Category: Northern Lights

Photographed September 27, 2017

Bear Island Lake • Babbitt, Minnesota

The title should describe something that surpasses the boundaries and limitations of the human body. The discussion began while chatting with a woman who has a deaf sibling. Although I believe I have “heard” the northern lights in some sort of pulse form, it is more of a rhythmic sensation I feel while out photographing light shows that take over the entire sky. My niece who is now ten, is non-verbal. I often wonder how she would express herself while viewing the northern lights.

This image has been in the making for a number of years. It’s surprising how difficult it is to not only get a good display of northern lights with a great landscape, but with a foreground and the northern lights that tells a story. It wasn’t until Tom and moved to northern Minnesota that we even tried to photograph this amazing phenomenon. There is an airport light that swings through my go-to spot in Babbitt, often sending me half an hour north just to get that out of my frame. It seems to be Ely where the magic actually happens. Sometimes I’m on the east end toward the end of the road, and other times I’m on the west side by some of the more populated lakes. It’s rare that I’m in the town proper, since there are so many street lights that would wash out the scene. But for years, I’ve strived to put Ely in the scene with the northern lights. At the end of August that happened. Right place, right time, and a nice display of lights.

When word gets out that the sky might dance, folks flock to their nearest location. On this night, I went here on purpose to try to capture the scene. Not only did we all get to see the colors light up the sky, we may have all participated in the oooos and aaahhhs vocalized as the beams of light appeared to reach for the stars!

Burntside Lake • Ely, Minnesota

The evening started out with many familiar faces gathering for the Ely Field Naturalists summer potluck at Lucky Boy Farm. The food was delicious, and catching up with folks was fabulous! This was followed by a heart-warming musical performance by our friend Jerry Vandiver from Nashville, Tennessee. Just before the concert came to an end, a Yellow Alert for auroras popped up on my phone. I’ll admit to packing it up quickly and saying my goodbyes in haste as I made my way to the truck which was already loaded with camera gear and supplies for staying out into the wee hours of the morning.

Driving toward a familiar location, there were very bright colorful curtains of light high above the tree line. You can see in this first image how strong the breeze was. The shutter was open for 13 seconds, which often will keep most movement to a minimum. It was 9:37 and just at the end of Nautical Twilight, making it barely bright enough outside to see without using some other light source.

The Perseid Meteor Shower is coming to an end, but there were still plenty of shooting stars to cause ooos and ahhs throughout the night! As the sky grew darker, the clouds began to move in.

The parking lot was now full, and the entire northern horizon was dancing up a storm!

Shortly after 10:30 a proton arc became visible just east of the aurora show.

Directly across from it, we could see another piece of the arc lighting up the sky.

Within minutes the two pieces seemed to join together, creating an X with the Milky Way.

It really was a sight to behold. As described to me by my meteorologist friend Bob Conzemius, a proton arc is basically a band of auroras caused by protons, whereas most auroras are caused by electrons.

As the night went on, more and more friendly faces joined in on the fun of watching the night sky in action! Admittedly it is difficult to stand still for a 25 second exposure, but I think this group did pretty darn good!

If you look closely you can see two meteors zipping across the Milky Way in this image.

As the lights died down, people began to leave the area. I stopped at a few other locations as I began the trek home. Passing a small clearing, I swore I could see the show start back up again. It probably comes as no shock that I turned around and went out to the lake. It was 1 am and I arrived just in time to pick up some fantastic movement and colorful structure before the thunderstorm took over the sky.

After five consecutive nights of shooting auroras, I’ve decided that it is probably in my best interest NOT to ever go to Alaska, Norway, or any of those other amazing places where you get to see the northern lights dance every night! Yowsa!

Being able to not only watch the lights dance before my eyes, but create unique compositions is something I’ve been striving for.

Last night between pillar structures and various “blobs” of light filling the sky, I took advantage of the dark sky and went for the star trails image. With a good amount of geomagnetic energy out there, I was able to capture a nice amount of aurora glow along the horizon.

If you’re interested in learning more about night sky photography, come take a class! The International Wolf Center is offering a weekend workshop beginning April 17th. You can get more details here.

The test images revealed a thin veil of clouds and a very bright moon. Hopes of capturing the northern lights were slim, but there is rarely a time that I NEVER try. Driving north I found clearer skies. Just settling in to wait and have a bite of dinner, a pink pillar shot up before my eyes! The gear was in place, and with ten second exposures I was able to obtain two images that contained those pretty pink spires.

ISO: 1600; ƒ/2.8 @ 16mm for 10 seconds

A few moments later, the green bow stretched across the horizon, hanging in place for a good half an hour. Both of these images were made along the ice road on Shagawa Lake in Ely, Minnesota, and both were visible to the naked eye, even with the very bright moonlight.

ISO: 800; ƒ/2.8 @ 16mm for 8 seconds

Both images photographed January 31, 2015

When we first moved to northern Minnesota, the Fernberg Trail was  one of my favorite locations to shoot the auroras from. Even though cell service was spotty, it was a comfortable place to be alone in the night.

Rookie Pond Overlook had this big ol’ dead Jack Pine that added interest to MANY of my night sky shots. The sentinel fell in a windstorm a few years ago.  As I often still stop to get a view, I rarely press the shutter there anymore.

This image was made on March 10, 2011.

ISO: 500; ƒ2.8 @ 15mm for 30 seconds

With a text from a friend @ 2:13 this morning, I was out the door looking for lady aurora. The Bz had plummeted to -20 (which is a great number for auroras)! It was also the temperature outside. Driving to all of my favorite spots, I was unable to capture the lights. I could see the moon and stars bright above me, but felt like I was living in a fog bowl close to the horizon. At 3:55 I caught my first glimpse of green, and it was high in the sky! I knew I couldn’t see the lights anywhere along Birch Lake, so I zipped over to Bear Island where I often have luck. Sure enough! There was red recording on the camera & I could see a moving glow with my own eyes. This was fantastic!

With the windchill right around -40 and my car battery light going on, I thought I’d head home to catch a few winks.  Fat chance! As I came around the corner at the 904 Road my eyeballs turned into saucers as I looked to my left. The lights were higher and brighter than they were just five minutes ago! These were six second exposures I was making, along with watching the show as I stood in awe!