July Milky Way over Grand Portage Bay

 

Boy, it sure is nice to finally see crisp, clear stars again!  The smoke haze from Ontario wildfires wasn't nearly as bad today as it has been on other days.  I had been over at my parents house and when I got home I looked up at the sky as I was getting out of the car.  It had been so long since we had good air quality at night I was shocked to see the outline of the Milky Way glowing brightly in the sky!  I couldn't resist walking down to the beach and making this photo. 

An evening on the lake

 

There has been a LOT of smoke in our air this July. Wildfires in the Boundary Waters and Canada have been sending smoke our way pretty much every day this month. On some days the smoke has been thick enough to give us headaches and sore throats by the end of the day. It also means we have not been seeing very many stars at night. 

About a week ago my dad and I ventured out on a local lake after dark and when we arrived at the lake you really couldn't see any stars at all due to the smoke haze. A little while later, however, the smoke did clear enough to reveal some clouds and a few stars poking through here and there. The night was incredibly quiet and calm.  So much so that I was able to set my tripod up in the boat and get a nice and sharp 5 second exposure of the moon and Jupiter!

Meditative Otter

 

An otter deep in thought as he basks in the evening sun on the Pigeon River in northeast Minnesota. 

Surprise Otters!

While out cruising the shoreline of the Pigeon River last night we had a surprise encounter with a group of otters.  We first spotted them near the mouth of the river as we were heading upstream. As we motored upriver the otters were working their way upstream as well, along the bank of the river. Every now and then they would climb up on shore and wander their way through the trees. At first it only seemed like there were a couple of them.  However, as we got closer we realized there were 6 or 7 of them!

That's when things got interesting. I don't know what happened but one of them got on the nerves of another one and before we knew it all of them came running quickly down the bank and into the river. Once they were in the water they were snarling at each other and splashing around violently. This lasted for about a minute then they broke apart and swam back towards the mouth of the river.  There was one straggler, who seemed to look at us as if thinking "What the heck just happened?"  During the melee I was shooting a video which didn't turn out all that great buy my consolation prize for the subpar video was this otter posing very nicely for his photograph to be taken :-) 

View of the 270 Overlook from the Pigeon River

 

This stretch of the Pigeon River is on my list of top favorite places. I'm not giving it a number, I just know it's one of my favorite places in this world. You have to paddle about three and a half miles one-way to get here. As you round the corner of the river approaching this stretch, the bluff in the distance slowly comes into view.  Atop that bluff is the 270 Overlook, the starting point (or ending point, if you started on the southern end) of the Superior Hiking Trail. It is an awesome view, but I think I like this view from the river more. I have seen moose many times along this stretch, but on this day we weren't so lucky. The sky was amazing, however, with ever changing clouds and bursts of sunlight. As always, it was an amazing day to be outside. 

Pigeon River Evening

The other night my dad and I got out on the water in between rain showers for some picture taking and a little fishing. We sure timed it right. The conditions were absolutely beautiful during our time on the water. As I was driving back home it was a downpour for a couple of miles. Got off the water just in time!
 

Illuminated Hollow Rock and the Milky Way

 

Normally I'm not a big fan of light painting or artificial light intruding into a scene but in this case the reason for the artificial light is pretty unique and it worked out quite well. Some friends and I were shooting the night sky at Hollow Rock in Grand Portage, MN and noticed that there was a boat working its way down the shoreline.  The boat had quite a few lights on it.  As it got closer I realized it was the boat used by the tribal natural resource department to shock fish. Electro-shocking or electro-fishing is a common scientific survey method used to sample fish populations to determine abundance, density, and species composition.  When performed correctly, electrofishing results in no permanent harm to the fish, which return to their natural state in as little as two minutes after being caught. 

At any rate, they were sampling fish along the Lake Superior shoreline on this night and were working very close to the shoreline.  The boat passed very close to the back side of Hollow Rock, then worked its way around the rock to the side we were shooting from.  Then, it turned and continued down the shoreline. As it moved away from the rock, its lights illuminated the rock very nicely.  The light was nice and soft and made for a very "natural" looking illumination of the rock.  By natural I mean that the colors looked like how the rock looks in the daytime. It sure was a unique set of circumstances in how this image came to be, and I really like the end result.