On a Whim

 I do like night skies, so I do follow a place called Driftless Stargazing on Social Media. I noticed a post about a Guided Star Gazing walk at a place I've wanted to check out for quite a while. The land is managed by the Mississippi Valley Conservancy and is open to the public for a variety of uses.

Hunting [in season], Hiking, Fishing [in the Kickapoo River] ... Bikes, Dogs, and Camping is not allowed.

It is a Nature Preserve/State Natural Area that is know for its Dark Skies.

There is a trail that goes up and around old bluff tops and prairie grasses. There are some cliffs/bluffs along the river. How could I not want to explore those!

Not my photo:

So.

I signed up to go on the walk. This is a new thing for me. What could happen? I could meet some other nice folks and maybe make some connections. Or I could be bored and never want to join up with any other of their activities.

I met two people who have mules. All the folks there loved the night sky. I met a gent who used to ride in the same areas Rich and I did many years ago. 

The two leaders had laser pointers and started naming the stars as the appeared in the sky. By the time it was fully dark I learned a few things. I can find Pegasus and of course the North Star, the Big Dipper, and the Little Dipper easier than I used to.

I'm no astronomer, but I do love the night sky.

The evening was warm enough that we didn't need coats and best of all, no Bugs!

I 'friended' a woman who would like to go hiking at the Reserve but only knows her way around the paved trail. I offered to take her on a hike if she was interested some time. She was nice. Who knows?

When I got home, I sat out on the porch with the dogs for a bit on the old camp cot I'd cobbled back together. 

I decided to take a shot of the Milky Way which won't be visible all winter. This is the view from my porch. The glow at the tree level is from lights far off on the ridge.

Then I set up my camera to take a Star Trail. I set the timer for an hour. After checking on it a few times, I laid down on the cot with the pups and snoozed a bit.

This was the result below. It is obscene that I can let the camera do the work instead of taking 260+ photos and putting them together in Photoshop.

I put the camera and tripod away and grabbed a couple of blankets and a pillow.

The night was so pleasant and starry, I didn't want it to end. So I plopped down on the cot to gaze at the sky. The dogs snuggled in with the blankets and me.

I woke up to the sounds of Robins landing in the yard at predawn. 

Some folks go clubbing on Saturday nights. I spent it with the stars.

Hot Summer Days and Nights

Good morning. Well, the shot below was a shot looking west taken on Saturday morning. The skies were amazing. Hannah makes sure I am awake for predawn. When she can hear the first bird peeping, she lets me know that I can get up to serve her breakfast and to let her outside, not necessarily in that order.

She and Charlie eat do their stuff and promptly go back to sleep.

Doggone dogs!

Here is just about the same view last night.  I went out and thought I'd look for Fireflies. Since it was cloudy, the clouds covered the stars and I didn't have to deal with star trails or adjusting for a full moon.

The moon brightened the land even if the moon was behind clouds. The shot of the house and the Lightening Bugs are my favorite ...

I tried an experiment with my headlamp and tried to illuminate 

or 'paint' the tree with light to give the photo more depth.

