Category Archives: Travel Photos

Mansion on the North Shore

On the North Shore of Minnesota, an old mansion sits on the shores of Lake Superior. Glensheen, built by the Congdons in the early 1900’s, is a great historic place to visit in the Duluth area. As September continued into it’s last weeks, my wife and I decided to take in a day at Glensheen exploring the mansion, gardens, and Lake Superior. Thankfully it was a nice fall day, almost requiring some time lounging by the shore taking in the views of Duluth off in the distance. The trees were just beginning to show the brilliance of fall yet to come. Our first order of business was to take a self guided tour of the main house. It’s always interesting to see the extravagance put into some of these wealthy homes.

Extensive details in the stair banisters

While wondering through the entrance and into the living room, so many details where evident such as little knickknacks purchased from far away places. It seems that the first level of many of these large mansions are dedicated to entertaining and this one is no different. Guests are obviously an important part of those able to afford such a place. I’m sure these entertaining spaces help instill confidence to fellow business associates justifying there need. Many pieces in this place caught my attention but the most impressive to me was the staircase railings. Details put into this woodwork are things you just don’t see very often even though they should be easier to make with today’s technology.  Studying the patterns and designs of the staircase, and stained glass windows illuminating them, could take awhile as they are so intricate and interesting. But there’s more to see so a few pictures to study later and it was off to the next level.

Shower with multiple shower heads

Entering the living area of the house provided a view into the Congdon’s personal lives and how they lived. Another surprise to me was the use of multiple showerheads in their showers. I didn’t realize this was a practice at the time this house was built. It seemed to be more of a modern incorporation but clearly has been around much longer.

Probably my favorite place in this huge mansion was the breakfast area. This was certainly designed for a relaxing start to the day with its wood ceiling and numerous stained glass windows which appeared as though tree branches were hanging down over the entire room. Through the glass are some of the beautiful gardens with Lake Superior as a backdrop. Almost every meal should be spent here in my opinion but there was a grand dining room in which to eat the last meal of the day nearby. Both of these dining areas had a nice view overlooking the landscape and lake.

Breakfast room

Moving on through the house, another room that surprised me was the infirmary. A house with it’s own hospital room? How often did people get sick? I wondered if this would be an effective place in 2020 with the Coronavirus pandemic continuing. However back when this place was built, the personal care given while at home was likely better and more comfortable than at a hospital. After exploring each level consisting of bedrooms, studies, and places of entertainment, it was off to grab some food on one of the beaches of Glensheen. Listening to the waves crash against the shoreline creating a rhythmic, peaceful sound almost lulling someone to sleep under the September sun.

Beautiful views of Lake Superior

Upon the completion of our meal, my wife and I headed for the gardens of this estate. Many are still kept up in similar fashion to when the Congdons lived there. There are fruit trees, vegetables, and several flower gardens filling the grounds around the mansion. Near their vegetable gardens are tennis courts and an area once used for lawn bowling, a popular past time in the early 1900’s. Greenhouse also existed for fresh winter produce which have since been taken down. A stream runs nearby with a stately bridge built over it leading to walking paths. Unfortunately those paths are now gone so once you cross the bridge you have to turn around. While walking around the property, we had noticed preparations for an event to be held that night which appeared to be a wedding. This would certainly be a grand location for such an ceremony. With many areas of this beautiful estate explored, we returned to the beach, which had chairs and a firepit, to enjoy more of the afternoon sun while gazing out over Lake Superior and the Duluth canal and lift bridge. As the afternoon wore on we decided to say goodbye to Glensheen and find a nice place to eat before the sun set behind the hills of the city. A wonderful day to spend at the Congdon’s residence!

Fall colors beginning to arrive

Travel Photos–The Camera …. part III

Cameras with Inter-Changeable Lenses

Evening with a Blue Heron taken with an Interchangeable Lens Camera

These types of cameras are usually considered advanced cameras but that is not always the case. Many improvements to automatic settings make them easy to use with great results. The biggest barrier of these cameras is their price and their size. Even if you want to own a camera that can use multiple lenses, their large size makes them more challenging to bring with and have a available all of the time when you want to take a picture. Even if you decide you’re willing to travel with this extra camera gear because you want to get the best photos you can, inevitably you’ll decide you don’t need to carry this camera as you’re just stepping out to get something and that’s when the photo op presents itself. And where’s your camera?

The Setting Sun taken with an Interchangeable Lens Camera

Undoubtedly these cameras capture the best photos and can give you the best final pictures when compared to phone cameras and point and shoot cameras. They are able to expose for the situation better than the others giving you fewer darker or too light pictures giving a more complete photo. In addition, the lenses are better quality and can offer more versatility for a given situation due to the interchangeable lenses. you can get a wider view or more zooming ability depending on the lens you choose and still get great pictures. In addition these cameras can shoot in a mode called RAW which gives you four times the amount of information in each picture. That becomes more important when processing these photos in an editing program.

