Category : Grand Forks, ND

Grand Forks sits in the Red River Valley, which is the bed of a vast glacial lake and among the flattest terrain in North America — not gently rolling but genuinely level for tens of miles. That single geographic fact changes what an outdoor photograph here can be. The horizon is a true horizontal line with nothing to interrupt it, sunrise and sunset happen at the actual horizon rather than behind hills, and the sky occupies most of any wide frame.

The practical consequence is that the sky is the subject rather than the backdrop, so a frame that crops it short throws the subject away, and the exposure for any such frame should be set for the sky with the faces lifted by an added source — metering on skin produces a white sky, which is the commonest failure here.

The latitude is the second condition. At about forty-eight degrees north the June midday sun reaches only around sixty-five degrees above the horizon, twenty-odd degrees lower than the southern United States, which means the harsh overhead light that ruins midday elsewhere is milder and good raking light lasts longer; and in December the sun barely clears nineteen degrees all day, so a winter afternoon is one continuous golden hour. Twilight follows from the same geometry and it is generous — the sky holds usable light for well over an hour after a June sunset.

Against that, wind is the constant, and on terrain this flat there is nothing at all to break it: this is among the windiest inhabited country in North America, which means no lightstands outdoors, a veil that will not behave, and positions chosen on the lee side of whatever building is available. Winter is long and severe, and snow is useful twice: outdoors it is the best natural fill there is, lifting exactly the shadows a low sun carves, and indoors it turns the ground into an enormous reflector that makes glazing better in February than in June. The guides below take each venue on its own terms.