Crews spent some time lashing the Lewis & Clark riverboat to the shore this weekend as the river level jumped up in the area.  The park is closed and water is high due to ice packing in downstream.

Every year they take this boat out of the water with a huge crane and set it on some heavy duty cribbing until spring.  That’s all fine and dandy until the water rises to the level of the boat anyway.

Even the ice machine wanted to get into the act.  That’s a pretty decent seal, although I doubt that water is going to do the compressor or electrical components any favors.

I didn’t take a look at the water level indicator further down River Road, but I did notice some water in the ditches and low lying areas further north along the road.  Hopefully we don’t have to deal with more flooding this year, in Bismarck or anywhere else in North Dakota.

This is the photo that started it all on January 1st, 2006.  Ten years ago.  Wow.  A lot has changed since then. Not only am I much more occupied with work, freelance work, and being a husband and Daddy, but I’ve also had to ride out some major health issues and lots of moving: moving my family into a new house, moving my studio/office at work, and moving my church.  So I don’t post daily anymore, but I do share what I can.  I keep thinking that soon enough I will be able to get out with my cameras more.  Meanwhile, I took some time to chase down even more photos like the one above:

This angle looks so straightforward, doesn’t it?  The fact is, I only recently discovered it.  This is actually taken from down Sixth Street a little ways.  That’s the best way to get the NORTH DAKOTA CAPITOL sign in the shot without having it dominate the photo.  Getting farther away gets a perspective that matches it in size with the pioneer statue, and allows both of them to grow in relation to the capitol tower.  It’s a fun shot to get, but not when there’s a lot of traffic whizzing across the frame on Boulevard Avenue.

Here’s what I’m talking about.  If you just go to the bottom of the mall and take a photo from the road, this what you get.  The capitol sign is large, the tower is small, and the pioneer statue is all but indistinguishable.  I don’t know why I didn’t think to venture farther away and set up my shot down 6th Street before this, but I’m thankful for this year’s epiphany.

The parking lots on the north side of the capitol were redone a year or two ago, and that opened up this shot from the backside of the legislative wing.  Previously this angle was obscured by trees, and I’m sure it will be once again someday as newly planted ones grow to adult heights, but for now I have a brand new perspective on the capitol that was not possible when I first started doing this bloggin’ thang.

This year I had a clear sky at sunset and decided to try something a little different.  I’ve had a blast taking shots of the entire capitol complex from the northeast hill and posting it as my blog’s Facebook cover photo.  That’s fine, since it’s such a wide angle shot that it crops very nicely into the 851×315 dimensions required by Facebook.  But what about a traditionally framed shot?  Well, rather than worry about the DOT / Heritage Center buildings I opted this time to pan west toward the sunset and include only the judicial and legislative wings of the capitol along with the tower.  It worked great with the peachy sunset colors, too.

Well, here’s to another ten years!  It looks like I’ve posted in the neighborhood of 3,500 photos so far.  I sure hope I have plenty more photos and musings to share!

This is how I like to remember the post at the north end of Double Ditch.  Sadly, these days are long gone as erosion has torn the bank right out from under it.  If not for some really sturdy barbed wire looped around it, this post would have tumbled down the steep cliff long, long ago.

Sadly, this is how the post looks now.  I took some quadcopter shots today in order to get a look at the predicament I’d been unable to achieve before.  The bank is rapidly eroding.

That looks like a LONG fall!  Hopefully the barbed wire holds strong and this post is able to remain for a while longer.  Of course, if the bank erodes further, it’ll just be dangling beside the cliff anyway.

As you can see here, another big chunk of the cliff has let go.  This area is NOT safe for people.  This used to be a fantastic photo spot, but sadly it is no longer.

I presume at some point I’ll be typing to relay the news that the post has gone over the edge. It’s only a matter of time now.  I suppose I need to move northward to my other favorite photo spot!  But I’m not quite ready to disclose exactly where that is just yet.

I’m sure this fence stood vertically at some point, but the ravages of time have shifted the firmament to which it clings on this hillside north of Bismarck.  Unlike the fence post at the north corner of Double Ditch, this one has a settling hill to blame instead of erosion from a river below.

I mentioned on my blog’s Facebook and Twitter feeds the other day that I’d hiked up to the 18th floor of the state capitol. It was an urge that struck me as I was about to head to the elevator on a visit to one of my favorite local buildings.  I had my helmet and my work backpack, which weighs in at a spry 21 pounds, and I have to say I was dragging by the time I got to the top.  I kept motivating myself by saying “You’re 1/6th of the way there…you’re one third of the way there…halfway there…” and so on.  After looking around for a few, I also walked back down.  Much easier.  But while looking down at the mall, I noticed something peculiar.

From the look of things, someone drove out onto the lawn over by the State Library somewhere, then headed south before doing some sort of J-turn or other aggro maneuver.  Groundskeepers didn’t do this…the marks in the grass look pretty deep.

I’ve watched guys meticulously mow that crosshatch pattern into the grass on the capitol lawn, and I doubt the equipment they drive would even make marks like these.  Go figure.  I don’t know who you are, but whoever ripped up the lawn at the capitol: STOP.  This is the only capitol we’ve got here in North Dakota, and I’m rather fond of it!

My friend Zach and I decided to head out the other night after a church function and chase a particular photo that he’d had in mind for some time: the atrium of the newly remodeled Heritage Center / State Museum with the capitol behind it.  He took the near approach, and I took the far, actually hiking across State Street to the hillside adjacent to the former Baptist home.

I wanted to get the geometry just right, where the size of the Atrium lined up closely with the apparent size of the capitol.  This choice allowed a shot where the capitol appears to sprout from the glass of the foreground building.  I only wanted them close enough to provide the needed effect – I didn’t want them exactly the same, otherwise that effect would be blown.

Zach’s idea of waiting for blue light in the sky behind was brilliant.  Particularly cool was the variety of light we had on the horizon due to the waning sunset and various things in the atmosphere.  I juiced the color a little bit, but not much.  Then, with dozens of fresh mosquito bites, it was time to head home for more “new homeowner” stuff.