The Enchanted Forest in the City

Today's hike isn't actually a true hike, or what I had in mind for this blog, but I felt I had to post about it.  It's a small escape that was a welcome surprise in the midst of a crowded festival.

The day started out mild with temperatures expected to hit the mid 80s with only a slight threat of rain later in the evening.  I put on shorts and comfortable tennis shoes knowing I had a lot of walking to do and the past knowledge of this outing being almost unbearably hot regardless of the weather forecast.  I grabbed my small point-and-shoot camera and headed off to meet one of my friends for a quick trip to Starbucks to start us on our journey to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, MN.

We got to the festival grounds and started on our first circuit through the maze of shops, food stalls and various entertainment stages. We came across many different types of characters and performers and many visitors who were in costume.

 

We didn't get a chance to see much of the entertainment on this visit but we will be making a second trip on the last day of the festival just so we can take time to stop for the different shows we like and because that's when all the best sales happen!

 



Before heading to Ren Fest my friend told me we were going to go through the Hobbit Hole at the festival.  The what? I've been to Ren Fest several times over the past 15 years but had no clue what she was talking about.  It didn't take long before we came across the Hobbit Hole.

 

Once through the Hobbit Hole you walk down a couple short flights of wooden stairs and enter into the Enchanted Forest.

 

 

The path through the forest was pretty nice, although it can get crowded with groups of fair-goers walking through.  I didn't get a chance to really look around and experience as much as I wanted to, but that's mostly my own fault. The festival doesn't allow anyone to wander where they want to throughout the forest.  The rocky dirt path had a rope barrier on either side of it as well as several signs letting you know you had to stay on the lone path.

 

Dispersed throughout the main path were several small cottages giving an illusion that the Enchanted forest is inhabited.  Due to the crowded nature of the narrow path I was only able to take relatively quick snap shots before the next surge of people came up behind us.

 

Towards the end of the forest there was one last cottage nestled behind a small pond next to a waterfall.  There was also a travelling bard playing period music which added to the overall ambiance of the medieval theme.

 

 

We passed under a rustic trellis-like arbor before the final turn ending in the exit back into the bustling fair grounds.

 

The photo gallery for this trip can be found here.  I plan to take more time on my second trip of the season to the festival to take better pictures with my Nikon DSLR.





From seed to love (Part II)

My last post left off during my early teen years when I was introduced to photography and limited my time in nature to short, infrequent trips to my family's vacation home.  I was not good at photography and using a 35mm SLR camera confused the hell out of me.  I give kudos to my dad for trying to get me to understand all the different settings. If I remember correctly, he only had two different lenses.  I knew the longer (zoom/telephoto) lens allowed me to see farther away than the shorter lens, but that's all I could understand about the lenses at that time.  The zoom lens came in handy when I was trying to take pictures of deer, hawks, eagles, otters, muskrats and other wildlife I could find.  Those pictures never turned out well so I stuck to landscape pictures more often than not.


Still learning: 1980s 35mm Nikon

I never got the hang of F-stops, shutter speeds, or film speeds since I didn't have a 35mm camera of my own and only rarely got to use the Nikon.  The majority of the pictures I took were taken with a small point-and-shoot camera, possibly a Kodak, which used 110 film, the old cartridge-style film created by Kodak in 1972.  The photos taken with the 35mm were usually black and white, my preferred format, and the 110 photos were usually color.  The up-side to using the 35mm black and white film is that I was able to develop it myself after I took my photography/graphics class in high school.



Playing with Shadows: 1980s Kodak 110

While in middle school and high school, during the 1980s, I started going on short trips with a few different groups of friends.  The majority of these trips were camping trips and my camera always went with me.  My love of nature started to return to me a little more every time I went on one of these trips.  I was still taking quite a bit of pictures of my friends, but I also began taking more of nature and random other sights.  After these trips I was anxious to get my numerous rolls of film developed.  I saved up my money from chores and my part-time job and impatiently waited several days after dropping my film off before it would be developed.  Back in those days one-hour photo labs weren't cheap and the quality of the developing process was poor, so I opted to send mine out and wait.  By the time I went on a two week trip to Maine and Canada I was using a point-and-shoot camera with 35mm film all the time.  I had given up on learning the settings for the Nikon SLR.

Maine, Summer 1988

Some tall building on the way to Maine, Summer 1988



Cliff Jumping in Maine, Summer 1988

Not long after the trip to Maine and Canada I graduated and left for college.  Once again I put nature and photography on the back burner in exchange for friends and parties.  After college I was distracted by trying to find a job within my career field (Journalism at that time) and I was thinking of finding an apartment and moving out of my parents' home.  A job offer brought me to Minnesota in 1997 and I've been here ever since.  I began to explore nature again, went camping and hiking again, and bought a 35mm SLR of my own; a Canon Rebel. I now live right along the Mississippi River and have access to several state and county parks with many hiking trails to choose from and views of rivers, lakes, forests, and more!  After fighting against the digital age I finally broke down and bought a nice Nikon DSLR and two lenses.  I have a standard lens and a zoom.  My next investment will be a good macro lens for those close-up pictures I can't seem to get with my other lens.

This is how it all got started.  Next up, it's time to go hiking! 

From seed to love (Part I)

At the time of this post it's mid-August 2012 in Minnesota.  The days have been hot, humid and woven with dreary gray skies.  We have been hit with the occasional downpour but nothing full of the rolling thunder that I love, nor hard torrential battering of rain that dances on windowpanes or drums on the roof of my home.  I haven't been able to get out and about with my camera for several weeks and I'm starting to get summer cabin fever. 

I should probably give a little background information on myself so you can understand why I'm starting this photo blog and why it matters to me.  I grew up in a small town in Southeastern Wisconsin.  The majority of my favorite memories growing up are the hiking trips my dad used to take my brother and I on whenever the weather was nice.  My weekends and summers were filled with hikes through forests full of wildlife and vegetation.  I had no clue what anything was, other than a squirrel or a chipmunk.  I was young and I was in awe. 

I learned a lot during these outings.  My eyes drank in everything in sight as the soft crunch of pine needles and fallen leaves under our feet sang to my ears.  I fell in love.  I learned how to identify different types of trees and vegetation native to our small corner of Wisconsin.  I knew what nuts and berries were safe to eat and which ones to avoid.  I knew what bushes and weeds to avoid and the difference between poison ivy and poison oak.  I could identify almost all of the native birds and animals that came across my path, both in person and just by the tracks left on the forest floor.

I made up my mind.  I was going to have a life working with nature.  I wanted to be a forest ranger.  I was young.  Over time I grew older and it was no longer 'cool' to hang out with my dad.  I started becoming interested in what my friends were interested in.  Video games, music, movies, dating, roller skating, hanging out at the mall doing nothing.  I never lost my love of nature though.  My family had (and still has) a vacation home a few hours farther north in Wisconsin.  Every summer we would go and spend one or two weeks there, or even an entire month. 

Of course I complained and whined that I didn't want to go.  I wanted to stay home and spend my summer with my friends.  Secretly I was dancing with joy on the inside.  There were lots of places to go hiking and enjoy nature.  There were waterfalls, fields, forests, streams, lakes, cliffs and quarries.  Plus I had something new to add to my love of nature.  A camera.  My parents gave me an inexpensive camera to use.  Once in a great while my dad would let me, with his close supervision, use his 35mm Nikon SLR. 

I wasn't good with a camera, but I had fun trying to learn.  Here is one of my first pictures:

More story and pictures coming soon...