Aurora Borealis, May 10, Part 3

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 portion is showing here. Note the tiny star in the lower right corner is not visible in the first two images as it was just below the edge of the photo. I just love how the colors are constantly changing and shifting position. These auroras are truly dynamic.

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Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

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.

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The Aurora Borealis, May 10, 2024

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...

Notes To My Mother

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