• Monday-What'sUP February 28 - 06:03 pm

Shawn & Brian Malone are at it again. These two photographers never cease to amaze me, when it comes to capturing the phenomenon in the skies known as Aurora Borealis. They shot these photos in Marquette, where they have a front row seat to the action, right there on the shores of Lake Superior. Being away from the city lights, makes a huge difference in the viewing of the Northern Lights like this.

In the second photo, Shawn said she used a 17 minute exposure time, that's what gives the circular motion look of the stars in the sky. My first thought upon viewing this photo, was, 'What a lucky soul that is, sitting in the Adirondack chair, taking it all in.' That's actually Shawn herself and she explained that she only sat in the chair for half the exposure time, since it was quite cold the night she snapped these last weekend.

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly thankful that these two shutterbugs get out and about there at night to capture the beauty to share with us all.

Wow! Seeing the northern lights just once in my lifetime is definitely on my bucket list. How beautiful!

I'm with you on adding that to my bucket list too, Cindy! I am always amazed at how many stars are visible in the UP, away from the city lights.

Very pretty! We have a friend in Alaska who posts a lot of pictures of the Northern Lights!! She just has to look out her back porch to get quite the show. Love these!

So the person in the chair sat perfectly motionless for 17 minutes? Amazing.

Mary says: Dane ~ If you go back and read my notes again, I said:
"That's actually Shawn herself and she explained that she only sat in the chair for half the exposure time, since it was quite cold the night she snapped these last weekend."
So, she sat there for about 8.5 minutes total, but got up and moved around to stay warm. ;->

Nice...the 2nd photo reminds me of one of the commercials, sitting on the beach with a Corona beer, except no swimsuit.

Seen this beautiful wonder many times on snowmobile trips to the U.P.

Super pics!

AWESOME!

Saw the 'northern lights' one time in N.D., wasn't sure at first what they were. Thrilling when we realized what we were seeing!

Great shots!! One can always count on Shawn and Brian to provide awesome shots of the Northern Lights.

I had seen the Lights many times in the UP; mostly greens and reds. I even saw them once (briefly) on the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay while doing field work. I'm hoping the Dr. and I get to see them this summer when we're in Norway/Sweden. The only issue we might have is that as far north as we'll be, it will still be the time of the Midnight Sun and White Nights, which will be a real treat as well as neither of us have ever experienced this phenomena.

Here's a link (found on John Dee's Discussion Board) to a short video showing a (click → ) time-lapse series of an Auroral display on the Lake Superior horizon, also by Shawn and Brian Malone, for Lake Superior Photo.

As I said on John Dee's forum:

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Quote:

Nice time lapse series! But so low on the horizon.

Reminds me of nights near the north end of Larson Road north of Bruce Crossing as a kid in the early to mid 1950s, when the Northern Lights appeared as MONSTER HUGE multi-colored, heavily pleated old theatrical front curtains/Grand Drapes, hanging directly overhead from the "top of the sky", rippling in a "gentle breeze" and slowly changing colors! Awesome! Will we ever see that again?

And multitudes of fireflies were following us along, watching the same show, with their display perhaps inspired by that scene. Where did the fireflies go? I haven't seen one in decades!

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Wow...fantabulous!

Nice video FR!

Beautiful!

FRNash, what a beautiful description of the northern lights. Makes me wonder what happened and how sad that it just isn't the same as it was during those good old days.

FRNash, the fireflies are still about. Look for them in damp areas just after sunset in August in the lower peninsula - most folks aren't out and about at 11 pm, though. Maybe a bit later. Up near Copper Harbor it's even later as the DST makes sunset quite late.

Looked up fireflies on the internet and found that they are the same as what we in the south have always known as 'ligthning bugs', and they're everywhere from Spring into Autumn.

Aroud 1988 or so, on a cold crystal-clear night, the northern lights were visible down to Florida. They were curtains of green, red, purple light from the northern horizon to the celestial equator.

thanks for the image and movie share today. It was not planned to catch the northern lights in the timelapse video, that a bonus. Of course the northern lights will appear higher in the sky in the future, the solar max is upon us. We recently had such a display back in October and I was fortunate to capture it, if you didn't see the images in the media, they can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.294245450599298.76457.165862740104237&type=3
or purchased here: http://lakesuperiorphoto.photoshelter.com/gallery/Northern-Lights-10-24-11-over-Lake-Superior-UP-Marquette/G00007xOPyDKJxPo/

shawn (Twoyoopers):

… Of course the northern lights will appear higher in the sky in the future, the solar max is upon us. …

Solar max, yes! I certainly hope the aurora will cooperate!

…We recently had such a display back in October and I was fortunate to capture it, if you didn't see the images in the media, they can be viewed here …

Now that was incredimus! Thanks for posting!

Awesome!

I remember when we were UP there in August the Lights put on quite a show one night. I managed to get some great pics from on top of Brockway but it did make for a long night. I know this might be a silly question, but can you share with Pastyland some of the equipment you use to get such wonderful photos of the Lights???

The caption for the shot with the person in the Adirondack chair ought to be - "The biggest big screen you'll ever see - and the movie is free. Only in da good old UP." Awesome, awesome shots.

There was also a neat view of the Northern Lights from the top o' Brockway on (click→) Cam Notes for Thursday October 5, 2000, Nice!

that is so cool