Yes, I’m Mr. February 2011…No, not THAT kind of Mr. February! But it was actually quite an honor since I’m in the company of world-famous Nat’l Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg (Mr. November), Canadian adventurer/photographer Gary McGuffin (Mr. December) and my good friends Paul Sundberg (Mr. January) and Chris Gibbs (Mr. March).

This beautiful wall calendar is produced by my friend Johnnie Hyde of Ely. She also produces neat regional kids books and more. You can order this calendar and see her publications here: Raven Productions

The “arm” in the photo is mine…So how did I take the photo? I was holding my camera in the other hand (with an extremely wide-angle lens (Sigma 10-20mm). I set the focus point and then switched the autofocus off. I set the self timer to 2 seconds and started shooting, trying to paddle with one arm. I got lucky on one image.

It was a pea-soup foggy day on Bower Trout Lake in the BWCAW and I’d just completed a rather long portage WITHOUT a portage yoke…ouch! I was doing bird surveys for the MN DNR and had to get to the far end of the lake to start my bushwack up a steep hillside. But the fog was so thick that I had to navigate by compass. Finally the sun’s warmth won out, and this picture-perfect island emerged from the veil of fog.

Canon 40D; Sigma 10-20mm lens at 10mm; f8 at 1/320; ISO 400; one-hand held!