Notes To My Mother

  I had fully intended to finish off these blogs regarding the aurora with some images with visible landscape in the foreground to put the light show in perspective.  Then I found these three overlooked images and just had to share them.  These three were taken with the camera pointed toward the zenith.  The one above was a 10 second exposure. Thirty seconds later this image was taken with a 15 second exposure.  Notice how the image is smoother and less detailed due to the constant motion of the light.  The faster image actually shows more of the structure of the aurora.  The longer exposures smooth out the light in much the same way as a long exposure of moving clouds smooths out the cloud structure. Again,  taken about 30 seconds later, this image was also a 15 second exposure.  With the first two the camera was aimed at exactly the same spot for both images.  The camera shifted slightly for this image such that more of the lower porti...

As a quick update: All of these images were taken on the night of May 10-11, 2024. on San Juan Island WA.  We were taken by surprise in the middle of our vacation when it was announced there was to be an aurora display that would likely be visible from our location.  What an understatement!  What we witnessed was simply out of this world.  We saw colors I did not know existed in the auroras, especially the light pinks and, of all things, orange (neon).   There were four of us on the grounds at the Trumpeter Inn during the "show".  I was the only one with a DSLSR camera so the others would see something interesting and I would point my camera in that direction and take a timed exposer.  Most were in the 15 to 20 second length.   At one point, Jan looked up straight overhead and saw something that was quite unusual; it looked like some kind of convergence.  I pointed the camera overhead and took this picture, which I find startling....

  This last May, my wife, Jan, and I were on vacation in the San Juan Islands, WA.  We were there for a week staying at the Trumpeter Inn, a B&B on San Juan Island.  Mid way through our stay we heard there was to be a Northern Lights display and that we would likely be able to see it since we were at a latitude just north of Victoria, BC.  The excitement was immediate.  The conditions were just right as the sky was cloudless and the moon was in its crescent phase and would be low on the horizon (and therefore not overly bright) during the expected good viewing time between 10 pm and 2 am.   The image above was taken that night and is what I was expecting to see, a green Aurora.  Little did we know what was to come! Early on the was the first hint that something special was about to happen as color in addition to green began to show.  I found this very exciting as I had seen green auroras before but never one with the purple/blue colors an...

  I have titled the above image "The Window".  It was taken from a dirt road on the way to Buttermilk Boulders east of Bishop.  Bishop is out of sight below the horizon in the middle of the image.  The distant mountains are the White Mountains to the East of Bishop.  This is illustrative of how the storm was all around bishop with Bishop remaining in sunshine. Bishop Ponds were especially attractive in the late afternoon light as the sages seemed to glow. The early morning light in Pleasant Valley with the storm seeming to clear.  For the time being. 30 miles north of this 395 was still closed due to the storm.  This is a popular trout fishing area blessed by the Owens River.

In the fall of 2023 I became aware of a composition I wanted to capture in the Eastern Sierras.  The problem was not knowing exactly were it was.  I had seen a picture of it and knew it was in the Bishop area due to the particular mountains in the scene. I was pretty sure it was taken from Table Lands north of Bishop.   I started searching, driving around, walking to the edge of Table Lands with no luck.   I was able to rule out a number of locations.   Then I resorted to Google Earth and, finally after much exploring, figured out what I thought was at least the approximate location.  I had found a dirt road and knew I could continue my quest on that road and get fairly close to where I thought I should be.  I began planning a trip to the Bishop area but what I needed for success was a good storm to bring the snow down the eastern faces of the Sierra mountains.  Finally, a good storm was predicted for early March 2024.    ...

 The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work.  The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time.  On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites.  I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own.  I am pretty excited about this showing.   One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland.  When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it.  This composition required gettin into some very cold water.