Finally, a COVER!

When, after all the battles, creative conversations back and forth, a Cover emerges, its a true sign of relief.
The PADDLE NORTH-CANOEING THE BOUNDARY WATERS/QUETICO WILDERNESS project finally feels like
a book now. Its coming to a close. It is a wonderful overview of the BWCA/Quetico wilderness with chapters on
topics like canoe history, forest fires, winter, rock and portages.

For anyone who has visited this wilderness, this book will find its way into your heart. Greg Breinings' words are descriptive and alive. He makes you want to toss the canoe on the car and head North. From my side, it is my hope the photographs will offer you new insights and familiar moments while cruising the visual poetry of this amazing wilderness.

So, here it is! I'm happy with it. The back cover will be a photograph of a star studded night scape with
the Milky Way glowing over La La Croix.

I understand the book is already available on Amazon.com, but I'm not sure if the cover is even uploaded there yet.
The PADDLE NORTH project gets sent to the printer in the second week of June and will be available sometime in late
October or early November. Hey, just in time for the Holidays!

It will be widely available here in the Midwest and you can always contact the Minnesota Historical Society Press
(http://discussions.mnhs.org/10000books/) or me directly for signed copies.

More later..........

PADDLE NORTH

Its been awhile since making a post. My apologies. If I have nothing to say I see no reason to bore anyone with dribble.

But, now I have some exciting news. A cover has been chosen and finalized. The title is now etched in stone as well. What a relief to have these important hurdles behind us.

PADDLE NORTH-Canoeing The Boundary Waters-Quetico Wilderness

I'll have a copy of the cover soon and will post it. I'm pleased with the Title and the cover. It was quite a battle. Lots of thoughts & concerns thrown out on to the table and too many cooks in the kitchen at times. It never got ugly, but such an important detail needs the banter. All the bugs need to get worked out and everyone involved needs to be able to live with it. Its a huge and lasting mark.

Mind you, choosing a cover is no simple task. The artist needs to be happy, the editors, the marketing dept, book sellers, ect. To get all the planets to align, it takes time and open discussions.

The photograph I wanted for the cover didn't make the cut. After months of lobbying hard for this image, it came up short. However, from the early stages of designing and presenting cover ideas, I was never opposed to a cover that was better than the one I had pushed for. It just had to be better.

I still feel my instincts for the cover choice I pushed for are solid. But, there were reasons why it wouldn't work and as disappointing as that was, I can appreciate the logic behind kicking it off the table.

In-depth discussions about a photograph, it's content, message and appeal, are some of the discoveries made only by climbing the mountains of various perceptions. A photograph after all, is worth a thousand words...and each of those words can be seen differenty.

Through this effort, a cover was designed by Susan Binkley, Breeze Publishing Arts, that fit the bill. Its beautiful, informative and offers a sense of place. Susan is designing the entire book.

There is more to say about the topic of photography and publishers, but not today.
Seeing the cover for PADDLE NORTH and a few sample pages have calmed my nerves. I feel more at ease now. Its going to be an elegant and beautifully informative book on a special wilderness. It is filled with details, textures and spirit. Author Greg Breining has tied it all together with his thoughtful essays.

Nothing would please me more than finding there might be readers who have paddled this wilderness for 30 years or more, who will retrieve something from this book that ignites a spirit within them.

I'll be sure to get that cover posted soon. In the meantime, here's a photograph from the book on still, clear night on Agnes Lake in the BWCA. From across the lake I had spotted paddlers making their evening campfire. It was a beautiful scene. Can you hear the stillness?

One Man's Treasure......

It never seems to fail as soon as a book project gets put to bed, new visuals that would've worked perfectly for that project are dropped in your lap just a week too late. Its like trying to keep up with technology, you just struggle to stay on top. Well, I came to terms with that a long time ago. It just happens and I'm delighted I'm still able to be in a position to experience the thrills of new visual discoveries.

Last week, I went North to Ely, Minnesota where I conducted my 16th Annual Wintergreen Dogsledding Photography Workshop. We have a blast dogsledding in and out of the BWCA and Superior National Forest telling stories with our cameras. The maze of trails through black spruce bogs, dense forest and across frozen lakes offer numerous peeks at life in the North. Wolf tracks imprinted in the snow were everywhere and the treat of a full moon Saturday provided the icing on the cake. I'm told through some unusual moon orbit, the moon was 30,000 miles closer to earth this full moon phase than other months. It certainly looked larger! We had a very cold week with morning temps each day at minus -25 F and only warming to minus -10 F. Only on our last day the temps rose to 7 above zero and it felt like Spring! Funny how that works.

