North House Folk School Campus Grand Marias

When I took this photo there were tremendous waves in front of Grand Marias. I don’t think I have ever seen higher waves coming across the harbor and hitting the inner break wall. If not for the rocks in front of the North House there definitely would have been damage to some of the buildings.

WavesNorthHouseFolkSchoolCampus

Northern Hawk Owl

This northern hawk owl had been hanging around Gooseberry Falls State Park for about three weeks. I had photographed it before but this particular day everything seemed to come together. The lighting with the blue sky behind the owl really added to the image.

NorthernHawkOwl

Aurora Borealis

We had borrowed this canvas tent from friends of ours and were going to head into the BWCAW for a winter camping trip. I put the tent up on our pond behind the house to try it out and that night we had beautiful Northern Lights.

CanvasTentNorthernLights

Wood Duck

In the spring the pond behind our house seems to be a magnet for male wood ducks. We have had as many as 28 in the pond at one time. The only way they would let you close enough for photos would be to get into a blind early while it was still dark. Right before sunrise the woodys would come in like little jet planes. You would hear them before you saw them. This one swam right in front of the blind.

WoodDuck

Red Fox Kits

A friend told me about a fox den on Hwy 2 north of Two Harbors. It was along side of the road so you could use your car as a blind. I went back three times to photograph the mom and her kits before getting this image of two of the kits coming out to feed. These are called cross fox which is a phase of the red fox.

RedFoxKits

Newborn Fawn

This photo was taken in Two Harbors just up from the Edna G. tugboat. This little guy had just finished feeding when I came around the corner. He stood still long enough for me to get one good image.

Whitetailfawn

Fragrant Water-lily

Fragrant water-lilies are one of my favorite flowers and when you get close they even smell nice.

FragrantWaterLily

Caribou Rock Gunflint Trail

This is the view from the rocky cliff overlooking West Bearskin Lake. It is just a short walk from the Hungry Jack Lake Road. The view is breathtaking. I particularly like this image because it is a reminder of spending time with one of my distant cousins. He had never been to the North Shore before and I got to show him some of my favorite places. He had put his life on the line several times in Iraq defending our freedom and I felt honored to show him around Northeastern Minnesota.

CaribouRockGunflintTrail

Grand Marais Harbor

A thunderstorm had just passed over Grand Marais creating fog out on the lake. The fog bank slowly worked its way into the harbor engulfing everything in its path.

FogGrandMaraisHarbor

Canoe Country BWCAW

On our annual canoe trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness we encountered a beautiful sunrise in front of our four star campsite.

CanoeCountryBWCAW

Lightning Over Lake Superior

A passing storm produced a beautiful rainbow as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. Just as I took this photo a lightning strike hit the surface of Lake Superior.

StormOverLakeSuperior

Back Country Road

I won’t get a lot of sales from this image but it brings back a lot of memories. When I was a kid growing up on a small Minnesota dairy farm my friends and I would travel this road many times with our bikes as we got together to play.

BackCountryRoad

Grand Marais Sunrise

Lake Superior can produce some pretty impressive sunrises but this image is one of my favorites due to the gulls passing by the lighthouse.

GrandMaraisSunrise

Lunch with a Friend

I have to say that this image was a first for me. In the process of photographing this beaver a wood duck landed behind me and swam straight over to the beaver and started to feed. I have never seen a wood duck and beaver feed side by side before. This was one of the more popular individual photos on my web site for 2012.

LunchWithFriend

Moose Country

On an early October morning a friend went with me outside of Grand Marais to try and call in a bull moose. As we got to the site both of us saw the fog hanging over this creek and commented how beautiful the scene was and that it just seemed to say “Moose Country”.

MooseCountry

Whitetail Buck

I had been trying to photograph this buck for about an hour with no luck. It started heading up a ridge following a doe. I got ahead of it and waited at one of the junctions where the doe had passed. I wasn’t sure it was coming my way but all of a sudden he is standing in front of me.

WhitetailBuck

Hunters Moon over Split Rock

Catching the full moon over Split Rock is harder than it looks. Not because of composition or timing but because of clouds. October was the only month I was able to photograph the full moon at Split Rock in 2012 due to cloud cover.

HuntersMoonOverSplitRock

Blue Jay

Karla and I feed birds behind our house. We have several species come to the feeders but the blue jay is my favorite. Blue jays are usually pretty spooky and don’t let you get close. I set the camera up in front of this perch and used an electronic tripping device from inside the house to get this image.

BlueJay

Bentleyville "Tour of Lights"

For about three years they have lit up Bayside Park in Duluth with Christmas lights but this is the first year that I have climbed up to Enger Park to photograph it. I took this image just after a fresh snow making the lights glow.

BentleyvileTourLights

Northwood's Cabin

Everyone loves looking at a Northwood’s Cabin in the winter. They are so cozy. This is my neighbor’s cabin and it was the most viewed photo during the month of December.

NorthwoodsCabin