THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

FOREST 9936

"Foggy Maples"

A foggy afternoon in the forest on the last day of August 2011. This was taken with my 'point-and-shoot' camera, a Canon G11.

Camera: Canon PowerShot G11
Focal length: 6.1mm
Shutter speed: 1/60
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO: 400

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2011

SUPERIOR FALL 1866

"Awesome Sunset, Grand Portage Bay"

Here's a shot of last night's AMAZINGLY AWESOME sunset over Lake Superior. It was certainly one of the best sunset skies that I have EVER seen!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 1/13
Aperture: f/10
ISO: 200

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

PIGEON RIVER 1940

"Pink sunset over Partridge Falls"

Last night's sunset at Partridge Falls on the Pigeon River. This wonderful sunset was only the beginning of what was to become an amazing night of photography!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 2 seconds
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 200

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

STAR TRAILS 1985

"Aurora Surprise"

After sunset at Partridge Falls I was out shooting stars and the Milky Way when a quick glance to the North revealed a nice surprise: a faint glow of Northern lights on the horizon! There wasn't any aurora activity in the forecast that night, so I was quite excited when I looked to the North and saw the lights. Since they were so faint, I decided to try a long exposure. This image ended up being 30 minutes long and I just loved the effect of the Northern lights combined with the spinning stars.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 30 minutes
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 100

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

BALD EAGLE 1999

"Bald Eagle in afternoon sun"

I just get home from work

and what do I see...

An Eagle in a tree

and he's lookin' at me!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mm
Focal length: 400mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 800

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

BALD EAGLE 2001

"Bald Eagle taking off"

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mm
Focal length: 400mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 800

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

STAR TRAILS 1973

"Passing Time on Mt. Maude"

This is my favorite picture from last weekend's night shooting sessions. It takes a bit of planning and preparation to pull off a shot like this but when you take your time and set things up right, the results are worth it. After about 20 "test" shots to dial in the composition I was ready to start the long exposure. This was a 96 minute exposure that I started at exactly 10:00 PM on September 3rd. The lens aperture was set at f4, and the camera's ISO was set at 100. Careful placement of the North star makes (I believe) for a very compelling composition.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 96 minutes
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 100

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

AURORA 2112

"Northern Lights - September 10, 2011"

My new habit of checking the spaceweather.com website every day seems to be paying off! Lately I have been getting quite a few nice shots of the Aurora Borealis, thanks in no small part to the information gathered from the spaceweather.com site. On Thursday, September 8th I checked the website just like I do any other day. Thursday's visit to the site revealed that a series of CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections) had occurred on the sun, and that those CME's had occurred on the side of the sun that was facing Earth. When this happens, generally it takes about 48 hours for them to reach our atmosphere... and when they do, beautiful Auroras are the result.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 10 seconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 800

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2011

AURORA 2496

"Early morning Aurora over Deronda Bay"

With the knowledge of the incoming CME's, and their expected time of arrival the night of September 10th, I started making my plans. I had to work on the 10th, so I knew that without some solid sack time I would be a zombie before the lights started to flare up. So, as is my normal plan of attack when shooting the Northern lights, I got done with work on the 10th, went home and went straight to bed. I slept from 5:00 PM until 10:00 PM, and was then refreshed enough (I hoped) for a full night of shooting.

As it turns out it was a good thing I got that sleep time in, because the lights didn't really start with any significance until just after midnight, and they continued all night until daylight started to creep into the sky, just before 6:00 AM. This particular photo was made at 4:42 AM along the shores of Lake Superior. Before moving to the shoreline, I had spent most of the night up on Mt. Maude, where the higher elevation provides almost a 360 degree view of the night sky. While on Mt. Maude I took a series of almost 400 photos of the dancing Northern lights and condensed them into a timelapse video, my first ever attempt at such a thing. All in all, it was a tiring, yet very rewarding, night of photography!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 30 seconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 2500

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

SUPERIOR FALL 2628

"Sunset smoke haze"

Smoke from the Pagami Creek Fire near Ely, MN makes for a dramatic sunset over Lake Superior in Grand Portage, MN on September 13, 2011. One thing's for sure... all this smoke in our sky makes for some pretty wild sunsets!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm
Focal length: 24mm
Shutter speed: 1/80
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 800

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

FOREST 1881

"Night begins on Mt. Maude"

A 60 second exposure of fast-moving clouds at dusk taken on September 2, 2011.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 60 seconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 800

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

PIGEON RIVER 2702

"Early Autumn at High Falls, September 2011"

I made this image a couple of days ago on the Pigeon River at Grand Portage State Park. Normally I don't care for HDR (High Dynamic Range) photopraphy but in this instance I decided to try HDR, since my split grad filter just wasn't giving me very good results. The image you see here is a blending of 3 different photos at 3 different exposure settings, one exposed for the brightly-lit trees, one exposed for the dark foreground rocks and another one exposed for the middle areas of the scene.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm
Focal length: 55mm
Shutter speed: 1/4 sec
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 50

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

AURORA 2830

"Mt. Maude Aurora"

Northern Lights from last night at about 9:13 P.M. This shot also made the front page at spaceweather.com today!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 30 seconds
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 2500

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

AUTUMN 2929

"Minnesota's Maple Mountains"

Photo taken just before sunset this evening. The colors are starting to get really nice out there!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 1/13
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 800

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

AUTUMN 3218

"Caribou Lake Colors"

Autumn at White Sky Rock along the Caribou Trail in Cook County, MN.

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm
Focal length: 17mm
Shutter speed: 1/10
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 200

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

AUTUMN 3180

"Honeymoon Trail, Northeast Minnesota"

The colors are fantastic right now! Better get out there and enjoy them while they last!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm
Focal length: 60mm
Shutter speed: 1/100
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 1600