Pictures of Alaska’s magical aurora borealis, or northern lights.
Through the process of converting from film to digital, there was a slow development of programs that handled the processing of RAW files. As software developed, the potential for extracting the maximum quality from a RAW file became more easily, and more quickly achieved. I remember dragging the temperature slider in the early version of…
At the midway point through March, the daylight is flooding into Alaska’s interior. Further north, there is only a few more weeks of photographic opportunity for the aurora borealis. I hope to get out once or twice more, but by mid April the night sky is very bright up above the arctic circle, my favorite…
I spent the last four days in the White Mountains National Recreational Area just north of Fairbanks. Its a trail system that strings together a series of little cabins that make for a magnificent ski, dogsled or snow machine trip. Most of the time was spent skiing and eating, with a tiny bit of aurora…
I’ve been off the grid for a bit while venturing into Alaska’s arctic for a little aurora borealis photography. March can be a great month to shoot the aurora, but temperatures can be cold. It’s been a while since I picked up my camera, and there is a certain series of motions one needs to…
My employee and I are currently undertaking the colossal task of sifting through 40,000 images, removing those which are no longer relevant in the stock photo market, doing QC on keywords, upgrading all digital files to the latest LR3 processing algorithms, and cleaning the hideous dust demons. Did I already say this is a colossal…
Yesterday morning when I stepped outside about 5:45am, I looked up in the sky-which is always the first thing I do during Alaska’s dark winter mornings–and saw the aurora borealis overhead. So I ran back in my house and quickly grabbed a camera for a token shot. It is really difficult to measure the value…
Before leaving for another 10 day venture in the arctic, here is one photo taken during my previous trip last week, late one evening when the aurora spilled across the sky. It was taken about 2:00am, in the Brooks Range, on a nearly new moon evening. In retrospect I would have shortened the exposure a…
The arctic photo tour I’m guiding was off to a good start on the first evening as clear skies eventually revealed some aurora activity. What was particularly interesting about the display was not it’s brightness but rather the color reflection in the Koyukuk river. It’s been a busy few days and hopes are high for…
Every year in early October I co-guide a photo tour to Alaska’s arctic with friend and colleague Hugh Rose. We do two trips back to back actually, taking 8 photo and nature enthusiasts on a venture for the magic of the emerging arctic winter. While we are omnivorous regarding subject material, the aurora borealis, polar…
Today on www.spaceweather.com there is a link to an interesting graph denoting the geomagnetic activity on a monthly basis. Spaceweather says: “Statistically speaking, March is the most geomagnetically active month of the year; October is a close second. Although the reasons why are not fully understood, there is no doubt that equinoxes favor auroras.” The…