Aurora Watching - Northern Lights on February 18, 2012

After 3 very long months of not seeing any Auroras in Northern Minnesota (my last few opportunities were blocked by heavy cloud cover), the lights made a surprise appearance on the evening of February 18th. My girlfriend and I were just settling in to watch a movie when I decided to take a quick look online to check the auroral oval. To my surprise, the Kp index was measuring just over 4, which often means that we might see some good lights here. A quick look out the back door of my house revealed that yes indeed, the lights were out! We jumped in the truck and drove a few miles inland from Lake Superior to some better spots for viewing the lights. For the next hour and a half we were treated to a very nice display of green glow peppered with dancing curtains of green, purple and red. It was a spectacular night of Aurora viewing!














Sunrise Splash

Here are a couple of recent shots of Lake Superior waves captured at sunrise.  I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed capturing them!

February Sunrises

Due to a variety of reasons I have not been getting out and doing much shooting this winter, mostly because the winter conditions just have not been very favorable.  A very mild winter with very little snowfall and almost no ice production on Lake Superior has meant that the things I normally love to photograph this time of year are simply nonexistent.  This weekend, however, my friend Roger (http://www.rogernordstromphoto.com/) was up for a visit so of course we got out and did some shooting.  It's a good thing we did, too, as yesterday morning we witnessed what had to be one of the best winter sunrises I've ever seen.  The high-altitude clouds were incredible and did a great job of reflecting the light from the sun as it rose above the horizon.  This morning's sunrise was beautiful as well, but lacked any clouds to add interest to the sky.

Summer sun rays over the Susie Islands

On this chilly winter's night my thoughts wander to the warmth of summer days. So, I worked up a photo that I've long been wanting to put on my website but just never got around to it. This one is from the summer of 2005. I had spent the morning photographing around the Susie Islands and was heading back home mid-afternoon when a few summer rain squalls blew towards the islands from across Wauswaugoning Bay. Just moments after I made this photo I was caught in some pretty intense downpours, but they only lasted a few moments and once again the sun was shining. Gotta love those summer days!

Early winter sunset near Grand Marais, MN

I haven't been out shooting a whole lot lately, so here's a photo that I took earlier this winter. This was back in December (the 7th if you really want to know) along the Lake Superior shoreline about 10 miles or so North of Grand Marais. We really didn't have any snow yet when I made this photo, but there was some ice along the rocky shore. What caught my eye in this scene was the way the rocks were sticking out of the waves as they crashed into shore. A 15 second exposure really smoothed out the wave action and created a dreamy look that I love to portray in my shoreline photos.

Wisps of Light

Well, I've been suffering "Aurora withdrawals" since our last two opportunities for Northern lights viewing in Northern Minnesota were cancelled due to heavy cloud cover. As a way of getting my "fix", I went back to some photos from the night of March 10, 2011 and found a couple that I had not yet worked on. The photo you see here is one such photo. This was captured near the tail end of what I still consider to be the BEST Aurora display that I have ever seen.

Waxwing and Mountain Ash Berries

With the cold weather hanging on for another night, I figured I would get up early and drive to Grand Marais to photograph the steam behind the lighthouse. What I wasn't figuring on were the thousands of Waxwings that were hanging out in the various trees in the Grand Marais campground. I found one area where all the Mountain Ash berries had blown off the trees and down onto the ground. I watched as hundreds of Waxwings hopped around amongst the berries, choking them down just as fast as they could pick them up. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to isolate this one bird against the backdrop of berries. It is my favorite shot of the morning.