Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

The aurora has been very active over the last week. So much so that I was burning the candle at both ends. I finally had to just make myself go to bed at a decent hour the last couple of nights to catch up on all the sleep I’ve been losing! But the last few days haven’t only been about the aurora.

Last Thursday, I met up with a friend at Chena Lakes. Linda had some questions about her camera and photographing the aurora, so I helped her with her settings. I had Raven with me and was going to take her for a walk while there, but then I invited Linda to join us for a drive into the park, as it had been quite some time since Linda had been there last.

We drove down to River Park first, and while we were on the access road, I saw Linda stop her truck in my rear view mirror. I turned around and went back to her, to see what she had spotted, and was delighted to discover a cow moose and calf in the birch trees. Good eyes, Linda!

The afternoon sun was low in the sky and the lighting was perfect. The cow and calf spooked when both our vehicles stopped on the road, and they ran deeper into the trees. Before they ran too far off, we both managed to capture photos of them.

The photo below is my favorite image from the moose sighting. Several people have told me it reminds them of a Bev Doolittle painting (particularly her Woodland Encounter piece and her Three More for Breakfast painting), and that was my first thought when I downloaded it too. Of course it’s not really anything like what she has painted, but the combination of the tall birch and the brown of the moose made me think of her art.

Here’s another one I like. You can just barely see the calf standing next to mama, closest to the camera. The calf looks very small, and we were both surprised that s/he survived the winter. I imagine she had a sibling at birth, as most cows give birth to twins.

We drove over to Lake Park to see what was going on over there. The ice shacks are out on the frozen lake, but no one was fishing. I took several frames and merged them into this pano:

We took a quick loop near the beach and then met on top of the levee to take some photos of the Alaska Range as the sun was heading down:

EARLY EVENING AURORA - SATURDAY, February 18

I started seeing folks posting about the aurora being out a little before 7pm on Saturday night. I have only seen the aurora that early once or twice before. The sky wasn’t even dark yet, and was still a rich cobalt blue. I stepped out into my driveway, and gorgeous curtains of chartreuse and pinkish purple were waving in the sky above my house. The colors were so pretty against the blue early evening sky - like something out of an artist’s paint box. I took these a little after 7pm:

I was super excited at the early show and decided to drive over to Nordale Road to claim a spot at the pull out right away. Steve warned me that the traffic over there was going to be very heavy (which means lots of headlights) as it was shift change up at Fort Knox Mine and a lot of employees use Nordale Road if they live in North Pole. He sure was right. I was annoyed by the traffic and lights, but still managed to capture some decent images in the not-yet dark sky.

It didn’t take long before others started showing up at the pull out. Soon, there wasn’t anyplace left to park. It was like a drive-in theater over there. Only instead of a movie, it was a light show from the heavens.

There’s an understood courtesy that many aurora shooters follow. Before you turn into a pull-off, you dim your lights to only your parking lights so you don’t ruin everyone’s photos by lighting up the entire area. Obviously there weren’t too many experienced shooters out there. Everything from high beams to moose lights illuminated the parking area - ruining many an image and causing an audible groan to go up from those of us already set up. It was quite frustrating at times.

However, I didn’t let it ruin my night. The aurora was gorgeous with all shades of purple and pink, and even deep red, mixed in with the green and yellow and bluish-green. I took hundreds of photos.

The highlight of the evening though, was when the Poker Flat Research Range, which is located 30 miles north of Fairbanks, launched a rocket to collect aurora data! So many people saw it, as we were already out photographing the lights. It was so cool!

Here’s the image I caught of the rocket going up. You can see the rocket’s path through the aurora below:

Here are a few of my favorites:

The aurora bands were dancing across the sky when headlights lit up the trees at the edge of the parking area:

I love the red in this one and the way the trees are silhouetted:

You can see three satellites in this photo. At the top there are two (one is bright and to the left of it, is a dimmer one) and there is one at the bottom just to the right of my watermark that is pretty dim) This photo was taken by shooting straight up.

Nature’s Drive-in. Just find a spot and watch the show:

Here are some more images from Saturday’s amazing light show:

GUN SAFETY

This past weekend I took a gun safety class offered by the NRA here in town. My friend Moe is an instructor and is apprenticing as she just got her certificate. She told me about the class a month or so ago and I thought it would be a good thing to do.

Up until I took the class, I had a huge fear of guns. The only time I’ve ever fired a gun was when I was a kid and shot a BB gun, or shooting at targets (also a BB gun) at the carnival to win stuffed animals. My fear was so strong, that even if someone laid a gun on the table in front of me, it scared me to death. On top of the fear of the actual gun itself, I also hated loud noises - even balloons popping.

Because I know so many people who carry guns up here, and I’ve come in contact with them numerous times, I thought it best I take the class to try to rid myself of my fear around them.

The class was two days - 6 hours per day. The first day, we learned about handguns. We learned the difference between revolvers and semi-automatics. We learned about ammunition, and caliber, and how bullets are made and how far the different sizes travel as well as the power behind them. Most importantly we learned about gun SAFETY. We learned how to handle them, store them, load them and unload them. The last part of the class was spent learning how to hold a gun, stand, breathe, aim, and dry fire it.  By the time the class was over that first day, my fear had abated quite a bit.

The next morning we met at an indoor range. We were given safety glasses and ear protection. We had to load both a revolver and a semi-automatic. We worked with both .22 and .38 caliber pistols. And then we took what we learned and practiced shooting live rounds into first a paper plate at 15 feet, and then a target at 21 feet. I have to admit the first time someone else fired their gun, I jumped out of my skin, even with ear muffs on! But I quickly got used to the noise.

I did really well! The instructor thinks my experience as a photographer has a lot to do with my accuracy, as I’m already accustomed to controlling my breathing to take photos without shaking my lens, and I already know how to stand to minimize movement.

The first time I fired a .38 caliber revolver, he gave me five bullets to load and fire. Then I did it again. Here is my target from those ten rounds. This was from 21 feet.  Not bad for someone who has never fired a gun before!

I have to admit that I found shooting the targets to be quite fun! While I certainly hope I never have to shoot any living thing, I feel so much better knowing how to safely handle a gun, and how to fire one with pretty good accuracy.

After our time at the range, we went back to the classroom and learned how to clean the guns. Then we had to take a test to get our class completion certificate. I got 100% on the test, which I’m quite happy about. The class I took was all women (6 of us), which made it fun. The others were pretty much the same as me - with little or no experience. We all had a good time shooting, and one young lady (teenager) had such great aim the instructor told her she needed to try out for the rifle team.

I’m really glad I took this class, and I’d like to go target shooting again sometime!

Until next time…

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