Out Late

Saturday morning I snapped awake at 4am and suddenly realized that the northern lights might be out. I had noticed a stronger than usual chance of the aurora, so was enthusiastic to get up early to explore. I checked Facebook for the requisite comments about the lights and found several folks who had commented enthusiastically. So I set out… And found nothing but a sunrise. 🙁

Last night I opted to stay up late in order to look for the lights. A friend came along so we headed out to the Mendenhall Glacier in hopes of escaping the light pollution of streetlights. After checking out the horizon and not seeing anything of note, we continued to the shore of the Mendenhall Lake. Night photography is always something I enjoy and I had hoped that I might be able to capture some of that cool blue coloration of the evening sky and maybe even the Big Dipper over the glacier itself.

I thought the evening worked out well, photographically speaking. The Auroras came out for around 1-2 minutes at nearly 2:50am, and Joel can tell you how excited I was. I seem to have a knack for getting shots of the aurora the night after a great display. It works, but one of these times I’m hoping the timing will be in my favor.

Enjoy the photos…

This is obviously modified in post production - I had noted that my camera was able to capture the detail of the mountains and nearly give a daylight feel, but with stars. I should note that it is ~2:45am, and it is in fact dark to the naked eye.

One of the techniques I learned long ago was to turn around when photographing an interesting subject. Sometimes we get so immersed in what we "should" be photographing that we miss something even more spectacular that is happening behind our backs. Try it sometime. Oh, and regarding post production here: I simply muted the tungston lights falling on some of the tree branches.

Another instance of 'Turn Around'. If you look closely along the shoreline, you can see my friend Joel engrossed in his own imagery.

Proof of the Auroras. 🙂 Oh, and note the Big Dipper

See these and more in my 2011 Fine Art Gallery.