I’ve been off the grid for a bit while venturing into Alaska’s arctic for a little aurora borealis photography. March can be a great month to shoot the aurora, but temperatures can be cold. It’s been a while since I picked up my camera, and there is a certain series of motions one needs to get reacquainted with when photographing the aurora. Lots of little steps need to be reviewed and it seems that it takes a night to get back in the groove of things. This is all the more important when facing very chilly temperatures, like on my first night. It was minus 12-14 degrees, with a stiff wind out of the north at about 25mph. That equals about -43 degrees with a wind chill factor, and I don’t work near as efficiently at that temperature. Especially when sinking waist deep in snow drifts! On the second night, I fared much better with a little warmer temps, and a review night under my belt. The aurora displays were not quite as dramatic but I got a few keeper frames. The one below was taken at 2:30am this morning (3-7-2011).
Aurora over spruce trees. Canon 1Ds Mark III, 24mm f/1.4L II, 13 sec @ f/1.4, ISO 1000.
