David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Views of weather around the world. Rain, snow, clouds, lightning, rainbows, etc.
I helped a neighbor with the first maple syrup boil down this year. The temperatures have been weird and we were not sure enough maple sap would be collected this season. Rather than multiple cameras I just used a Garmin VIRB-360 camera to record the activity for the day. I used the images to produce time-lapse videos (1 hour in 30 seconds) in 360 degree panorama, tunnel view, and little planet view.
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First snow in New Jersey the winter of 2017 that didn’t disappear within a day. The day before it was 65°F (18°C). Ultimately, we got about 6 inches (15 cm) of a heavy wet snow. It was enough that I needed to shovel part of my driveway. Snow covered the solar panels — reducing power generation to nothing. It took a couple of days for the snow to avalanche off the solar panels. You don’t want stand under where it slides off. So far this year only minor dusting.
On our first night in Tromsø, Anna – a local photographer and her husband took us to a couple of locations to view northern lights. The first place, Telegrafbukta is not far (maybe 45 minutes walking) from the center of Tromsø along the fjord. I got many great images of the northern lights. I am not exactly sure what the walkway going into the cold water is for, unless they have a polar bear swimming club. This is obviously a favorite place for locals to view northern lights on a Friday night. There were at least a dozen folks just up the hill. I’ve reprocessed the images, and used them to create a star trails image, and a time-lapse video.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.
Last year I was contacted by Condé Nast to use one of these images in a publication about European beaches. I told them that they could use the image if they downloaded it from my PhotoShelter Image Gallery and paid the appropriate rate (depends on size and publication circulation). I guess they didn’t like the rate suggested…
We then went to Kvaløya (Whale) Island for the 2nd image. The mountain on the right is lit up with a yellow color from sodium lights at the home near the water. It was a lot easier to photography the northern lights when on solid ground with a tripod. On the ship, even with a tripod you get the motion of the ship.
I went out on a photowalk with my brothers and sister while visiting St. Petersburg. Hawk Guarding the Handicapped Parking Space and then a wet Anhinga. Both at Brooker Creek Preserve.
On the second day of the southbound Hurtigruten voyage, the MS Nordkapp stoped in eight ports: Mehamn (01:00-01:15); Kjøllefjord (03:15-03:30); Honningsvåg (06:00-06:15); Havøsund (08:15-08:30); Hammerfest (11:15-12:45); Øksfjord (15:30-15:45); Skjervøy (19:00-19:45); and Tromsø (23:45-01:30).
After going in and warming up, I went out on deck again early morning hours (just after midnight). One band of the green lights went all the way from horizon to horizon over the top of the ship. I switched to a fisheye lens and went to deck 7 where I could get this image (notice the big dipper). I had all of my cold weather gear on, and it was still cold, especially since the ship was moving at 15 knots. At this point you could tell who the hard-core photographers were, as we were the only ones still out on deck.
At the end of the day, I disembarked from the MS Nordkapp in Tromsø. I met up with a photographer friend from France (we both were on a photography trip with Thom Hogan in Patagonia in 2010/2011), and spent the next week in and around Tromsø “Chasing the Northern Lights”.