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.