Aurora Borealis

jpatrick

jpatrick

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Jeremy
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These pictures are the result of an amazing Northern Lights display on 13th November in Churchill, Manitoba. I was there to photograph polar bears, but this was a very happy by-product of staying so far north.

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This picture was from a less spectacular viewing on 15th November:
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These are the best aurora shots I have ever seen.
 
That sounds fantastic. Solar activity is close to the peak of its cycle at the moment so you should be in for an amazing time.

I've been to the same place in Canada in two previous years in November, and had no sightings, as it's normally cloudy then.

These shots were all taken wide open at f2.8 and I seemed to get better results with a higher ISO and shorter shutter speed. The most important advice though is to take chemical hand warmers and lots of warm clothing!

richardhurst said:
Awesome shots. I'm off to northern Norway at the end of January for 10 days of this!
Click to expand...
 
These have to be the best Aurora shots I have seen to date, simply stunning!
 
I am as green with envy as the light itself. Superb capture and experience.
 
Thank-you for all the kind comments everyone! It was a very moving experience as well as a fantastic photographic opportunity.
 
Those are just awesome! That's all I can say, really.

I'm also quite jealous.
 
Amazing shots.......can only dream of getting shots of this fantastic light display.
Just turned my iPad upside down and can see a face in No.3....or is that just me?
 
Very nice! I've just got back from Iceland and unfortunately didn't get chance to see them :( it was a nice clear day on the day we left!
 
Incredible series.
 
I'm loving those where there's no landscape and we're just looking up at the sky, they do an amazing job of capturing the wonder of the aurora. I was in Iceland recently but aurora activity was pretty low again but i've been fortunate enough to see a really strong storm in the past and these do an amazing job of conveying how wonderful a sight it can be.
 
Great images, the 2nd one from 2nd set is just incredible!

Can I ask what lens and settings you used? I'd venture it was the 16-35 but believe some of the exposure times at 2.8 can be a little high if they are that vivid and fast moving. I'm going to Norway myself at the start of Feb, currently have a 30mm f1.4 and the 10-22 goes to 3.5 at the wide end. Other lenses are limited to f4 at the fast end which is a little slow.

Sorry see you actually said f2.8; still be interested in the shutter and ISO combos though; not shooting with a mk3 I don't like to go much above ISO800 when noise levels start to creep in.
 
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So jealous. Something I'd love to see, and to come away with shots like that would be very very special.
 
World class shots. Does.it happen for short bursts, or did it continue for a while? I'm heading north here in Feb and praying for clear skies!
 
Thanks for all the kind comments. Often, the Northern Lights are only visible for a few minutes, but on this night I was watching them for 2 and a half hours before I got completely frozen and had to go inside. I'm told the display went on for another 2 hours, but this is exceptional.

The key to getting more than just a green blur in the sky is to minimise the shutter speed, which meant shooting wide open (f/2.8) and at 3200 ISO, which was the best compromise on my 5D Mark III. A faster lens such as the Canon 24mm f/1.4 would have given me another 2 stops, but wouldn't really have been wide enough, as all my photos were taken at 16mm.
 
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