Some aurora photos from last night

[Stuart Richardson]

Last night had a really intense, but brief aurora. I shot a bit of film, but mostly the D3. I shot at ISO 800 for between 8 and 25 seconds (which turned out to be about 2.5 stops underexposed...it was so dark that they looked fine on the display!). Anyway, they came out well. Lens was mostly the 17-35mm f/2.8 at f/4.5. For some shots I used the 24-70mm f/2.8

They are all here: http://www.stuartrichardson.com/lightroom/march-3rd-aurora/

Here are some samples:

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

Beautiful, particularly the first two ones and the last.

 

[Bob]

Very cool! (sorry, not intended)
-bob

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Thanks guys, I'm glad you liked them!

 

[TRSmith]

Very nice Stuart. No. 1 is my favorite. Good on you for getting out there in the cold and dark!

 

[Steen]

Wow, completely surreal captures

 

[gandolfi]

Beautiful images, Stuart.
Love the green sea, white snow, and are those horses in there?
Gandolfi.

 

[helenhill]

FAB!!!!!!!
There ALL Wonderful...but the First is truly Divine

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Thank you all.

Gandolfi -- the green sea is more from the reflection of the aurora.
It looks like this in the day:

And yes, they are horses. When I was starting to photograph, I saw a group of things moving in the distance. About 10 minutes later, the wind blew the odor of livestock towards me. I turned around and there were the horses, about 300 feet away, now behind me. They came up to me and said hello as I was on my way out.

 

[jlm]

stuart...greats shots of an amazing phenomenon...looks a lot different than brooklyn, eh?

 

[lisantica]

Lovely images I enjoyed them all.

 

[Lars]

It's interesting to see how high-ISO opens up new photographic possibilities. Beautiful indeed.

Did you use daylight white balance?

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Thanks everyone, I am glad you like them.

John -- yes, very different than Brooklyn! Though I miss it there at times, I must say that this sort of thing is much more up my alley...and no one is going to stab me in that alley, which is a bonus!

Lars -- Yes, the D3 really does open up a lot of possibilities. These were at ISO 800, but most were pushed 2.5 stops, so really ISO 5000 equivalent...there is still not too much in the way of noise. There is definitely softening of detail, but the noise does not get in the way of the images.

White balance was around 4000-4500k, and I believe there is a fairly strong magenta bias...maybe +10 or 20. I find the snow and sky look better to me with a magenta cast than the greenish hue they get when they are left more neutral.

The crazy thing is that these are not really tweaked very much in processing. This is how the camera sees the aurora. I did not boost contrast or play with the curves...this is what it looks like.

And you can see it too...it is an utterly amazing phenomena, and it is something you must see to believe. What the photos cannot convey is the movement -- the way the lights move is very eerie and wonderful...like sheets blowing in the wind on a cosmic clothes line!

 

[David K]

Really enjoyed these Stuart, thanks for sharing them. Seeing this in person is on my bucket list...

 

[Shac]

Thank you Stuart - it's been years since I saw the aurora - these images (& the ones on your site) are wonderful reminders as well as super images
David

 

[waynelake]

They are forecasting more on the 12th or 13th.
http://www.spaceweather.com/

 

[Stuart Richardson]

Thank you Davids and Wayne! Thanks for the head's up on the forecast as well Wayne...I will try to get out tomorrow and friday to see if I can find the lights.