View from the Tundra (Minneapolis)

I live for the humor in life, so there’s nothing better than a photo shoot with a friend who wants to ham it up…

This group of friends saw me taking pictures of the crowd at the Basilica Block Party in the rain and asked me to get their shot.  What’s better than a group of friends you can get crazy with in a storm at a concert?

More from the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis…  What a good gig - I got to run around talking to interesting people, listen to great music, and shoot some really interesting bands.

After the storm cleared, One Republic was next up on stage.  I never did get to see them play since I had to run meet up with a friend, but I took a few shots of their road crew trying to mop up the stage.  There was a lot of static with those wet guitar plugs!  One of the guys from the band came out signing autographs and chatting with friends, I thought that was super cool, seemed like a very genuine guy.

I’ve heard that it’s never rained on the Basilica Block Party… well that’s definitelly no longer true.  Minneapolis got pounded by a storm Friday night.  Right in the middle of Augustana’s set on the main stage, the crowd was told to head for shelter.  There’s a parking structure and a bridge… and since the bridge is closer to the main stage, you can guess what happened.  EVERYONE piled under the bridge and refused to move on, leaving half the crowd standing in the pouring rain (including moi).  Then the most random thing happened (I seem to be a magnet for random)… I felt a tug on my leg and looked down to find some girl balled up with her arms around my knee trying to use me as a human shield from the storm!!!  Hilarious!  I got her picture, but it was way too dark to see…

Speaking of rocking… I’m listening to Party’s Over by Nicole Atkins right now, great tune!   I came across her listening to The Current (the local alternative radio station run by Minnesota Public Radio - I’m the sort of eclectic guy who appreciates hearing folk music, followed by Public Enemy “Fight the Power”, followed by the Ting Tings, followed by some alt country band so obscure no one’s ever heard of them…)

I had a blast at this year’s Basilica Block Party near downtown Minneapolis.  The last couple year’s I haven’t had permission to shoot the bands, but we got the ok (for everyone buy Ziggy Marley) this year.  Definitely added a fun new element to be up in the action (not to mention some pretty funny stories from the crowd).

Pictured here is lead singer Robin Wilson of rock band Gin Blossoms.  I’ve actually seen these guys twice before… once in high school when they were touring with Cracker (”Low” and “Get Off This” are still great tunes) and Spin Doctors.

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The Red Bull Illume is a traveling display of some of the most AMAZING sports photos I’ve ever seen (kudos for Red Bull for really keeping the marketing to a minimum on this).  These black cubes popped up on the Stone Arch Bridge mysteriously on July 10th, and light up every night 9:30-12:00 until July 20th.  If you are in the area, it’s definitely worth checking out (at a minimum, take a look at the website).

Check out Tim McKenna’s unbelieveable surfer shot.  The effort that went into getting this surfer composed properly while shooting underwater had to be incredible. Wade McKoy’s image of a guy setting a Guiness record by jumping off a 250 cliff on skis has to be seen (it is too small to appreciate on the web).  The skier looses balance midway and ends up going headfirst into the snow… the final frame of the sequence just shows skis and legs from the knees down poking up from the snow.  I can’t imagine this guy didn’t have some serious injuries.

John Gibson’s sequence of a guy jumping off a rock in Brazil on his bike is great and has me inspired to try some sports images (if you’re a local extreme biker, skateboarder, etc and are interested in creating an image, drop me an email).