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Welcome!

I've been taking photos, off and on, for a long time. My first camera was a Kodak Brownie more than forty years ago. An Instamatic, my Dad's Argus C3, and a couple of Konicas followed. My last film camera was a Mamiya RB67 with three lenses, two film backs and a Polaroid back. I sold the lot in 1991. A sixteen year hiatus from photography followed that sale. It ended when I bought a Nikon D80 in 2007. Now I have a Nikon D300 and an assortment of lenses. Such technical skills as I possess have been garnered from other photographers, books, and a whole lot of experience. Paintings are as important as photography to me, and many painters have influenced my photo compositions. Since images are to be had at any time of day and in any kind of light, I don't have a preferred time of day for shooting. The weather doesn't matter very much, either. In fact, I like cold, snow and rain the best. And so, welcome to a very tiny bit of the world as I see it. Take a look around. Thank you for your comments. It's great to know what you're thinking!

If you want to visit, send me an email: alleyraven@gmail.com.

Make a day of it, and thanks for stopping by!

Tim

Featured Galleries

New Work : Rooting around in the files revealed more images that deserved to see daylight. Here they are.

Find something beautiful and share it. 

In due time, everything here will go to its proper gallery.

New Work

Rooting around in the files revealed more images that deserved to see ...

Updated: Nov 22, 2009 12:02pm PST

The Minnesota State Fair : The State Fair is a Minnesota institution. Meaning that it's quite popular. Well north of 1.5 million people attend every year. In fact, 2009 set a record with over 1.7 million people walking through the gates. Many of these folks go more than once. Vacations are planned around the twelve day run of the Fair. There's so much to do. Most of those things to do include eating food stuck onto a stick. One can find everything from cheese curds to Minnesota wine. There are FFA kids showing their poultry and livestock. They bunk at the Fair, too. There are 4H projects and an art show. Machinery Hill used to feature the latest agricultural equipment for farmers to examine and kids to climb on. That's largely gone, now. There are booths for every cause and purpose you can think of. People hawk gadgets that run from amazing to useless. Then there's the Midway with its lights, noise, games, rides, Barkers and Carni's. I could go on and on. The Fair used to be the high point of my summer when I was a kid. It was always exciting and always sad to leave at the end of a long day. But then I stopped going for better than twenty-five years. That changed this year, and here's the result of two afternoons and evenings at the Fair. It was so much fun that I'll go again next year! But I'll avoid the hot dish on a stick...

Nearly all my work has been of stationary, and often inanimate, things. Meaning photographing people was/is a bit of a challenge. But the State Fair is the closest I can get to real street life so it's a great place to practice. Every photo was shot handheld. The night shots were at high ISO's, making for some noise. Everything was processed with PhotoShop CS3 and assorted Nik Software products.

The Minnesota State Fair

The State Fair is a Minnesota institution. Meaning that it's quite pop ...

Updated: Sep 06, 2009 5:43am PST

Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Mill District, Saint Anthony Falls, and the Mississippi River : A young friend once asked, "Why is there Minneapolis?" Shortly after that question, we visited Saint Anthony Falls. In 1680, Father Louis Hennepin became the first recorded white person to see the only waterfall on the Mississippi River. He named it the Falls of Saint Anthony. By 1823, the falls were driving the industries that built Minneapolis. The first sawmill and grist (flour) mill were built here between 1820 -1823 to provide lumber and flour for Fort Snelling. As white settlement increased, the village of St. Anthony incorporated on the East Bank of the river in 1855, three years before Minnesota statehood. The settlement of Minneapolis, on the West Bank, was incorporated as a town in 1856. The two communities merged in 1872. 

Logging and lumber production were the first industries. Minneapolis led the nation in saw milling to 1887. Lumber declined in importance as logging moved north, and the last saw mill in Minneapolis closed in 1904. Flour milling was the next big industry, and Minneapolis led the country in flour production from 1880 - 1930. Despite fires and a truly colossal explosion in 1877 that nearly destroyed the West Bank Mill District, flour mills grew in number and size. The Washburn Crosby Mill, on the West Bank, and the Pillsbury "A" Mill, on the East Bank were the biggest. For a time, the Pillsbury "A" Mill was the largest in the nation. The Washburn Crosby Mill closed in 1965. The Pillsbury "A" mill closed in 2003. It was the last working flour mill in the Mill District.

