Considering the weather.

So here's the question, I am a  fair weather photographer? The reason I ask this is because I have recently put 2,100 miles between me and home, and in doing so changed the temperature from low eighties to just plain low.....how does 0 degrees sound. Now maybe that's not bad if you're an Eskimo, or maybe a penguin, but to me a Florida Keys dweller, it seems awful cold.  Sunday night I arrived in Red Wing, Minnesota. I know you're asking why, heck I'm asking why.....same old,same old, the demon WORK.....I have to work, like the rest of you, to earn money to buy the toys that help me take the photo's of the things I love. So I posed myself this question on the long drive north,"What will entice me out in to the frigid cold, what beautiful sights lie in wait, if only I can muster the courage to leave the warm hotel room?"
Now I have been here before, yes, and I came back, so how bad can it really be.It's a pretty little town right on the river.http://www.red-wing.org/  but this time of year if you don't ice fish the pickings are slim to none. Whoops, I can hear all the locals jumping up and saying "hey wait a minute" sorry residents I'm looking for something special. Last time I was here I went to the Wabasha Eagle sanctuary http://www.eaglewatch.org/ and that's an incredible place and I got some cool photographs of the eagles,and by chance watched the Lakota and Menominee native American Indians dance in tribute to the beautiful birds. I also climbed the huge hill,  Barn Bluff, also great for photo's,so whats left. I love the people here, I love the scenery, I really want to get out, but its so bitterly cold. I can make all the excuses I like, but I know I will put on the hat, gloves, boots and coat, grab the camera bag and tripod and go, because  that's what photographers do, we go forth, we venture out and hope beyond any reason that this insanity will result in that one shot we've been striving to get....I will come back, I will be full of tales and adventures,and maybe a shot or two, until then I'm just trying to keep warm.Until then here are a couple of pictures I took last year.