These photos are from my favorite morning of the 2025 autumn season. Fog blanketed the landscape on the morning of September 23rd, and boy did it sure make for some awesome images! There was also a brisk north wind, which meant the fog was rolling through rather quickly. The conditions made for an ever changing palette of photographic opportunity. The 2025 fall color season was an interesting one, as most are, and this day was definitely the high point of the season.
Here is a series of photographs that I made at the beginning of this year's fall color season. Taken on a morning where the fog added a ton of interest to the scenes laid out before me. These photos were made during the 3rd week of September.
A few days ago I took the Jeep up into the woods to try out the tent and to look for some nice evening light to photograph. I found a great spot to pop the tent for a short nap before sunset. A little while later, as the sun was nearing the horizon, I found some things that really caught my eye... a stand of trees catching the last light of the day while the ridge behind was engulfed in shadow, and some beautiful backlit ferns. I'm super excited about the tent setup... its going to open a whole new world of photography possibilities, allowing me to stay in comfort out where the photo opportunities await.
Last night I went for a drive up in the woods to test out the rooftop tent and new bed rack on my Jeep Gladiator. It was fairly cold out, about 28 degrees. Even though the skies were completely clear and it seemed like a very dark night, there was a strange green haze in the sky (at least, green is how the camera interpreted it when set to auto white balance). I switched the camera to incandescent white balance to "get rid" of the green and produce images with an overall more blue tone. I had originally meant to record some sky quality measurements, but the glow in the sky was too impactful to get decent readings.
So, I decided to set up the tent and make some photographs of it. I really like the tent setup on the truck, and the new bed rack is amazing! Opening and closing the tent is so much earlier than it was on my Wrangler. I can't wait to spend some nights in it. I didn't last night because I had a long day and didn't have all my camping gear with me.
Well, our 2025 fall color season is pretty much behind us now. The rain and wind we've received over the past few days have knocked most of the leaves from the trees. Here are a few photos I made just before that weather moved in. It was kind of a weird fall color year, but then again there is no such thing as a "normal" year, I would say, when it comes to fall colors. As usual, there were super vibrant colors in different areas at different times, and in other areas... not so much. But, as always, it was a beautiful time of year!
Here's another image that I shot a while ago but never got around to sharing. This one was taken on August 7th when there was a combination of fog on Lake Superior and smoke haze in the air from wildfires in Ontario, Canada. These elements sure made for an interesting photo and really added a lot of depth to the various ridges and treelines. Like so many, it was a scene that I couldn't resist photographing.
These photos are from the summer, but I never got around to doing anything with them until now. A friend and I had gone to Grand Marais for the evening and we were excited to see the research vessel Kiyi tied to the breakwall out near the lighthouse. After sunset, the sky took on a beautiful hue with a hint of purple, and the vessel looked so cool in that light. Earlier in the evening, the sun was blocked by this cloud and all of the light rays coming through the cloud looked incredible. Some nice surprises on an evening where I wasn't really expecting to make any photographs!
Surprise aurora early yesterday morning, between 1:00 AM and 3:00 AM. I happened to look out at the sky just after midnight and noticed the telltale glow of the aurora. I set up my tripod in the open doorway of the garage then sat and watched the sky for a while. About 20 minutes later I started to see some movement in the lights so I started recording a timelapse video. I recorded two 30 minute long sequences of images, and caught some pretty cool movement in the both the clouds and the lights. A good friend of mine suggested the title for this image, and I liked it so that's what I decided to call it :-)
The past month has been beautiful on so many levels, not the least of which has been the sky. Here are a few highlights. The first image is sunset over the Grand Marais harbor, the second image is of some "fireworks" clouds over the Cascade River State Park shoreline, and the third image is a sunset along some gravel forest roads in Lake County, MN.
This past week I was going in to work a bit earlier than normal, which meant that I've had some good opportunities to catch the sunrise. The morning of October 14th was especially beautiful. Always thankful that I live in such a spectacular place!
Last week was a pretty incredible week for the northern lights! The lights were easily visible and super bright almost every night throughout the week. These lights were not trigged by a Coronal Mass Ejection on the sun, however, which is how most strong aurora events are generated.
According to spaceweather.com, the lights were caused by the "Russell-McPherson effect". During the weeks around equinoxes, the magnetic field of the sun can connect to the magnetic field of Earth, a linkage that allows solar wind to enter Earth's magnetosphere. That connection alone can power dazzling auroras - no CME required.
I went out with my cameras on 3 of the nights last week, taking a day of rest in between each night of viewing and photographing the lights. It sure was fun to see them come out so much during what had to be one of the nicest fall weather weeks we've ever experienced in northeast Minnesota!
Gunflint Trail, MN
Yesterday my friend Paul and I ventured out hoping to see a moose. We didn't see any moose but we did see this big, beautiful eagle fly down the road right in front of the truck. He was flying just slightly higher than the roof of the cab, then swooped upwards and landed in this huge pine tree. The branch he chose to perch on was the perfect spot for a nice photo of him in the morning light. Seeing this majestic bird was the highlight of our day.
I've been spending as much time as I can out in the woods lately. The weather has been so nice, it feels more like summer than fall and I want to soak up as much of it as I can. There have been some really nice maple colors this year too! As much as I love the grand landscapes and sweeping, panoramic views from overlooks, I can easily spend a whole day wandering in the understory of the forest. Its from beneath the forest canopy that I feel the forest shows its beauty the most.
