from flickr user IvanClow
The smoke (or steam or fog) surrounding Lady Gaga as she lays on the stage at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul this September makes for one of the best amateur-photographed concert scenes I have seen in my years of helming this blog. I could go on for hours posting awe-inducing photos from the past year in Minnesota that seemed to have been missed by my watchful eye but honestly, at this hour, people's thoughts have turned to stocking up on party supplies for tomorrow evening's New Year's Eve celebrations.
To wrap up 2010 in a nice, tidy package I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to each and every visitor who has stopped by to view the photos I unearth here daily. I'd also like to thank the folks at WCCO-TV (especially Jason DeRusha) for mentioning this as one of the top ten blogs in Minnesota as well as the folks at MinnPost, Bob Ingrassia and Boston.com's Big Picture because without the inspiration of photo blogs like Big Picture (and others around Minnesota) I never would have had the continued drive in the early days here to keep things going.
My biggest thank you, though, goes out to the hundreds, maybe thousands, of photographers whose photos I sift through to showcase here. From beautiful and artistic to flat-out fun, the photos taken and uploaded to the nearly 100 Flickr groups I peruse daily and the non-grouped photos I search out and fall in love with each day make this undertaking easy. Lastly, thanks to the die-hards of the Flickr community who have joined and continually submit wonderful photos to the MinnPics group. Tell your camera-toting friends and nudge them towards the MinnPics group. Without the countless photos being taken and shared daily, this blog wouldn't exist and what began as an experiment has held on and flourished for over two years. In the online world, that's decades. Keep capturing those photos that define Minnesota and keep me busy sifting through thousands of photos daily.
2011 is gonna be awesome!
Best photos of 2010: Lady Gaga (and my year-end thank you)
Best photos of 2010: Searching
from flickr user wjflowers
This horse -- a rather well-built one -- is busy foraging for some food in this snowy scene from the Duluth, MN area earlier this month.
Best photos of 2010: Lego
from flickr user L/\\\/RENCE
Concrete and water. Some interesting structures in Duluth.
Best photos of 2010: bumps
from flickr user heinz57sauce
A snow covered corn field in Woodbury, MN displays tiny bumps around rown of harvested corn stalks as the winter sun sets.
Best photos of 2010: sweet release
from flickr user karrah.kobus
The photographer says: we had our first snowfall here in minnesota. its actually been snowing pretty much nonstop for the past 2 days.
yesterday felt so much like christmas. i woke and all i could see out my bedroom window was snow. i went to work (and the roads were a mess early in the morning, i must say) and i saw bellringers at the grocery store next door for the first time this year. yesterday was also my boyfriends moms bday so we went out to the mall for dinner. the lights from all of the stores glistened between bits of snow and i felt like singing christmas carols and making snow angels in the parking lot. its pretty beautiful here.
Best photos of 2010: Cat Fight!
from flickr user gbrummett
Naomi and Erin in a play cat fight 2010 Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
Erin is a member of the belly dancing group Sisters of Sahara from Shakopee in Minnesota. Special thanks to John Karpinsky for crediting this wonderful lady.
Frost
from flickr user davidphenix
This photo of a well-kept, small red farm building with a backdrop of hoarfrost-covered trees is something fit for a dictionary definition of ideal rural winter setting. I could imagine this to be calendar material and not the dollar store variety either.
sleeping beauty
from flickr user truth and soul
A truly unique perspective of both the frozen, ice-filled Mississippi River and the Interstate 35W bridge traversing the river. Nice work with the bridge providing a partial frame for the skyline and the starkness of winter is nicely conveyed in black and white.
The east coast "blizzard" in Philadelphia
from flickr user PhilthyBlog
Another week, another messed us Minnesota Vikings game. But this one isn't the fault of Minnesota weather. This time we can blame Philadelphia and their relative lack of winter fortitude. This scene, captured last evening in the Fishtown area of Philadelphia, shows what many of us native Minnesotans would consider to be an average snowstorm. I'm sure it's worse in outlying areas with fewer buildings but if this is all it takes to postpone an NFL game, how do they ever play outdoors in places like Green Bay, Buffalo, New England or Chicago? Come on Philly, man up!
Shovels
from flickr user Paul v2.0
500,000 shovelfuls of snow later, we get to host a NFL football game. TCF Bank Stadium just before kickoff between the Vikings and the Bears.
It's going to be a cold ride home
from flickr user rabidscottsman
The photographer says: One of my coworkers rode a bike to work tonight during a snowstorm.
