October Milky Way

Over the weekend we were hoping to see some Northern Lights, but no such luck in that department. We did, however, have fun photographing the Milky Way Galaxy! This is also a landmark photograph in that it is the first one on my website that was shot at ISO 12,800! Normally an ISO setting that high would have too much noise to be a usable shot, but I think because of the cold air last Saturday night (temp was in the low 30's), the sensor didn't heat up as much as it normally would and thus I was able to shoot at higher ISO's than I normally do. At any rate, I hope you enjoy the photo!

Above: "Sweeping Stars" - The same composition as the previous photo, only this one was a 75 minute exposure.

Aurora Surprise!

I had gotten home from work yesterday evening and was pretty tired so after an early dinner I laid down for a nap. I woke at 9:00 PM and decided to check spaceweather.com to see if there were any CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections from the sun) recorded during the day. To my surprise, there was a fresh Aurora picture and news of a CME that hit our atmosphere earlier that evening! I then checked the Auroral oval and the kp index which indicated STORM level, so within a few minutes my photography gear was loaded in the truck and off I went to do some shooting.

I spent the next 6 hours making images of the Northern Lights. I went to several different locations and recorded several hundred images throughout the night, including some sequences that I combined into a timelapse video. The most intense and colorful lights occurred between 2:00 and 3:00 AM, with pillars of light dancing sideways across the sky, dominated ultimately by some deep red hues. It was a fascinating night of picture-taking and Aurora-watching!

Speckled Cloud Sunset at the Spirit Tree

A recent sunset image taken down at the tree. Normally this is not a very good place for sunset photos, but I got lucky on this evening as the clouds lit up in a rather interesting fashion with all these little splotches of color. The color only lasted for a couple of minutes, so it's a good thing I was there at the right time otherwise I would have missed it!

Autumn Storm, Kawishiwi River

Yesterday as I was driving home from Ely there were some of the coolest looking storm clouds I've ever seen moving along the Kawishiwi River. I couldn't resist stopping and making some photographs!

Northern Lights - September 28, 2011

I have quite a few pictures of fall colors and such from last weekend that I should be working on, but what can I say... I have Aurora Fever! I keep getting drawn back to shots that are in my "waiting to be worked on" folder. This one was taken at 2:00 A.M. in the morning on September 28. For about two hours I had been watching faint but active Auroras, then just before 2 A.M. they got noticeably brighter just before a big, dark cloud bank moved in. This is my favorite shot from that night. Enjoy!

McFarland Twilight

30 second exposure taken on October 4, 2011 at 7:52 P.M.

Paths Almost Crossed

Ruffed Grouse and hiker on a backwoods road in Northeast Minnesota.