At the start of August I went on my first photography workshop in well over a decade.  What convinced me to do so was the topic - shooting the night sky over Lake Superior.  It ended up being a series of firsts for me, both in terms of location and results.

The night we arrived up north, there really wasn't a chance of capturing a good night sky photo, so we ended up shooting around the harbor in Duluth (a place I've only driven through in the past, so my first first of the trip).  Duluth is one of the two cities in Minnesota that still has a working Lift Bridge (the other being in Stillwater).  The need for such a device becomes apparent when you see the varying sizes of boats/ships that travel under it, from regular motor boats to behemoths like this freighter.

Lift Bridge and Freighter Lift Bridge and Freighter

Here's a shot of Duluth at sunset.

Night Two proved to be the best night for shooting the night sky.  We started off at Split Rock Lighthouse (another location I've never visited, let alone shot at).  This is one of the most iconic and most photographed locations in Minnesota.  I enjoyed trying to capture different views of the lighthouse.  The first is playing with the pools that for amongst the rocks (unfortunately, massive mosquito breeding grounds).  The second is a more typical view, but I like the colors in the twilight.

Split Rock Lighthouse Split Rock Lighthouse

Unfortunately, because of the time of year, the Milky Way was not going to align itself with the lighthouse, so it was time to set up a different view for that.  Shortly after capturing this image (complete with some lucky meteors), I realized that I had not set up exaxtly where the Milky Way was, so I had to reframe my image.

Milky Way and Meteor This is a 7 shot composite, which was necessary to capture as much of the Milky Way as I could.

Milky Way

After leaving Split Rock, we stopped at Twin Point Park/Iona's Beach.  Here's a Milky Way shot from there. Milky Way over Trees

While capturing that and some other images, I couldn't help but notice how nice and bright the Big Dipper was over the trees to the right.  So, I had to get a shot.  Then I saw what else was going on and had to get many more.  Here's my favorite. Big Dipper and Northern Lights

Day Three brought us to Gooseberry Falls, yet another iconic location I've never been to.  It is much harder to get a shot than I realized because of all the people swimming in the pools around the falls.  This was the best I could manage. Gooseberry Falls

The Milky Way wasn't as bright and colorful that night, so I decided to convert it to black and white (this is a 6 shot stitched panorama).  The glow around the tree is from a city to the south, possibly Two Harbors. Milky Way Over Lake Superior

Our final day and night were on and off rainy, so we knew we wouldn't get night skies.  However, it did stop raining enough to get out and shoot around Two Harbors.  Here are some of my images from that.

Two Harbors is one of the largest loading areas for taconite in Minnesota [taconite is an iron ore that is shipped as pellets...it is the reason the hills around Duluth are called the Iron Range].  Here you can see the ore docks as well as a supply of the taconite pellets. Ore Docks

It was a really good trip and one I would do again, but at a different time of year (mostly to get the Milky Way and Split Rock Lighthouse in the same shot).  And now I know how to get similar results in other locations I want to visit.