Category Archives: Year 3

Marcell Magpie Morning

Year 3

Was amazed this morning to find a flock of 12 magpies near Marcell, Minnesota. Although there are a few farms a couple miles to the west, this area is noted for being Boreal Forest. As the wind has been out of the south for the past few days, it is unlikely this flock was blown off course while migrating. Last Fall I saw one magpie in the same area while hiking the woods. Thus, I am wondering if these are local birds which are extending their range.

I did submit an eBird report. Although I don’t submit eBird lists often, here are my reports.

Y3-M09-Marcel-Magpies-4A Y3-M09-Marcel-Magpies-2 Y3-M09-Marcel-Magpies-1Molly and I also had some fun biking to the Lost 40 … this area has 300 to 400 year old white and red pines, and was only saved from being logged early in the 1900’s due to a surveying error.
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Kayaking Under the Aurora Borealis!

Year 3

I could have named this post … The Northern Lights and the Same Time Next Year Gang, but I chose kayaking instead. The Labor Day 2016 holiday weekend finds friends and family gathering for our 27th annual gathering at our small Northwoods cabin. This year is already the year of the Aurora … with two great nights of watching dancing lights in the heavens. NOAA is now predicting an Aurora Watch for tonight (was not predicted the past two nights). Does this mean a ThreePeat?!

Molly and I arrived on Thursday and enjoyed a great display the first night, but yesterday evening was special as we shared the experience with 3 generations of Hoegs. We had folks from age 1 to 61 down on the dock watching the dance. Life is good!

I will admit to sheer fatigue. I have been staying out to the wee hours of the morning with my camera, and then getting up before the grandkids by 7 am. When you combine this with a daily bicycle ride the body is beginning to demand more sleep!

Kayaking Under the Northern Lights
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3 Generations of Hoegs watch Pillars in the Sky
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Smith Lake Aurora Borealis
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Suomi Lutheran Church … a humbling and peaceful experience
Labor-Day-2016-Suomi-Lutheran

Photographing the Northern Lights … Varying Your Settings

Year 3
Some folks may be interested in how I take photographs of the Northern Lights (great show last night). I felt posting two images from last night would help demonstrate why it is so important to play around with your camera settings. Both images are “straight out of my camera”. You really need to enlarge both photographs to compare … or better yet, download and toggle back and forth.
 
These two pictures were taken within one minute of each other. The first image where the line of the Aurora is brighter is with an ISO setting of 3,200. For the second image, I halved the amount of light reaching the camera by dropping the ISO by 50% to 1,600. Everything else was held constant … Aperture was 2.0, exposure was 15 seconds, white balance = auto and focus was set to infinity.
 
The location is NorthStar Lake in northern Minnesota, approximately 30 miles north of Grand Rapids. The time of the images were taken was about midnight just before the second peak (not as good as the one at 9:05 pm CDT).
 
I personally like the second image better (ISO 1,600) because it better represents what I actually saw. My camera is a Sony NEX-5t using a Rokinon 12 mm F2.0 lens. I always set my shutter for a 2 second delay in order that I do not jar the camera with pressing my shutter.
NorthStar Lake
Image #1: ISO 3,200; 15 Seconds; Aperture 2.0; Focus Infinity; White Balance = Auto
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Image #2: ISO 1,600; 15 Seconds; Aperture 2.0; Focus Infinity; White Balance = Auto

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Smith Lake … also about 30 miles north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota
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