Another Year for the Reefer: Days 324-334

Wow, I'm way behind. Here are a series of photos to catch up, featuring scenes from Halloween and Reef's birthday trip to Glatfelder Cabin on Quartz Lake. He's just turned nine, and is now officially an ol' dog.

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.

Without Heat: Day 307

Casey and I heating our cold powerless cabin with candles, rum, and cribbage. Luckily, it's only been in the mid 20's at night, otherwise with no alternative source of heat besides our fuel fired stove (which requires electricity to run), we might be a little more than just uncomfortably cold.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-800 f/4 @ 1/2 sec.

Snow, Snow, and More Snow: Day 306

The second winter storm of the season was a whopper. Close to 14 inches of snow at our cabin, downed trees covering the roads, loss of power to over 21,000 homes according to the local utility, and many cars in the ditch. We've been in the dark with no power since yesterday, as crews work all hours to restore the grid.

Canon EOS 60D, Bower 8mm Fisheye CS, ISO-400 f/8 @ 1/160 sec.

Fluff: Day 305

Well, it's come to this. A photo-a-day, for a year, is a lot. Grad school is making it very difficult to find new material for this blog, but I'm almost there. For those loyal readers out there, I hope for your sake the next sixty days will be better than this.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon Ef 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-800 f/11 @ 20 seconds.

Bloodless Moon: Day 304

No blood moon for Alaska.  We are longitudinally deprived of the viewing opportunity.  Instead, we get freezing rain.  Here is a picture of the full moon over the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.

Melt: Day 303

The roughly seven inches of fresh snowfall we received yesterday has already begun to melt back as temperatures peak above freezing. We probably won't have a permanent snow pack until mid to late October. These initial flurries are just practice for the real thing.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-500 f/4 @ 1/400 sec.

Snow Returns: Day 302

First snowfall of the 2016 winter season. Should warm up over the next few days, so I doubt much of it will stick around.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-500 f/4 @ 1/1600 sec.

Deep In Thought: Day 301

Reef contemplating the meaning of life.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, ISO-100 f/1.8 @ 1/400 sec.

Paper Birch: Day 300

Not the most exciting subject matter for day 300, but hey, they told me I'd be busy going to grad school, and they were right.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/6.3 @ 1/50 sec.

Spruce Grouse: Day 299

For hunters, the spruce grouse quite possibly is one of the easiest game birds to kill. Myself, along with an accompaniment of seventeen undergraduate students, basically walked up on this bird during a forest ecology lab this afternoon. I was showing them a white spruce forest, when we came upon this plump bird, which perched motionless on a fallen branch while we looked on mere meters away.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-1600 f/5.6 @ 1/50 sec.

The Last of Liquid Water: Day 298

In just a few weeks, this will all be frozen. Temperatures are staying the high 30's low 40's all day now, with snow in the forecast for much of next week.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon Ef 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-640 f/6.3 @ 1/160 sec.

Salmon: Day 297

Another sign of the changing seasons.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon Ef 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/6.3 @ 1/100 sec.

Parents Invade Fairbanks: Day 296

The folks are in town for a few nights. Their first time visiting Alaska. Today we took a stroll through the black spruce bogs and paper birch stands of the boreal forest. No moose sightings, but the tracks were fresh.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-640 f/6.3 @ 1/160 sec.

Life's Ruff: Day 295

This represents the majority of Reef's day when Casey and I are away at school. He leads a rough life.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-800 f/14 @ 1/3 sec.

Little Green Men: Day 294

The truth is out there...

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

Calves: Day 293

A herd of female reindeer yearlings we visited at the reindeer research farm at UAF. Reindeer become sexually mature within their first year, so in order to prevent unwanted pregnancy's they have to keep the males and females separate from a very young age. The one on the far right is named Kaia, tag number 1513.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/5 @ 1/320 sec.

Fall Dogs: Day 292

Another look at the fall colors of interior Alaska.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/7.1 @ 1/640 sec.

Reindeer Farm: Day 291

Casey, Zeus, and I were granted behind-the-scenes access to a reindeer farm at UAF. The perks of befriending your neighbors.

Canon EOS60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/5 @ 1/500 sec.

Cosmic Flow: Day 290

Everyone has been talking about how good the northern lights were a few nights back. It could possibly have been the best show of this entire aurora season. Looking at the data, the storm peaked at a planetary index of 7, a class 3 geomagnetic storm. A massive river of charged particles with intense greens and bright pinks poured over the entire night sky.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/4 @ 5 seconds.

First Snow: Day 289

Big lofty white flakes fell from the sky today. Fall is short lived in the frozen north. It snowed for several hours, but none of it stuck around. This soon will change.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/4 @ 1/80 sec.

Kp 5: Day 288

The perks of late night airport runs in Fairbanks.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/4 @ 5 seconds.

Yellow Wood: Day 287

Lately, Casey has been reciting this poem every time we finish our daily Reef walks.

"The Road Not Taken"

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair;
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Through as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaved no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-100 f/20 @ 1.3 seconds.

Yellow: Day 286

Fall colors continue to amaze. 

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-320 f/5 @ 1/500 sec. 

Aurora Returns: Day 285

Earth was struck by a geomagnetic storm last night, but clouds overtook the skies around Fairbanks. With the return of darkness to the far north comes increasing opportunities to see the northern lights once again. Here's a photo of the lights over Tolovana Hot Springs a few nights back.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-2500 f/4 @ 15 seconds.

Hot Water: Day 284

Soak'n up the colors.

Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, ISO-400 f/5 @ 1/640 sec.