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I'd say today was a waste of film, but that would be technologically inaccurate.

Today was a waste of photographic effort.

Returning home from respite, I noticed a soft green glow in the sky; northern lights. Despite being the end of a long work day, I decided to be spontaneous. After scarfing down some supper, I would get my gear and my warm clothes on, and venture outside of the city to see if I could capture some northern lights in my camera.

I should have just foregone the whole thing when I opened my trunk to realize that I'd left my camera bag (with camera) at work. No, I can still do this, I thought. Traffic wouldn't be too bad so late in the evening; I would just get the camera from the office and head north from there, looping back towards my end of the city as I went.

Hoody, jacket, windbreaker pants, comfy shoes, tripod, flash light, head lamp. Gas for the car and hot tea for me. Go.

Half an hour of driving. Followed by just over forty-five minutes of mostly sitting in my car and reading while I let the shutter trip open on my camera for five-to-ten minutes per shot. I was mildly mesmerized by the gentle ripple of the lights in the sky, but not so mesmerized by any of the five shots that came out of my stakeout. (No, I'm not posting any of them. Given the nature of the subject, I'd say the photos are nothing more than average. And I feel that aurora borealis photos fall into the category of "go big or go home." Like lightning.)

Trying to capture an image of myself in the process was not all that satisfying, either.

This was the best shot I had patience for by the time I got to it (clearly "go big or go home" does not apply to self-portraits). I have to admit, though, there is an artistic quality to the way this came out. A girl and her tea, soft light and a book (you can't see it, but that's what I'm looking at), waiting on her camera at the end of a long day.