Seems my sky colors and 'white' balance are 

always a bit off when shooting at night.

~~~ I need to do more studying and experimenting
to do this better. At least I tried. ~~~

The one below is a composite shot of the outhouse

and the spot I park in. 

I set up the camera and then took the dogs for their night business. This is the amount of Lightening Bugs that were moving around not far from my back door.

I walked to the ridge to see if I could see anything that was interesting there. Nope, the wind was blowing and the insects had moved deep into the woods. Perhaps one of the next nights, I can try a few shots in that forest with light painting.

It is worth a try just to see if I can get anything interesting. After all, photography is all a matter of perception and experimentation of what you can imagine.

The photo below is a Lego Space Robot I dubbed as Bobo. He is visiting Earth and exploring. 

I set this up on Sunday while it was storming. It looks like I may have to do some things to stay cool today. 
I'll treat this weather like an extremely subzero winter day.

My opinion on this Heat Dome and Climate Change? 👇😢

I'll probably practice some more indoor photography when things are at their hot peak today.

Hannah was doing so well until she started licking and annoying her incision from surgery. I did some quick thinking and came up with this.

She is a good dog because she accepted me dressing her in a onesie without any fuss. But that look!

She did just fine modeling an 18 month old onesie.

I took her and Charlie for a nice long walk to the meadows and then to the ridge yesterday so they would be content for the evening.

What's up with anyone else in this Heat Dome today?

Hope you are all staying well.

Over 80 F or 26.6 C at 7am. It could be a cooker.

And the skies lit up!

 

So I had set my alarm for 11pm and thought I'd look out the window to see if I could spot the Aurora Borealis.

I saw nothing. I got a drink of water and then checked my cell phone and social media. A friend of our in Missouri had posted some shots of the northern lights at their house. I scrolled a bit more and another friend had some shots from Madison, from Racine, and some from Viroqua.

I got dressed and walked outside. I looked up in the sky and it seemed their were some faint clouds over the shed.

I used night shots on my cell phone and took a photo.

Green? Weird skies!
Then I realized what I was seeing for the second time in my life. 

It was the Aurora Borealis.

I grabbed my camera and set about to work. I tried to recall the settings I should use and then finally I settled on the camera settings I use for shooting the Milky Way.

I did a bunch of flubs before I realized I was just taking random shots of colors. The lights kept changing slowly and I was mesmerized.

In fact at one point, I just laid on the gravel driveway and let myself enjoy the show. Life is about being in the moment. And man...

I was deep in the moment....

And then my brain simply seemed to explode or maybe implode.

It was crazy. 

I finally decided to just frame the photo with the pines that surround our house.

Looking west.

I decided to see if I could do star trails that include the Northern Lights. I wasn't sure it would turn out well, but if it worked, it could be pretty cool.

I set the camera up for a 15 minute LiveComp with Starry Auto Focus and let the magic happen inside the camera while I laid back down on the driveway to watch the sky do Nature's Artwork.

I got cold laying on the ground but it was worth every minute of it. I couldn't leave if I wanted to. I was stuck watching the lights until they faded away.

Now I understand why people book trips to Norway to go see the lights. They are breathtaking in every way.

They are silent.
They explode your brain cells.
They are musical and magical.

I'm glad I witnessed this.

It will be a night I will never forget.

Night out

Nah, not that kind of Night Out.

Instead I sat on the porch for a while after dark to watch the sky. I figured the clouds would obscure the stars and the Milky Way so I was content to sit for a bit in the warm night air and rock on the porch.

Charlie thought he'd go in after he listened to the Barred Owls hooting. 

I thought I'd spend a little time playing with light painting. I wanted to highlight the night sky and the trees in the woods to our west of the house.

My experiment with light painting with my headlamp. 

Then I walked to the driveway to look where the Milky Way should be appearing and took a 15 & 25 second shot.

I did this partially 'blind' in a way because with the naked eye and the clouds, I wasn't exactly sure of what I was getting. [I learned a little bit later to use the 'Boost' feature in the Bulb/LiveView Modes to sort of see what I was shooting at.]

I may have gotten some meteors? The upper arrow points to two downwards streaks.
The lower arrow points to where the Milky Way should be.

Then the clouds moved on!

and...then,

there it was! 

Looks like a meteor particle was zooming through also.

Bonus!

It is hard to see those little streaks of light, however if you click on the photo you should be able to see one little streak in the upper right quadrant of the shot.

