Hot Hot!

Things to do when it is unbearable outside. Bring some outside into the house. Since I was having fun with the candle holders, I thought I'd expand to sticks and bark. Using glue, moss, and some funky crafty items, I got busy.

and then of course I had to imagine what would take place on this piece of bark.

and I took it a step further. 
Since my 'photo table' had to be moved out, I haven't had a good place to do indoor dioramas are creations. However I muddled through and had to avoid the concentrator and avoid stepping on the 02 lines...
but I made it work.

I ended up putting the items on a box and using a cutting board that was made from an Italian Olive Tree for the backdrop.

I kept messing around and finding more interesting ways of using my decorated sticks and roots.

I went out after the sun went down and decided to watch Fireflies. On the forest edge, they were abundant in the tall grasses.

You may have to click on the photo to see
the driveway...4 minute Livecomp
exposure.

...and on to the week of somewhat cooler temps but a lot of predicted rain....

Pow! Surprise ending to the day.

I had all sorts of good intentions of finishing up my new minifigures 'portraits' yesterday. But best laid plans ... and all of that.

Charlie and I went for our afternoon hike and checked on the ice in the creek. There still was some! I didn't take pics of it.

While we were in the dry bed part of the creek, I did some rock hunting. I didn't find anything special but I always look just in case. The rock below had moss and grasses on it this past summer. I just thought the patterns were interesting.

I found a lot of places where the moss was sending up shoots of sporophytes for this year. Of course I brought the wrong lens to work with that. But a challenge is a challenge no matter what!

...and then I found old sporophytes with their tell tale color of orange glowing in the sunlight on a log. One can sometimes get pretty decent macro shots even if they are not using a macro lens.

The rest of the afternoon was spent building and sorting while hubby was awake. I'm almost sorry this project is almost complete. I had to laugh on Monday when the Hospice nurse came by. Rich was deep into sorting Lego pieces and just waved at the nurse until he sat down. 

Then as I was getting into bed, I decided to peak a look at social media. A friend had posted a photo from his cell phone about the Aurora Borealis in the sky.

Well, off I went in my coveralls into the summer pasture to take a gander myself.

 The show was just bright enough to see pink with the naked eye, but the camera really picked up the colors along with the stars...oh and a stray airplane flying through the frame.

I did a star trail shot of 15 minutes for fun. I just love the stars swirling in the colorful sky!

It lasted only about an hour and by 10pm it was fading fast.

But I got two last shots in before my camera battery died.

Over the pasture...

and then over our shed.

It was worth losing some sleep over.  All my flubs and practicing night/star/Milky Way photos have finally paid off because I can remember how to set this up quickly and get the job done.

Little me's big adventure...and the Aurora...

 

Hubby has coverage and meals all set up. He and Charlie get a break from me and I get a break from them. All the farm animals are taken care of. The weather looks good and I am so ready to go see my new little granddaughter and of course her folks.

I've decided to stay at a hotel near Lake Michigan and do a bit of shopping, walking, and seeing the sights of the town I used to live in years ago. 

The drive there will be casual. I'll listen to music and take a route so that I can visit a place called Paradise Springs again. I'll feel a bit like my life is untethered and free at least for a little while. That is about the nicest thing I can do for myself.

Last night I saw that we might be able to see an Aurora Borealis show. My neighbor -- who I share the driveway with asked if I was going to watch for it. She said she'd text me if she saw anything and I agreed to text her if I saw anything.

She did text me around 7:30 to say she saw faint pinks in the northern sky and it wasn't even dark yet!

I ran out and got this....

It was very faint to the naked eye but I was ecstatic! I set things up in our little valley and asked my neighbor if she wanted to come down and get the view of a bigger sky. She couldn't, the kids were in bed and hubby was at a meeting.

So I walked up to her place in the woods.
The show was still incredible.

When the skies did this....

I thought it would be fun to do a star trail. The Oly camera I use has a LiveComp setting which detects light movement and adds it to a composite as it happens.

I don't have to take 400 shots and then align them later. 

Each time the waves of color moved, the camera added that to the photo also.

What I ended up with after 25 minutes was wild...

👇

Airplanes and maybe some shooting stars passed overhead.

While the camera was doing its magic Cibyl and I stretched out on the gravel with our cell phones and took shots.

We even walked out to the road where she dropped into the ditch and laid back to view and shoot the sky.

Cellphone shots...

I mean, it was insane and we oohhheedddd and ahhhhhed and giggled like kids. 

Cibyl sent me a chart explaining the colors that we saw:

I took so many cellphone shots that it was crazy. They turned out okay.

But I enjoyed trying to nail something special with the Olympus.

Star Trails above her house when the sky turned red with green and yellow... the Aurora waves were so bright that they washed out the stars in the lower part of the photo.

It felt insane to see the skies turn red at night.

I commented that if it wasn't the Aurora...it would look like the end of the world...

It fluctuated and changed and seemed never ending.

Finally, we called it a night. Her hubby came home and the lights started to fade.

At least...

That is what I thought...

