We are now shifting into our northern lights season with workshops, and held our first northern lights photo workshop this past Saturday, November 6th. We had three night sky photography workshops during the summer, and a fall color photo workshop in October. This northern lights photo workshop is a nice transition into the winter, where we have the possibilities of seeing the northern lights in the Keweenaw (October to April has the highest probabilities to see the northern lights).
The northern lights photo workshop on Saturday was a success. We had 3 people at the session (limit is 5 persons), along with myself and the instructor, Nate Bett. All the participants expressed great satisfaction to me afterwards.
For the first half of the class, Nathan Bett shared his techniques in a classroom presentation. The second half of the class we journeyed out onto the ninth fairway and had some hands on learning.
The “class room” portion of the workshop lasted around an hour and a half, during which time several of Nate’s nuggets for taking night sky photos were discussed and he was able to spend some time with participants teaching them about their specific cameras and their settings.
After finishing up the indoor lecture portion of the workshop, we journeyed to Hunters Point, in Copper Harbor, with our cameras for some hands-on learning.
We were fortunate to have the clouds clear and Nate was able to show the photographers that if the atmospheric conditions warrant it, even with lower KPI values, the sensors of the cameras could pick up Aurora glow. He also demonstrated light painting, during which one of the photographers caught a beautiful bright shooting star. We were out on site until 10:30 pm and participants were still eager for taking more pics.
Our next Northern Lights Photo Workshop will be held December 4th. Please contact the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge, Outdoor Activity Center or Events Department for more details and to reserve your space.
About the Instructor: Nate Bett
Nathan Bett is a photographer and educator in Hancock Michigan. Although originally from Marquette, Michigan, Nathan recently relocated to Hancock from New York City, where he taught at the City University Of New York, and represented a major camera manufacturer as a technical specialist in photography. He now spends his time indulging in the over abundance of natural beauty in his native UP and spending excesses of time outdoors with his family. Nathan maintains a passion for photography and the outdoors that he delights in sharing with students. His work can be viewed at nathanbett.com and @natebett and @artmonstermedia on Instagram.