Green Man during Monday Night Football at TCF Bank Stadium
from flickr user Icedavis
The photographer says: My buddy Tony decided he was gonna represent the Green Man Society at the game. I got a couple of good panoramas as well as this shot before I packed away the camera for the rest of the game as freezing precip start to fall and coat everything with ice. I will post those next.
Horsing Around
from flickr user LoneStarNorth
The snow and cold weather isn't stopping these horses in Chisago County, MN from having fun.
A goose and a bridge
from flickr user oneworldmj
A goose, in the water under the Cedar Ave. bridge, produces a lovely, long reflection in the shadows of the late afternoon sun.
Snow is a Bad Thing
from flickr user John McNab
Especially if you forget to roll up the car windows. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 12 December 2010
more hotel furniture
from flickr user emellin66
The photographer says: I am stranded in Minnesota and hoping for a flight out tomorrow. So, more ugly furniture shots. 20 minute exposure.
TCF Bank Stadium being readied for Vikings game
from flickr user Twin Cities Mustangs
This is the view of a still snow-filled TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. Paid volunteers are busy working 4 hour shifts 16 hours a day to clear snow from the stands and ready the winterized NCAA stadium for a nationally televised Monday night NFL game featuring the currently displaced Minnesota Vikings versus the divisional rival Chicago Bears. This would be the first outdoor "home" game for the Vikings in nearly 30 years and is a result of Sunday morning's collapse of the Metrodome's Teflon roof under the weight of more than 17 inches of snow.
frostbite
from flickr user { zoie }
The photographer says: We're in the middle of a snowstorm.
Which of course meant I had to take photos.
This was the only one I got before I started feeling like I was going to freeze to death.
I set the timer (I've lost track of one of my remotes somehow) and ran over to pose. I took off my coat and stood there waiting for a second... and then decided I was way too cold and started to put my coat back on right as the shutter went off.
Here is the result.
Impassable Road
from flickr user djsime
The southern Minnesota road was hard to walk and impossible to drive after Saturday's blizzard which seemed to shut down the southern half of the state after nearly two feet of snow fell in places.
December blizzard - Minneapolis
from flickr user I be Owen
The same snow whic caused the collapse of the Metrodome early Sunday morning in Minneapolis buried these downtown Minneapolis parking meters Saturday as much of the metro was buried under 15-22 inches of snow.
Metrodome collapse panorama
from flickr user rpturner311
With over 16 inches of snow falling in less than 24 hours it seemed inevitable. Overnight the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis collapsed, tearing the teflon roof in three places. This resulted in the Minnesota Vikings game originally scheduled for Noon earlier today being postponed to 6:20 Monday and then being moved to Detroit's Ford Field. I believe this is only the second time which the Metrodome has collapsed -- both due to heavy snowfall.
Holy Fuck at the Turf Club
from flickr user fivesixzero :: Erik Hess
Toronto, Ontario's Holy Fuck performing at the Turf Club in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Snowy Fence
from flickr user MAVEN Photography
Snowy scenes are nothing out of the ordinary here in Minnesota and it is sounding like Saturday could bring a good portion of the state another blast of snow reinforced by sub-zero temperatures.
Top of AT&T tower
from flickr user Visual Images 1
Taken from Foshay observation deck on 32nd floor
The state of pond hockey
from flickr user tkhilton(kelly)
Nothing seems to define winter in Minnesota better than hockey and hockey, in its purest form, is meant to played outdoors. This group of youngsters made the best of their surroundings, cleared off a nice patch of ice and look to be having a fun hockey game.
U of M Steam plant
from flickr user lukibob17
This was once the NSP South East steam plant. Before that it supplied electricity for the Minneapolis street car system.
Dancing Lights
from flickr user MJIphotos
The giant holiday lights dance their way down the street during the Holidazzle parade in downtown Minneapolis. The photo itself is a bit noisy (grainy) but shows the moment nicely and provides a welcome splash of color during the sometimes dreary winter months.
Rigging
from flickr user mb_wen
Beautifully framed with perfect balance between contrast and highlights, this photo of a tangled mess of rigging on the Lake Superior shoreline perfectly captures the vastness of the largest of the Great Lakes and projects a feeling of darkness and moodiness which emulates the winter months in northern Minnesota.
Black and white at night
from flickr user photoneophyte
A view of downtown Rochester, along the Zumbro River.
