Day and Night

Every year in Duluth the city creates a lighting spectacle in Bayfront Park on the harbor.  Bentleyville draws thousands of visitors from all over to witness this event and it was recently featured on The Great Christmas Light Fight!
The December full moon was on the 11th and I hoped to capture an image of the moon, Bentleyville and the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge.  After first using Photopills to scout possible vantage points to shoot from, I settled on a spot along the Superior Hiking Trail that offered a view of all three.  I went out earlier in the day to inspect the site, felt it would work well.  In the light, it seemed like it had everything I was looking for.

However, come night, it did not live up to my expectations.  It had too much foreground, the moon was higher than I had hoped for and overall, seemed to be lacking something.

Sadly, the weather the next day would be snowy and cloudy so no re-shoot was possible.  I did take one of the images and crop to a panorama that, again, not great, but fun and colorful to look at.

Night At Glensheen Mansion

The Glensheen Mansion in Duluth hosted another event for photographers the other day to allow access to the colorful lights on the grounds.  Some of the lights had been acquired from a local resident that could no longer continue the tradition of decorating her backyard on the shore of Lake Superior.  It has made a nice addition to the festive feel at the mansion.

Front view of Glensheen

Lakeside view of Glensheen

Electric Trees

Northern Lights

I’ve been trying to cross this off my photography bucket list for some  time now.  Although conditions weren’t the best from this location, it was a good practice opportunity for me.

Aug. 31, 2019, Thompson Reservoir, between Carlton and Jay Cooke State Park.

Canon 5D S, ISO 1250, 28mm, f/2.8, 15 sec.

After Dark

Recently, after hearing that there would be better than normal northern lights, I headed out to my chosen destination and set up for the show.  Sadly, it turns out the show started after I gave up and went home; however, I at least tried to capture some night sky shots, something I haven’t done much of.  The results are a good starting point to help me learn how to do better in the future and how to improve my post production.  One lesson is to not pick a very windy night as it leads to camera shake on the tripod.  Next time I will not extend the tripod all the way open, keeping more rigid and close to the ground.

 

Like A Mirror

It was one of those rare nights when the harbor was perfectly calm allowing for near perfect reflections of the Aerial Lift Bridge. The only camera I had with me was my iPhone 7 Plus so quality is not as good as I would prefer. I did however use the ProCam app which allowed me to shoot RAW with the hope of salvaging a decent final image. Editing was done on my iPad with Adobe Lightroom CC.

Strange Lights in the Night Sky

On a recent night when I expected to see the aurora lighting up the skies over Duluth, I got a surprise.  Rather than seeing the northern lights, I captured this unique image, for which I have no explanation.  I took many shots that night, but only this one has what appears to be lights in the sky over the Blatnik Bridge and the harbor.  Other than cropping the image, doing a bit of sharpening and noise reduction, I’ve done no other editing.