A Morning to Remember (Yr. 2: Day 31)

Year 2

Many folks might think I might be referring to the neat article featuring my year long photography project published on Friday as the cover article for Weekend Outdoors in the newspaper of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis / St. Paul), but you would be mistaken. Instead I learned an important lesson at sunrise yesterday, do not trust the collective intelligence of ice fishermen! Ever heard of Lemmings?!

24 hours earlier I had noticed ice fishermen heading out onto the Lake Superior ice in search of trout and salmon. I figured, if all these folks are out on the Lake Superior ice, it must be safe, correct? Not!

Although I was only 15 yards off shore at Brighton Beach, while fisherman were 600 yards out, guess who broke through and got wet? I suspect it was an ice pocket where water had seeped through a crack, but scary and not the kind of morning for a partial dunking. I immediately lay 100% prone to spread my weight and rolled onto some good ice. My clothes froze solid during the short 300 yard walk back to my car.

Later in the afternoon as I was returning from my volunteering gig at the Sax-Zim Bog Visitor Center, I noticed a huge expanse of open water out on the lake where it had been solid ice at sunrise. Finally, because this is mainly a “bird photography” blog, here is a sharp-tailed grouse I photographed during my morning drive to the visitor center.

Addendum: The STRIB really did a nice job with their treatment of my 365 photo project. Read now via: Star Tribune Online| PDF Version

The Ice Planet Fishermen (photo taken moments before I broke through the ice)
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Sharp-Tailed Grouse
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Beware this Bird! Glutinus Maximus (Yr. 2: Day 29)

Year 2

Some of your may think this photo is a Common Redpoll, but you would be horribly mistaken. It’s real Latin name is Glutinus Maximus!  Has eaten 25 pounds of sunflower seeds in just three days.

Normally hangs out with 100+ of its friends … chickadees, finches (gold, purple and pine siskins), nuthatches (white and red-breasted) and the woodpecker clan (downy, hairy and red-bellied). Pays for its supper with extended bouts of singing and chirping in our yard.

Y2-D029-Glutinus-Maximus

Photographing the Dark Side Using the Sony NEX-5T! (Yr. 2: Day 27)

Background, Year 2,

Early in the afternoon, just prior to dusk I found three Snowy Owls. This owl photograph started another round of “dark side” photographs … taking images of the northern night!

For two nights in a row I have headed north of Knife River, Minnesota and chased the Northern Lights. These photos were taken about 3:15 am last night (night of Feb 17-18). The Aurora colors were a bit better than the previous night, but I still missed the light pillars. Some back lighting is present from a distant security light.

These night time photos were taken with my new SONY NEX-5T. My primary reasons for purchasing this camera were twofold: low light photography and landscape photography. The NEX has exceeded my expectations even with the kit lens. Here in northern Minnesota, the combination of the Lake Superior wilderness and dark night skies allows me to spend significant time out in the wild with my camera. I was looking for a high quality, light camera which I could easily pack into the back country with me. Here is what I have found:

  • Trying to focus on infinity for night photographs initially threw me off given there is no infinity hard stop while using manual focus. However, this issue was easily solved once I learned to to set the ISO to 24,600 (increases light sensitivity) and point a red laser on a distant tree or object. When the red light is as crisp and small a circle as possible, one has achieved infinity focus. After focusing I set the ISO back to the desired level.
  • No need to use the bulb setting … use a two second delay when pushing the shutter for landscape and night images
  • I was disappointed that a charging unit did not come for the battery, but I made a purchase of a backup battery which included a wall plug-in charging unit. I do not like having to insert the USB cable into the camera to charge it. Bad things happen when a camera is resting on a desk or table next to a computer.
  • Although I was worried that the minimum aperture of 3.5 would not let in enough light for night images, and I would have to purchase an additional wide angle low light lens, the kit lens with its 3.5 aperture has worked superbly in low light.

Snowy Owl Just Before Dusk
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Knife River Night Lights
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