Pictures of Alaska’s magical aurora borealis, or northern lights.
I have long looked for a scene that embodied the mystery of the aurora in conjunction with the simplicity of wilderness living. This cabin, under a sky of wheeling and whirling color, needs little commentary. I accessed this location with a friend, and we both drove snow machines. While offloading my machine from the trailer,…
Filters on a lens can cause concentric rings to appear in the center of an image (this is a crop) be sure to remove the filter when photographing the aurora. When photographing the aurora borealis, or northern lights, it is important to remove the filter from your lens. Why? Look at the photo and you…
I took a trip with a friend to the White Mountians last April to do some aurora borealis photography. It was a little late in the season for ideal snow conditions, but the skies cleared for a few nights of shooting. It is a challenge to include people in aurora photos due to the lengthy…
I’ve been getting many questions regarding when and where to go to see the northern lights in Alaska. I’ve addressed these questions briefly in an aurora article on line, but will reiterate some of that here. The aurora can be viewed frequently in Fairbanks and interior Alaska, and often in the Southern latitudes of the…
This image illustrates one main advantage of fast wide angle lenses–they offer shorter shutter speeds. Shorter exposure times mean more detail. A five second shutter speed in this case captures more distinctive shapes commonly found during the coronal display. These shapes tend to get all blurred together with long exposures. To achieve this however, you…
The Brooks mountain range, which crosses Alaska’s arctic region, is the farthest north mountain range in the United States. Just north of Atigun Pass–the highest road pass in the state– is Atigun canyon, the location where this photo was taken. The northern lights were not that bright to the naked eye, but timed exposures are…
On this inaugural blog-creation-day the temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska are on a slow but steady slide into the very “minus” category, at the moment that is -38 degrees Fahrenheit . Frost accrues on the trees and pink afternoon light is just a few days from the winter solstice. These are good times to do the…