Stir Them Birds Photo

This conjunction between Mars and the Moon is occurring right this second. Go take a look!

This was a memorable night. We’re in Killarney, the Perseid meteor shower is peaking. I hike a couple km through the dark, find a nice spot, point the gear at my boy Perseus, and frame up a nice composition. I take a few shots. I’m just hitting my stride when I hear a rock clatter nearby. Switch on the headlamp, swivel around to face the noise and there’s a pair of black bear cubs frozen in the beam of my light. Eyes glowing and fixed on me. 40 or 50 feet away. I start making... noise. Small one takes the hint and scampers off. The larger, likely blinded and unsettled by the obscene amount of light I just blasted it with, moves towards me. Not charging. Stumbling really, but in entirely the wrong direction. I continue to noisemake, feeling slightly reassured that I’m up on a rock shelf while it is not. Slightly reassured, though mostly scared shitless and wondering where mama bear is at. Uncomfortable with the developing situation, I dismantle my gear and climb up higher on the mound of granite, all the while casting the light about looking for mama. No sign of her. Though I do notice the second bear slink off as I’m repositioning. Not fleeing, not at all. Repositioning, got it? I consider repositioning right back to the comfy bed in our cabin, but think; I should at least grab a few more shots I find another composition, belt out a few bars of a Christian folk/rock tune (I’m not above hedging my bets) and set the camera on cruise control. I watch the sky. Spot a few meteors. It’s real dark, see? No moon yet and no city light. I watch the Milky Way slowly drift into the west. I see Mars rise, red and piercing. There’s meteors zipping all over. Saturn chases Jupiter across the sky behind me, Andromeda carves a path across the inky black before me. A huge fireball ignites the sky just above Polaris, around which this cosmic dance is slowly turning. The Moon rises, and obliterates the Milky Way. It wipes the fainter stars from the sky, startling me with its devouring beauty. It lights up the granite beneath me like dawn, fairly blinding me. I sympathize for the cubs. I pack up my mess and head back to my own cubs. They are sleeping soundly. Image is about 2 hours 10 minutes of exposure time. 30 second exposures. 14mm. F3.5. ISO 6400.

Miziweyaabikizi. The Corn Moon, she is full.

*Tap for non cropped image* The Milky Way above the Killarney tree line, with sky glow provided by distant Sudbury and a pair of radio towers. 14 mins tracked exposure time for the sky, 30 seconds for foreground.

Sunset over my favourite corner of Georgian Bay.