Posts Tagged 'Northern Lights'

Aurora, earrings and Le Pop!

Published July 17, 2012 Inspira , Jewelry , Photography 4 Comments
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Le Pop! will be part of Toronto’s Frugal Fashion week, and features a selection of local artists curated by my talented friend and creative colleague Dylan Dias, and I’m one of the featured designers!

The event is taking place here in Toronto -
Where: Nyood Restaurant – 1096 Queen st. West
When: Saturday July 28th, from 11am to 4pm

If you’re in the area come down and check it out, there will be a great selection of local artists and designers to browse through.

For my pieces I’m going to be focusing on my Inspira work – pieces of jewellery I have created inspired by photos I have taken. My latest piece, created just last night, is (no surprise here) inspired by photography of the aurora borealis.

Inspira by Shireen Nadir

A pair of dramatic, 4″ long earrings in a black hematite finish display the colours of the aurora in genuine Swarovski crystal before ending in a hematite tassel detail.

Inspira by Shireen Nadir

The crystals were picked to evoke the spectrum in my photos, and will be sold with a print of the aurora photo that inspired them.

Inspira by Shireen Nadir

I decided on hematite instead of silver to draw attention to the crystal gradient, as the night sky framed the light show.

Inspira by Shireen Nadir

They, and many more of my pieces, will be featured at the Le Pop! event – if you’re in the Toronto area on July 28th come on down and check us out :)

 

Sunspot AR 1520

Published July 15, 2012 Photography 92 Comments
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Tito and I went north again last night – in hopes of aurora hunting after sunspot AR 1520 delivered a massive X-class flare directly to earth.

Aurora 400

We’re getting quite adept at finding these things ;) We got our best shots not 1.5 hours from downtown Toronto – just outside of Barrie, south of Mt. St. Louis Moonstone.

Aurora Toronto

We cursed every time a car or truck passed us on the highway, but to our delight when processing these turned out to be the best shots!

aurora borealis

I apologize for the image-heavy post – there were so many winners it was very hard to pare it down to a few favourites.

Northern Lights Toronto

We call this the ‘light saber’ shot ;)

northern lights highway Toronto

This was one of Tito’s favourites. Incidentally we’re blogging together this morning!

dramatic night highway

We couldn’t believe how bright they were. Waving and flickering were visible to the naked eye, even from a busy highway.

night photography epic northern lights

After leaving that spot we pulled off on Mt. St. Louis Moonstone road for a few more shots, this time off the highway. We had some very nice and perplexed ATV riders stop to ask if we were ok. They’re unlikely to be reading this, but if they are, thank you, that was very kind.

Shooting start northern lights milky way

Here is the real gem of the night: The northern lights, the Milky Way and a shooting star. All in one shot. Score. It reminds me of one of our favourite sayings – great shots come when the photographers are willing to put themselves out there over and over again – when everyone else has gone home because it’s late, cold, wet etc. I was so tired last night that I considered turning back, Tito was the one to remind me of why we keep going out :)

Milky way, northern lights, panorama

This was a 2 photo stitch where we got the entire milky way galaxy into the shot. For those interested I am shooting tonight with my Canon 7D, and a lens that I didn’t really expect much from: the Rokinon 8mm fisheye. It was only $300, so I was skeptical about its performance, but thought it might be fun to have a fisheye. For $300 I am totally impressed and absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for an affordable novelty lens.

cemetery, northern lights, midland, Jesus

After we left that spot we ended up meandering towards Midland ON, up near Penetanguishene. We passed a very strange little cemetery, with little lights on every grave. Reminded me of Noma Moonrays, remember them? We took a long exposure while painting the cross with a little flashlight.

By this time it was 3:30 in the morning. A trip out to the edge of Georgian Bay left us in the middle of a residential area, so we turned back for the night, arriving home at 5:30 am, satisfied and humbled by the light show we witnessed. Despite my being in the middle of a massive project (which is why I haven’t blogged in a week, sorry about that) I think we might actually go out again tonight. How can I resist?

Fireworks – Au Natural

Published July 3, 2012 Photography , Travels 3 Comments
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Tito and I drove to Sault Ste. Marie on the weekend – a pretty ambitious endeavour since the Sault is about 9 hours from Toronto (13 if you stop, as we tend to do, for every interesting looking thing you see along the way). Before I do a post showcasing how gorgeous Lake Superior is, I need to show off the pics that made me the happiest.

This is a sun dog, photographed from Toronto at 6 am:

Sundog

I felt it was a good omen to see atmospheric phenomena right at the beginning of our journey. That night we found a road we thought (wrongly) would be empty, pulled over, and got to enjoy an au natural Canada Day light show:

Aurora Canada

The best thing was that this time, they were so bright that I saw them. Not squinty after my eyes adjust to the darkness and I think ‘kinda maybe?’. Nope, I saw them. They were so bright that at first I thought it was still blue hour, even though it was 11:30pm.

Aurora Canada

They dimmed after that, but I still got some gorgeous images, despite the fact that the ‘empty road’ turned out to be a highway and the mosquitos gorged themselves silly on me.

Aurora Ontario

All taken in the wee hours of Canada Day – what a great way to celebrate!

This is all I have to say today

Published March 8, 2012 Photography , Travels Leave a Comment
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From Space.com:

“Such a CME could result in a severe geomagnetic storm, causing aurora at low latitudes, with possible disruption to high frequency radio communication, global positioning systems (GPS), and power grids,” NASA scientists said in a statement.

