I had wanted to drive from my daughters house in Northern Colorado up to the South Dakota Badlands to capture the Northern Lights on Tuesday night. But as is often the case, the grandkids had tons of stuff I needed to help with, so I couldn't leave yesterday morning in time to do the 6 hours and get to the Badlands. I was able to leave my daughters about an hour before sunset. I had already packed my truck with my camera gear, so I jumped in and started driving north on the I-25 to Wyoming.
I was already getting reports from Minnesota about the color and how strong the aurora was going to be, I had wanted to drive up to Glendo State Park that has a huge reservoir as it would reflect the colors nicely. But as I was driving I had a list of 3 or 4 possible places to stop depending on when it got dark enough to shoot. As it was I was approaching Chugwater and it was about an hour after sunset and the sky was looking good. My friends in Minnesota were already sharing awesome Northern Lights images, so just north of Chugwate there is some state grazing land for cattle and a cool looking windmill. So I thought I would pull in there real quick and take a test photo to see if I needed to just stay where I was or if I had time to drive another hour to Glendo.
Well, my test shot showed the Northern Lights going off like a blazing fire! So I stayed there at the windmill. I quickly got 3 cameras with external batteries and dew heaters set up at different angles around the Windmill, and one off the side that only had the rolling hills in the image. I got those going and then setup my 4th camera to take individual images that I could move around as the Northern Lights danced around the sky. The other 3 cameras were for timelapses, so once I set them in place and started them, I wouldn't move them the rest of the night.
So the Northern Lights danced around the sky so crazy for about 4 or 5 hours before they switched from hip hop dance to a slower waltz that lasted for 2 or 3 hours, before another substorm hit and the sky went crazy again about 3:15am.
This image is off my Nikon Z6II and the Viltrox 16mm f1.8. That is such an awesome combination. This camera took over 8000 images last night as I had it set to 5 sec shutter speed to try and capture the dancing of the aurora.
I have so many awesome images, but this is a good one to start with I think.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
I was already getting reports from Minnesota about the color and how strong the aurora was going to be, I had wanted to drive up to Glendo State Park that has a huge reservoir as it would reflect the colors nicely. But as I was driving I had a list of 3 or 4 possible places to stop depending on when it got dark enough to shoot. As it was I was approaching Chugwater and it was about an hour after sunset and the sky was looking good. My friends in Minnesota were already sharing awesome Northern Lights images, so just north of Chugwate there is some state grazing land for cattle and a cool looking windmill. So I thought I would pull in there real quick and take a test photo to see if I needed to just stay where I was or if I had time to drive another hour to Glendo.
Well, my test shot showed the Northern Lights going off like a blazing fire! So I stayed there at the windmill. I quickly got 3 cameras with external batteries and dew heaters set up at different angles around the Windmill, and one off the side that only had the rolling hills in the image. I got those going and then setup my 4th camera to take individual images that I could move around as the Northern Lights danced around the sky. The other 3 cameras were for timelapses, so once I set them in place and started them, I wouldn't move them the rest of the night.
So the Northern Lights danced around the sky so crazy for about 4 or 5 hours before they switched from hip hop dance to a slower waltz that lasted for 2 or 3 hours, before another substorm hit and the sky went crazy again about 3:15am.
This image is off my Nikon Z6II and the Viltrox 16mm f1.8. That is such an awesome combination. This camera took over 8000 images last night as I had it set to 5 sec shutter speed to try and capture the dancing of the aurora.
I have so many awesome images, but this is a good one to start with I think.
All comments are welcome,
Jim
