I’ll never figure out how I got this one
Northern Lights in South East Alaska by Richard Lewis 2014
You have to wonder when the PA system on a small ship announces “Attention passengers” in the middle of the night if it would be followed by instructions to head to the life raft. Fortunately, In this case, the crew wanted to share with us that a rare occurrence of the Northern Lights was visible. This is not a common sight in South East Alaska during the summer months.
I’ll never figure out how this photograph happened. I almost didn’t bother to set up the camera because this scene required a 30 second exposure on a tripod from a moving ship. Yet, here it is with the added bonus of the Big Dipper which is part of Alaska’s identity as a state.
How I Did It – Some general tips on night photography.
- Shoot in manual mode.
- Have your lens aperture wide open
- Focus the lens manually on infinity because you can’t see to focus and auto focus probably won’t work.
- Lastly, I always have a little LED flashlight with me to read the focus setting on the lens.
Enjoy
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Don’t know either, but fantastic shot!!
Thanks.
Beautiful image !!!, it would look great on my wall and thanks for the night tips, I don’t do enough night photography to remember that stuff. lol
Thanks Lou, It’s easy to forget all that stuff if you don’t do it regularly. I have to go over it in my head every time before I go out to do a night shoot so I don’t stumble around in the dark trying to remember what to do.
Great Grab, Rich. In re focusing I learned from Mike Pillows this summer to back the focus off a “tad” from the limit; otherwise the stars will be fizzy. I later verified this “on the beach.” I also read a suggestion recently (Pop Photo or Outdoor Photog); go to live view, blow that up and then find and focus on a bright star somewhere in your planned field.
Great suggestions Ralph. I’ve always found that live view doesn’t work well at night but never thought about zooming in on one bright start. I will try that next time I’m shooting in the dark. Thanks.
VERY cool! I like how other-worldly this looks. I also like that you can barely make out the distant mountains. However you did it … kudos!