…Experts also predict that the magnetic storm will likely enhance normal aurora displays (also known as the northern and southern lights). As the effects of the CME bombard Earth, these stunning light shows will be especially visible …”

From the Globe and Mail:

“That means for North America the “good” part of a solar storm, when it creates more noticeable auroras or Northern Lights, will peak Thursday evening and Friday morning. Auroras could dip as far south in North America as the Great Lakes, along the Canadian border, or lower…”

From Spaceweather.com:

“…the storm could intensify in the hours ahead depending on electromagnetic conditions in the wake of the CME. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.”

And so on, and so on.

So, yes, it’s a work night. Yes, it’s overcast and raining cats and dogs in Toronto. Yes, there is a full moon. And yes, there is a great party happening tonight to boot. But I am nothing if not determined. Wish me luck, and if you live at a higher latitude, get out there tonight and may the shutter gods be good to you!

The Hunt for Winter

Published February 22, 2012 Photography , Travels 123 Comments
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This is the winter that wasn’t. At least, here in TO it wasn’t. We’re not used to this total lack of winter and last weekend Tito and I drove out in search of ice and snow because, dammit, we miss it. We ended up heading north into Parry Sound – as a bonus the northern lights made a surprise appearance!

We passed a frozen lake covered in skidoo tracks. It reminded me of a cute story my dad told me about coming to Canada in 1972. He had worked in India as a motorcycle repairman, so when he moved to Ottawa he looked for the same kind of work. Finally he got his first job in Canada. He showed up on his first day and they took him to his first job and it was … a skidoo. He stared blankly at it for a few minutes before looking at his boss and saying “What the %@!* is that?”. The story always makes me laugh :)

What a great day for a road trip, the sky was that endless sort of blue that you feel you could fall up into.

At blue hour I took this shot – the 2 bright things in the sky are Venus (the lower one) and Jupiter.

We went northern light hunting at night without much hope of success – but then there they were. I remind myself that sometimes the shot you want happens when you least expect it. They were faint, true, and visible to the camera more than to our eyes, but they were there. This was a 15 minute long exposure.

This was a 20 minute long exposure, and yes we were cold ;) but it was worth it. The angle of everything was so perfect, I was able to get the tilt of the stars and the northern light glow into one shot. Reason enough to stand freezing out in the middle of the night. At least for crazy people. And photographers.

Then we did some star photography. Did I say we? My bad, I meant I. Tito, being more practical than me, was staying warm in the car ;)

What a perfect, clear night it was! This was all done just off the 400, north of a small town called Nobel, on a side road. The night sky was just stunning.

Thank you Tito – for doing all the driving and getting me out of town when I really needed it :) The star photography was just the icing on a really great day !

Northern Lights at last. And this time I’m sure.

Published October 25, 2011 Photography , Travels 5 Comments
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This is how this goes.

I’m exhausted – spent yesterday in a state of panic over an important project, then went home and delivered 2 photoshoots, then went into the studio to glaze a bunch of yarn bowls (yay, new yarn bowls!) and then was ready to have some food and collapse. As if.

Then I get this email from my friend Brett saying the following:

CME IMPACT: A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth’s magnetic field on Oct. 24th around 1800 UT (2 pm EDT).  The impact strongly compressed our planet’s magnetosphere and may have exposed geosynchronous satellites to solar wind plasma. Mild to moderate geomagnetic storms are possible in the hours ahead as Earth’s magnetic field continues to reverberate from the hit.  Sky watchers in Scandinavia, Canada, and northern-tier US States should be alert for auroras, especially during the hours around local midnight.

(From http://spaceweather.com)

All of a sudden I’m wide awake and Tito and I hit the highway. Around Barrie we hit a huge raincloud, but got just enough tantalizing glimpses to know that they were out there. We drove, stupidly and stubbornly, all the way to Parry Sound. Got home at 5 am. Back at work by 8.

Here you go. Thank you Brett, thank you Tito. One more off the bucket list.

Does it count if you didn’t see it yourself?

Published October 3, 2011 Photography , Travels , Uncategorized 5 Comments
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I just got back from the east coast and I think I’ve taken some of my best photos ever. I’ve shot Canada coast to coast, and though the mountains in the west coast are lovely, give me the maritime provinces any day; the warmth of the people and the beauty of the landscape are incomparable.

Without further ado here is the first of a few posts on my trip. On this post I’d like to get opinions on a photo I think is of the northern lights. I was shooting the milky way from Annapolis Royal at night when I decided to take a shot due north and this is what showed up in the camera….

Reasons for believing these are northern lights:

  • It was late September
  • It was midnight
  • It was totally clear out
  • Recent solar activity
  • The other side of that ridge contains only small fishing communities, nothing that could produce that kind of glow.
  • It looks like them.
Reasons to be not so sure:
  • I couldn’t see them myself – the camera at it’s highest sensitivity picked it up
  • Annapolis Royal is not known for frequent sightings
  • I’d hate to believe I’d accidentally stumbled onto my life goal.
  • It just doesn’t seem fair.
The next night I went out and shot the same pic, same time, same settings and the lights weren’t there. To me this kind of confirmed it, I feel like if they were there 2 nights in a row I might need to look for some other explanation.
So I’m curious – what do you guys think? Feel free to post a comment or send an email my way :) This doesn’t change my plans to drive to North Ontario this winter – to me it doesn’t count if I didn’t see them!
Before I sign off here are the photos I was trying to take when I stumbled onto my nemesis – the milky way was especially lovely that night :)
This one was taken off the end of the Annapolis Wharf.
And this one was taken from Fort Ann – most pics coming soon!

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