Aurora Borealis aka Northern Lights

[WingNut]

I spent some time in a very remote part of Northern Canada this year and had the opportunity to photograph these magnificent lights.
No two are the same and they continuously change not only in colour but intensity. There wasn't any way to predict if they
would show so quite a bit of time was spent over many nights to get some of these shots. I hope you enjoy them.......

All of these shots represent relatively long exposures in a very dark environment in heavily populated bear country. On occasion I did
hear a bear rustling in the nearby bush / scrub and that certainly woke me up.

First off is a Moonrise just after sunset. Yes that's the moon coming up, not the sun going down.





Second is the Milky Way. You would think there was quite a bit of light but this long exposure
was taken in pitch blackness.




Now for the lights.














Thanks for lookin'.............


Oh... I did mention bear country. This full grown very large one visited the bedroom window.



And this 2 year old cutie came within 20 feet or so without making any threatening gestures. Was I foolish to allow
it to do that? Probably but it was a thrill of a lifetime.

[SG1]

Stunning photos.

[Mark43]

Yes indeed. Stunning photos.You deserve more praise from the membership than you have had.

[HABU 71]

Just seen your photos of the northern lights your patiants rearly paid of, one word: FANTASTIC.





Regards HABU 71.

[sjnovis]

Fantastic pictures, along with many people, the northern lights are on my to do list.
The bears do look cute, until you see the claws in the last picture.

[WingNut]

Thanks for the kind comments folks.

Fantastic pictures, along with many people, the northern lights are on my to do list.
The bears do look cute, until you see the claws in the last picture.

Glad you liked them........

That bear is just a youngster @ about 2 years old.

This grizzly is a little more serious....



Or this one..........

[DanBeeden]

These are really nice - the Bear shots are beautifully sharp and full of depth. Photographing the aurora is very high on my wish list - what length exposures are these?

[WingNut]

These are really nice - the Bear shots are beautifully sharp and full of depth. Photographing the aurora is very high on my wish list - what length exposures are these?

Thank you for the comments.
The aperture setting was f4.0 because the widest lens I have is the 24-105mm. Exposure times vary from 5 seconds to 30 or so.
A few of the fainter shots are not very visible to the human eye but will be captured in a longer exposure. It's a trial and error
thing taken over quite a few very cool nights.

[Ben Montgomery]

The final Aurora photo is beautiful - I'd love to see that.