Even more Northern Lights

Last night I had yet another opportunity to attempt captures of the Northern Lights here in Trondheim. The nights are slowly getting less dark, so within a few weeks it will probably not be possible to observe strong Northern Lights here before next winter. It is becoming obvious to me that a 24mm on APS-C camera is too narrow to capture the Northern Lights in all its splendor, at least when the Lights are high on the skies/in zenith. Therefore I also brought along my MX and took one film (Fuji Provia 400X) with the FA*24 f2.0. Hopefully some of these will turn out interesting! Anyway the images below were taken with my K20D and the above mentioned lens. C & C are welcomed!

Oh, the bright shining "star" on some of the images is (if I am not completely mistaken) the planet Venus.

1.
[IMG]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz50/bjolester/IMGP7525.jpg[/IMG]

2.
[IMG]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz50/bjolester/IMGP7527.jpg[/IMG]

3.
[IMG]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz50/bjolester/IMGP7529.jpg[/IMG]

4.
[IMG]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz50/bjolester/IMGP7530.jpg[/IMG]

5.
[IMG]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz50/bjolester/IMGP7532.jpg[/IMG]

6.
[IMG]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz50/bjolester/IMGP7541.jpg[/IMG]

They are beautiful Bjørn. Even more special because it isn't completely dark. Well done. I am so envious!

Time to save up for a wider lens for the autumn?

Totally agree with Gwyn - especially the envy bit

Carl

I actually like the last shot best - even though there are less 'Northern Lights' in that one !

Definitely need to shoot in landscape to appreciate the 'lights'.

Absolutely. I took some of the wonderful displayswe saw on the Hurtigrten this year - but we were in open sea so there was nothing to tie them to, and they just don't work well. I still enjoyed witnessing the displays though even if the photos didn't work .

Thank you very much for taking time to comment on my photos!

Gwyn: I am saving for a wider lens

The last image is the only one I cropped. I removed parts of the image to the left so that the beam from Venus ( is placed according to the rule of thirds. I believe that many photographers of aurora borealis simply aim at capturing the shapes of the Lights, but it helps, like you also point out, to have some kind of contrasting context or setting (mountains, trees, cities, etc.) But there are also many wonderful N.L. photos with only dark sky as a background. And it makes a world of difference what shutter speed you use. Last night I set ISO to 400, and used shutter speeds between 6sek - 15 sek with the lens wide open. You have to observe how fast the Lights are moving and adjust the settings on the camera accordingly. If you use too long exposures, you will most likely end up with some green undefined mess in the skies. There is also the concern about shutter speed and stars in this niche of photography. Depending on the type of lens (14mm-24mm-50mm), one will end up with beginning "star trails" with too long shutter speeds.

The experience of standing alone in the night for hours in the midst of this phenomenon is really hard to describe. One gets blown away.

Bjørn

Fantastic photos, I particularly like number 2.

It has to be said what a fine job you have done of these Bjorn

I prefer the first one to be honest

Thanks for the info on how you took these

Thank you very much, Rob and Stu, for your comments

Bjørn