Northern Lights Above The Landegode Island

Northern Lights Above The Landegode Island
Shot from Løpsmarka in Bodø, Norway
5-11 / 2011 at 00:32 PM, 7*C Infinity focus direct.

Thanks for the fav and comments i will have here, i will try to answear all of you in the best way possible so PLEASE READ and forget my bad english ^^ !

This time i`ve bin watching a long term indication 3 day`s ahead of this outbreak ! It was reported as a moderate display at KP 3 means that it is visible from below the artic circle of 66,5*

So me and my friend Gaute prepared for a long night !
When we arrived at Festvåg, our nice spot now called checkpoint foxtrot ! There was a weak line above the Kjerringøy Island, it was possible to see with the camera at 20 seconds and 400 ISO, capturing the line and it`s weak greenish colour
The clouds was covering over clear sky, we had a little break between the clouds... well the auroras was actually growing it`s activity when more clouds covered it !!! So we saw it disappear behind the clouds, actually so powerfull that we could see some light behind there ! So what a show we missed
30 minutes after that we lost some of the motivation to wait for the auroras and the clouds to leave, it was just being more clogged in, the stars was disappeared too

We decided to leave the show was over, nothing left too see.
BUT !!! At our way home passing the local place "Løp" i could see a giant column of weak auroras above the Landegode Island !
We rushed to the parking at Løpsmarka Arriving there we where clear of the worst clouds layer, some few looking south east, but they stayed there above Bodø city with it`s orange light blocking polution of my sky light ! The pitch black sky

The column we had seen was gone, but there was 4-5 weak lines crossing in a smooth turn from north east going west !
Waiting for the show we saw an extreme flash of a meteor going down in the sea, it must have bin close ! We saw orange glow sparkling from it ! We saw it at the same time so we both was like, WOOOOOWWW !!!! DID YOU SEE THAT SHOOTING STAR !!!! YES I DID !! I DID IT WAS EXTREME !!!
Quite high passionate here

The Northern Lights was growing in it`s activity and suddenly like a flash at the southern coast of Landegode 3-4 columns come with green and purple colour and a sharp light ! As fast as they flashed up they where gone, but they left a weak line !
And suddenly we could see a rapid pulse fading across the line going from west to north eastern direction, and the show we had bin waiting for finally started !!!!
All the clouds where gone, and the moon was low on the horizon turning yellow ! The dark light was perfect for the show.

The Northern Lights was comming and going from weak and allmost no activity to extremely rapidly moving around the Landegode Island, creating columns and lines moving around in circles ! The lights was reflecting with the sea, you know we was as much carried away as allways, only shooting with the remote controller and the camera running at full speed processing shot after shot !

One great Friday night ! I wasn`t out drinking beer as all my old friend allways doo. I had that in mind when shooting this night, that after childhood school and college all my friends have actually left for other schools and education. Other friends i`ve lost contact with, quite sad actually. Some start smoking, drinking and got into the wrong enviroments, which i didn`t want to follow, so i`ve dont have a lot of friends actually the last 4 years.

Well back to the actual picture ! The Northern Lights was intence ! I`ve aborted a sequence in a time-lapse-trials project beign shot at 1600 ISO and 2-3 seconds exposure, to get this shot !
Shot at 10 Seconds and ISO 640 with E/V - 0,3 i feel that i`ve captured the green and aqua light from the auroras quite good actually ! Not flashy green like before, but more real, what i actually saw on the sky ! And that i`m very happy with !
I`ve reduced the saturation in the green and the aqua colours to give even more realistic look of the light ! Because the White Balance adjust is hard to get directly in the setting of the Auroras, when it changes it`s appearance all the time. This was shot at Manual K 3750, and that provided an accurate colour balance of the actual scenery and weather that was local, i`m very happy with that too !

Time to stop writing i have to much to say about it hehe
If you see in the right corner behind the weak top of the aurora line you can see a meteor or a satellite moving above us !
There is also a new watermark here that will be used for the future

As an end here i must say i`ve learned that, this night we never give up ! Never giving up gives results !!! Live with that and stick to it !

For more pictures of the Northern Lights, please see my gallery folder : [link]

Equipement for the shot : [link]

Have a nice week everyone ! Greetings from Norway !