Like a lot of people, I love owls, but finding and photographing them can be quite challenging! Seeing a Grey Grey Owl in nature is something I’ve wanted to do for more than 20 years, but there is just no chance of that happening where I live in NE Ohio. I’ve known for a while that my best chance of seeing one of these mysterious and elusive owls was in northern Minnesota…and more specifically, the Sax-Zim Bog area. This is an area about an hour northwest of Duluth and about 14.5 hours drive from me. In January 2025 I finally made the trip! I could have saved some time and flown, but I prefer to drive because it just seems more adventurous and you never know what you could find along the way. The logistics seem easier and less chances of things going wrong, like canceled flights and messed up rental cars.

This was a particularly good year to look for owls because it is an irruption year for boreal species, like the Great Grey and the little Boreal Owl. This means that for various reasons, like food and climate, many more of these owls have migrated to the southern range of the boreal forest for the winter. I had hoped to see and photograph a Great Grey Owl when I started to plan this trip in early December, but it was luck that this turned out to be such a rare time to also see the cute boreal owls!

Of course, there were also lots of other interesting birds and wildlife in the bog and I only wish I could have had more time to see them. Some other wildlife I saw were snowshoe hares, mink, red fox, red squirrels, redpolls, ruffed grouse, Canada jays, northern shrike, purple finch, goldfinch, and a barred owl. If you would like to visit Sax-Zim, check out the Friends of Sax-Zim Bog’s website for a ton of valuable information.

All of the wildlife was photographed with an Olympus OM-1 + 300mm F4 Pro with a 1.4x teleconverter attached some of the time.

Even though we were a few months away from the April 8th full solar eclipse, I was already anticipating and preparing for the best views and hopefully, some great photos! I had done my research and had figured out the best camera settings and schedule to capture all partial phases and some of the key moments, like baily's beads and the diamond ring.

As the big day got closer, I became a bit obsessed with weather patterns and different types of cloud cover. Even though I lived within the path of totality, I was ready to travel if needed for the clear skies. At 7pm on April 6, I decided that the forecast was too risky to stay in Ohio and I loaded up the Subaru for a north adventure. I car-camped and tent-camped my way to chilly Pittsburg, NH…the most northern town in the state that I had visited many years earlier to photograph moose.

I arrived in the small town by 9:30 on the 8th and the parking lots were already filling up with eclipse watchers. I went past the town and pulled over next to First Connecticut Lake and staked out a spot on this still frozen lake’s shore. This ended up being a perfect place to not only view the eclipse, but also meet friendly people and just enjoy the day as we all talked and waited for the big event!

When the time came, I was ready and managed to pull off all the photos I intended to, but not without a bit of drama! As I was firing away a sequence during baily’s beads, my camera locked up and I had to remove it from the tripod and pull the battery out. It was stressful and I had to take my eyes off the eclipse for 20-30 seconds, but I managed to get everything back working for the corona shots!

Later in the year we were treated to brilliant Aurora Borealis displays that reached all the way down to Ohio and beyond. Unfortunately, I missed the larger display on May 10, but managed this photo on May 11 from the Lake Erie shore.

It just so happens that I was up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on October 10 and was able to enjoy the Northern Lights near Marquette for more than 2 hours. I was with fellow photographer friends and feel so grateful that I was able to experience this incredible event with these people!

2025 is projected to be another impressive year for solar storms and the potential for strong Northern Lights, so lets hope for more to come!