For many Minnesotans, the beach and lakes provide a great source of summer fun. After all, we aren’t the land of 10,000 lakes for nothing. For the water-lovers of Maple Grove, the end of summer can be marked by the closing of local beaches. Tracy Dumbauld of Maple Grove says that although she doesn’t frequent Maple Grove beaches, in October 2011, she was struck by the ‘Beach Closed’ sign sticking out of the sand. At the time, she was walking her rambunctious new puppy around the paths of Fish Lake Park and noticed the sign she had never seen before.
The photo she snapped of the moment earned her an award in the Maple Grove Magazine photo contest, but Dumbauld is not new to photography. She has been taking photographs on and off for about 10 years through a slow process of teaching herself and taking classes online. Her interest first peaked when her children were little as she was trying to capture their childhood on film. Photography can make a moment permanent; Dumbauld says that it has taught her “to just notice the everyday.”
Dumbauld says that when she first noticed the beach sign, she was struck by “the finality of it all”, but she is not one to mourn the end of summer. For her, it is merely part of living in the Midwest and experiencing all of the seasons.
