Noah Wolf Photography

Exploring known places

As many of you know, I love St. Anthony Main - hanging out at the park, eating sushi at Kikukowa, sipping coffee at the Aster Cafe, or photographing engagement sessions. Well, I got to do a senior portrait session down their last week with a great kid named Todd.

One of the great things about the area is it's always different, and you can always find new places to make killer portraits. Well Todd and I went on a little adventure exploring the abandoned trails behind the power station. Weird and cool at the same time. A crazy hidden backwoods across the river from downtown Minneapolis. We were both surprised to find it and had fun exploring - oh yeah, and making photographs too :)

We ended up by the Stone Arch Bridge, so we made our way back toward the Aster cafe where his Dad was completing some paperwork to get himself on the ballot for the MN State congress. Pretty cool huh? Ever seen an aspiring NE Minneapolis politician filling out an application for that before?! Here's his website: http://hickethierforhouse.com/index.html

Starring Rachel at Starring Lake

Eden Prairie is one of those places I go to a lot (my in-laws live there) and I'm still finding hidden little treasures every where. Rachel lives there near Starring lake. I've played disc golf many times on the south part of the lake, and it's just a lovely park. The north side is just as cool!

So after a few photos at her house on the kitchen floor (thanks again Cynthia for letting me re-arrange your dining room table), we drove down to the park - more like a preserve actually. It's got a rocky shore, fishing dock, a random empty shed thing (great for creative lighting!), walking trails, canoes, and trails.

We went back to the house for an outfit change took a few more shots, and called it a wrap. I love walking away knowing it was great shoot.

P.S. Is the title too cheesy? I like it :)

Hidden historic treasures

One thing I love about high school senior portraits is that it brings me to all kinds of places.
Since it's my practice to my clients, instead of the typical way of them coming to the studio, the portraits are always different because the location is rarely the same.

Well, I got to go to a town called North Oaks last week. I've heard about it, but had no idea it was so cool. It's like they've got their own private Idaho in the middle of St. Paul's northern burbs. In the late 1800s (I think) James J. Hill bought 3000 acres of land with the intention of creating a fairly large scale farming operation.

I'm not sure when it became its town, but it's now got a few hundred homes and a golf course nestled in to a large beautiful area. And many of the old farm buildings have been put into Historic protection too. So needless to say, getting to roam around North Oaks with Steven making portraits of him was fun.

Uptown Senior

This was quite a treat for me. Alek is a great guy with a mellow attiude. Like any guy, when you talk about making portraits of yourself, you clam up, smile and nod. Well it didn't take long to see Alek become relaxed and back to himself. Seeing him begin to get used to the camera and walk around uptown was a lot of fun. Without a doubt, my creative juices were flowing while we wandered down alleys, getting kicked off a bank parking lot and srtolling down Lake Street making pictures. I don't like to do too many high school seniors each a year because I always want them to be as fun as photographing Alek. And this way, each senior gets the most original photographs around.

...though I really wanted to bring my giant 2007 prop and have Alek sit in the Zero with a Zoolander look on his face. But he just wouldn't buy it.