All over the internet, and my personal Facebook page were articles about the possibility of to see Northern Lights in New York State on March 23, 2019! I've only ever caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights once, back in 2013 while trying to shoot stars in Glacier National park. It was so faint that only the camera could detect it. My husband has seen Northern Lights before out on Redfield Reservoir back in the nineties. He called me Friday night, leaving me skeptical as to whether or not we could try to go see them. He arrived home from work about midnight slept til 8 am and then took a brief nap Saturday afternoon. Unsure if we would have any place to park at the reservoir in Redfield, I sent a Facebook Message to Sterling Nature Center on Lake Ontario asking permission to park and photograph the Northern Lights. It is a day use only facility. To our delight the director Jim D'Angelo granted us permission with encouragement to post photos of the event should we get any on the Facebook page. Although I may just share this blog. A short while later Sterling Nature Center put up a post welcoming others to watch with him as he was going up to watch at 11 pm too! We arrived at about 8 pm, just after the sun had set. In fact there was still an after glow for quite some time during what is called the blue hour. The wind blew cold and fierce (solar wind). Lake Ontario's waves thundered and swelled high. Good thing I had our son bundled up really well and the car wasn't too far away to jump in and out of to warm up. At first he didn't care for our little escapade as he is always a grouch when waking from a nap but soon he was running about and driving us a bit nuts with a headlamp. I am not sharing the pics but he did a bit of light painting for us (unintentionally). Looking at this photo I wonder if that tiny bit of green over the orange after glow could be Northern Lights. I really am not sure what it is. As the night darkened we focused more on stars still hoping for the aurora borealis. Above is the platform that overlooks the lake with my lantern and sleeping bag that I tried to warm up in between shots. The orange is light pollution from neighboring towns. This is a photo looking back toward the Sterling Nature Center. Yes there is a creepy looking red light in it. I am not sure what it is but assume some sort of security system. The purple streak in the photo were not visible to the naked eye. I believe this is a bit of "air glow." Tired of the cold wind coming off the lake we moved over to the first wooden platform. Here I played with the light pollution coming from Fair Haven through the trees and my favorite constellation. Do you see him there just off center where the trees form the corner of the field? Yes, it is Orion! Orion, the Big Dipper and the little dipper are the only constellations I can positively identify. Air glow and light pollution painted the background of the trees nicely. Other light sources posed a great challenge trying to photograph the night sky. We were not alone in our endeavor nor were we the only folks out there with little children. As 11 pm neared lots of other vehicles pulled up. All their lights drove me a bit crazy, but I can't blame them a bit we all wanted to see the northern lights even faintly. One last photo over the lake. A lot of people had gathered. It was interesting over hearing some conversations. One man spoke that at best with a K2 prediction we might get a faint glow but no moving ribbons. I began to feel uncomfortable and in the way, with so many people gathered and it was getting harder to keep track of my son. No one's fault, I am just extremely introverted ( silly tests all say I'm like 85% introvert). At this point the stars began to fade due to the rising of the waning gibbous moon. The moon was quite bright. My husband wanted catch a photo of it over the pond. I hung back and took another shot toward's the nature center with the moon framed by some trees. Our son kept running back and forth to the crowd until finally I told him let's go find Daddy. It was ten minutes to midnight when we departed. Predictions were that it could have occurred as late into the night as 2 am but we were cold and tired. We never did meet the director to thank him, although I am sure he was there. It didn't take long for our son to fall asleep on the drive home. I tried to keep my eyes open but the Northern Lights never appeared. Although I was a little disappointed it was an adventure, we were outside, the stars shone bright for a little while and the creative juices got to flow. I was a little concerned my husband would be upset but he too had a good time and was happy to photograph our friend in the sky, Orion! Did you see any northern lights last weekend?
Unlike other "Super Moons" witnessed as of late I was able to get out to photograph the "Worm Moon" on March 20,2019 and not freeze! From other internet articles I have read this full moon is called the worm moon because Robins can finally feed on worms here in the north country. It is big and bright with a huge halo making it a challenge to photograph. Unlike other super moons it did not take on any odd colors. Being so bright can make a moon be difficult to photograph. For this I used higher shutter and smaller aperture making sure to under expose the shot. I caught the moon rising just over a few trees across the road from our dwelling. My son ran a muck through the mud while I photographed in fury trying to catch the perfect shot. All of my shots were focused manually and most through tree branches and power lines with the 400 mm lens. I shot a crazy amount of photos (74) within maybe twenty minutes hoping to capture just the right exposure and clarity. I left my white balance in auto and then in post processing changed most of them to a color temperature of between 3400 K to 3600 K. Despite taking too many photos, I am pleased with a few of them. I'm not sure when our next adventure will be but since the springtime migration is beginning you may need to stay tuned for some more birding adventures. Although I have been in the mood for some waterfalls too! Either way I hope you enjoyed this blog, and thank-you for looking! |
Julie MetottNature Photographer, wife, mother, lover of outdoor adventure! Archives
November 2022
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