I hadn't intended on looking for the Perseids, but perhaps I did find them!

They are supposed to be starting and getting stronger until mid August.

I think this may have been my first time 'catching' a meteor!

Once the clouds moved on, I took several shots of the MW and even tried one of those fun shots where I look up with a head lamp on. The shots really didn't turn out well. But here is one. 

I am standing in our driveway not far from the house looking up towards the ridge. My Subaru even glows in the headlamp glow.

There are so many things to learn about I night photos and adding light. The headlamp actually has a nicer beam to it when the humidity in the air is higher. LED lights turn up bluish.

I wonder if I had some glow sticks twirled them around? Wouldn't that be sort of fun and crazy? 

I am practicing at home so one day in the few weeks, I can try this near the ponds at KVR, or the old dam.

These night shots are not easy. Fortunately I have a feature called Starry AutoFocus which helps quite a bit. I use a 12mm lens. For my camera the ISO is at 1600 and I often use a feature called LiveView to find where I will shoot as the camera 'boosts' what you can see through it. 

I still can't quite get the hang of the right colors for the night sky. 

Clouds are orangish from the light in the towns or farms in the distance.

I like my star skies to be more bluish and cool toned.

The photos are generally pretty noisy, but as technology improves as well as a good Denoise app, it doesn't look so bad.

For this shot of the house, I pointed the camera northwest and gave it an 8 minute LiveComp. This feature takes an initial shot and then the camera adds any light as it changes for the next 8 minutes. 

That is Olympus's work around to standard star photos which have the photographer taken 100's of shots of the stars and then put them through another program which 'stacks' them together. 

I like this feature for so many things.

I tried several times to combine star trails with a bit of light painting to show the house and trees. Most of them were just bad... and a failure, but I think I did get one decent effort.

The middle pine tree is dead and reflected the bluish color of the LED headlamp.

Still, it was fun and I learned a bit more. 

I'd like to try this at one of the covered bridges at KVR.

That is a goal I'd like to complete this summer.

One last Milky Way shot in a 

cooler tone.

I like this one best as it makes me think of galaxies and star travel. 

There certainly is something to be said for watching the stars at night. I eventually went inside reluctantly because I knew I needed sleep.

It was a great night out!

Enjoy the Perseids if you can find a dark sky. The full moon this year will blot out the peak time for the meteor showers. 

I used:

Olympus E-M1 Mark III

12mm lens 
f 2.0

ISO 1600
Different exposures for different shots.

Tripod

Just stuff.

So here is a quick couple of shots of the new part of my flower garden and it is coming into its full beauty right now.

There is the sleeping dragon 

looking quite content...

....and a stink bug resting in the

early morning on a

sunflower

Charlie and I took a long hike on Sunday and lo and behold! We found the lost Teddy Bear at the snowmobile crossing that had washed out!

This bear washed downstream and avoided tangles until it was forced into a narrow area and got hung up in roots!

Success! All toys recovered from the flash flood!

Last night I couldn't sleep so instead I went to see if I could capture the comet everyone is talking about. I'd failed before more than once. I'm still experimenting with night shots.

Here is the one half decent shot I did get before clouds moved in on the horizon.

The photo was done in with the infrared camera which is supposed to be able to pick up more light when used without filters.

I didn't use a great lens for this, as it was an experiment. But I am satisfied that I did get a photo of the historic event.

I may try again. This was taken in the mules pasture.

Then I went for the other camera with the nice wide angle lens and fast aperture.

Yippee! I sort of did it!

The milky way with clouds moving in.

If I take a nap today after gardening, I can try this again tomorrow night.

I felt happier that I was near the mules while taking some of these shots. 

The coyotes were having a field day howling and yipping through the woods below me!

I may sit down and do some studying or watch an Olympus Tutorial on shooting this in better preparation for trying this again.

Well, off I go to another day of gardening and other fun things.

I need some fresh potatoes and fruit. 

I'm really beginning to dread going into stores.

Have a wonderful day.

Stay safe.

Mother Nature's July 4th Show

I think just a few shots should explain it all.

Our day was hot, humid, and quiet. I took Charlie to visit the Nursing home and then most of the day was spent avoiding the heat. I sat on the porch and read a book with Charlie overseeing the yard.

Just before sunset and amazing storm front came through.

Mother Nature was prepping for a real show.

Later on my porch....I watched her Fireworks or Sky Show.

And that was our not so exciting 4th of July.

Charlie figured out he could have a new perch in which to watch over his domain....

