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Joshua Mills
Photos, recipes, and travel from the North Shore and beyond
Personal Site • Work in Progress

Detroit Native living in Minnesota. A love letter to the food, places and projects that I am working on.

Notes on grief, sobriety, joy, meandering and trying to build a beautiful life in the middle of it all.

Photography Cookbook Road Notes Film & Digital
View Recent Photos → Cookbook Work-in-Progress
Featured Photo: North Shore Lighthouse
Split Rock Lighthouse in the Dead of Winter
Full winter light catching the rhyolite cliffs. One of thsoe Lake Superior moments where everything goes quiet except the wind off the lake

Photography

A rotating selection of recent frames. Eventually: galleries by place and project.

Photo Coming Soon
Stillwater Riverfront at Dusk
Street / river town • Canon 6D • 50mm
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Sculpture Field Off the Highway
Roadside Americana • Ultra-wide experiments
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Creepy Antique Dolls in Glass Case
Low light •
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Late Fall Waves
White Bear Lake • Early morning sun • Fast exposure
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Cove Point
Minnesota • Architecture • Golden hour
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Ice Formations at Black Sand Beach
Winter • Natural patterns • Macro details

Recipes & Cookbook

Notes from a work-in-progress Midwest cookbook: smokers, hot-dish, desserts, and beverages that taste like home.

Lingonberry-Glazed Smoked Pork Chops
North Shore–inspired • Smoker • Sweet, tart, and smoky. A nod to Scandinavian flavors meeting backyard American BBQ.
Funeral Potatoes for a Crowd
Potluck classic • Crispy edges • Feeds the whole crowd. The kind of comfort food that shows up at every gathering.
The Pot Roast
Fall comfort classic.
Wild Rice Hotdish
Minnesota staple • Earthy, hearty • Perfect for October evenings when the first frost hits.
Summer Berry Galette
Summertime inverse take on a berry pie. Flaky crusts and why you shouldn't skip the butter.

Thoughts & Road Notes

Short Reflections.

On Driving Home in the Dark
A note on transiency, perspective, and learning how and why people are the way they are all over.
What the Smoker Taught Me
Patience, tending fires, and learning to sit with the slow parts of life.
The North Shore in Every Season
Reflections on cold water, empty trails, and why the best time to visit anywhere is when nobody else is there.
Notes on Sobriety and Hobby Replacement
What I've learned about being present, the ritual of terrible coffee, and finding peace in the fluorescent glow.

About

Who I am and what this project is about:

I'm Joshua, a BI Analyst living in Saint Paul, MN. I shoot on a Canon 6D, cook from memory, love my wife. my family, and my cat Squishy.

This site is a slow-building collection of photography, recipes, and reflections. It's personal, imperfect, and perpetually under construction—just like everything else worth doing.

The North Shore of Lake Superior is a constant reference point: the basalt cliffs, the lighthouses, the way fog rolls in off the water. But really, I'm interested in anywhere that feels honest and earthy.