Northern Lights
Day by Day, Photos March 19th, 2007These photos were taken on December 14, 2006, at about 7:30 PM.
I was watching the news on TV and they said there was a huge solar flare, and it would hit us this evening. This would cause an amazing aurora, and I was determined to try to get some pictures.
I decided to head out past the west side of town. I watched from my house until it appeared they were getting pretty intensive, then loaded the camera, my tripod, the dog and me into the truck.
I didn’t realize I was almost out of gas, so I had to stop – I wasn’t going to sit in a cold truck. It was about -30C. ARRGHH!!!
Huge lineup at the gas station. People renting DVD’s. ARRGHH!!!
Got gas – lights are getting brighter. Haven’t seem that that bright for a long time. HURRY HURRY
Red lights. Every f***ing intersection. I can’t believe it. ARRGHH!!! Wow – they are getting even brighter.
Granny is in front of me. She’s lost. She’s looking for an address. She’s looking at something. Why is she stopping. The lights are dancing! ARRGHH!!! Park the car and walk for Christ’s sake!
Good – she’s turned off. Two miles to go. Wow – the lights are fantastic!
What!??? What the … !??? There’s never a train here. Oh well, it can’t be long. I don’t believe it. IT IS A LONG TRAIN! Where the hell is it going? The tracks end about a mile from here! ARRGHH!!! The lights are still shining – sparkling, waving.
Good! I’m here! Tripod set up. Dog chasing something – that’s okay – find him later. Camera on. NO CARD!!! Where’s a card? I must have a card in the camera bag. Found one. GO!
Picture taken. NOT GOOD! Too much light. Try Again. Shorter exposure. Change stuff. Make it work.
BATTERIES DEPLETED Give me a f***ing break. Do I have batteries? I must have batteries. Where’s my gloves? Damn, my fingers are cold.
Well, needless to say, by the time I got everything working, the northern lights had faded to half of their glory. Still, the photos turned out fairly well. Maybe the next time.
For anyone interested, the photos were given an exposure of 20 seconds, the F number was 4.5, and the ISO set at 400. I used BibblePro to edit the raw image files and bring out the colours.