Just like the early saw mills, the flour mills used the power of falling water for much of their history. Tunnels and canals were dug to transport water to mills away from the falls. A horseshoe shaped dam was built above the falls between 1856 and 1858. It funneled water into these "power tunnels." Many of these tunnels still exist, though only one has been restored to carry water. These tunnels, and their water, were strictly controlled by two water power companies that eventually merged. Wooden and later concrete aprons were built over the falls to keep it from eroding into a rapids. The first hydroelectric plant in the country was built at Saint Anthony Falls in 1882. The lumber and flour mills supported a host of ancillary industries such as iron works that made mill machines and cooperages for making barrels. There were other mills, too, including the North Star Woolen Mill. All the unprotected spinning wheels and belts in the mills resulted in many injuries and more than a few deaths. That made Minneapolis a leader in another industry: prosthetic limbs.

Milling of any kind requires raw materials. Saw logs for the lumber mills floated down the Mississippi River each spring and were caught by a boom above the falls at Boom Island. Here they were sorted by marks and sent to the proper saw mills. Railroads developed and moved west to bring wheat to the flour mills and ship the flour across the country. Nine railroads served Minneapolis by 1918. The Stone Arch Bridge was finished by the Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railroad in 1883. The Manitoba was run by James J. Hill and later became the Great Northern Railroad. Other familiar roads in Minneapolis included the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault St. Marie (Soo Line), Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific (Milwaukee Road), and the Northern Pacific.

As milling declined, so did the Mill District. By the 1960's, the district was blighted. Many of the mills and other buildings had been razed. This unfortunate trend was reversed in the early 1970's and today the area has a new life. Parks line the river. Condos and businesses have filled many of the remaining mill buildings. The Mill City Museum occupies the remains of the Washburn Crosby Mill. An art festival, fireworks, and other festivities happen every year. The Mill District has changed time and again over the last one hundred ninety years, but the only waterfall on the Mississippi River is still there.

Links:

The Mill City Museum: http://www.millcitymuseum.org/
The MInnesota Historical Society http://www.mnhs.org/
The Hennepin History Museum: http://hennepinhistory.org/default.aspx
The Minneapolis Public Library: http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/
Saint Anthony Falls Heritage Board: http://www.mnhs.org/places/safhb/index.shtml

Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Mill District, Saint Anthony Falls, and the Mississippi River

A young friend once asked, "Why is there Minneapolis?" Shortly after t ...

Updated: Nov 16, 2009 9:42am PST

Garden Flowers and Plants : I don't keep a garden these days, but I still love flowers. This is a collection of blooms and plants from private and public gardens.

Garden Flowers and Plants

I don't keep a garden these days, but I still love flowers. This is a ...

Updated: Oct 18, 2009 6:32pm PST

Gallery Categories

New Photos

2 galleries with 119 photos

Updated: Nov 22, 2009 12:02pm PST

Black and White

1 gallery with 36 photos

Updated: Nov 13, 2009 9:48am PST

Landscapes and Cityscapes

7 galleries with 387 photos

Updated: Nov 16, 2009 9:42am PST

Lake Superior: Landscapes, Cityscapes and Ships

4 galleries with 212 photos

Updated: Oct 09, 2009 4:13pm PST

Along the Mississippi River and Its Tributaries

2 galleries with 153 photos

Updated: Nov 13, 2009 9:21am PST

Minnesota

1 gallery with 8 photos

Updated: Oct 09, 2009 4:02pm PST

Animals

3 galleries with 16 photos

Updated: Sep 27, 2009 5:24pm PST

Trains

2 galleries with 52 photos

Updated: Aug 15, 2009 6:46pm PST

Cars

1 gallery with 16 photos

Updated: Jul 12, 2009 1:15pm PST

People

1 gallery with 15 photos

Updated: Nov 13, 2009 9:43am PST

History

3 galleries with 40 photos

Updated: Mar 08, 2009 8:37am PST

Flowers

4 galleries with 119 photos

Updated: Oct 18, 2009 6:32pm PST

Still Life

1 gallery with 67 photos

Updated: Nov 20, 2009 2:50pm PST

Smallscapes

2 galleries with 46 photos

Updated: Mar 14, 2009 6:05am PST

Food

1 gallery with 9 photos

Updated: Aug 15, 2009 6:44pm PST

Butterflies, Bees, and Other Critters with Six Legs

1 gallery with 18 photos

Updated: Aug 15, 2009 6:57pm PST

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