It's Give to the Max Day!

Touch the Sky Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge ~ Luverne, Minnesota

Listen as Jim Brandenburg talks with MPR's Stephanie Hemphill about his love of the prairie, and his photographs which capture its beauty.

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As you know, Brandenburg Prairie Foundation is making a difference every day through promoting, preserving and expanding the native prairie in Southwest Minnesota. Your generous support means the world to prairie enthusiasts, now more than ever.

Join us on today, November 15, Minnesota's Give to the Max Day, and help us win a $1,000 Golden Ticket. By partnering with GiveMN-an online giving website for Minnesota nonprofits- Brandenburg Prairie Foundation will have 25 chances to maximize your gift on Give to the Max Day!

By making a donation today on Give to the Max Day, your gift could help us win an extra $1,000 for our work in the community.

At the end of Give to the Max Day, one donation from across Minnesota will be randomly selected for a $10,000 Supersized Golden Ticket! Help us increase our odds by making your gift today by visiting www.GiveMN.org and searching for Brandenburg Prairie Foundation Inc!

What is the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation?
The Brandenburg Prairie Foundation (BPF) was established in 1999 with the Mission to “Educate, Promote, Preserve, and Expand Native Prairie in Southwest Minnesota.” Founding Board Members were Jim and Judy Brandenburg, and Luverne, Minnesota residents Randy Creeger, Dave Smith, Ben Vander Kooi, Jr., and Dan Biever.  Through numerous projects, the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation educates the public and heightens awareness of the prairie's ecological significance and beauty.  Find more information at our website at www.brandenburgprairiefoundation.org or our Facebook page.

What is GiveMN?

GiveMN.org is the smart way for you to discover, support and engage with the charities that are right for you. The online giving platform allows you to easily find organizations that match your giving goals, support them through secure credit or debit card donations, receive automated tax deductible receipts through email, and conveniently track and record your donations in a single online location. You can now also fundraise for your favorite causes-like us-on GiveMN too by creating a fundraiser page.

Please consider kicking off this season of giving by Giving to the Max today, November 15!

Thank you, Minnesota. You make the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation proud!

Jim Premieres the New Nikon P7700

Jim was honored to participate in another Nikon project, the release of the Nikon Coolpix P7700.  Nikon spent a week in Ely, Minnesota filming Jim as he used the P7700.  They visited several of Jim's favorite areas to photograph, all located around his home, Ravenwood.  To see video of Jim using the P7700 and additional sample images, please visit this link.

The Nikon Coolpix P7700 is the newest flagship model for Nikon’s Coolpix series of cameras. The P7700 is a high-performance compact digital camera loaded with functions that allow users to enjoy full-scale photography similar to that possible with a digital-SLR camera.

 

I often take a small simple camera with me when I go for a casual walk or canoe paddle near my home. I was pleased to work with my Nikon friends from Tokyo in introducing this exciting new P7700 pocket camera. I am surprised at how many "keepers" are made during my casual walks. This camera has enough quality to easily produce images that I will be able to publish in magazines and books. Some of the movie of me shooting with this camera was made in Brittany France while I was on assignment and some was shot while I was at home at Ravenwood.

 The Nikon crew filming Jim in the studio at his home, Ravenwood

Nikon Tech/Development: Masaya Takahashi, Videographer: Laurent Joffrion,Creative Director: Soichi Hayashi, Sound: Anthony Brandenburg, Photo: Alex Messenger

My Italian Greyhound Gracie stands at attention in the Ravenwood guest room.

My son Anthony plays our David Seaton custom made guitar at the waterfall sauna.

I often canoe past this ancient cliff-dwelling white cedar in the Boundary Waters wilderness near my home.

A blue jay feather glistens with water drops.
Weather can add an atmosphere that is often more photographically interesting than a sunny day image.

Rookie Lake has a cliff vista and is a place where people stop to make photographs.
I often do the same but try to see it in a new way.

Ravenwood Falls looks more inviting when shot with a long exposure.

The old white cedar on the wilderness cliff in the moonlight.
A strobe adds a fill light for detail in the low light of dusk.

A loon family swims in the clear water of Ojibway Lake near my home.

Exhibit in Montier-En-Der, France

White Wolf Testing Water

From November 15-18th, 2012 Jim will be the honorary “Patron” at the Festiphoto-Montier which typically draws 45,000 attendees in Montier-En-Der, France.

Jim’s theme for the exhibit is Wolves and Prairies as that is where he feels he has made the most impact in nature preservation. The images chosen for the show represent some of his best work on the subjects and will hang alongside the work of Ansel Adams.  Jim and Ansel were chosen as two photographers whose work has made a significant contribution to nature preservation.

"Ansel Adams is considered America's best know artist by some and I am honored to be in the same space with him here." -Jim Brandenburg

Ansel Adams 
Photo by ©Mimi Jacobs

Snake River, Grand Tetons 1942. Taken by Ansel Adams for the Dept of the Interior.

Ansel Adams, photographing in Yosemite National Park from atop his car about 1942.  Courtesy of the Cedric Wright Family.

Jim's Artist Statement

Around the world, photography is used as a means to record personal or family events --simple as that. Aesthetics not being a priority, the family camera is mostly used to record a moment to be remembered. Millions of snapshots are casually made everyday. Most are looked at a few times among family and friends and then forgotten. Precious few of those casual snaps survive the ages, but those that do are cherished.

Then there is the professional side of photography, where the camera is used to report on the state of man and nature’s condition. Often, it goes beyond a mere profession and can become one’s life mission. Some hope that their reportage will make a difference in the world. That is the world I have found myself in for my whole adult life -- 50 years of a deliberate and not-so-casual expression of my feelings about the natural world through my photography.

Two subjects have nearly dominated my half-century of photographic work. The highly persecuted wild wolf population, and the once vast, but now nearly vanished American native prairie both captured my passion at an early age. Like the great French combat war photographers that shared their battlefield images with the public to impress and help change attitudes, I have attempted the same – without the physical dangers of the military battlefield.

Born on the treeless and almost completely cultivated Great Plains of America, I realized the story that needed to be told; that only half of one percent of native tall-grass prairie land had not been plowed under and destroyed. This passion and subsequent picture story is what opened the door for me to the great magazines of the world like National Geographic.

With the opportunity at the Geographic, I decided to take on a similarly sad story in the animal realm. I attempted to give voice to the wolf, which I thought was the least understood and perhaps the most persecuted animal in our history of animal relationships.

One never knows if this life’s work has or will make a difference. We can only hope and work toward making that difference a reality. 

Meadowlark

Wolf Harmony - Ellesmere Island

Bison Looking for New Pasture

Arctic Wolf - Ellesmere Island

Prairie Coneflowers

Rattlesnake & Cactus

Alpha Pair Eats First

Blue Mounds Bison

Brother Wolf