The day before arriving in Ely, the area was truly void of snow pack and new snow was desirable....and necessary for most winter activities. Well, they got smacked with a substantial snowfall. The problem was freezing rain came first before turning over to snow. It looked like a winter wonderland and post card picture perfect everywhere you turned. Tree's were coated in snowfall, globs of at least eight inches of snow clinging to everything. And, with the rain beforehand, like an ice storm, everything was leaning or bending over with all that weight.

What became so beautiful to witness blocked access to our dogsledding trails. Trees were splitting and breaking, and new buds were torn off with the weight of the icy snow. Indeed there was a price for this beauty. The area's woods were crippled. The rain had literally glued the snow to the trees. Even the winds that normally blow off fresh snowfall too quick for photographers to capture it remained frozen to everything.

Ever the creative genius, arctic explorer Paul Schurke, owner of Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge, Paul designed a snowmobile equipped with sled runners shaped like a dune buggy frame. It was designed to protect his face and arms from the icy branches hanging over the trails as he inched his way down normally open dogsled trails. I can't think of anything more stinging that getting whipped in the face with a thin branch when its minus -25 F outside. New cuss words find their origin in times like this. When I arrived at Wintergreen, Paul already had a bloodied face, evidence of a tree whipping. I immediately understood his reason for building this unusual snowmo spaceship. He also installed cut birch trees attached to the sled behind to knock off snow from the trees with hopes they might respond by reaching for the sky once relieved from the weight of the ice and snow. Most trees do not so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.


Such is life in the northland. We continued to take photographs and capture the results of snow and ice, below zero temps, and the dogs loving the cold weather. We were forced to travel over open lakes on the ice with only a few short cuts through the forest cleared by Schurke and his expert staffers.

I had thought several times, Ohhhh, that image would be great for the winter chapter in the PADDLE NORTH book coming out next Fall. That one would be too, and that one!!

Enjoy the included pix from last week in Ely. One, guide Kate Ford's beautiful new stain glass window installed in the new Wintergreen sauna.

Chapter on Cold

Last night I was able to read author Greg Breinings' chapter on cold for our upcoming book,

"Paddle North."

Great timing!

Today we will be experiencing another arctic outbreak here in the upper midwest. Failing to address the issue of extreme cold in our neck of the woods would be a mistake when covering the BWCA. Breining has brought home the concept of cold in his words and descriptions. You'll enjoy his musings. Since I spend a great deal of my winter out in the wilderness cold, selecting images for this chapter will be a treat.

Some of my fondest winter moments seem to happen after a fresh snowfall. The reasons are obvious I think. There's a softness and calmness that comes with a fresh, cleansing snowfall.

Making fresh tracks in the snow make you feel like you are the first to leave your mark on winter. Observing tracks of wildlife, like fresh wolf tracks is exhilarating. A story seems to unfold right in front you. When were they here? What did they see? Were they chasing something? Or, just traveling by?

Getting a glance of a wolf is akin to a celebrity sighting. Its pretty rare and almost always memorable. In an earlier blog here, I had spotted a cluster of five wolf pups when my daughter, Austin and I were looking for Erik Simula completing the last leg of his epic journey last summer along the Grand Portage. Austin and I still talk about that thrilling moment in the woods.

Winter can warm your soul.

-38 F Below Zero

Winter has returned and with it those cold temps that seemed to elude us in past years. Those of you who reside in geographic locations outside of the upper Midwest will no doubt cringe at the thought of below zero temps. Of course, as a photographer, these weather situations offer visual opportunities unseen in warmer weather.

Ah, that feeling of fingers hurting so badly when the gloves had to come off to change the media card in the camera, or that sliver of wind cutting into your skin through that tiny little opening the wind found (and it finds it every time) in your jacket. Yeah, good times!

Amy Voytilla, a guide at Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge in Ely, Minnesota wrote of guiding her winter camping trips last week with temp.s hovering the minus -30's F. It reminded me of a magazine assignment I had a few years back where we were covering winter camping in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area. That year too, was very cold and every day was in the Minus -30's. I snapped the photo below of polar explorer Paul Schurke, owner of Wintergreen, on a crisp morning. While making breakfast, tossing up a ladle of hot water from our oatmeal water, into the air hot water vaporizes instantly into powder. Now, you can't get that image on those warmer days like -5 minus F!! This is part of winter magic.

Such is life in the northern wilderness in winter. A chapter in our book will be dedicated to cold and those activities that transpire when canoes are put to bed for the winter. Motorized vehicles are not permitted in the BWCA in winter. So, the landscape of snow covered lakes are

etched with tracks of wildlife. Wolf tracks dot the lake, criss-crossing back and forth, perhaps in pursuit of a moose or deer, imprints of raptors softly detail wing patterns in soft snow, and deep shadows of black spruce covered in snow appear as bubbles in the snow cover. Dogsled teams break through deep snow and snowshoe tracks leave frozen fossils of their journey.

