I thought this morning it was about time to come back from my break from Hive and post something! On the evening of the 10th of May, I got incredibly lucky with the Aurora skies and posting about this event seemed a good place to start.
Like many others, I had been keeping an eye on various aurora apps and websites for news on any aurora action. So after I finished work on the 10th May, I noticed the apps were showing promising signs. Despite having had a full on day at work, I packed by bags and headed off for Flamborough Head on the East Yorkshire coast of England.
After a frustrating two hour drive, I finally arrived. It was an annoying drive because I was stuck behind Mr. Slow and Miss Daisy pretty much the whole way and I was impatient to arrive before the aurora red alerts would inevitably change to green!
Shooting aurora on the 10th May is not ideal. I arrived at around 8pm and it would be ages before the skies were properly dark enough to see any aurora colour.
In all, I managed to bag 184 images of the aurora and this is a sample selection of what I got in no particular order:
Flamborough Head Lighthouse under Aurora skies
As I set up on the edge of a steep cliff ready for the night to come, I faced north. The clue is in the description, "Northern Lights". I waited patiently and all of a sudden I heard someone in the dark shout "fuuuuck". I looked over to the east towards the coast and saw the aurora in that direction. And a quick look to the west also showed signs of aurora. I was definitely not expecting that!
This is the view facing west towards the lighthouse. The Gods of Composition were on my side this evening and I couldn't believe how well this colour was aligned towards the lighthouse!
For these shots, I used the same settings as I would for shooting star trails. 30 seconds at ISO 640 and f4 on the lens I was using. I didn't realise it at the time, but I should have used a shorter exposure of maybe 6 or 10 seconds to capture a more defined pattern in the sky.
I don't suppose many of us are well practiced at shooting aurora with these sightings being so rare in the UK. I learned a lesson but it could well be quite a while before I get a chance to try it out!
Aurora Red Alert
This is a screen grab of the Aurora Watch UK app which first alerted me to what was to come. I have since learned this is not necessarily the best app to use as this only shows what is happening now and isn't a forecast.
Looking towards the Foghorn Station
One thing that surprised me on the night was the aurora arched overhead east to west and not so much to the north. This is looking east towards the North Sea and is a sight I'm told is very rare to see!
Lookward Northwards
Whilst the aurora was kicking off east and west, this was the view looking to the north. Ordinarily I'd have been absolutely ecstatic to capture such an image but to my left and right, the views of the sky were simply spectacular!
Spoilt for choice
The Gods of Composition conspired to make every direction I looked to be spectacular. I grabbed 184 images on the night. Here's a sample selection:
Phone Shots
During the evening, an auroral corona appeared directly overhead. I was absolutely in awe and had to shoot it! I still can't believe how lucky I was to be in the right place at the right time!
I took along with me an old tripod head which couldn't quite tilt upwards enough. I must have been in a panic all night rushing around trying to capture the aurora before it would inevitably disappear; I realised once I got home I could have tilted as necessary. Damn.
I shot quite a few images of the auroral corona with my iPhone 15 Pro Max which turned out quite nicely. The iPhone is never going to match the image quality of a full frame digital camera but these are a few lightly edited images from the iPhone:
And finally....
I couldn't help myself on the night and shot a selfie!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex, landscape and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; the social side of photography is always good!
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