A Lone Tree on the Prairie taken with An Interchangeable Lens Camera

Pictures from interchangeable lens cameras are great for just about what ever you want to use them for including enlargements and other photo gifts you may want to get. Again, wireless technology is making photo sharing easier with these cameras. For most travelers these cameras are probably overkill and too costly once you start considering all of the additional gear you may want to get for them such as lenses, tripods, carrying cases, extra batteries, etc.

A Night with the Fireflies and Stars taken with an Interchangeable Lens Camera

I use all of these types of cameras depending on where I am and the situation and have appreciated each one in different instances. I’ve used only phone camera photos for books and smaller prints with great success all the way up to the interchangeable lens cameras for larger gifts. Just remember – the type of camera does not automatically give you better pictures. Your composition is more important in great travel photos than the camera. The type of camera just determines how you can use that photo and keep the desired results.

An Afternoon by the River taken with an Interchangeable Lens Camera

To see a comparison of the three different cameras click here ….

Travel Photos–The Camera …. part II

Point and Shoot Cameras

An Evening Garden Photo using a Point and Shoot Camera

A point and shoot camera is a camera with only one lens which can not be changed. These type of cameras take a bit more of an effort to use simply because they have to be with you when a photo opportunity presents itself. Older digital point and shoot cameras have a difficult time compared to newer phone cameras and newer point and shoot cameras. This is where you can start to understand the importance of lens quality on cameras. More affordable cameras typically have lower quality lenses producing lower quality photos. If you invest in a point and shoot camera with a quality lens it will reward you with higher quality photos for a longer time. I have an Olympus camera that is 8 years old that will take better photos than many newer point and shoot cameras simply because the lens is of a higher quality. The unfortunate reality is that it is only a 4MP camera meaning a reduced image quality for enlargements or if I need to crop a photo.

A Night Photo using a Point and Shoot Camera

Even if you can’t afford a higher quality point and shoot there is an advantage to using these cameras simply because of battery life. Phone cameras are not intended to take a lot of pictures on a single charge where as a point and shoot camera will take hundreds of pictures on a single charge and will save the battery on your phone for other things. Also, point and shoot cameras can produce a final picture which is a nicer photo because they are able to adjust the exposure better for the subject of that picture. Photo editing software can usually enhance point and shoot photos more to bring out the subject you were focusing on giving a nicer picture. This is not always the case when compared to today’s phone cameras but is generally so.

Afternoon Lighthouse using a Point and Shoot Camera

Photos from a point and shoot camera work great for printing off copies or for photo books and for the many photo gifts that can be purchased today. With wireless capabilities in many newer cameras or possibly in the storage card, these pictures can be uploaded to websites such as Flickr or Photobucket fairly easily making them available when you want to share them. Maybe not quite as easily as a phone camera can share photos but still not real difficult and getting easier as technology continues to improve.

Dusk on the Mississippi River using a Point and Shoot Camera

I still use a few point and shoot cameras for certain situations such as when taking time lapse photos or underwater pictures because I have waterproof cases for some of them or if I just want something quick and fairly easy to take with me and not lug around a bunch of camera gear. I could use my phone camera as well but battery life is sometimes a factor along with the ease of transferring pictures to my computer.

Underwater Picture of Starfish using a Point and Shoot Camera

To continue on with interchangeable lens cameras click here….

Travel Photos–The Camera

The Jefferson Memorial

Which camera should you use to take pictures while traveling? My answer is it depends on what you want to do with those photos after you’ve taken them. So many photos just end up sitting in storage whether that be on a computer or the camera card or in the cloud. If that’s the case then there really is no reason to use an expensive camera to take these pictures. Now if you want to get a poster made from some of your travel photos than using a DSLR may be the camera to use. Here are a couple of options based on my experience taking travel photos for the past 20 years or so.

Phone Cameras

Night Photo Using Phone Camera Over Seattle

I couldn’t find any recent estimate of how many photos are taken with phone cameras but that number keeps rising every year as they continue to get better and better and the most available camera for most people is on their phone. Phone cameras are better than most point and shoot cameras of only 5 years ago in image quality. What a major improvement in a short time. The biggest advantage of taking your travel photos with the phone camera is that this camera is already with you whenever a capturable moment presents itself. And don’t forget, these cameras can often get into situations that other cameras can’t especially in tight places.

Winter Sunset Using Phone Camera

One of the downsides is limitations in editing and enlarging these photos. You can’t do as much with editing software on photos taken with a phone camera as you can with other cameras. This will likely change as these devices continue to improve. Enlargements can be more restricted due to the reduced image quality when wanting to have a 20 x 30 print of that amazing photo you captured. Another problem is the battery life of many of the phones and taking pictures with your phone wears the battery down even faster. Controlling what the camera focuses on can be a bit of a challenge which can affect some of your pictures and their sharpness.

Las Vegas Sign using a phone camera

Photos taken with a phone camera are great for quickly uploading them to social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Emailing a photo taken with a phone camera can be easy to do and faster compared to any other type of camera. Smaller prints are great from most phone cameras as well as using these pictures in smaller photo books works well.

A Mid-Day Photo using a Phone Camera

To continue reading about point and shoot cameras go here….