Northern Lights

Last night the activity on my Facebook picked up with posts from an online group that the Northern Lights should be out.  At the same time a message from a friend came asking me if I was going out shooting and five minutes later, we were out of the house.  At first there was a little cloud cover and not wanting to waste a perfect evening we had a little fun with the pump jacks.

As the clouds moved on, the lights finally began to show themselves.

Thanks for visiting.

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.