Oregon Daily

Waterfall Wednesday!! We are loving the amount of waterfall spots in our home state! Which ones have you visited?
PC: Eight Sheets To The Wind

What a awesome hidden jem of the PNW.

Spectacular view for yesterdays 💧🌲
PC: Poemtography

Waterfall Caves

IPhone long exposure

The Gorge is GORGEOUS!! 😉🤩
PC: RalphDaub.com
Last night was my first successful aurora photoshoot and also my first Aurora sighting with the naked eye.

Photographed between Arlington and Rock Creek in Oregon, just a few miles from the Columbia River Gorge.

During the day still, I noticed the space weather numbers looking incredibly favorable Lady Aurora sighting. If those numbers held up until the evening, and if I could find clear skies, it would be almost certain I'd see her.

The caveat... 99% of the Pacific Northwest was socked in with clouds. I had no idea where to go, or what to shoot for an interesting subject.

I looked up cloud cover using Windy app, checking multiple weather models, meteogram forecast to compare cloud levels, and NOAA. A small sliver of Central Oregon and Central Washington showed a possible cloud break during dark night.

I scoured Google Earth for any potential subjects in those areas, which turned out to be mostly farmland. I found what looked to be some abandoned buildings and marked those on Google Maps. I cross-checked the location with a Dark Skies map to ensure there was no light pollution.

I got my gear packed and set off just before sunset. When I arrived at the location, the sky was already darkening. It was just me, in an unfamiliar place, with an eerie abandoned silo to keep me company in vast open fields.

I had an uneasy feeling about exploring the silo — abandoned places can give me the shivers sometimes. I killed sometime while waiting for the dark night to set in. When I got a couple of test shots, it was game on! Aurora was dancing away in her colorful garments!

Somehow I managed to push through the discomfort to get out of the car and walk around the abandoned silo in the middle of nowhere, by myself... I only scared myself a handful of times. 😂

When my eyes finally adjusted to the dark, I could see green pillars slowly forming and disappearing in the horizon. I let my creativity run wild playing with lights in between breaks to warm myself up in the car.

Thus was my first evening with Lady Aurora. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like in Iceland, Alaska, Norway, etc. What a magical phenomenon!

These are two quick photos I managed to pull just before going to bed.

Hope you enjoy!