Tag Archives: MN North: Stony Point

Owl Be Seeing You!

March 8, 2018Year 5MN North: Stony Pointrichardhoeg@gmail.com

I thought the winter 2017/18 owl irruption was over. After two straight days with winds often in excess of 30 mph, with calm air yesterday I was out before sunrise. Over the past two months I would had seen at least 5 owls, but I found nothing. This convinced me the irruption was over, but 15 crows can’t be wrong! Yup, while enjoying the early morning sun and ice formations along the north shore of Lake Superior, I noticed the black birds taking bombing runs at a particular tree. Yup … a Great Gray Owl was under attack. My presence drove away the crows, and the owl seemed to be thankful. After a few moments it flew out of the deep cover in which it had been hiding and posed in the early morning sun less than 10 yards away from yours truly. As I had an 8:00 am business meeting to attend, I finally had to leave the owl enjoying the warm early morning sun … great way to start any morning. This my be the last owl I find this winter.

Just prior to finding the Great Gray Owl

The Owl in its cover

Enjoying the sun out in the open … crows gone!

Almost home … near my house … the mouth of the Lester River

Stoney Starry Night on Lake Superior (Milky Way)

June 28, 2017Year 4MN North: Stony Pointrichardhoeg@gmail.com

One of my goals this summer was to photograph the Milky Way at the Old Fisherman’s Shack at Stoney Point on Lake Superior’s North Shore. This image required lots of advance planning. First and foremost, one needs the Milky Way to be in the correct position. Only in early summer is the core of the Milky Way both above the horizon and due south. Later in the summer, the arch of the Milky Way moves to the southwest making this photograph impossible due to light pollution from Duluth.

In addition, one needs a clear night without moonlight. Last night the “stars aligned” (sorry about the pun)! The moon set shortly before midnight, and the core of the Milky Way was above the horizon from midnight to 2:00 am. Most of my research using an app called PlanIt for Photographers. It allowed me to perform my research and insure it was worth getting out of bed at 12:15 am for my drive up the shore.

Using my Sony A6000 and Rokinon 12 mm lens, my camera settings for this first image were ISO of 3,200; Aperture of 2.0; and an Exposure of 15 seconds. I did not use any light painting in this photograph. The windows of the shack are lit and reflecting distant ambient light. Both images are single photographs. I did not stack multiple photos to achieve my results.

For my second photograph I switched from landscape to portrait mode which allowed me to capture more of the Milky Way. As I intended to briefly light paint the shack, I reduced my ISO to 1,600, but increased the exposure to 25 seconds. Any exposure over 25 seconds would tend to smudge my stars (i.e. star trails would start to form).

Ten Hours of Lake Superior

July 20, 2016Year 3MN North: Brighton Beach, MN North: Minnesota Point, MN North: Stony Pointrichardhoeg@gmail.com

The full moon rose over Lake Superior yesterday evening just before sunset. Practicing my best lazy boy photography methods, even though I had researched many great places to photograph the full moon rising over Gitche Gumee within various 45 minute drives, I decided to just pop down to the shore of the big lake which is 800 yards from my house. This started nine hours of photography on Lake Superior! I found the Lesser Yellowlegs from their southern migration at 6:15 am which ended my ten hours!

The freighter, American Century, steams under the full moon ...