Hello blog

Last week was so busy that I've been doing a lot of relaxing and chilling. And binge-watching Season 2 of Orange is the New Black OMGWTF.

Today's big accomplishment was to wash my curtains to get the cat hair off. I also hemmed two sets. So now. after moving in on February 2012, all of my curtains are hemmed.

Yesterday I watched a YouTube video on Lightroom workflow and using the Develop module and it ws amazing. I developed a couple of photos while watching and I basically want to go back and redevelop so many photos.

Here is a photo I took on Sunday:

ƒ/6.3 ~ 134.0 mm ~ 1/250 exposure ~ ISO 4000

And here is a photo I took on April 21 and revisited with my new skills.

ƒ/3.5 ~ 18.0 mm ~ 15 sec exposure ~ ISO 3200

ETA: the video that I found to be very helpful:

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Northern Lights June 8 2014

A solar event in the last few days triggered the Northern Lights last night. A friend went out with me, because she hadn't seen them in years. Then she let me crash on her couch when I felt too tired to drive home. A good night!

Click on the photos to get a larger version that you can use on your desktop.

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More Northern Lights photography

April 29, 2014.
f3.5 ~ 30 sec exposure ~ ISO 400


f3.5 ~ 30 sec exposure ~ ISO 400

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"Lost" Northern Lights photos

Not really lost ... just that I had a lot going on at the time I took these photos, and honestly thought I'd posted them. I'd processed them and everything. Anyways, this is from my one solo excursion. Many photographers, male or female, don't really like being out on their own, but this was a surprise appearance by the Northern Lights and I decided at the last minute to go out. I didn't broadcast that I was going alone - I just went. I ended up east of Crossfield, north of a main road. I was far enough from the road that I wasn't easily visible as a lone woman out on her own listening to Canada Geese and croaking frogs.

And what a show it was!

April 29, 2014

View the above photo full size on Flickr.

View the above photo full size on Flickr.

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Day 132 and photography musings

The days are warming up enough that I can go sit in the backyard again, or do yardwork or transplant seedlings. Today it was seedlings, which I put into my mini-greenhouse. I also let Charlie have some fresh air in his play pen.

One of my coworkers sat down today to talk about Northern Lights photos. Tucker talked about Chris Ratzlaff's photos - Chris is a former coworker of ours who has inspired and encouraged this whole fascination with photographing the aurora thing I have now. And Tucker talked about my photos and how he likes the ones where I have a tree or myself as a silhouette in them, and I should continue in that vein to develop my style.

I really appreciated that, because I have been thinking myself that I should do silhouettes more often. Getting specific comments about what I'm doing right is very encouraging.

Chris' photos are amazing and he is more willing than I to put in long hours of waiting. Also, I'm pretty sure he has a wide-angle lens or two, and I don't. I love the vibrancy and colours of his photos, but I want my own style.

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Day 128 - Northern Lights!

The aurora alerts went off. C, the woman I'd partnered up with before, was up for an excursion. I waited until after midnight to set the self-timer and jump in front of my camera and try to keep still for 10 seconds. We were blessed with a clear sky, but the abundance of moonlight really presented a challenge for me. I still have much to learn about aurora photography - but I am very happy with some of my pictures last night. We tried a couple of locations. The second one distinctly smelled of farm and there were loud cows nearby, plus a few coyotes at one point. And there was a chilly wind. But it was much more interesting because of the ponds and the trees and we stuck it out. And warmed up in her BMW on the way home. I love her heated seats. There is another aurora alert for tonight, plus a slight cloud cover. I'm exhausted and am going to stay home. Today was long and I am really too beat to go driving tonight.

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Northern Lights at Elk Island

My plans for the weekend were:

Friday - drive to Edmonton, stay with my sister and her family

Saturday - spend the day in Edmonton, have Easter/birthday supper at my sister's house (date and time chosen because of three different guests having dogs on certain feeding schedules).

Sunday - spend most of the day in Edmonton because it was my sister's birthday, drive back to Calgary.

Monday - chill out.

