Pic of the Week (October 3, 2014): IM20 Sheep at Lake Ocheda

The Likeness

When I came forth this morn I saw

Quite twenty cloudlets in the air;

And then I saw a flock of sheep,

Which told me how these clouds came there.

That flock of sheep, on that green grass,

Well might it lie so still and proud!

Its likeness had been drawn in heaven,

On a blue sky, in silvery cloud.

I gazed me up, I gazed me down,

And swore, though good the likeness was,

’Twas a long way from justice done

To such white wool, such sparkling grass.

W. H. Davies

~ Diane

Ravenwood Studios
Brandenburg Gallery

Pic of the Week (October 3, 2014): IM20 Sheep at Lake Ocheda
Pic of the Week features the images of Jim Brandenburg, as selected weekly by his staff. With each selection, we hope to highlight the depth, breadth, and splendor of his work. 

Pic of the Week Special Pricing
Purchase this week's Pic (print, matted, or framed - 8x12" or larger) and receive 30% off during the week it is featured (Oct. 3 - Oct. 9)! Contact the Brandenburg Gallery in Ely, Minnesota (877) 493-8017 to take advantage of this special pricing.

Pic of the Week: Dragonfly and Bluestem

"These patriotic predators have finally returned to the northland- just in time for the 4th of July! They fly ahead of me as I walk down the trails, buzzing around, protecting me from the tormenting mosquitoes. I hope that your picnics, parades, and parties are 
attended by these beautiful creatures!"

~Marcia

Brandenburg Gallery
Ravenwood Studios

Pic of the Week (July 4, 2014): P639 Dragonfly and Bluestem

Pic of the Week features the images of Jim Brandenburg, as selected weekly by his staff. With each selection, we hope to highlight the depth, breadth, and splendor of his work. 

Purchase this week's Pic (print, matted, or framed - 8x12" or larger) and receive 30% off! Contact the Brandenburg Gallery in Ely, Minnesota (877) 493-8017 to take advantage of this special pricing.

Happy Mother's Day

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter 

they could not plainly read. ” 

~Alice Walker

P752 Flower of the Hour - Prairie Fame Flower 
Photographed on Touch the Sky Prairie, near Jim's childhood home in Southwest Minnesota.

Prairie images for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Lillehaug

Jim Brandenburg recently presented Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Lillehaug with photographs for his new office and reception area.

David Lillehaug joined the Minnesota Supreme Court in June, 2013.  Justice Lillehaug was raised in Sioux Falls, SD and has a strong affinity for southwest Minnesota.   For his new office, he chose to represent the area photographically with Jim's images of Touch the Sky Prairie, Blue Mounds State Park and Pipestone National Monument.

The newly released bison herd photograph (above) was made on assignment for the publication Minnesota Conservation Volunteer. The feature "Bona Fide Bison" will be in the November-December issue which will be available November 1st. All the bison images were photographed at Blue Mound State Park.

To subscribe to the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine call toll-free 888-646-6367
or  visit www.dnr.state.mn.us/magazine.

An Evening with Jim Brandenburg, September 20, 2013

Please join us for An Evening with Jim Brandenburg, September 20, 2013.  

Jim is honored to kick-off the 2013 Shaw Photography Series: Finding Your Focus 

with an evening presentation at the Missouri Botanical Garden in 

St. Louis, Missouri on Friday, September 20, from 7:00 - 9:00pm.  

 Please register for tickets online, registration ends September 19 at 5:00pm.

Happy Mother's Day

This is one of the last times Jim could take his mother, Olga, with him while he was working - he was photographing a prairie in Iowa for a National Geographic magazine assignment. 

Jim's prairie roots run deep in his veins. When he was born, his parents lived on a farm in southwestern Minnesota just one mile east of Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge.  His early formative years were spent in that vast prairie landscape. His mother also grew up on a farm located just below the Blue Mounds State Park cliff.

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. - Abraham Lincoln

Happy Mother's Day

In Celebration of the Earth

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.  ~ Chief Seattle, 1855

 Happy Earth Day

Vernal Equinox ~ First Day of Spring

Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! 

- Sitting Bull -

Seasonal Collector's Print #29 ~ Prairie Coneflowers

We have a winner!  Our summer seasonal Collector's Print is Prairie Coneflowers.  Prairie Coneflowers received 41% of the vote , followed by Noirmoutier Isle Trees and then Prairie Impressionism.  Thank you for helping us choose the next image to add to our collection!

Purple coneflowers and prairie coneflowers dance amongst the grasses with the prairie wind on a warm August day in Minnesota. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Earth laughs in flowers."   -Jim Brandenburg

The Jim Brandenburg Collectors Series features four seasonal prints a year. Each season, we will feature a new image that has never been printed, and will be available only at the Brandenburg Gallery. The featured image will be a signed and titled, 12"x8" Giclee Fine Art Print on 100% cotton paper at a special price of $75 or framed for $230. Previous seasonal images can be purchased at any time for $125 or framed for $280.

