Category Archives: Amazing Race

Portrait of Minneapolis

I found this location last week while working on an assignment in Minneapolis/St. Paul but the weather was bad. You’ve probably read about all the flooding southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Well, I can vouch for the amount of rain they got. Anyway, driving back from the North Shore on Sunday it was nice and sunny and it seemed like it might be worth a quick stop to see if I could get the shot. It was a pretty stunning location. You can always tell when you’ve found “the” spot in any city when there are 500 kids getting their senior portraits made there. I nearly had to stand in line to get this view, but at least I now have a postcard-esque portrait of Minneapolis in the files. And I still made it home in time for the season opener of the Amazing Race (my guilty pleasure). Something about seeing other people having difficulty navigating foreign destinations really makes my day. I’m just glad I’m not behind them in line at the ticket counter.

Chile, but getting warmer

100306valparaiso_sotc

Sorry. Bad pun. I’m posting a couple of photos from Chile today since there’s been so much in the news since the earthquake last week. The shot above is from Valparaiso, on the coast west of Santiago. It and the following shot are from a trip I took to Chile a couple of years ago. If you want to see coverage post-earthquake, check out The Boston Globe’s Big Picture here and here. The following shot is of a more modern side of Chile in the bustling capital city of Santiago.

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Chile has also lately been appearing on television in the Amazing Race 16. This show is a guilty pleasure of mine as I love to see the contestants panic when thrown into the various situations that so often come with travel. I had to laugh when the cowboys changed their money for “Brazilian” when they heard they would be flying to Santiago. Obviously, that didn’t work out so well for them upon arrival in Chile, but they’ve been doing much better ever since.

Valparaiso was also the scene of a challenge when team members had to “wire walk” across a deep valley in that very hilly city. I knew exactly where this challenge took place and can say that I would not have wanted to participate myself. In fact, there are few of the challenges that I would want to participate in but I would love to be on the crew of this show and travel to all of the exotic destinations. Maybe be the camera guy that travels with the host, Phil. I imagine they get to stay and eat in the nicer places.

If you haven’t seen the show, check it out this Sunday. I think the cowboys might take the million dollars this year.

Oh, and back to my pun… it IS getting warmer. Finally! The last couple of days it has reached the 60s after three months of deep freeze temps and repeated ice and snow storms. There’s still ice in some areas of our yard but it shouldn’t last long now. I’ll be leaving in a week for even warmer temperatures but more on that later.

K4 show opens

K4 show opening

Friday night was the opening for the K4 show in Atchison featuring photography by Bruce L. Snell, Ferry Keizer, Doug Stremel and myself. The ribbon-cutting above started the event off and we followed with a great evening of seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Thanks to all who came out and, if you couldn’t make it, I hope you get a chance to catch the show before it ends on October 18th.

Saturday morning the moving van arrived to load up the last, big items that needed to be hauled out of our old house and downtown office space and take it to the new home/office in Lawrence, Kansas, 30 miles to the east. It was actually a more relaxed day for us because we finally had someone else to do the lifting and we pretty much just pointed out where things were to go. Once that was done, we picked up the cats and let them explore their new home. Caper was first to negotiate the leap over the stairs to the top of the wet bar — a spot that he now enjoys for some quiet relaxation.

Caper

K4 show at the Muchnic Gallery

Banff print

k4 logoI mentioned earlier this year that there would be lots of changes and new things going on for me. Well here’s another of those new things. Tonight I’m hanging my first show with three other photographers; my brother Bruce L. Snell, Ferry Keizer (somebody get this guy a website!) and Doug Stremel. We’re operating under the name “K4” since we’re four Kansas photographers and it’s been great fun working with these guys to select images and get everything organized. I’m looking forward to seeing all the images in one place tonight for the first time.

The show will open August 20th at the Muchnic Gallery in Atchison, Kansas — just north of Kansas City. There is an artists’ reception scheduled for August 22nd from 5 to 7 p.m. The show will be up until October 18. Stop by and check it out or, better yet, get yourself over for the reception!