I wanted to drive because I'm feeling adventurous these days and am tired of taking the bus. Also, there was the strong possibility of Northern Lights, and Elk Island National Park is by Edmonton. It's renowned among the Alberta Aurora Chasers group for being away from city lights. It's not perfectly free of light pollution, but an excellent spot.
I figured that if I did go chasing Friday or Saturday night, I could bring my nephew. He's up all night anyways, he could be my bodyguard. ;-)

My plans fell apart Friday with a snow squall that left the roads icy and slushy. I bought a bus ticket and decided that there must be a Reason that my plans changed.

The Reason was that the Northern Lights came Sunday night, when I was still in Edmonton and not in Calgary as planned. :-)

And it wasn't just my nephew with me. I asked my sister if I could borrow a car and she said, "I'm coming with you! It's my birthday!" Her husband drove us out to Elk Island, along with my niece, and my nephew's friend.

I took a lot of photos, even before the Lights showed up at midnight. At one point, I just pointed my camera at the sky. And accidentally got some meteors.


Here are my favourites:






There was a pesky cloud formation on the horizon, but I managed to shoot above it. We left after that show - people had work to go to and buses to catch in the morning. I'm a LOT happier with these photos than last week's.

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Northern Lights

I'm not really thrilled with my pictures of the Northern Lights last night. It was my first time using the Canon SL1 for aurora. The pictures looked good on the preview screen, but were grainy and under-exposed when I downloaded them. I did use a tripod and the timer to avoid jiggle. I should have used longer shutter exposures. I have to do a lot of processing to remove the grain and I'm not that skilled in Lightroom.



That said, the experience itself was great. I belong to a Facebook group of Alberta aurora chasers. When the space weather reports showed great conditions, and the skies were clear, I hoped to be able to partner with someone. I don't like the idea of driving around the countryside by myself, as a single woman. If I couldn't partner up, my plan was to move around quickly and not stay in one place too long.

Fortunately, another woman, C, asked if anyone was going to go shoot up by Airdrie. I took a quick look at her Facebook profile to assure myself she wasn't going to be an axe murderer, then replied that I would gladly go to Airdrie. She DM'ed her cell phone #, we chatted, and agreed we would buddy up. All of my equipment was ready, so I hopped in my car and drove to her house. She had experience shooting the Northern Lights on country roads so she took the lead. I'm also glad she drove because she has a BMW with heated seats. :-)

She's nice and I think we could be friends. She is also single and has a cat. I used her bathroom just in case, before we headed out, and I blinked a little to find myself in a stranger's house - I'm really started to fail as an introvert. ;-)

We stopped in Airdrie to meet four other people. They are a group of friends from Ireland who have been working in Alberta. Seeing the Northern Lights had been on their bucket list, and it was the one item left. And they are flying back Monday morning. So they were really happy that C knew the area and had great photography tips. Especially M, because it was her birthday and getting to finally see the Northern Lights was the best gift ever.

We went to one spot and that's where the Lights were the best.

Photography tip from C - if you see a greenish haze on the horizon, take a test shot with your camera to determine if they are the Northern Lights.

The Lights grew bright enough that we didn't need a camera to see the banding and the pillars. Awesome. The temperature was between -4 and -10, which is cold enough. We kept jumping back into the vehicles to warm up. After those Lights faded, we tried another spot. They came up again but not as bright. We decided to pack it in. Some others from the Facebook group got brighter shots around 2:30 am.

So - not ideal, but it was a good learning experience, and now I know more about which country roads to drive to. I got to meet new people and not feel scared out there. The people in the Facebook group are saying I'm on the right track with my photos.

C also took a picture of everyone against the Northern Lights - so this is her wonderful photograph of my giving a cold thumbs up:

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Northern Lights

Northern Lights, a photo by angelamermaid on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Another photo from last night - took some extra processing to bring out the aurora.

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The Northern Lights

One thing that Calgary has over California is the Northern Lights. I've long admired a coworker's photography and wished I had the nerve to chase Northern Lights like he does.

Normally, there's a cloud cover when an aurora watch is issued. Tonight there wasn't. And I decided that for once, I'd go for it. I grabbed my trusty Lumix and a tripod and set off for a nearby park area.







And now I'm going to bed.

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