Tag Archives: Northern Lights

Aurora Borealis by Bicycle!

Year 3,

As I write this Molly and I have complete 549 miles of our Liberation Bicycle Tour. The name derives from the fact that as of 6 weeks ago, all of our children are married and have jobs. Thus, as parents we are liberated!?

Two days ago we cycled from near the Straits of Mackinac to Drummond, Island in Lake Huron. Shortly before moonrise around 10 pm, the Aurora danced in the skies. While it was a challenge to photograph the Northern Lights without my top lens, I still like the results. Wish I had thought to bring my bicycle into the image before the bright moon started to wash out the Northern Lights. Oh well … enjoying our first rest day in two weeks while watching freighters lock through from Lake Superior to Huron (or vice versa).

My daily bike diary on the Crazy Guy on a Bike Portal

The images in this post … reverse order … night to sunrise

  • Biking the Aurora
  • Northern Lights Spikes
  • 30 Minutes After Sunset on Lake Huron
  • A Remote Lake Huron Beach
  • Ouch … A New, but Defective Tire (biked 90 miles more on this tire)
  • Sunrise Over Lake Huron … Our Campsite Dock

d11-aurora-3d11-aurora-1d11-sunsetd11-4d11-tire-2d11-huron-sunrise-1
And answering the question, “Where’s Waldo?”, or in this case, Rich and Molly.img_0689

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
Labor-Day-2016-NorthStar-Lake-Kayak-1B

3 Generations of Hoegs watch Pillars in the Sky
Labor-Day-2016-NorthStar-Lake-3-Generations-of-Hoeg

Smith Lake Aurora Borealis
Labor-Day-2016-Smith-Lake-N2

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
Labor-Day-2016-NorthStar-Lake-Compare-1

———-

Image #2: ISO 1,600; 15 Seconds; Aperture 2.0; Focus Infinity; White Balance = Auto

Labor-Day-2016-NorthStar-Lake-Compare-2

Smith Lake … also about 30 miles north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota
Labor-Day-2016-Smith-Lake-1