I'd set his rug on the bench when I washed the porch...

A perfect day.

It started with a snow shoe trek with my Grand daughter and Morris.

She built a little snow house made of sticks, rocks, leaves and snow in the creek for Doe, Fawn, and Deer.

Morris kept watch over her.

The wind howled above us.

My neighbor who lives at the top of the driveway, in what we fondly now call 'upstairs' and I got together for her first experience with snowshoes.

We find that arranging an adventure at night is convenient as her kids are tucked safely into bed and hubby can keep an eye on things. It actually works out well.
My hubby is ready for bed by the time we go on a night jaunt in the snow and the wilds.

So last night I introduced her to snowshoeing. We walked across the Merry Meadow and I pointed to a dark space in the woods and mentioned that there was this deer trail that went off a point and dropped steeply into the creek.
She was all over that.
"Let's go check it out"!

The winds were gusting up to 20 miles an hour, we both had headlamps, so I thought why not? And then I thought, this is insane? And then I thought this will be fun!
It turned out to be a great decision as it got us out of the winds.
I was sure that the trail would be impossible to find but was amazed at how easy it actually was.
After all, I've been hiking this trail for 20 years and I watched for my machete marks on the trees that marked the trail.
I may add that the deer and all other wood creatures used this same path as the steep hillside is choked with underbrush, except on this trail.

I felt pretty pleased to seemingly navigate myself and Lauren through the maze in the dark. She seemed pretty impressed also. However I had to tell her that it hadn't been really that hard. I pointed out the markings on some of the trees.

We climbed over logs, ducked under branches and dropped down into the valley. When we came around the willow trees I pointed my light down. We were at the creek.

There it was softly making beautiful creek noises as it the water tumbled over the rocks.
We turned out lights out and looked up at the stars. Wisps of clouds scurried over the night sky. The sky display was amazing.

So was the peaceful quiet. We both just stood quietly for a bit and drank in the night sky above us.

Then it was time to show Lauren how to 'Creek Leap' with snow shoes on. We had a narrow stream that was not too deep to cross. Creek Leaping is an art I've perfected over the past 20 years of hiking this valley.

This is a shot of one of the crossings we did in the dark. It is an archived photo of course.

We headed upstream towards our property and I stopped to show her an ice formation that was starting along the sandstone wall.

Lauren was able to get this shot with her cell phone camera.

And then she took this of my backside.

In years past this little ice formation becomes incredible. It of course depends on the weather.
But here is a sample.

I've often wondered what hiking through the valley would be like at night.
Now I have an adventerous person to do that with.

However I'm sure our husbands are nodding and scratching their heads...positive that they will have to commit their wives for being so eager to cross country ski and snowshoe at Night in the Wild Woods in the Winter.

I disagree. If you haven't done winter sports at night, you are missing out on some incredible views and fun.

We returned from our first big adventure in the woods on snowshoes and I think both Lauren and I were determined to do it again soon.

What a great end to a nearly perfect day.

Starry Night

On our drive back from canoeing Miss Lily fell asleep in the car. I suggested she take a nap before we try riding our mules.

She slept until nearly 8pm. Wow, she was tired! We ate supper and made out her school list of supplies so we could go shopping to get them this afternoon. 

We sat at the table after eating and played word games and spelling games. Gramps went to bed and Lily wanted to look at the stars. We took the smartie-phone out and used the Google Skymap to find Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and a couple of constellations.

I had set a rug down on the concrete floor of the porch. Lily, Morris, and I had pillows and a blanket. We snuggled down on top of the rug and talked about stars and...stuff. Nothing important stuff, just stuff.

Lily wanted to see the Milky Way appear so we got quiet and waited for the moon to set.

Lily gasped in delight as we saw a shooting star. And cooed in delight as the Milky Way indeed began to appear after the moon had set.

An owl called. Another answered. The mules snorted in the pasture. A coyote barked in the distance.

Soon we were sound asleep. The dog, the kid, and the old lady.

I woke her up as this old body can't sleep on concrete too long before it gets a bit uncomfortable.

And that was our Starry Night Adventure.

Night sky

An attempt at the stars in September during the Super Moon Eclipse.

Partial eclipse.

Laying on my back after sunset.  Very long exposure.  See the white spot amongst the moving clouds?
A star....

The clouds after sunset.  Looking west.  The sunset itself was rather blah.  This 131 second exposure should make up for it.