A Night to Remember
The May 10-11 2024 Aurora show was the strongest one in approximately 20 years! I hadn’t really shot the Northern Lights before, once accidentally. However, I knew if I was going to lose sleep (which I love), this was the time.
Wild skies north of Elkford BC on May 10, 2024
I threw a sleeping bag, foamy and pillow along with a gas station sandwich and some coffee for the morning in the back of my trusty offroad steed, "The Exploder" and headed North.
I wanted to get away from any ambient lights as well as increase my chances of leaving the clouds and Southern latitude behind.
50 km of gravel later, I reached my destination. Not where I wanted to be but lingering snow and a grizzly bear made me think I would be better off a bit back to the south and up away from the river.
I had arrived before dusk so I could set up my tripod and camera and set it up on a timer 'cause - grizzly bears lol. As I was doing so I could hear something. I glanced around the logging landing I had parked on and couldn't see anything that stood out. When I heard it again, I took a better look and spotted a huge porcupine on top of a stump staring at me. I was okay with that. He couldn't eat me.
I was surprised that I actually had cell service that far up The Valley as it was typically a dead zone. I checked the Facebook page "Alberta Aurora Chasers" to see if anyone had posted anything yet, ate part of my sandwich and sat and waited.
Close to 11 pm, I received a message asking me if I could see anything. I could still see light from the setting sun but when I took a photo with my phone, there was a definite purple glow to the sky. As the sun dipped completely behind the horizon and the crescent moon appeared, I was amazed by what I saw on the back of my camera.
I set it up to take a photo every 10 seconds and couldn't stop smiling looking at the back of the screen. I've never experienced anything like this. I could tell when the colours changed as I would be bathed in light that looked red, green, purple, yellow.... I watched the lights dance with my eyes while my camera captured the details I couldn't.
From 11 pm until almost 3 am I shot. At one point - when this image was taken, I stuck my head out of my vehicle window and exclaimed Holy Sh*t - there's a corona right above me. (Which I could tell just looking at it) I tried taking a photo or video with my phone and decided nope, I needed to get out and experience this.
With a few Whoops to scare away any wildlife that was travelling through the area I was parked, I shot facing upwards staring at the magic overhead. I then put the camera back on the tripod and positioned myself so I could just stare and enjoy.
Are all of my images in focus? Nope. Does it matter? Nope. Was it an experience of a lifetime? F*ck yeah!!
At 3:30, I had crawled in the back of my vehicle and settled down to go to sleep. The Lady started dancing again. But it was ok. I was happy to have had a few turns around the floor with her and was ready for sleep.
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