Celestial Dance Over Lake Superior by morganpt

The morning of October 11th was a beautiful one where Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury formed an arc leading to the crescent moon over Hollow Rock. Per my normal travel habit, I parked my car next to my morning photo destination so I would not miss the morning magic. This time just outside of Hollow Rock, which is just south of Grand Portage, MN.

Setting up about 2 hours before sunrise, around 5:20 am, I first took a series of astro shots and kept taking pictures from the same spot until sunrise. This image is a composite of three images from the same spot with a 15 minute time period. Here, you can see three planets and the crescent moon. Venus is the brightest object, with Jupiter just below and to the left, and Mercury is very faint as it is just above and a little left of the crescent moon. You can see details here: http://ift.tt/1KSgQ8W

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Kulshan Fading by MichaelBollino

Kulshan Fading

The evening before a recent backpack into the incredible subalpine backcountry surrounding Washington State’s Mount Shuksan (images to come!), I made the trip up to Artist’s ridge, almost certainly the best bang for your buck drive up location in the entire Northwest. In one direction stands Mount Baker and the other Mount Shuksan. Anyway, views toward Mount Baker (Kulshan to Native American tribes) open up just a few hundred yards from the parking area. I scouted a few different comps but, to me, this one most closely resembled what it feels like to stand there in person. Shifting my mindset away from the compulsive need to search for dominate/ attention grabbling foreground elements to incorporate was refreshing. The image may be a little messy and unarranged for some but, for me, it’s precisely this unforced quality which acts to put forward the feeling of standing there in person, watching as the crescent moon and soft vibrant light fade away toward the west. Hope others enjoy as well. View it on black if you choose.

A handful of unreleased images can be found on my website HERE

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