My mom and I drove to Wisconsin today to pick up our new puggle puppy, Fannie (b. February 27, 2024).
I took the photos between 1:31 and 1:34 p.m., and I took the video at 1:39 p.m.
For the most part, the Twin Cities hasn’t had snow this 2023–24 winter season. It’s by far a winter unlike any other I’ve experienced in Minnesota. Though I enjoyed the warmer days and better driving conditions, I was pleased to see bright snow outside my window when I got up this morning.
I took these seven photos today from 10:17 to 10:35 a.m. The National Weather Service’s forecast office for the Twin Cities is located next to my neighborhood in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Beginning today, we are having an Indian summer in the Twin Cities.
My definition of Indian summer is simple. It is after the first hard frost when it is unseasonably warm and dry. The next four days will be Indian summer as well, with high temperatures of around 60 degrees Fahrenheit on all of these days.
I decided to photograph this year’s Indian summer today, as I don’t believe it happens every year. I took these photos at Lake Ann Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota, from 4:02 to 4:09 p.m.
I visited Lake Ann in Chanhassen, Minnesota, this evening. Chanhassen is now at peak fall colors according to the Fall Color Finder webpage by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources:
It will be rainy and snowy for the rest of the week (today is Monday), so it’s likely I won’t photograph fall colors again until next year.
I took these photos from 5:58 to 6:16 p.m.; the sunset was at 6:18 p.m.
My mom and I went to the first day of Chanhassen’s 40th annual Fourth of July celebration this evening. We’ve gone for the last three years now. I posted photos I took last year with my Google Pixel smartphone, which obviously limited image quality. This year, I made sure to bring my Canon EOS R. I also coordinated our time so I was able to take photos at the golden hour and the blue hour. The golden hour is the hour before sunset, and the blue hour is the hour after sunset (as an aside, it works the opposite way for sunrises). The sunset was at 9:04 p.m. tonight; these photos were taken between 7:58 and 9:25 p.m.
Father’s Day came early for my dad this year. This morning, the Postal Service delivered the watch I ordered for my dad. Of course, I had to make an unboxing post (even though my mom thinks they’re weird).
I ordered this Seiko SNE593 from Island Watch last week, shortly after boarding an Amtrak train to take me back home to St. Paul from East Glacier Park, Montana.
Enjoy these 12 photos, dad!
My mom, our puggles, and I went to Rice Marsh Lake Park this evening. I took these photos from 5:59 to 6:09 p.m.
It’s probably been over five years since I last used Photoshop. I even had a blog devoted to editing photos in Linux, which is possible but not nearly as feature-rich. As of this morning, I’m excited to announce that I’m back on board with Adobe! In addition to Photoshop, Lightroom is included with my subscription. The total cost is $10 a month—a steal in my opinion.
Here are 10 photos I took this morning around my neighborhood from 9:50 to 10:10 a.m. to test out Lightroom—of which I’m a first-time user—and Photoshop.
I am starting a series this autumn titled “Leaf Peeping 2022.” I plan to document various stages of fall colors and the eventual falling of leaves (phenology). For this inaugural post, I went to Lake Ann Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota, from about 11:20 a.m. to noon today.
The National Weather Service (N.W.S.) launches two weather balloons each day, separated by 12 hours. I took these photos at 6 a.m. this morning. The next launch is presumably at 6 p.m. (these times are probably different if the time is C.S.T. rather than C.D.T.).
If you ever come across a weather balloon on the ground when you’re out walking, follow the instructions to send it back to the N.W.S., since they reuse some of the equipment. As this “kidscorner” article on the N.W.S.’s website states, “The balloon flights last for around 2 hours, can drift as far as 125 miles away, and rise up to over 100,000 ft. (about 20 miles) in the atmosphere!”
These photos were taken at the N.W.S. forecast office in the Twin Cities/Chanhassen, Minnesota.
