Aurora Event Sept 9, 2011

Friday I left the gallery early and headed up with Mike G to my favorite beach to try and catch the Aurora. We arrived around 7:00 p.m. and the sun was already getting low on the horizon. The sky was an amazing gradient of pastel oranges and blues so I began by shooting the main pier that's right on the beach. There are a lot of different ways to do this and I experimented a lot but one of the fun things that happened was this young boy who ran out and stopped at the perfect moment. I call this "Wish Upon a Moon"

The light was amazing and I ran from one end to the next capturing the reflections from many different angles with many different subjects as highlights.

There was a time when all I did was throw pebbles in the mirrored lake to create small converging ripples in the foreground of the shot. It always amazes me when i return to the studio and look at my images only to find something i hadn't seen. I call this one "Dragon Fly".

As luck would have it the beach was pretty much empty which I was thoroughly enjoying but when these three girls came by and climbed out on the rocks this was a shot I couldn't have set up any better. This reminds me of silhouette pictures from the 1930's that my mom had.

The main event started around 10:30 - 11:00 p.m. It was when Mike G. said take a shot i think there's something out now and we did and there was. We could barely make it out with our eye's but the camera told a different story.

I loved these little whips of light that kept on moving very slowly. It was at the strike of 12:00 that suddenly the sky came alive and we ran from one location to the next trying to catch that elusive shot. It was a frenzy that lasted not more than 10 - 15 min. but it was spectacular.

We stuck it out for the next couple of hour getting the occasional bands of light that were very nice but we felt were very secondary compared to what we had experienced earlier. All in all it was an Aurora event that we both said we have to go back many years to recall one as vibrant.