They Danced

My quest to see and photograph the northern lights happened Thursday August 22nd.  I am so glad I am able to share these pictures with you. I have to say the dance they put on were watched by Roy, me and a few others at the turn-out we chose to stop and watch, just check out the picture. The other thing I wanted to share is this is my 300th post.  I think I’ve grown in this journey, I also hope you’ve enjoyed the adventures with me.

Speaking of adventures this trip has been a great one.  I’ve learned you can not plan everything and when you stop looking it will happen.  We traveled the Ingraham Trail another end of the road for Roy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingraham_Trail in the daylight to figure out where we should set up if we got the chance to see the dance.  We were 40Km or about 25 miles from town so no light pollution. The town of Yellowknife gives out maps for places to see the northern lights we stopped at one turn-out and realized there were too many people waiting for the lights to begin dancing so down the road we went. It was a tad chilly (39F) standing out taking pictures but well worth it. I also just took some time watching the way they ebbed and flowed pictures do not do them justice.  I also shared the moment with a young woman who also had never seen the lights and she was also in awe.

The moon was starting it’s third quarter phase so it did not dampen or dim the lights.  I played with some lighting effects where they say you should wash the foreground in light from a flashlight well I unintentionally used the taillights of our jeep.  I hope you enjoy the building that was lit.  Here is one picture of the building not bathed in light.  I do like this picture better because I can let everyone including me believe that it is a warming hut. (it could be used as one).  Here is another example of bathing in light, I snapped the picture when the car was pulling out on purpose. This is one more where you can see a light trail I did try to do a selfie that did not turn out well, I was afraid of exposing for 30 seconds so here is the first effort at the selfie. The lights were ever changing and it seemed some of the better lights happened on the way home.  I turned into a wimp and got to cold to stay real late.

I have to say this journey of 300 posts has been unbelievable.  The first year of the trip I wrote every night and posted no pictures.  This was the year that we did a busman holiday although I did get to experience the bears on Kodiak.  The second year was all about eagles, the third year was my 50th birthday and photo trip with Lisa Langell and I hope you enjoyed those pictures.  This year has been about reaching for the northern lights.  I am sharing a few more pictures from the first night of lights.  This picture has grown on me it was taken outside the trailer and backlit by a motion sensor light. The 23rd we had rain the 24th we chose a different location and I’m still working on those.  I do have to say I am not used to staying up so late so I’ve been sleeping late into the afternoon.  So the Yellowknife blogs will be coming soon.  On a semi-sad note tomorrow the 26th is the time in our trip that we are now heading home.