Northern Lights

Homer

Mrs Homer got me a trip to Tromso, Norway as my christmas present and we headed up there last week. 4 nights in Tromso with daily trips including snowmobiles, husky sledding and of course chasing the lights! We were extremely lucky to see the lights on our first night (had spoken to a few people in the hotel who had been there for the previous 4-5 days and saw nothing) and below are a small selection of the pics I managed to get that night

It's a particularly difficult phenomenon to capture on camera as it's constantly changing intensity and location and I was mindful of wanting to enjoy the experience and not be glued to the back of the camera whilst it was visible.

the_monkey

Great shots, sounds like a fantastic trip too ...

Thargor

Does it actually look like that in person or do you have to take a long exposure to get the colours, same as the way astronomy shots never look anything like astrophotography...

thebaz

I particularly the first 2 , out of curiosity are they film ? or maybe you could tell what camera used.
ps.s Id say it was freezing , i'm getting used to the polar weather here , as i head off for a swim.

Homer

They were taken on a Canon 6D with 17-40L and 10 second exposure at around ISO800 and F4.0
Little bit of tweaking in Lightroom afterwards. They are not exactly as bright as seen in the pictures due to the long exposure but several times they appeared and were extremely bright and very easy to see with the naked eye. Other times faint glows that the camera enhanced with the long exposure.

Thargor

Thanks great pics.

Actually reading my original post it looks like I'm accusing you of something

Nah I just wanted to know if they really were a naked eye phenomenon and can you get to see those National Geographic style views without a camera, I suppose if you couldn't it wouldn't be such a tourist industry...

Zebrano

Nice work.
I was in iceland just over a year ago and didn't get anything close to those. It's hard work alright as I was doing the driving at night as well as doing the activities durning the day plus I only had a 70-300 lens as the 18-55 broke the day after I got there. At least I have a good excuse to go back and direct flights are starting in the summer happy days

Iancar29

Can i ask why they are all faded?

I went to see them across the boarder in Sweden this time 3 years ago , got to be there when a weak CME hit , was fantastic.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/landscapeaddict/6775507219/in/photostream/

1357

What a great wife! (Sincerely)

fret_wimp2

Iancar29 wrote: »

Can i ask why they are all faded?

I went to see them across the boarder in Sweden this time 3 years ago , got to be there when a weak CME hit , was fantastic.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/landscapeaddict/6775507219/in/photostream/

Beautiful shota but exactly like Iancar29 said, they look faded and could do wirh a bit of contrast increase.

fret_wimp2

Incidentally, i was in Tromso this christmas also and had the pleasure of photographing the lights. Could be one of my fav places on earth.