We visited Duluth over the 4th of July weekend, I know I’m behind on my photos, and walked down to the Rose Garden to see what flowers are out. The roses were not out. The Lilacs’ were in full bloom and the Peonies were just starting to bloom.
More photos from the Duluth Rose Garden can be found on my website.
We arrive early to photograph the dawn light and it seemed like quite a while before the sun started to come up. It turned out to be a beautiful sunrise. The water was almost calm so there were some nice reflection shots.
More sunrise photos from Wisconsin Point can be found on my website.
This is the third year I’ve photographed the 4th of July fireworks in Duluth. The first year I shot from our condo balcony. Last year I shot from the South Breakwater down in Canal Park. This year I shot from the lake front on the east end of Leif Erikson Park. I found a nice rock to sit on with tripod partly in the lake.
More Duluth fireworks photos can be found on my website.
I used a Nikon D7100 with a Tamron 28-300mm lens which gave me enough range to shoot from wide angle to close-ups. 
We made another visit to Wisconsin Point to catch the sunrise. This time I made sure we at the point about an hour before sunrise so we could catch the early dawn glow. Usually I pick a location and shoot from there but I’m trying to expand a bit and tried shooting from a variety of locations. The sunrise was one of the best I’ve seen on my visits.
More sunrise photos from Wisconsin Point can be found on my website.
After Leaving Washburn we headed just down the road to Houghton Falls State Wildlife Area. We were again disappointed in the lack of water flowing over the falls. With all of the rain we expected a good water flow. We walked out to Houghton Point but were generally disappointed in the visit.
More photos from Houghton Falls State Wildlife Area can be found on my website.
The Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge was painted red, white and blue for the fourth of July. They use banks of LED lights to light the bridge. I took a few shots of it from Lief Erickson Park.
After the fireworks my wife and I walked down to Canal Park to get a few more shots.
We also walked over to the DECC and took some shots from that vantage point. It was well after midnight before we returned to the condo.
The next morning I was out well before sunrise to capture a few more shots.
Just about every year I head out to Wisconsin Point Lighthouse. I think the best time is around the end of June when the sun rises to the north of the lighthouse and then passes over the lighthouse. This phenomenon last for a couple of weeks. Here are a few shots from this year’s event.
More sunrise photos from Wisconsin Point can be found on my website.
I watched this fledgling Eastern Bluebird going through his morning workout routine. It spent about 15 minutes grooming itself one morning.
More Summer bluebird photos can be found on my website.
It’s been over three years since I’ve seen a Scarlet Tanager around the farm. In May of 2011 a male and female Scarlet Tanagers turned up at my feeders. A couple of weeks ago I just happened to notice a red flash outside the window and thought it was a Northern Cardinal. It turned out to be a male Scarlet Tanager. I managed a few quick photos before he disappeared. I’ve not seen him since.
In my last Blog we were at Lost Creek Falls. After returning to the car we headed to Washburn, Wisconsin for lunch. We noticed on the way over that the Wild Lupine was in full bloom so we were expecting to capture some nice Lupine photos.
After lunch we headed toward Bayfield on highway 13. Just outside Washburn there is a field with lots of Wild Lupine. It was in full bloom. This is not the little Wild Lupine we find around home. Ours grows to about 18 inches but this Lupine was 3-4 feet tall and comes in a variety of colors.
While we were photographing the Lupine several other folks also stopped to take some photos.
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