It sure was fun photographing Comet NEOWISE. I really got drawn into it and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, spending 5 whole nights outside over the course of a week and a half viewing and photographing it.
This photo was made on July 23rd at 12:30 AM in Grand Portage State Park, MN. As the comet moves further away from Earth and as full moon approaches, each night gets brighter and the comet becomes more difficult to see. Soon it will be impossible to see with the naked eye. I feel very fortunate to have photographed it on some really amazing nights in a variety of locations. This could very well go down as my most favorite subject photographed in 2020.
Grand Portage State Forest, MN. The rising sun illuminating the underside of receding storm clouds that just an hour before produced some pretty intense lightning and rain showers. Unsettled sky replaced with calm and peacefulness to greet the dawn of a new day.
I find the beauty and mystique of Lake Superior on a foggy day to be endlessly mesmerizing...
Going back to Saturday evening and why I spent so much time (about two hours) sitting at the Susie Islands along Highway 61. The fog conditions were changing so quickly and dramatically that I simply could not pull myself away. Sometimes when we have abundant fog conditions on Lake Superior there is this fog "wave" that continually rolls over Hat Point in Grand Portage. And that is exactly what was happening on Saturday. In this series of photos you can see how the fog wave went from relatively small and undramatic to huge and super imposing, almost completely obscuring the point and Mt. Josephine from view!
It took me a while to get home from work yesterday. As I was driving by the Lake Superior overlooks along the way, the fog and clouds over the lake were awesome. I pulled over and spent the next couple of hours shooting and just watching the view as it continually changed in front of me. The air was very warm, humid and still. It felt like a sauna. It's always a treat to be able to sit and take in these displays so close to home!
The sky put on quite a show on Monday night! Comet NEOWISE is moving a little higher in the sky and getting closer to the Big Dipper and I was lucky enough to catch a nice meteor streak in this photograph too! There was a very light haze in the sky that night which made the brighter stars even more vivid in the sky, helping the Big Dipper show up better than it normally would in this wide angle photo. To top it off, it was a nice calm night so the stars reflected quite nicely in the water.
We sure have been seeing a lot of thunderstorms lately and it looks like that trend will continue in the coming week. Here is a shot of some receding storms taken over Lake Superior in front of my house last week.
I just can't get enough of this comet! Our forecast for last night was mostly clear. I was a little worried throughout the day, however, as we had heavy cloud cover for the majority of the day. The sky didn't start to clear until around 6:00 PM and thankfully it stayed clear for most of the night! I headed up into Grand Portage State forest, MN to find some places to photograph it. I stopped at one of the lakes and made this image zoomed in at 50mm to make the comet look a little larger. While it is fading now, it still put on a fantastic show.
To and fro the pendulum throws
We are here and then we go
Understand what we don't know
This might pass
This might last
This may grow
Easy come and easy go...
... to and fro the pendulum throws
-Pearl Jam
I don't know about everyone else but being able to enjoy the views of Comet NEOWISE has been a welcome distraction from all that's going on in the world right now. It's definitely been the strangest and most uncertain year in my existence. Heading out into the woods to view the comet has brought me back to what I enjoy most: spending time at night practicing my photography.
When I drive to and from the locations where I view and photograph the night sky, I am usually listening to music. Sometimes a particular song will come up as I'm driving that resonates with the experience I had that night. When that happens I will make a mental note to listen to that song again when I am sitting at the computer and editing the photos. Such was the case as I was driving home after this awesome night of photographing the comet. The song "Pendulum" by Pearl Jam came across my shuffle list and it seemed perfectly suited to the experience I had that night.
So, when I got home and was working on these photographs, I listened to it a few times in the background. When I was done working on the photos, I sat back and closed my eyes to really soak in the sound and the lyrics. When I do this I hear so much more going on in a song then I ever did before. The mesmerizing rhythm of Jeff Ament's bass, the details in the haunting echo of Mike McCready's guitar playing and of course, Eddie Vedder's signature sound as the thoughtful lyrics pour out from deep within his core. All of it comes together to create an unforgettable sound. And it all seemed like the perfect match for this photo.
If you're not familiar with the song and are interested in looking it up, by far my favorite version of it is from Pearl Jam's live performance in St. Paul on October 19, 2014. I attended that concert and it was AWESOME. The guys played for around 3 hours that night and were at the top of their game. The song "Pendulum" was the first song they played that night. And it laid the groundwork for an unforgettable performance. Much like the experience of seeing Comet NEOWISE. Unforgettable.
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." -Carl Sagan
I thought this quote from the late astronomer Carl Sagan was fitting for this photograph. To me, comets spark the imagination and make me ponder what other wonders are out there yet to be discovered.
