Photogaboutit

As I'm finishing up this hiking book, I'm thinking about what made the hikes enjoyable for me. Inevitably, my photography instincts were hard to suppress, even when hiking with just a point and shoot, and invariably the favorite hikes were during the late evening hours as I treasured being in cool places when during the golden hour and the post-sunset dusk. The photos from the hike up Stowe Pinnacle in April was one of my favorites. I grabbed my trusty Sony RX100 and raced up the mountain less than an hour before sunset. I stayed on top taking photos until I needed my headlamp to get back down. No problem, and well worth it. Even April can be beautiful in the right light!

I've only seen the aurora a few times, but I'm pretty obsessed with it. I get alerts on my phone when activity is high and I check multiple websites to get up-to-date information. Even when the aurora is active and visible as far south as Vermont, there are still many factors that determine if we'll see it. Is it cloudy? Is there a moon or other ambient light? How much moisture is in the air? Do I have an unobstructed view to the north? Will it be dark enough? One of the more traditional photos, this is a long exposure with the sony A99 at ISO 6400! You read that right. I actually pulled back the exposure three stops in post processing to get these amazing colors and detail with almost no noise. Goes to show that exposing correctly (ETTR) works better than underexposing at lower a lower iso and increasing the exposure in post-production. This is probably my favorite capture of the night. The trees provide a story, and the green below the stars provides a different l...