Tag: landscape

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Northern Lights and Proton Arc

The aurora forecast looked promising last night, so I decided to try and stay up and see if I could see anything.  I am surprised with how great the photos turned out, as frankly it wasn’t as vibrant to my eye as it was to the camera.  But, it wasn’t really dark yet either, at least at the start.

I didn’t know what it was until I saw it mentioned on some other people’s photos, but I captured a proton arc last night as well!

Most of the streaks through the photos are satellites, but there was one brilliant meteor that passed through as well.  Unfortunately, it rained yesterday afternoon and the evening was quite damp, and I ended up with some condensation on my lens on the later photos, which put halos around the brightest of the stars.

All in all though, I am really, really pleased I stayed up!  I hope you enjoy, have a great evening!

A beautiful display by mother nature! All photos 30sec, f3.5, ISO 2500. Taken with a Nikon D610 with the DX 10-24mm wide angle lens, using the cameras built in interval timer.
A beautiful display by mother nature! All photos 30sec, f3.5, ISO 2500. Taken with a Nikon D610 with the DX 10-24mm wide angle lens, using the cameras built in interval timer.

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The proton arc stretched out above. I had no idea what I was looking at!

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When the interval I has set was over, I swung the camera about 90 degrees to capture the proton arc crossing in front of the milky way.
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There are lots of satellite trails, but this one was definitely a meteor.

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The green along the tree line really shimmered and danced. It’s a shame the condensation caused those halos around the stars.

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Here’s a quick time lapse I did of the sequence of photos I took.  I think it does a nice job to show the beautiful movement in the sky.

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More night skies

I managed to get another evening in of night photography on the 11th (and then couldn’t manage to stay awake past 8:30 last night…)  I let me camera do its thing and was curled up under a blanket with a glass of wine, and consequently lost track of how many meteors I actually saw… it was a lovely evening though and here are a few photos I thought I would share.

Have a great evening!

3 meteors featured in this photo (all concentrated to the top right)
3 meteors featured in this photo (all concentrated to the top right)
2 meteors in this shot, again towards the top right.
2 meteors in this shot, again towards the top right.
3 in this one, 2 top right, one amongst the clouds
3 in this one, 2 top right, one amongst the clouds
I just caught the start of one here.
I just caught the start of one here.
The start of a meteor and also getting a glimpse of the milky way. I should have adjusted my ISO by this point, but I was more interested in watching the sky and drinking my wine :)
The start of a meteor and also getting a glimpse of the milky way. I should have adjusted my ISO by this point, but I was more interested in watching the sky and drinking my wine 🙂
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Night Skies

Yesterday, for the first time since I moved, I managed to stay awake to see the stars.  I’m sure that sounds a bit funny, but summer nights are long in southern Canada, and even longer now that I have moved quite a bit further north.  And this early bird does have trouble staying up past 10…

But, I managed last night and got my camera set up hoping to catch a bit of the meteor shower (I saw one, and captured a few faint trails before I called it a night).  What I was most impressed with though was the clouds.  The first shot in the photos I am posting was taken at 10:30, and the last at 10:59 (okay, I didn’t manage that far past 10).  The moon wasn’t up yet, and I live far from from city lights.  I didn’t do anything other than export the photos from lightroom, they were taken with auto white balance, and all at 30 seconds exposure, f3.5, ISO 1000 (with my focus set to infinity).

If you look really, really closely in the last two photos, you might see the faint evidence of a meteor.

I’m excited for playing around more with night photography.  I must say, it was fun to get set up on on my back deck with a couple beers and watch the sky for awhile and take a few photos.

Have a great evening everyone.  It’s pretty overcast here tonight so I’m going to give the late night shooting a miss – maybe tomorrow though 🙂

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Kalahari Sunset

I have been doing my best to spend at least an hour each day going through my photos and finally working on organizing and rating them.  It may sound boring to some, but I absolutely love it.

I spent the evening going through photos from the Kalahari Desert, and kept coming back to this sunset photo.  The colours make me smile, so I thought I would share.

Have a great evening!

A beautiful sunset over the Kalahari Desert. Taken during a sundowner drinks stop at Kalahari Plains Camp, April 2015. 1/60sec, f4.0, ISO400
A beautiful sunset over the Kalahari Desert. Taken during a sundowner drinks stop at Kalahari Plains Camp, April 2015.
1/60sec, f4.0, ISO400
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Half and Half

This weeks WordPress photo challenge is half and half, and the first thing I thought of was all the sunset photos I took during an Okavango Delta sundowner cruise.  We stopped the boat in a tiny bay, and had a beautiful view of this small island with the sun setting behind it.

A beautiful sunset on the Okavango Delta, Baines Camp, Botswana. April 2015. 1/250sec, f8.0, ISO 100
A beautiful sunset on the Okavango Delta, Baines Camp, Botswana. April 2015.
1/250sec, f8.0, ISO 100

Half and Half

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Travel Theme: Land Meets Water

I think my favourite place (so far) where I have seen land meet water, is the beautiful Okavango Delta.  Experiencing it by helicopter is truly a breathtaking experience.  Here is my choice for the photo challenge Travel Theme: Land Meets Water

The glorious Okavango Delta, where the division between land and water changes on a daily basis.
The glorious Okavango Delta, where the division between land and water changes on a daily basis.
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Kalahari Desert Star Trail

I’ve not had the opportunity to work on many star trails (only twice before this past trip) and while we had clear skies almost every night, there wasn’t always an opportunity to photograph the stars.  Most places we stayed had covered decks plus tree cover, and at almost every property it was against the rules to leave your room unattended after dark due to things like lions and leopards.  And the few places I did have the chance to work from my room, I didn’t necessarily have the best view of the stars, and it wasn’t advisable to leave the camera outside over night working, so I was limited to my waking hours (and when getting up before 5am, those aren’t too late).  Now add to all those limitations the fact that once I finally had the chance to stack the photos, I realized I got the settings wrong. Heavy sigh. 🙁

But…

I still like this composite.  I obviously set the period between photos far too long, as when you zoom in, you can see black spaces between the stars instead of a perfectly smooth trail.  To me though, when zoomed in it looks like a macro photo of some type of fabric.  I also like the way the curves are different from one side to the other.

This is a technique I definitely need to practice A LOT more, and I am looking forward to learning the proper settings.

A composite that is filled with errors, but I still really like the final result.
A composite that is filled with errors, but I still really like the final result.
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