Winter can be a marvelous time to enjoy the Boundary Waters. Today is minus -26 F up North.

All I want to do is get out in it! And, of course, take a sauna when I come back in.....

The Visual Weave

Last week a good friend and exceptional writer, Jeff Rennicke, posted some new photographs he had taken of seagulls in his hometown of Bayfield, Wisconsin. The images were some of the best seagull images I've even seen. I know, you are thinking seagull photos? Well, Jeff had elevated a common subject to a new and exciting level. I wish I had one of those images here to share with you. I'll contact Jeff to see if I can't obtain one to post here later. But, I do have a comment that Jeff had written about his seagull images;

"One thing I love about photography is how it forces me to "re-look" at common things. Living in Bayfield, I've seen gulls probably every day for 20 years and they always seemed pretty common but my camera gives me a chance to "re-look" and see beyond my own ignorance."

Jeff has always had an interest in photography and has become quite an accomplished shooter.

That's a little scary for folks like myself since now he can photograph his own stories! As Jeff's vision has improved so has his excitement and motivation to carry his camera everywhere. I wrote back to Jeff responding to the quote on his posting with that photograph of seagulls;

"Hey Jeff, You've made that wonderful and important transition with your photography. The camera is no longer an instrument of recording. It has become an extension of your mind and soul. The path you take now needs to be a personal one absent of influence to reach that goal of developing a style. You are clearly on your way."

Its so exciting to see Jeff reach that level of developing a style. Photographing not only what he see's but what he feels. Like the strings on a guitar making music, his camera is now a vehicle for self expression.

So many beginning shooters are looking for the "pretty picture" and often times miss those simple details that can communicate a mood instantly right in front of them. Mark Twain's quote "You can't depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus" has always been a favorite. As visual communicators its our mission to examine the environment around us and make choices about what and how to photograph to communicate our thoughts to an audience. Different photographers choose assorted ways to express their visions. Some focus on the broad picture, others search inside the macro approach while others might simply seek quality of light to express their visions. One of the greatest photographers living today, William Albert Allard, comments about he likes to photograph on the edge of situations. I've always found this area to rich in material as well.

Creating images for this new book, tentatively titled "PADDLE NORTH-Canoeing Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Quetico Wilderness" its been my mission to create a series of moods and informational imagery surrounding text exploring various aspects of the BWCA wilderness. First goal; not to be repetitive in any of the images. This is a difficult task considering everything takes place on and around the water. But, its those little things that bring home the BWCA experience to the reader. Sitting at a portage resting and seeing a tiny clump of water grasses reflecting on the lake, muddy footprints on the portage, fabulous clouds

competing with the tops of radical Jackpines are all ingredients for a diverse examination of this wilderness. This tiny details are the BWCA experience. Not just the pretty sunrise and sunsets. In fact, I doubt you'll see one image like that in this book. I often tell participants in my photoworkshops that at sunrise and sunsets turn your back on the sun. That's where the great light lives! Yet, another example of photographing on the edges.

Jeff and I collaborated on a wonderful book several years ago detailing life in the Apostle Islands. The book, "Jewels On The Water-Lake Superior's Apostle Islands" is a definitive

look at the Apostles and island life. I've enclosed a photo of the cover here along with a

image or two from the book. Jeff's words bring to life the Lake Superior experience that is the Apostles. Its a good example to see that those little details and moods are such an integral part of photographic coverage on any project.

I'm thrilled to have worked on this book with Jeff. Especially now that his photography

has reached new plateaus. Heck, he'll be doing his own books now!

Lastly, there are moments in a photographers journey within a project that a particular moment just cries out with relevance. So much time photographing the area in all seasons, one would thing that a cover image would emerge. Yet for me, one had not surfaced. I've shot hundreds and hundreds of fine images, all strong in their respective form of communication, but not cover worthy. Then, on my last shoot of season, sitting at a portage off the Gunflint Trail, the ground was frozen, small puddles were already icing over, one of our paddling partners was preparing to load his canoe and head out across the lake. His boat was a beautiful birch bark canoe, he was stepping towards his vessel with gorgeous light bathing the side of such a classic canoe. It was a contrasty and low light scene. I grabbed my camera and instantly knew this was a cover. The combination of light, gear, the birch bark, the angle of the lens, all spoke volumes to me about the BWCA experience. It was that romance we all seek when we go there. Seeing this scence unfold in front me completed the project for me. In 1/30th of a second I felt I had captured both the history and mood that is the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Now,

I need to convince others who were less receptive to the richness in this visual moment.

Ah, the beat goes on!