Northern Lights at the Farm

During the past two years while photographing the Northern Lights, I often thought about what it would be like to see the lights while visiting the farm.  The farm belongs to my brother-in-law and his wonderful wife, my sister.  We spend a few weekends there each November which can be prime Northern Lights season.  Chances of being there on a weekend, with the lights and clear skies can be slim, but last weekend it all came together.  The white snow reflected the yard light and with the near full moon and long exposures the scenes looked like they were taken in daylight.

Their beautiful red barn was the perfect fit with the lights.

Open pasture provided a clear opening to the skies.

It really was a cold and nasty night but I didn't have to wonder off too far for fantastic views of the farm and the Northern Lights

I did take a little walk down to the barn where a couple of horses came to greet me.  Trying to get them to pose still for a 20 second exposure was difficult but we almost got it right after a few tries.

 

Road Trip to Drumheller, The First Half Hour

Last week my husband said "Let's take a road trip on Saturday".  Well, I didn't need much more encouragement than that.  I've wanted to take a trip to Drumheller since I got my camera a few years back so we called some friends who were also in need of a road trip.  We left our house around 7:15 am and found these little guys about 5 minutes down the road.  Not camera shy, they approached the fence without hesitation.

We arrived in Drumheller at 10:30 and did the usual tourist photo as soon as we hit the city.  This is my husband and me, taken by our friend.  It's unusual to have a photo of both of us, as usually one of us has the camera in hand.

The first stop on the trip was the Royal Tyrrell Museum.  A world class facility, opened in 1985 and sad to say, our first visit to it.  Drumheller and the museum are located in the Red Deer River Valley also known as Dinosaur Valley and is surrounded by incredible hills known as the Badlands.  Widipedia describes the badlands as "The term badlands is also apt: badlands contain steep slopes, loose dry soil, slick clay, and deep sand, all of which impede travel and other uses. Badlands form in semi-arid or arid regions with infrequent but intense rain-showers, sparse vegetation, and soft sediments: a recipe for massive erosion. Some of the most famous fossil beds are found in badlands, where erosion rapidly exposes the sedimentary layers and the scant cover of vegetation makes surveying and fossil hunting relatively easy."

This is one of the slopes of the hills between the parking lot and the Tyrell Museum.  Amazing that anything could grow on this.

Outside the Museum is a beautiful pond with fountains.  Salvia seems to thrive here.

Cool water was very inviting on this hot day.

A view of the entrance to the Tyrell Museum through the Salvia.

Photographers (and a self portrait)

Half an hour later and we ready to enter the Museum.  And what we came to see, Dinosaurs.  This guy is the first one to greet us at the entrance to the museum.  

Grandma's Phlox

A sure sign of summer in the garden is the pink phlox blooming in my wildflower garden.

At the same time, the lilacs bloom, the Swallowtail Butterflies return and summer gardening begins.  The phlox has always been one of my favorites for the macro lens. The tiny delicate pink flowers contrasting with the green stems make them perfect for a shallow depth of field and they appear to float above the greenery. 

The little pink phlox reminds me of my Grandma and makes me smile.  The gardens in her neighborhood always contained these beautiful mounds of pink flowers.  She was an avid gardener, first on the farm out of necessity and later in the city because of her love of gardening. When we moved to the acerage I had asked her for a little piece of this flower to plant in my first flower bed.  I didn’t realize it at the time because she had so many flowers, but she didn’t have any phlox in her yard but the library down the street and the neighbors did have mounds of it. 

I never did find out where mine came from. Grandma’s been gone for many years now, but I’m always reminded of her when the phlox booms.

And speaking of wildflowers, I found this little guy sitting on one of the wild violets.

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The Porcupine, Pump Jack and Northern Lights

Saturday night was looking favorable for an early display of Northern Lights so my husband and I got the "Northern Lights" kit together and headed out early to a new location.  We knew we had to hike in, so the plan was to get there in daylight and wait for darkness.  On the way we pulled into an area with pump jacks and with the setting sun I thought it might be a good place to get a few shots.

As it was getting dark, I tried a longer exposure to get a little motion blur on this one.

Looking down the road, we could see a porcupine waddling across the road.  Playing Austin Stevens, wildlife hunter, I immediately tried to sneak up on the porcupine.  He didn't seem to be so afraid of me to run, but did keep turning his head away.  Must have been quite a sight to see me running from side to side as he simply turned his head.

I didn't know they had such long claws until I uploaded the photos.

After he crawled into the ditch, we carried on to our location, hiked in and sat to wait for the Northern Lights. Turns out they didn't show, but it was a good night.

April 17th Aurora Borealis

These were taken last night when the Aurora Borealis unexpectedly appeared in the skies.  My email alerts haven't been working lately, so it was a case of going outside at the right time. When I saw the lights through our trees, I too quickly jumped in the car and headed a few miles from the house.  In my haste I forgot mittens, a hat and most importantly, my flashlight.  Without the flashlight, I didn't venture through the mud too far.  It's quite amazing the sounds you can hear when you're alone on a dark road.  Needless to say I didn't stay out too long, but did manage to get a couple of shots.  The orange glow is the lights of Edmonton, 20 miles away.