Digital Bridge to Nature Program

Jim recently participated in the launch of the Digital Photography Bridge to Nature program in Luverne, Minnesota.  Jim, along with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources nongame program wildlife supervisor Carrol Henderson, led a group of more than 60 third- through ninth-grade teachers from across Minnesota through Touch the Sky Prairie for the first of what is hoped to be 80 state-wide workshops in the next two years.  The goal of the program is to get students interested in nature through the use of photography and to curb the so-called Nature Deficit Disorder so many of today's youths have.

While walking through Touch the Sky Prairie, three more Prairie Fringed Orchids were discovered for a total of ten plants on the prairie.  For more information about the Prairie Fringed Orchids on Touch the Sky Prairie, please visit the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation blog. 

Touch the Sky Prairie & Blue Mounds State Park

 Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

Lightning at  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

   Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

  Touch the Sky Prairie National Wildlife Refuge

"Three Sisters" Blue Mounds State Park, Minnesota

Jim and family spent the last week photographing the beautiful prairie at Touch the Sky Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge and Blue Mounds State Park in southwestern Minnesota.  If you would like to visit or hear more about Touch the Sky Prairie and the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation that helped to create Touch the Sky Prairie, please visit http://brandenburgprairiefoundation.blogspot.com/.

Minnesota Prairie

Three Sisters Hackberry Tree ~ Blue Mounds State Park, Minnesota

 Pelicans ~ Split Rock State Park, Minnesota

 

 Canada Goose Family ~ Medina, Minnesota

Phalarope ~ Minnesota

 Robin Nest ~ Blue Mounds State Park, Minnesota

Toads Mating ~ Minnesota

 Touch the Sky Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge ~ Minnesota

 Touch the Sky Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge ~ Minnesota

Infrared

  

Jim spent the last several weeks on the Minnesota prairie. We will be adding these images, and many more, to our website in the next few weeks.

Collector's Print #20 - Crow-Hassan Prairie

"Here is one of my recent and pleasant surprise discoveries in the Twin City metropolitan area, Crow-Hassan Park Reserve, part of the Three Rivers Park District. No matter when you visit the the 2600-acre park, you will be delighted with the many varieties of native plants and wildlife species. This photo was made on the 600 acres of restored prairie. It won't be long before the Gayfeathers are blooming again. Last August Neil Lucas, distinguished producer for BBC TV, and I filmed some prairie sequences there for the upcoming sequel to the renowned Planet Earth series titled Life."
- Jim Brandenburg


The Jim Brandenburg Collectors Series features four seasonal prints a year. Each season, we will feature a new image that has never been printed, and will be available only at the Brandenburg Gallery. The featured image will be a signed and titled, 12"x8" Giclee Fine Art Print on 100% cotton paper at a special price of $75 or framed for $230. Previous seasonal images can be purchased at anytime for $125 or framed for $280. To purchase, contact the Brandenburg Gallery at 877-493-8017 or visit the website at www.jimbrandenburg.com.

Touch the Sky Prairie Exhibit in Oklahoma

Jim Brandenburg's Touch the Sky Prairie Exhibit has been touring the country and will currently be on display at The Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma starting February 14 through April 12.

Touch the Sky is a tribute to the breathtaking vistas and iconic creatures of the American prairie. World-renowned nature photographer Jim Brandenburg captures the wide-open magnificence of the prairie, as well as its often over-looked intricate details. In panoramic images, we see great herds of bison as well as the lowly grasshopper, dragonfly and dove. Lightning storms and wildfire rage across the landscape, while delicate blossoms sway in the breeze and yellow cottonwood leaves rest on new fallen snow. Through these photos, Brandenburg reveals the cycles of life with both precision and aesthetic grace.
Though best known for his work with National Geographic and his portraits of wolves in the North Woods, Jim has been returning in recent years to his prairie roots. Growing up on the open, windblown prairies of southwest Minnesota, he started his photographic career with images of wildlife on a small, remnant patch of prairie near his grandfather's farm. Expanding from this Minnesota base, the exhibition includes images from prairies in Nebraska, Iowa, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Illinois and other states.

The exhibit's next stop is The University Museum at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, November 2 through December 25, 2009.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones! Thank you for visiting our blog. We will see you in the new year!

Touch the Sky National Wildlife Refuge and the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation

Jim and Judy Brandenburg, with the help of dedicated supporters in Luverne, Minnesota, established the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation in 1999. The foundation’s mission is to promote, preserve and expand the native prairie in southwest Minnesota. Through numerous projects, the Brandenburg Prairie Foundation educates and heightens awareness of the prairie’s irreplaceable beauty and significance. Jim’s spirit resides in the prairie - it is his childhood home and is where his career began to bloom. By establishing the Foundation, Jim has turned his passion for the prairie into a lifetime commitment.

The Brandenburg Prairie Foundation, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have purchased over 800 acres of untilled prairie land in Rock County, Minnesota creating the “Touch the Sky Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge.” Together, they have developed a 15-year management plan for its restoration. With time and continued effort, hundreds of native species will return – the tall grasses, the songbirds, flora and native wildlife. Their dream is to see the bison roaming “Touch the Sky Prairie” again.

If you are interested in visiting Touch the Sky Prairie, please call the Brandenburg Gallery in Luverne, Minnesota at 507-283-1884.

http://www.jimbrandenburg.com/bpfoundation.html