Spirit Tree

Aurora borealis on a moonlit winter night along Lake Superior can provide some really interesting compositions. On moonless nights the sky can show bolder northern lights set in front of a jet black Universe. When the moon is out, as it was this evening, it can wash out those contrasts. The tradeoff, though, is that the moon lights up the landscape with the long exposures needed for Aurora photography and along with the textures and contours of the landscape, the snow sharply reflects the moonlight making it seem as though there are stars imbedded in the ground.

For this particular image, I was not the only person at the location. A young couple was sitting among a cluster of trees that I would have liked to have photographed. However, they were using flashlights inconsistently and did not shut of the LCD screens on their cameras. Both of those light sources would have been very distracting in any of the pictures I would have taken.

In any case, shortly after taking this photo, I glanced at the image on my camera and new it was a keeper. It wasn’t until I opened it up on my computer this morning, though that I saw how interestingly the northern lights mimic the form of the silhouetted white pine.

If you look closely you can make out most of Ursa Major (The Big Dipper) above and beyond the white pine.

Sci-Fi Photography Workshop

During our most recent Night Sky Photography Workshop, this one led by Nate Bett with me assisting, I was taking pics of the participants, along the shore of Lake Superior, with the Milky Way overhead during the practical application portion of the workshop. One of the participants decided to leave earlier than everyone else. When I saw that his path of turning his vehicle around was going to cast his headlight beams across every single one of the remaining participants, I quickly started a long exposure in hopes of capturing something interesting. I had no idea that the result would be so “sci-fi.”

The clouds in the sky, the headlight passing through the light Lake Superior fog that was starting to condense, the movement of the participants all came together to make something ethereal and completely beyond what I thought I would capture.

Keweenaw Dark Sky Park Inaugural Night Sky Photography Workshop

The inaugural Night Sky Photo Workshop at the newly designated Keweenaw Dark Sky Park was a success. Admittedly, it took some perseverance and patience but many hours after the class portion of the workshop concluded the sky finally cleared (mostly) and offered beautiful views of the Milky Way in one direction and the glow of the northern lights in the other. This was Brad’s first time getting his own pictures of the Aurora and he was very excited about it.

The Night Sky Photography Workshops take place each month at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, on (or near) the date of the new moon. Check out the Lodge’s website and calendar of events for the next workshop. Call or email the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge’s Events and Education to get signed up.

Poster from the inaugural Night Sky Photography Workshop at the newly designated Keweenaw Dark Sky Park.