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Monday, April 21, 2014

Spring in Duluth

Photo and text by H. Brian Rauvola


Where else can you find huge ice piles and temperatures more than 60 degrees? Duluth in the spring, of course! Below, Richard Anderson photographs the "monolith," as he called it. This unusual ice shard is over a foot thick, more than 10 feet tall and stands upright on top of a 20+ foot ice pile on Park Point. "This would have been something to see as this pile was forming," Anderson said.




Thursday, March 27, 2014

Thirsty Pagan Brewing

Photos and text by H. Brian Rauvola

 According to their website, in May of 2006 Susan and Steve Knauss purchased the existing Twin Ports Brewing Co. and opened up Thirsty Pagan Brewing in the historic Russel Creamery building at 1623 Broadway, in Superior, WI. This simple sentence gives insight to the simple approach that these two took in producing a wonderful company, Thirsty Pagan Brewing. Building on a firm foundation of pizza and beer, our two entrepreneurs quickly took a down and out location to a thriving destination. "We recognize our potential in focusing on just two things, pizza and beer. Do those two things correctly, and the world will come to us," says Steve Knauss; and obviously, they juggle them well.


One of the exciting ventures of the Pagan is their reserve of Russian Imperial Stout being flavored and aging in bourbon barrels in the basement of the restaurant. This, plus updated and expanded fermenting tanks and equipment has increased their capacity and selection of micro-brew offerings (not to mention their schedule of local and regional musicians!)




The images shown combined a 2 speedlight flash system balanced with ambient light, one speedlight with a mini softbox or shoot-through umbrella modifier, the other snooted as a highlight. All of the elements for the juggling image were captured under the same lighting conditions as the main image.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

More "March Madness" - Esko Girls Move Onto State

Saturday March 15th was a big day for Esko High School, it started with the boys basketball team winning the State 7AA title over Annandale at Target Center in Minneapolis.  They are the first Northland area state champions since Chisholm in 1991.

Fast forward a few hours and the Esko girls team was cheered on by the state champion boys as they defeated Barnum 38-32 at  UMD's Romano Gym.  The Esko girls are now going to the state tournament once again as the Section 7AA Champions.





Monday, March 10, 2014

Hockey "Madness" - Section 7A Title Game

Section 5A powerhouse the Hermantown Hawks were moved to Section 7A for this season setting up a match-up against the defending Section 7A Marshall Hilltoppers for the chance to head to the state tournament in St. Paul.  With Nate Pionk's hat trick, at the end of three periods Hermantown topped Marshall 6-2, to make their 5th consecutive run at the State Class A title.