There is much we have learned but also much that we don't know. To also quote everyone's favorite astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, "We celebrate not knowing". I can relate to that, because the unknown is what often sparks the imagination. The unknown is something that sparks curiosity and the desire to "hack our way through the brush and bramble to the frontier... that boundary between what is known and unknown in the universe. And when you stand there, and look out into the abyss... you can't fear that. It has to attract you. And so, we celebrate not knowing."
With my photography, and my night photography in particular, I try to convey this sense of wonder and curiosity and also try to spark the imagination. Whether or not I've succeeded, I suppose, depends upon the individual viewer. I know it works for me. Whenever I see a cool night photograph from another photographer, it sparks my own imagination and makes me want to spend even more time out under the stars, staring out into the vast unknown.
Heading home after a very successful night photographing thunderstorms and Comet NEOWISE in Grand Portage State Forest, MN.
Last night was AWESOME! I decided to head into Grand Portage State Forest to try and photograph Comet NEOWISE over one of my favorite lakes. As I was making the drive to the lake I wasn't too hopeful I would have a successful night because throughout the entire drive I could see flashes of lightning ahead. The forecast was for mostly clear skies so the storms were unexpected.
When I arrived at the lake it was raining and heavily overcast. After just a few minutes though the storm passed, exposing the stars and the comet. A little while later another storm passed through, followed again by a few minutes of nice, clear sky. This cycle occurred about 4 or 5 times throughout the night. Between each storm the stars and comet would reveal themselves for a short while until the next storm arrived. At about 2:00 AM, when this photograph was made, the crescent moon was rising and provided some nice lighting onto the trees in the scene.
Another shot of the comet from last night. This was at the peak of the aurora activity, which could barely be seen with the naked eye. Since this photo was shot at ISO 12800, however, the camera picked it up. I didn't see the colors at all at the time, but I could very faintly see the vertical pillars of light. The comet with the aurora is definitely one of the most fascinating things I've ever photographed!
I was finally able to make it out and see Comet NEOWISE last night! Is it ever awesome! It is easily visible where I live thanks to the minimal light pollution. There was also an extremely faint aurora glow which was barely visible to the naked eye. What an awesome night to be outside!
On the way home from work yesterday I drove through some rain that was totally unexpected. I stopped to check the forecast on my phone and look at the radar. It didn't look like it was going to last very long so I parked for a while to wait it out and see if any rainbows would pop up. Sure enough, that's what happened!
For this post I'm going to go back once again to one of my favorites, Jack Kornfield, from "Awakening is Real: A Guide to the Deeper Dimensions of the Inner Journey".
Jack states: "When you begin to trust more and more that you can live in the present, it doesn't mean you can't think about the past or future, but you live where you are."
A little ironic, I suppose, to be thinking and talking about being in the present while gazing at the stars. I say this because when we look at the stars we are literally looking back in time. The light we see from the stars originated long ago. It takes a long time for that light to reach us so when it does, we are looking at light that has already existed for quite some time but exists presently for us.
It is in these quiet moments of the night where I feel I am "in the moment" more than any other. It is where I am living, right where I am.
The storms over Lake Superior last night sure were a lot of fun to watch. It was one of those rare times where the heart of the storms were pretty far away so you could sit and comfortably watch without much fear of getting caught in a downpour. I watched the storms for about an hour in this location.
While the "good" strikes were rather infrequent, when they did happen they were big and REALLY bright. At first I had my ISO set way too high and my photos were extremely blown out. Eventually I settled on an ISO of 200 and aperture of f/5.6 and that seemed to give me fairly well-balanced exposures. I hope we get more storms soon. Not just because they're fun to watch but because we need more rain. We got very little moisture last night and we could sure use some more.
Beautiful moonlight, stars and fog over a calm Lake Superior last night.
Yesterday we had the first storm in quite a while roll over Grand Portage Bay. It has been SUPER dry up here this year and it sure was nice to finally get some rain, even if it was for only an hour. It rained pretty hard for about half that time but I wonder if it was enough to bring the fire danger down at all. I'm sure the ground absorbed that rain pretty quickly. But boy, what a sight it was to see this incredible front roll over Lake Superior!
The cloud structure was pretty amazing and once the front hit, the wind was howling and lightning flashed every few seconds. The rain fell sideways and hard. Half an hour later the wind had died considerably and the intense sideways rain had diminished to a gentle straight-down rain. Half an hour after that, the clouds were parting as the sun approached the horizon. By the time the sun set, it was all over.
It was a beautiful moonrise this evening. There is supposed to be a chance of an eclipse tonight as well but here at the northeastern tip of Minnesota we are now socked in with clouds. There was just enough of a gap in the clouds to capture this photo at dusk.
