This
is a shot from a hillside overlooking Yankee Fork Valley in central
Idaho, which is lush and green from an incredible amount of water that
melts from the heavy winter snow.
38
exposures total went into making it, altogether it took nearly 2 hours
to capture all the images starting from the left (north). At first, I
was a little upset because it appeared that there was a tremendous
amount of light pollution along the northern horizon, but there are no
towns in the area, nothing that could produce that kind of light
pollution. It wasn’t until I had driven down into the valley later that
night to take some more shots, that I realized it was something I had
always wanted to see an image of, a legitimate bucket list item, the
Aurora Borealis! That night, a spectacular Northern Lights show was on
display. I have never been so happy to be out imaging the night sky in
my entire life, something I will never forget. The
purples/pinks/reds/greens from the lights combined with an absolutely
ridiculous amount of green and red airglow helped produce the most
colorful image I’ve ever put together.
This
is a personal reminder; you never know what new and amazing things
you’ll get to experience when you go out shooting at night; always take
advantage of any time you can get under clear night skies. 38 exposures
stitched together (no stacking), all shot back to back with my Nikon
D800E and Sigma Art 50mm lens on a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer. All
exposures are 2 minutes at ISO 1600, sky shots at f2.8, foreground at
f1.4.