Wow, the month of October flew by so quickly! So much happened, and there were so many opportunities for photography, but this has been the first week I’ve been able to sit down and actually edit some of my photos from October! So, let me start at the beginning . . .

The first folder of photos that I have from last month is from October 10. Do you know, or remember, what happened on that night?

It had been a long day for me. I forget now exactly what made me so tired by the end of the day, but I remember I was exhausted. Dad had passed away only two days before. Each evening we were gathering together as a family at the Homestead for an evening meal and to talk and discuss things about the future. Julianna and I had just gotten back to our house, and I remember looking at the clock before turning off the light and laying my head ache on the pillow. 10:20 something. It felt so early! Finally, going to bed before midnight.

But the bliss only lasted for probably less than 30 seconds. My phone was ringing.

This was not an uncommon occurrence at this time in our lives. I was used to calls coming in at random times of the day and night.

“David Staddon. Hmm, he must be working on that design project he texted me about earlier today that I never replied to.”

But no, David wasn’t burning midnight oil at his computer. . .

“James!” he exclaimed excitedly, “have you seen the northern lights?!”

I was confused. “The what?”

“The northern lights! You can see them again. They’re amazing!”

I blinked in disbelief. “Are you sure? Where are you? Are they worth photographing?”

“If you hurry, you might be able to catch them!”

If I hurry! Not a single atom of tired body wanted to exit the warmth and comfort of my present situation. I looked at Julianna. “Is it worth it?”

“If you want to!”

Uh. I really didn’t want to. But . . . the northern lights! I’d never seen them before. Or, at least, not real northern lights. One time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan I thought I had caught a glimpse of something bright through the trees as we were driving on a cold, October night. There were rhumers going around that it was cold enough, but my sighting was never verified by someone else. On another late night in Alaska, the family I was staying with pointed up into the sky at this hazy white cloudy thing and said it was the northern lights. I said, “Neat!”, but I only believed them because they were locals.

But now this incredible phenomenon was literally in my own back yard. “I’ll regret it later if I don’t do something“, I told Julianna.

We both stepped out into the 100 degrees below zero temperature outside. (Well, at least that’s how it felt.)

Nothing. Above our little house on the edge of town, there was nothing but stars and grayish sky.

I called David back. “Where exactly are you at? Can you still see them?”

“I’m up at the Homestead. And yeah, you can still see them, but they are getting less and less noticeable.”

Another drive up to the Homestead? Bother. Julianna decided to stay back, but even though my head was pounding, I decided to drive back to the Homestead with my gear. The 10min drive was enough time to wake me up and get excited about a maybe-once-in-a-lifetime photo op.

When I arrived, I stumbled up the hill where a small gathering of shivering, blanket-covered people were huddling and chattering together.

I looked up expectantly into the sky. I saw nothing but stars and black sky. “Uh. You mean I came all this way out here to see . . . this?”

“Yes, yes! Look! See, it’s reddish over there on the horizon!”

I stared long and hard. “Reddish?”

My eyes had to adjust to the darkness. After a while, I could imagine the sky being a little red, but honestly, I couldn’t really see anything.

“I’m really sorry.” David said, “They were better earlier.”

Well, though it was disappointing, I wasn’t going to turn around and go home. I had brought my gear all this way, so I thought I might as well set up and take a shot. f/2.8, 10sec, 800 ISO, 2sec timer, let’s see . . .

“WHAT?!”

There was indeed something reddish on the horizon! And the camera could pick it up a whole lot better than my naked eye could.

This is my very first ever photograph of northern lights!

It needed tweaked, obviously. Let me manually refocus here, to infinity . . .

There we go! Wow. I could hardly believe it.

I don’t have any truly “wow” photos from that night. I was too slow getting out of bed and over to the Homestead. Also, I wasn’t thinking very creatively about including subjects in the foreground, or illuminating objects in an artistic way. The following photos are all I’ve got. But at least they’re something!

And it’s amazing how they did eventually fade away.

After the first couple of shots, I regretted the fact that I hadn’t brought a full frame camera with me. When they were at their strongest, the reddish tinge stretched all the way across the sky from the east to the west. 16mm on an APS-C sensor felt so incredibly limited.

But why didn’t I have have a full frame camera with me? Because I no longer had my trusty 5Diii. 🙁

And that’s a story I’ll have to tell you about in another blog post!