Back Roads Moonlight, Superior National Forest

A beautiful star-filled sky complemented by the light of a half-moon while driving the back roads of Superior National Forest in northeast Minnesota.  Notice the constellation Orion in the sky in the upper right quarter of the photo. 

USCG Cutter "Alder" retrieving the Hat Point bell buoy

 
Last night as we were driving home after an afternoon in the woods we were treated to a rare sight.  The United States Coast Guard Cutter "Alder" was pulling the Hat Point Bell Buoy for the season.  Indeed, this happens every year, which doesn't exactly count as "rare", but usually they pull it in the 3rd week or so of October and usually during the day.  This time the sun had already set and they were retrieving the buoy during the "blue hour" that occurs after sunset.  It was cool to see the ship lit up not only with the navigational lights but also all the work lights as the crew pulled the buoy from the reef between Hat Point and Pete's Island.  

The ship was roughly a mile away so in order to make this shot I had to use my Tamron 150-600mm lens set to 600mm, not an easy feat in such low light conditions.  I mounted the lens on my tripod, set the camera to an ISO setting of 3200, set the aperture to f/8 in aperture-priority mode, set the timer to release the shutter 5 seconds after pressing the shutter button, then made this shot.  The exposure time was 2 seconds, and thankfully the conditions were calm enough that the boat did not move at all during those 2 seconds so I was able to get a nice, sharp image. 

November Lights over Kawishiwi Lake

And this is how my night ended in the early morning hours of November 3rd.  Clouds moving in from the west that soon covered the entire sky for the remainder of the night.  For a little while, though, I enjoyed a period of pristine calm conditions on Kawishiwi Lake in Superior National Forest.  The northern lights continued to glow in the northern sky but with a little less intensity and variety in color than what I had witnessed earlier in the night.  I enjoyed watching that gray cloud moving in from the left and its perfect reflection as it marched from west to east across the lake.  It was a beautiful end to an amazing night of photography and aurora watching!

The Majesty of the Minnesota Night Sky

This is how my night of shooting started out on November 3rd.  Taken just minutes after the new day began, this photo was made at 12:10 AM along the Sawbill Trail in Superior National Forest.  I had scoped out this location earlier in the summer, recognizing it as a potential good spot for some northern lights photography.  

Since the majority of the Sawbill Trail runs straight north, it's a good opportunity to watch the lights dancing in the sky as you're driving, provided they are active.  And active they were as I was cruising down the road that night.  I had to constantly remind myself to keep my eyes on the road and not get too distracted by the beautiful aurora that were sweeping across the sky directly ahead of me.  

When I arrived at this location with the trees, the activity had subsided and the lights were no longer dancing.  All I could see was a soft glow right above the horizon.  That didn't make the scene any less beautiful though!  I had the multi-colored hues of the aurora combined with the magical starlight of the Milky Way over the stand of trees.  Add just the right amount of clouds on the left that were illuminated by the rising half-moon behind me and I had a trifecta of night sky goodness!

Plouff Creek Lights

The Aurora Borealis paints an other-worldly palette of color in the northeast Minnesota sky over Plouff Creek in the Superior National Forest.  This photo was made at 3:30 this morning.  Shot with a Nikon D750 camera and Nikon 14-24mm lens.  Exposure length 20 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 2500.

November Night in the Superior National Forest

Last night was a good one for the northern lights!  I spent the entire night out photographing the lights in various locations.  Visiting multiple areas was kind of necessary due to cloud cover plaguing much of the region.  There was also heavy fog at my house when I headed out.  I was hopeful that the fog was only along the Lake Superior shoreline and it would clear up if I headed inland.  Thankfully, that plan worked!  As I drove down the shore the fog dissipated and eventually the cloud cover started breaking up as well.  I drove south to Tofte, MN and headed up the Sawbill Trail to try some new (for me) locations for photographing the aurora. 

I stopped at 4 different locations near the Sawbill Trail and each time I got lucky and had a clear sky long enough to make a few exposures of the lights.  After making a few images at each location the clouds moved back in and totally obscured the view of the sky, so I was off again in search of another spot with a clear view.  As I was making my circuit around the arrowhead region I saw a plethora of wildlife.  At least 40 to 50 deer (mostly along Highway 61), a dozen or more rabbits, two moose and a skunk.  It was a great night in many ways!  

As is my tendency, the first image that I'm going to share from last night's adventures is my favorite.  I arrived at this location just as the lights were flaring back up after a lull in their activity.  There were a lot of reds in the colors of the lights last night, which happens from time to time but is certainly not common.  Mostly we see green and purple.  Also, the red color is not always immediately apparent to the naked eye.  I had no idea that there was this much color in the sky until I made my first photograph and saw how much red there was.  I could just barely make out the color when looking at the sky, but the camera really picks up a lot more of it.  Look for another photo to be posted later today!

Late Autumn Sunset

Now that all the leaves have fallen the trees make for some nice silhouettes against the sky, especially at sunset.  I captured this image a few days ago while leaving work for the day at Grand Portage State Park.