Roar of the Mississippi

After the bike show March 28th, we drove around for awhile. With all the snow melting and all the rainfall we'd gotten in the last few days, the Mississippi was at full roar. Here's a shot by the Ford dam. Anything going over that would be chum in a matter of seconds!


Here's another shot further up. That's the U of M bridge in the background. The river looks peaceful here, but don't let that fool you. The water is moving very very fast!


Here is the lock at St. Anthony Falls. They just opened it up and let it flow. Looks more like the gates of Hell with the orange lighting!

The Mississippi: best to just stay out of her way when she's angry.


Techie Corner
It didn't occur to me that I might be shooting night photography after the bike show, so I didn't bring a tripod along. The camera blur reflects that. Note to self: always bring tripod.

I love when slow shutter speeds slow down the motion of water. In the case of the St. Anthony lock, it makes the water look even more spooky.

Tangerine Dream

I'm wrapping up my bike show week with a nice chopper from the show. I really like the fluidity of this bike and the full back fender.



Techie Corner
Working within my challenge again, I was standing at least 25 feet away to get all of the bike in the shot. I had to be patient and wait for a guy to quit drooling over it so I could get the pic.

Riding Free On Three

Today on my bike show themed week, I want to highlight my favorite class of motorcycle--the trike. I wish I could have gotten a wider-angle shot of this trike, because it's just gorgeous! It's custom made in Moorhead, Minnesota. You can check out their website right here. This is the 2009 HLE model. It has a powerful VW engine. The faux gas tank opens up to store your helmet! I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and wished I could take it home with me.



Here's another trike I liked at the show. That's a blue dragon on the gas tank.

Techie Corner
Like I said the other day, I was working with a 75mm equivalent lens. This made it even harder to get a full pic of a trike with all the bikes and people crammed in there. Note to self: don't give myself that kind of challenge again!

The Forerunners

Continuing on with my bike show pics, we can't forget the forerunners of all the cool bikes and trikes we have now. There were a lot of antique bikes at the show too, and this 1949 Indian Arrow was one of them.


Long before "pocket rockets," there was the Doodle Bug. A swarm of 40,000 Doodle Bugs took to the streets between 1946 and 1948.

Pinkalicious

Continuing on from yesterday with the Donnie Smith Bike Show, this one is a real beauty. This is the best old school girlie bike I have ever seen! It would be perfect if it had pink sparkly laces coming out of the handle bars. If I rode bikes instead of trikes, I would definitely ride Pinkalicious!


Here's a close up of all those pink sparkles. I love the "diamond" studs in the seat.




Techie Corner
I purposely gave myself some challenges at this bike show. I used my 50mm lens (which is 75mm on my digital camera.) I also had to focus manually since this lens is kinda touchy.

The 75mm turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought. With so many bikes packed together and so many people crowded around them, it was hard to get back far enough to get a whole bike in the frame. I would have liked to get Pinkalicious' front tire in the shot, but that didn't work out.

I shot all of my bike show pics at F2.8, so there is some selective focus involved. But the faster lens did help out greatly since none of the pics were taken with flash.