FIND YOUR NEXT HOME by...

Need more options? Try our Advanced Search!

Twin Cities – In Photos

Posted by Barker and Hedges - Re/Max Results on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 11:30pm.

Hello again. It’s Friday and the holidays are over. Strange to be a working and functioning individual for what feels like a one day work-week. Sluggish from too much food and too little sleep, I thought today would be the perfect day to spend time on some Twin Cities pictures instead of words.

We’ve all heard the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” If anything has been missing from this blog, it has been pictures. Of course, when Kristina from KFM Staging writes posts, she almost always includes great pictures. And the Twin Cities houses listed for sale that have been features in this blog have pictures so people can see how fabulous they are. But what about the communities the houses are in?

Luckily, there are some great Twin Cities photo blogs out there to show the beauty of our community. And why wouldn’t there be? The arts run deep here, from photography to painting to woodcarving and scrapbooking, it seems like almost everyone has their own artistic hobbies that they like to do. The lucky ones get to make a living out of it! And truly, there is some incredible artistic talent in the Twin Cities. I have been looking at a lot of photo blogs lately, and some of the fabulous photos I’ve seen have inspired me to dig out my camera.

No, there aren’t any pictures… yet. Not of my own, at least! No, this post is all about other blogs that display photos of our beloved Twin Cities. Through the lens, these talented photographers (and bloggers!) really show how beautiful Minneapolis and Saint Paul are. Now that the New Year has begun, many of them have been re-displaying their best or favorite pictures of 2008. I would love to share some of my favorites with you now.

TheTwin Cities Daily Photo has some great pictures of wintertime in Minnesota. I love the 2008 photo of the year of the Landmark Center in Downtown Saint Paul, as taken from Rice Park on one of the coldest days of the winter. Absolutely breathtaking.

Visual Saint Paul has a different, kind-of artsy viewpoint of Saint Paul. At the same time, there are some “action” photos of activities happening in St. Paul. Some examples are a Highland Park basketball game, a performance by the St. Paul Jewish Community Center Symphony Orchestra, and helping to feed the needy on Thanksgiving. This blog also has a favorite 2008 photo, which is of a statue at the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at the Como Park Zoo.

View from the Tundra has some amazing cityscape photos. Greg’s Best Photos of 2008 includes a stunning shot of Minneapolis at sunrise and a beautiful picture of the Mississippi at dusk, with all of the city’s streetlights twinkling. I highly recommend digging deeper into this one.

Twin Cities Photo Blog has more gritty photos that show a unique perspective of Minneapolis and St. Paul. If the individual photos I’ve highlighted so far have the feel you’re “on the outside looking in,” Jordan’s photos come from the perspective of the Heart of the City. Instead of looking out and over, the pictures focus more on what is up or down, or quiet places you haven’t noticed. In other words, the pictures show what you might be missing if you aren’t looking for it. Don’t worry, she is capturing the moment for you. Take a look!

And now for some of the real grit of the city. I’ve followed the Joy of the Mundane photo stream over on Flickr for quite a while (Full disclosure: I’m biased, he is a good friend of mine!). Take a look at the tags for this stream, and you see the words rusted, corroded, and industrial, but when you look at the pictures it’s probably not what you expect. This photo stream proves that there is beauty in old, worn-out buildings and rusted gates. With the long history Minneapolis and St. Paul have enjoyed, there are plenty of subjects to capture. My personal favorite tags are SaintPaul, Minneapolis, streetart, and colorful.

I could really go on and on about photo blogs with a focus on Minneapolis and St. Paul, but then this post would never stop. I'll mention a few more, though, because photo blogs are easy to look through and can become addicting. At Flickr, there are actually a few photography groups, mobs if you will, of people who just love to take pictures in the Twin Cities. There is the Minneapolis Photo Mob (I told you!), The Beauty of St. Paul, MN, and the Twin Cities photo group. The Dusty Lens stomping grounds are the north metro, and beyond. Michael Hartford has a real eye for black and white photography at From a Farther Room.

These photo blogs and streams are amazing and inspirational. I hope that you take the time to explore these artworks-in-progress in the future. I also hope that the pictures I start taking to add some color to the Barker & Hedges blog are even half as vivid as those of the photographers I’ve highlighted here. The Twin Cities never looked so good as it does through the eyes of the people who obviously love them!

P.S. Thank you to those Twin Cities residents on Twitter that helped to create this list

1 Response to "Twin Cities – In Photos"

Greg wrote:
Thanks for the compliments! Happy New Year's!

Posted on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 10:06 AM.

My Account

... So You Can:

View detailed property information
Print detailed property flyers
Save your searches & favorite homes
Inquire about a private showing
Map individual property locations
Share your favorite homes with friends