Viewing the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis with the naked eye is on most peoples todo lists and living in Southern England, we would typically expect to have to take a trip to Iceland, Norway or the far north of Scotland to see it.
I’ve been fortunate to see them a couple of times in Scotland and while I managed to gather a few shots last year during a period of significant solar activity I was still keen to get some better shots.
Last Friday night (10th May) was the night. My phone started buzzing with alerts for peak solar activity around 4pm and while feeling pretty tired after a heavy week, I started to think about where I could go to get the best photographic opportunities. One of the benefits of living in The Fens are the wide open skies we have, which if clear of cloud, give great views north.
Finding some foreground interest would be key. In Ely the Cathedral is the obvious shot but I expected a lot of people to be there, so opted instead to head out into the Fens and get as far away from light pollution as possible.
As the sun set, I was in two minds to go out but finally threw my camera bag together and dragged myself out the door. There were loads of people parked on the side of the road as I drove out, with mobile phones held in the air, so the word was obviously out. As I left Ely however, the numbers quickly dwindled.
I had spotted a farm reservoir on the map which could make for some interesting reflections but as I drove I kept my eyes open for other compositions.
Location 1: Leading Lines
A series of trees beside a field of wheat caught my eye as I drove, so I parked the car and jumped out to access it in the gathering dark. It looked like it had a lot of potential, with the tramlines (tractor tracks) making some nice leading lines, so out came the camera and tripod, and the fun commenced.
I spent a couple of hours at this location, trying various compositions and even painting light with my head torch. It was during this time that we had the peak activity, with 20-30 minutes where the colours was clearly visible with the naked eye. It was amazing and by far the best display I had ever seen.
The Aurora was not just limited to the northern horizon and when I looked up, it was right over my head, extending to around 270 degrees around me. In fact, I found shots to the east or west gave the best colours.
Location 2: Aurora Reflections
I eventually dragged myself away and drove onto my second location at the reservoir. This was a location I had never visited before, so it was going to be tricky to form compositions in the dark. There was nobody else there and I managed to find a couple of good spots, although got myself and my kit covered in mud during the process.
There was little or no wind and I managed to capture the reflections I had hoped for. I even tried some panoramas, which were ok but not stellar - no pun intended
Location 3: The Obvious and Less Obvious
By now it was well after midnight, and the colours were no longer visible by the naked eye. However, I decided to take a drive back via the cathedral and see if there were any other compositions there.
I had the place practically to myself, with maybe another photographer a short distance away, judging by the torch light swinging around. I took one obvious shot of the cathedral with the northern lights behind it, before looking for different less obvious compositions, using some trees I like as foreground interest.
The skies were bright pink on the camera and while you could not see the colour with the naked eye, you could see the flowing vertical wisps of cloud which showed they were there.
By now I was on my own, so I broke out my own torch to do some more light painting and got a few shots I was really happy with.
At 03:30 I finally called it a night and headed home to bed, happy with my nights work and eager to see what I had managed to capture.
Post Processing Dilemmas
As someone who typically prefers to desaturate their photographs, I have to say that I found the post processing here extremely difficult.
Leaving the colours as they were in camera made them look artificial, to my eye anyway, whereas desaturating them took the impact away. It took me two or three passes over a few days and with fresh eyes to eventually land on something I was happy with.
It was a great night out and really peeked my interest in astrophotography in general.
With more solar activity possible during the remainder of 2024, as we draw to the end of the current Solar Maximum, there will hopefully be more opportunities. Regardless the night sky definitely offers a lot of potential and a way to make the most of the wide open skies we have here in East Anglia.
