This morning. I managed to grab my camera before the colours faded away.
Sunrise, Oct. 29, 2021
Patrick
Aurora — Oct. 11th, 2021
It was quite a show last night. The aurora covered the northern sky, east to west, and reached up overhead. For about 15 minutes around 11:15pm, it looked like the videos you see that are shot up in the north: bright, sharp, and frenetic.
The image at the top is a panorama, 6 photos, stretching just about 180° from west to east.
Some of the photos in the gallery below were taken literally 2–5 seconds apart.
It was the best show I’ve seen in decades, and here’s to more active shows in the months and years to come.
Nerdy details: all images were 11mm, f/2.8. Exposure times varied between 1 and 5 seconds. ISO was either 1600 or 3200.
Autumn Trees
North of ACC.
I can’t decide which I like better. Do you have a preference?
On Reflection: Oct. 1st
I went for a bike ride yesterday, and there was no wind to speak of. The river was very calm.
Star Trails, late September
I was hoping for aurora, but it wasn’t there. But the stars keep moving, and so I present these two nights’ trails.
eppur si muove
Corn & Sunset
Some corn at the edge of town, shot right around golden hour.
The photo above is, in fact, a composite of three photos, a handheld HDR composition. The three photos are below.
Middle exposure 
Dark exposure 
Bright exposure
And then, a sunset.
Review: Velvet Was the Night
A young woman has vanished. Her neighbour Maite is looking for her because she’s not willing to feed her cat forever. A possibly CIA-funded gangster, El Elvis, is looking for her too, for somewhat darker reasons.
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a mystery novel, a slow-burn noir set in Mexico City in the 1970s. It’s funny, tragic, startling, and violent. It’s full of comics and Elvis and unrest. It’s terrifying at times, sad at other times, and full of characters you root for and against, even if you’re not really sure you’d want to meet them.
I thought it was great, and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author.
Buy a copy: McNally-Robinson | Bookshop | Amazon, if you must
September Bike Ride
It’s been a while since I hopped on the bike and rode 20ish km, so today—since it was gorgeous out and all the gravel I’ve got is already in place and tamped—I did just that.
Continue reading “September Bike Ride”Writing Retreat 2021: The week in review
Last week I was at a rented cabin up at Minnedosa, writin’ words and takin’ photos. I had a bunch of goals for the week, but how’d I do?
Continue reading “Writing Retreat 2021: The week in review”Writing Retreat 2021, day 6
On Friday, I:
- Continued outlining “Praise The Torch”
- Did some update work on my grant application
- Read more Zero History—I think I’m just about halfway through now
- Went for a bike ride—not a long one, but I climbed a lot of hills and got a few photos
- Watched a few more Firefly episodes
I decided that, even though the sky was clear, I’d stay in and not keep myself awake past 2 am again. I was in bed reading by 11 and asleep before midnight, and I think that was the right decision.
And now I’m going to start packing up the cabin. My time here draws short. As always, I’m feeling conflicting emotions: I’ll be happy to be home, but I’d love another week doing this kind of thing too.
Vacations: They’re Never Long Enough.