Bayfront Blues Fest Calendar

The first-ever Bayfront Blues Festival calendar is hot off the press, featuring 16 months of Bayfront Blues Fest images by award-winning Ripple in Stillwater photographer Karl Bremer.

The 12" x 18" calendar covers September 2012 – December 2013 and includes Bremer’s images from more than two decades of Minnesota’s largest music festival. Featured blues musicians are: Buddy Guy, Jonny Lang, Koko Taylor, Trudy Lynn, Dr. John, Lonnie Brooks, Cyril Neville, Sonny Landreth, Marcia Ball, Alison Scott, Susan Tedeschi, Shemekia Copeland, Paul Metsa, Taj Mahal, Anne Harris, Big Walter Smith, Scott Graves, Luther Allison, Bernard Allison, Ruthie Foster, Harold Tremblay, Sugar Blue, Bobby Rush, John Mooney, Jimmy Thackery, and Dickey Betts.

To order, send $17.45 ($14.95 calendar and $2.50 S/H) via Paypal for Paypal account saintcroix@aol.com. Or, send a check or money order for $17.45 to: Karl Bremer, 10949 Stonebridge Tr., Stillwater, MN 55082.

The calendar also is available at Valley Bookseller in Stillwater.

Money launderer and GOP donor Frank Vennes Jr. nets Ripple in Stillwater two more awards

Felon-on-the-run Frank Vennes Jr.

By Karl Bremer

 

Ripple in Stillwater collected two more Minnesota Society for Professional Journalists Page One Awards June 19, bringing to three the total number of MN-SPJ awards this blog has won in less than two years online.

 

In the online category, I won First Place for “Best News Portrait” for my photo of convicted money launderer and GOP donor Frank Vennes Jr. as he ran through the streets of St. Paul trying to flee from my lens following a federal court appearance in September 2011. After chasing him for two blocks, I was able to capture the fleet-footed felon on the run before he ducked into a bank building.

 

For the second year in a row, I won in the special “Best Use of Public Records” category, where media of all types and sizes compete against one another. This year, my three-part series “Lawyers, Guns & Money: An Inside Look at the Political Pardon of Frank Vennes Jr.”, won Third Place.

In addition to the two 2012 SPJ Page One Awards, I won a second place 2011 Page One Award for “Best Use of Public Records” for my series on recently-captured fraudster and GOP donor "Bobby Thompson." And this spring, City Pages voted Ripple in Stillwater “Best Local Blog” in its Best of the Twin Cities 2012 competition.

A tip o' the hat to fraudsters and Ponzimen everywhere! As long as you keep plying your slippery trades in these parts, Ripple in Stillwater will be there to cast a light upon you.

Photo Copyright ©2011 Karl Bremer

 

 

Sometimes you've just gotta leave the planet

Like a fly, Venus crawls across the upper-right area of the

setting sun's face June 5.

By Karl Bremer

Here at Ripple in Stillwater World Headquarters in Stillwater Township, we sometimes tire of the daily grind of boondoggle bridges, fraudsters, money-grubbing politicians and other cancers, and prefer instead to focus on the beauty of the visual image rather than the printed word.

Last night, we (me and my trusty Nikon D300) turned our gaze skyward to record the last transit of the planet Venus across the face of the sun in our lifetime. This happens when the orbit of Venus passes directly between Earth and the sun. The last time it occurred, in 2004, it was cloudy in these parts; it won't happen again until 2117.

Using the same technique I used to shoot the partial solar eclipse May 20 (see below), I zoomed in on our neighboring planet as it made its historic trek across the setting sun at dusk last night. It's the little black dot in the upper-right area of the image above.

Venus kept us entertained earlier this spring as it danced across the twilight sky with Jupiter for several weeks (also see below).

Look for more images from the award-winning lens of Ripple in Stillwater in the future.

A partially-eclipsed sun sets on Stillwater Township May 20.

Venus (bright star above left side of pergola) performed a

celestial spring ballet March 15 with Jupiter (brighter star

to upper-right of Venus).

All photos by Karl Bremer.