Friday Photo #221 – Skjelfjord Aurora

Photo: Northern Lights over Skjelfjord, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 31, 2017. 22:56

Today is the last day of March, and with that, soon it will be the end of the aurora season here on Lofoten. Though there are still a couple weeks left, so don’t fear, if you just arrived!

Each day, the sun continues its journey to the north, the days growing by around 1 hour per week. And with the clocks having changed last weekend, I found myself driving home at dusk last night, only to look at my watch as see that it was almost 9:00 pm! And I hadn’t had dinner yet…

For photography, the days are getting long if you want sunrise, sunset, and northern lights all in the same day. However for life here in the north, it is perfect! The mountains are covered in snow and there is enough time to get up some pretty decent peaks during the week for those with normal working hours.

Back to the photo. I saw the aurora out my window, which from my house in Skjelfjord, doesn’t happen all that often due to the high mountains surrounding me. I headed out to drive around a little, but the aurora was glowing in a way that it filled almost the entire sky, and almost looked fake really – like I had just turned some clouds green in Photoshop! So I wasn’t really happy with anything I captured, until I drove home and parked in my driveway.

The aurora was beginning to increase a bit again, and with the fjord perfectly calm, the reflections were nice. So I walked over to a small jetty near my house and shot for a while. The lack of moonlight meant light pollution was something of an issue. But luckily the aurora was strong enough to overpower most of it, keeping the mountains greenish instead of mercury-lamp orange.

And the same as the aurora season is soon ending, so will my view of these mountains. I have exciting news that I will write about late.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 1600
f 3.2
8 seconds
WB Daylight