Sunday, December 23, 2012

12/13/12 Geminid Meteor Shower/Star Trails

Taking-in the starlight and meteor shower in
rural-Stark County, IL southeast of Kewanee, IL 

On December 13th, I was able to view the Geminid Meteor Shower as I traveled to rural-Stark County, IL to escape the city lights/light pollution of Peoria, IL. Early-on some pesky high-level cirrus clouds I had to deal with through the evening, but it quickly cleared out by 9:00pm. Their were nearly perfect viewing conditions thereafter for the meteor shower with no moonlight to be concerned with. I saw a few nice "fireball" meteors and also a few small ones as well throughout the night. I really only caught "one" on a long-exposure that darted across the northern sky in front of a small lighthouse just before I was about to "kill" the long exposure I was taking. Despite the chilly conditions I was happy with a long night of photography shooting several shots of star trails. I've added several photos from the night below:

A lighthouse providing a stellar photo-op...
High-level cirrus mixed in after sunset
providing an interesting orange-hue to the sky!
Cirrus clouds moving off to the northeast allowing
the stars to show themselves the rest of the night...
Polaris (north-star) can be used to your advantage
to create some dramatic photos!
City lights sneaking into the
background of this shot...
Out chasing some more starlight!
"I'll be up waiting, counting the stars"
Having fun with some evergreen trees now...
 Another cool shot! (looking north)
Similar photo I shot about a month ago, but I'm
not sure which one I like better yet...
Let me light up the sky, light it up for you...
I shot this similar photo last year, but
I like this one better...
"Stairway to heaven"!
One last photo as I call it a night...

That wraps up this post. The lack of winter weather in this area has been quite annoying thus far this month. We did finally get our first snowfall however. 2012 will sure go down as one of the weirdest years of weather in recent memory. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for 2013 already...

Thursday, December 20, 2012

12/06/12 December Sunrise & Sunsets

Sunrise a few weeks ago along the
eastern horizon outside Peoria, IL

Earlier this month, I managed to do a little bit of photography during a hectic work schedule photographing a couple nice sunrises and sunsets. I usually find these last two months of the year very busy as I usually am working long hours and don't have much in the way of free time. Every now and then though I manage to sneak a little bit of time into my day for some photography. I've added a few photos I shot this month below:

A beautiful December sunset!
The geese were still here just before
we ended the "snow-drought"...
A local cemetery outside of town and a fiery sunset...

Stay tuned for another post at a later date. I ended up shooting some cool photos a week or two ago as I was out doing some night photography once again. I'll update at some point with that post as well...