As I came down the driveway, my naked eyes saw something faint in the east...

still going on...

But I was tired and had miles to put on the next morning. So I thought I'd take a finishing shot over our house.

I was so pleased at what showed up.

There is light...

I thought the Fireflies were done, until I walked out the other night at dusk to put the pony back in his pen for the night.

I thought I'd check out the meadow this time with a view to the northeast.

The old apple tree across the fence is in deep grass and brush. The photo is dark, but you can see that the Lightening Bugs were sure busy!

I then took the camera and faced it towards the evening sky. There was barely any light at all, but the neat thing about modern day cameras is that they pick up light better than the human eye.

The meadow's grass is pretty short here from grazing so I didn't see a lot of bugs lighting up. However the color of the clouds and the sky were beautiful.

I also could see the Big Dipper!

I set up for longer exposures hoping to get more Fireflies and more star movement all in one shot.

I used a 8 minute LiveComp exposure setting on the camera and hit the jackpot.

In the distance there was some lightening from a storm cell, I got the start of a star trail with the Big Dipper at the center, and the Fireflies showed up in great numbers. They also streaked across the sky in front of the camera.

Lucky me, I only got one airplane flying through the exposure.

I set up to do just one more exposure, but the Mosquitoes simply were not cooperative. I could have set the camera up and walked away for 10 minutes but I get nervous leaving the camera on a tripod when we have wildlife that move through the area.

Normally the bugs are not this bad. In fact, I think we are quite spoiled as we don't have lakes and ponds in our area, only rivers and streams. It does cut down on the bothersome skeeters.

Even sunrises are not so much fun right now. 

This was my Friday night attempt at a shots.

The crescent moon is on the left and my neighbor's yard light on their farm 1/2 mile away is on the right.
The fireflies are in the are down below. It was very warm and just after sunset. They were exceptionally active! I was quite surprised. The shot is taken over the mule pasture which is full of weeds and grass.

I turned north and spotted the Big Dipper just coming out in the dusk. It looks as though it is dumping right onto the spot where our house is!

As it got a bit darker, I decided to shoot a star trail over our house with the Big Dipper as the center.

Nah. I didn't quite get the Dipper in the middle and then I quit because no matter how many times I tried...airplanes had decided to use the north-south corridor in their flight pattern.

I tried several times only to continuously get airplane tracks.

One of the planes was rather low!

That is the bright white streak.

In my imagination ... later on. This could have been an alien ship trying to beam us up! Right?

Alas, it was just a small airplane flying low overhead. I imagine it was going to our tiny local airport which was having a pancake breakfast and fly in on Saturday morning.

I guess I'll keep trying.

Last night some storms came through to the south of us. I set up on the porch for a little bit to see if I could catch any lightening action.

Nope.

I did catch the night sky light up with lightening far off and some lightening bugs were busy in the yard.

It would have been cool to catch a lightening bolt.

I gave up and went in as the skeeters decided I was great food.

The night sky is a reminder
that even in the darkest
times.

There will always

be

light.

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.

Ah...mazing!

     Thank you to everyone that responded to helping me out! The most popular photo was of the Fall Path down through the woods. Fun fact, that was taken with my pocket camera on a day I trucked 8 miles. When going through my photos on the trail challenge folder, I saw that one and fell in love with it again.

I am pretty shy about photo contests. Yesterday I visited our County Fair and looked at the photo displays and the flower displays. So much beauty! 

Anyhoo, I did enjoy my night hike. I got there just as the sun was setting. I walked over to one of the ponds to photo the sunset.

Imagine my shock of seeing the result of the drought on the pond that was full this spring! This is the view from the blind. Aurora would know how the pond usually looks....

Wow...

The sunset was rather pretty. And even if it was a bit boring, I liked it because the skies were clear!

Slowly but surely the Milky Way started to become apparent in the SW skies. The glow at the bottom of the photo is from LaFarge Wisconsin.

Then I tried one with me in it...

It turned out just with my legs showing, but that is okay.

I turned to the North to watch the Big Dipper.

In 15 minutes, it made some star trails that were pretty amazing...

I guess it is disappointing to see all the trails of the satellites and airplanes that show up in the night sky. But it is what it is! Still, it was beautiful.

I tried to get some reflections of the stars in one of the ponds. The ponds are pretty scummy and dry but heck. I got what I got!

It took me a few hours and a LOT of experimenting to get these shots. I've had some acquaintances ask to go with me on these night hikes. I do love the company, but I'm not sure they would tolerate all the fiddling I do to try and get 'that' shot that is decent.

Is photography a solo 'sport'??? 

I took a lot of shots and they didn't all turn out the way that I wanted of course.

I had some fun while walking back to the car. I thought I'd frame myself in the opening of a covered bridge.

Then I added the moon as if I were doing Wall Balls in CrossFit. I had a good laugh over that.

And this last shot. It has the moon added too. It would be impossible to see the Milky Way with a full moon...but I thought it was neat.

Enjoy the night skies if you can get to a 'dark skies' area. 

I smiled all the way home on the drive.

Night skies are amazing if you can see them.