Day 319 - Day 323

Technically, I failed my personal challenge. I have been unable to keep up on posting a photo a day. I could make excuses, but why bother. I still plan to post photos until the end, but they likely won't be on a regular daily schedule. There's just too much going on these days. Here's what's been happening over the past week. Curling, aurora, and working from home. 

Day 318

The auroras continue.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-1250 f/4 @ 20 seconds.

Sunny Fall: Day 317

The Alaska Range on a sunny autumn day.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, ISO-200 f/10 @ 1/160 sec. 18 image panorama.

Murphy Green: Day 316

Casey and I drove his mom up to Murphy Dome last night to photograph the aurora. Fortunately the lights came out and put on a good show. Unfortunately, with the windchill I'd say it was at most 10 degrees out. First frozen beard of the season.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-800 f/4 @ 15 seconds.

Conjunction: Day 315

An aligning of Venus and the crescent moon, just before dawn.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-200 f/5.6 @ 1/15 sec.

Green and Purple: Day 314

Big auroras tonight, but a thin layer of clouds are blocking the views from Fairbanks. Here's a photo from last night.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-1250 f/4 @ 10 seconds.

Deck Aurora: Day 313

Casey and I were treated to an early showing of the northern lights during one of Reef's walks this evening. Typically the aurora doesn't pickup until around midnight, so we were surprised to see the green glow when it was still twilight out. Here's a shot looking up at Casey's neck beard, with a satellite cruising by. Forecasters are calling got a kp 6 storm tonight. Look north everyone.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-1250 f/4 @ 15 seconds.

Curling: Day 312

Let this photo be a lesson in monitoring your shutter speed. The closest curling stone was in focus, but the slow shutter speed necessary to compensate for lower than anticipated light levels caught the motion on my unsteady hand and blurred the image slightly. My excuse: I was learning how to curl.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/4 @ 1/8 sec.

Yard Grouse: Day 311

Yet another spruce grouse sighting, this time in our yard just outside the kitchen window.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-800 f/5.6 @ 1/320 sec.

The Great Outage of 2015: Day 308, 309 & 310

A freak September snow storm dumped over a foot of wet heavy snow across Fairbanks last Tuesday, snapping trees like matchsticks which fell onto power lines, knocking out power to over 20,000 residents for several days.

We were without heat, water, and electricity at our little cabin in the woods for 96 hours, and managed to keep indoor temps above freezing with a portable propane heater, numerous candles, and Reef.

Now that power has been restored, I can finally catch up on my photo blog of the day. Here is Casey making jam from blueberries he picked before the skies turned grey again. A select few of you might expect to see the fruits of his labor come Christmas time.