes wins the First Place ribbon instead. Valuable lesson.

Columbus is in Franklin County. Having the state fair right there, less than five miles from home, I never visited the county fair until years after I left Ohio. But here in Rochester, we’re quite a ways from St. Paul and the state fair. The county fair is right in the middle of Rochester, and it’s a place to visit for some funnel cakes or carnival rides. It’s a place to take the camera for some people watching.

I set out yesterday afternoon, camera in hand, to find some people to shoot! It was IBM’s day at the fair, so there were plenty of IBMers with their families. There was a tent set up with picnic tables for relaxing and a few airbrush tattoo stations to paint kids’ faces. And, I saw a few adults taking part.

I headed over to the animal barns. Lots of activity there, with folks brushing and washing their prize creatures. Looked like some judging might be taking place, as well. It was fun to walk around looking for interesting shots and people just enjoying themselves. And a girl’s long hair pulled by gravity while she was being held upside down.

It was warm, and the sun was giving us mid-afternoon light (less than great), but shooting opportunities were all around.

The Rochester International Association held their 35th World Festival Cultural Program on April 9. Lynne had been asked to join a group singing We Are the World, and she was asked if I’d be willing to come and videotape the program. Sure! I managed to grab a few still shots while the video was rolling, but I can’t just leave the video on a wide shot. If I’m going to shoot video, I need to devote my attention to it. So, the Caledonian Pipe Band above was one of the few acts I shot as a still.

Of course, you can capture a still shot from the video, although it isn’t going to in any way compare to what my 5D will do! Here’s a shot I grabbed to use for the DVD menu and on the label.

I left it cropped wide to show the flags. But it’s an incredibly cute shot, I think, in spite of being low-res. I did manage to shoot a handful of stills of the Rochester Area Singers, the group including Lynne. Here is one of those shots with Lynne front and just-left-of center!

For anyone interested, I have DVDs of the event for sale for $10 plus tax. A bargain, believe me! Use the Contact Tony page to let me know if you’re interested. Hopefully, it’s working okay now (see the previous post)!

Atop the Plummer Building in downtown Rochester, one of the Mayo buildings, are 56 bells making up a carillon. We were fortunate to have a tour of the upper floors and the carillon and a private concert by the carillonneur, Jeff Daehn. Private is relative for a carillon since, well, it’s large bells on top of a building downtown! Here’s Jeff in action.

The view from the balcony was terrific with some good photo opportunities. The building represents an earlier era when architecture was ornate. There are large heads at the balcony level. I tried to find out what they represent without luck. Perhaps someone else knows? In any case, they made for some fun photographs with Rochester sprawling below or shielded by rising steam on the chilly day.

I particularly like this shot of Lynne and the smile I love.