Weird Science

My fur-riends Olivia and Roxy sent me this link and we just had to post... enjoy! I know I learned sumpin' today!

Lake Superior Aurora - Grand Portage, MN

Here's what I captured last night. Throughout the afternoon I was watching the Aurora forecast sites predicting STORM-LEVEL Auroras only to watch the index fall just as darkness was approaching in Northern Minnesota. Even though the activity level was no longer classified as "STORM" by the time it got dark here, it was still classified as "ACTIVE", so I decided to head out and watch the sky for a while. It was a good thing I did, as I saw plenty of activity in the first hour that I was looking. At first all I could see were several faint pillars of light dancing from East to West across the sky. Soon those pillars were joined by a glowing green "cloud" of light. Above the lights the sky was saturated with stars. Lake Superior was so calm the only sound coming from the shoreline below my clifftop vantage point was the barely audible, soft lapping sound of the water as it kissed the rocks along the beach. It was a sublime night for sure!

Sunset at Schwabacher's Landing

Just when I thought the entire trip was going to go by without having any decent clouds, the planets aligned and for my last sunset of the trip we had fantastic clouds and color over the Teton Mountains! Our decision on where to shoot sunset on this evening was kind of up in the air, so I suggested going back to Schwabacher's Landing and giving it a try. Normally known as a better spot for sunrise shooting, the other morning when we were there I couldn't help but think that this would be a good spot for sunset as well. I always like to have moving water in my shots when possible, and I thought the water just below the beaver dam would make for a great foreground for a sunset shot.

Another element which added some drama to the scene was some smoke and haze from a nearby prescribed burn that was going on elsewhere in the valley. The Tetons were sort of "trapping" this haze on the east side of the mountains, which really helped to catch some extra color from the setting sun. It was a phenomenal sunset to witness. I only hope I was able to catch at least some of that feeling in these images.

An interesting thing that happened is that as soon as the "best" of the light started to fade, all of the other photographers started packing up their gear and leaving. The last one to walk by me stopped and said "Well, the lights gone now." I replied: "Not at all! There's still at least half an hour of good light left!" "Well, if you say so....." the man replied. He wished me well then retreated to his car. I spent close to another hour shooting after than encounter. The image below was made almost 40 minutes after that other photographer proclaimed the "good" light to be gone.

After shooting the sunset I parted ways with Jake and Stuart, thanking them for an incredible time. We had loads of fun shooting together. They went back to the hotel, and I hit the road since I had to be back in time to work Saturday morning. It was a short trip, but a great trip nonetheless. I can't wait to go back!

Pink Poppy

Here we are, almost halfway through September already, but our flower gardens around the house still have a beautiful variety of blooms! Here is a recent shot of one of our pink poppies in the front yard. I used the macro mode on my Canon G11 camera to make this close-up, abstract image of the flower.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

I just finished reading this month's read for my bookgroup, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I really liked it. It reminded me of lots of old black and white movies I've seen about tenement living in New York City. I can't remember the names of any of them right now, but there's always the nice, Irish cop walking his beat, mean little boys creating mischief, and parents trying to make enough money to feed their children. If anyone can recommend a movie like that, please let me know the title.
All I can say is that I'm glad I have enough food to eat, because I'd find it extremely hard if not impossible to be
hopeful and cheery living in that kind of poverty.
Here's a paragraph that really stood out to me when I read it. It's a prayer by the teenage daughter. "Dear God," she prayed, "let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry . . . have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere-be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost."
She was afraid of a life of drudgery and endless striving to get ahead; of becoming emotionally deadened to life.
Being a drama queen myself, this passage shouts out to me. I struggle with being obedient to God's Word by "living a quiet life" and "being content in all things" as the Apostle Paul learned to do. I want to pitch and rail, shout from the rooftops, fall down sobbing...I told you I was a drama queen. I don't do those things, anymore, but I want to.
I think I have a fear of complacency; of becoming an invisible old woman. What I need to do is be obedient to follow Scripture and God will be faithful to bring me along as He wills. Maybe I don't trust Him enough?

Early morning Aurora over Deronda Bay

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.

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!

Walking in Christ's Steps

More gleanings from Margins by Richard A. Swenson: "If God were our appointment secretary, would He schedule us for every minute of every day? Well-meaning Christians might differ in their answers, but by now it must be obvious that I think the answer would be no. Many arguments could be made in defense of my answer, but perhaps the strongest is the lifestyle that Christ Himself chose. Time urgency was not only absent, it was conspicuously absent. And I doubt its absence had to do with cultural context.
Christ's teaching, His healing, His serving, and His loving were usually spontaneous. The person standing in front of Him was the opportunity He accepted. If He chose spontaneous living, isn't that a signal to us? Overloaded schedules are not the way to walk In His Steps."

Luna luna

The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right,
White as a knuckle and terribly upset.
-Sylvia Plath

The moon's an arrant thief,
and her pale fire she snatches from the sun...
-Shakespeare

I see the moon
and the moon sees me.
-Nursery rhyme
-----
It was cloudy most of the time, but every now and then we got a few nice glimpses of the lunar eclipse last night. Or as one of my friends calls it, the Moonar Clipse.
Clouds were ok though, since it meant that we got lots of rain, lovely rain, today.

Hoppin' To See Ya!

Hi Pals! It's been raining quite a bit this week and Mom's been attending to neglected duties, so we are sorry we haven't been around to comment and see what's going on for the most part. We're headed your way on Blog Hop Saturday! Hope you've had a great week!