 

    

Northern Lights March 12th

Monday morning at 5:30 am we had an incredible display of Northern Lights lasting for about 45 minutes.  Instead of the lights appearing from the north as they usually do, they appeared from above. The lights were so high in the sky, I didn't have to leave the yard to escape the trees. Every direction you looked the lights came down with changing colors.

The is the view looking straight up

Looking west, towards the city, the light pollution from Edmonton changed the colors.

This was the view from the road looking towards the east

For a few minutes the lights appeared a magenta color, even to the eye.

This was the view from the deck, looking northwest.

And to be able to remember this morning and shooting from the deck, I thought I would include a bit of the house.

Northern Lights

For a brief hour last night, the Aurora Borealis aka Northern Lights presented a fabulous light show.  The colours were getting more intense as time went by, then a beautiful, almost full moon came out and lit up the skies light a sunrise.  It was a brief time out last night, but one of the nicest displays of lights I seen in a while.

The scene when we first arrived at the lake.

Looking toward the airport to get a little light pollution. Didn't notice the airplane and snowmobile when I took the photo.

A few minutes later, the lights began to dance.

Tried a landscape with a portrait perspective, throwing all rules of photography out the window.

An hour after arriving, the moon was out and the lights couldn't be seen with the eye, but the camera picked up a little color.

It was a very good day.

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to return to work for old friends.  It's been 4 1/2 years since I worked with them and I'm looking forward to returning.  The company I'm working with now is a good company and life at work has been fine, but there's always a couple of "but's" that make you want to change.  Thursday I spent the day at my new job, meeting with the accountant and getting to know a little of what is needed and expected.  I was to be there at 9:30 so I left the house at 8:45, giving me lots of time to make the 1/2 hour drive.

When I first got into the car and looked at the mirror, nature had done some fantastic decorating.  I had to take a few shots for my group "The World in a Mirror"

A little further down the road I ran into some bands of fog and wondered if this day could get any better.

A couple of more miles and I crossed the tracks and noticed a band of fog further down. This time I had to turn around to find a place to pull off the road.

I was now only about 10 miles from home and running 10 minutes late so I tucked the camera away and with a little luck on the highway, made it to work on time.  The light was a little bright and flat and traffic a little heavier so I only stopped once on the way home.

I will miss many of the people I have worked with the past 4 1/2 years and hope to keep in touch with some of them, but I'm looking forward to the new challenges ahead and returning to my new, old work home.

Texture Tuesday

This week's theme at Kim Klassen's is an easy one.  Just use at least one layer of any of her textures.  Her new texture, Embrace, is easily one of my favorites.  Love everything about it.  I've been trying the past few weeks to do pretty, still life photos but since they're still a work in progress I dug up a few photo's from around Irma that I had passed on processing previously.  I thought Kim's new texture would work on them, so I used Embrace on all four photos.  For each one the texture has been rotated 90 degrees CCW. Hover your mouse over all images to see the before and afters.

This abandoned farm house is not far from my sister's. First a layer of Embrace with the blend mode of multiply set to 79%, another lay of Embrace with the blend mode of screen at 56%, then a few tweeks in levels and curves.

The lonely tree stands on the fence line in my brother-in-law's pasture. I've not seen it during the summer but apparently it's a Maple tree. First a layer of Embrace with the blend mode of overlay at 67%, then another layer with the blend mode of multiply at 38%, a few adjustments in Curves and Hue/Saturation and finally a Cyan filter to bring out the blues in the sky.

This building has always fascinated me when we drove by. Last month we were lucky enough to be able to go into the field. Turned out to be a granary standing on it's last wall. This time I used three layers of Embrace. The first at multiply 100%, the second at screen mode 74% and the third again at multiply mode 99%. A layer mask was applied to each layer to partially soften the texture in the center. Lastly a little adjustments with Curves.

We drove by this field of cows, early in the morning while there was still a light covering of fog.  Only one layer of Embrace was used set to multiply at 66%.  Finished up with Levels and Curves and added a warming filter as well as removing the fence line.

Saturday Morning Visitor

This year we bought a new bird feeder for the Chickadees.  The last one we had was made of wood and was in need of replacement after the deer chewed on it.  Careful consideration was taken in trying to find a place to hang it so the deer, cat and squirrels would leave it alone.

This is what it was meant to be used for.  Sometimes we have dozens of these little Chickadees flitting about to get their seeds.

This little guy showed up Saturday morning and asked if he could please have some seeds too.

He then let us know how cold it was outside with the blowing snow.

After climbing the house and making the jump to the feeder he felt quite at home and began to fill his little belly.