Project 52 - Week 10 Self Portrait

I realized that I am more and more happy to do self portraits when last week we went to the ice park and I did not get one photo of me.

Most of the stars aligned when I got my assignment this week. The night we got our assignment was the 1st of 2 days of magical Northern Lights. I have been wanting to photograph them since I first saw them, and I've been reading about how to do it for several months. Even better to get me in the picture. It was going to be an active sky and we got all bundled and set up. We went out and took some rad shots only to bring them inside and see that they are all blurry and out of focus. Argh, I hate to admit this but I couldn't figure out how to manually focus my camera. I've been using auto focus and digital for so long that I didn't know how to do it.

I actually came back inside and had to read my manual. I felt lame, but 10 minutes later we were back outside. Now the problem was it was too dark to focus on anything. We had a little flashlight, but it wasn't really working. My shutter speed was at 30 seconds which was way to slow. I would be mid picture when the sky would change and then it would be gone by the time I got set up again. It was extremely frustrating, but I did manage to get a few.

In the first one, I'm all blurry from trying to stand still for 30 seconds. Plus I am out of focus. The second one they sky was completely lit up, it was dancing ALL over the place but because my shutter was open for so long they are blurry with motion and none of the red colors were captured. In the third one I'm sure it's blurry, but the shapes that they were creating was just fascinating. Unfortunately, I didn't think that my self portrait was very good so I geared up the next day to try again.

I was disappointed, but learned a lot. The next day was supposed to be just as active. My friend Annie asked if I wanted to go to Ester Dome to shoot them the next day. She took the most incredible photos with the rooftop of her barn to focus on. She was able to use a shutter speed of only a second so her colors came out way more crisp, the added light from the barn helped for sure. I hope this link works it's to Annie's fb page from those 2 nights...so cool.

So the next night we braved the 10 below for 3 hours trying to get a good shot. Had to come in the car to thaw out a few times and take a trip back to Annie's house for a flashlight. We totally would have had northern lights magic...had they been as bright as the night before. But alas, they were not. Don't get me wrong, they are always amazing, but when you are going for the magic shot it just didn't happen. Here are a few from the second night.

I debated and debated on which photo to submit for this week and ultimately went for the second one. Now that I look at them though, should I have gone with the first one? I think the green hue in the back was awesome, and I thought dynamically the pose was cooler. Annie said, "be a lumberjack." I had my foot in the air for about 1 second when she said put both feet on the floor, you won't be able to hold that pose."

I'm addicted now, I can't wait for the lights to come out again. We heard over and over from locals that this was the best show they had seen in years. One said 22 years. So I am so grateful to have been able to see them. That and thanks to Annie for her expertise, motivation and creative prowess. I could NOT have done this without you.

Without further adieu, I give you the rest of the Project 52 Class.