While watching the lightning storms over the Grand Marais harbor the other night, there were several quiet periods in between the storm fronts. During one of these quiet periods a fog bank rolled in over the harbor and made all kinds of unique things happen with the lights around the area. At one point I was walking around to stretch my legs a bit and looking away from the lake over the campground area when I saw this spruce tree with a street light directly behind it. The way the light was spreading out from behind the tree and into the fog was mesmerizing.
Here is another favorite from last night's series of thunderstorms over the harbor in Grand Marais, MN. This was an 11 second exposure with an aperture of f/8 and ISO 400.
Last night before going to bed we were noticing some lightning flashes outside, so I looked at the weather radar and it showed a huge line of thunderstorms heading from west to east across northern Minnesota. I decided to head out and try to capture some photos of the lightning. I've been wanting to capture a lightning photograph over the Grand Marais harbor for quite some time, so that's where I decided to go. The radar showed the most intense parts of the storms were still a bit west of us, so I figured I had enough time to make the 40 minute drive before the storms passed by.
Well, the weather hit a little earlier than I expected and it ended up taking an extra 10 minutes to get to Grand Marais. The lightning was spectacular all the way along the drive and I was worried I was going to miss it over the harbor. Several times I had to slow to 35 to 40 miles per hour as the rain was coming down so hard I could barely see the lines on the highway. Thankfully, when I arrived in Grand Marais the storms were still going full blast. I was able to capture a few good shots of the lightning strikes before the weather moved too far out over the lake. The one you see here is my favorite shot of the night.
What a beautiful day for a hike! On Wednesday of this week Jessica and I ventured just across the border to explore the other side of Pigeon Bay on Lake Superior. We hiked the Finger Point Trail, which is a little over 3 miles round-trip. The trail follows along the shoreline of Pigeon Bay and ends on a high hilltop overlooking Lake Superior. It is a beautiful and very rewarding hike. While this trail is in Canada, the point that you see in the background of this photo is Pigeon Point, which is the very northeastern tip of Minnesota.
Here is another photo from last night's sunset, taken with my telephoto lens to create more of an abstract image. The colors and patterns in the clouds were pretty surreal. We sure do live in a beautiful world!
Crazy autumn-like weather yesterday! It definitely felt like fall with temperatures in the 50's, intermittent rain sprinkles and high winds all day long. I didn't let that stop me from taking my Monday evening post-work bike ride though. Maybe I should have stayed home, because I had a mishap which totally mangled the front derailleur on my bike. I had to remove it from the bike in order to complete the ride. During the last 5 miles of the ride I was descending in elevation back towards Lake Superior and looking at these beautiful clouds out over the lake. I was hoping the entire way that they would hang on until I got home so I could get some pictures. Luckily for me, the conditions lingered long enough for me to arrive home, grab my camera gear and run half a mile down the road to grab this shot.
From a recent outing to photograph the Milky Way Galaxy. Photographed within a stand of old growth white pines in Grand Portage, MN. Nikon D750 and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, 20 second exposure at f/2.8 and ISO 10,000.
