After watching the recent Star Wars - Rogue one film, a friend of mine commented that she was so excited she wouldn't be able to sleep through the night. And that got me thinking about an experience I had had that left me that excited and palpitated - the Northern Lights show I witnessed over the skies of Northern Iceland earlier this year.
I remember that night as vividly as yesterday: a self-cooked meal a beautiful sunny evening on the grassy shores of a gentle fjord, followed by a relaxing soak in an open-air hot tub after a day of miserable weather, gave way to a cool night with clear skies. It was then that a faint glow appeared in the sky, becoming brighter and longer until it was a thick band of dancing green light that stretched horizon to horizon.
The patterns were ephemeral, the intensity continuously alternating, the color constantly shifting, but it all came together to present a visual spectacle that never bored me or the few other brave souls gazing upwards on that cold night. Even though the temperature dropped to single digits (Celsius), the photographer in me never fazed.
At one point, the glow appeared directly overhead, leading to an effect quite like peering into the vortex. The greens give way to the other colors such as purple, pink and red. This is one such exposure from that time.
Saeberg
Iceland
If you want to see this print, you can do so by purchasing my calendar from https://goo.gl/LGJYRk . All proceeds will go to NRDC and WildAid, two non-profits whose causes I am very passionate about.