NZFF

Some of you know of my medical incident which means I'm not allowed to drive for a couple of weeks so I'm filling in time by re-editing old photos. Tonight I revisited some from the aurora on the 22nd April and decided to share one of the results with you guys. Probably another side effect of staying home!!

This was taken from near the Christchurch Sugarloaf TV transmitter site (below the car park on the summit road. I was planning to go further afield but when I got to the top of the hill I realised that the flashing orange light was significant and that I had limited petrol so went to the closest site that would give me a clear(ish) view to the South. Governor's Bay township is in the lower centre foreground.



This was edited in Lightroom and Dfine2. Tech details for the 3 of you interested in such stuff - Canon 5D3 20s f4 24mm ISO 4000

That's an astonishing shot, amazing that this is visible in NZ.
Someone took a (slightly feebler) shot of the Lights off Manakau Heads which is unheard of.

Is that what you see?
Is there much change over the length of the exposure?

Yeah, I'm amazed that it shows up so well, not to mention the fact that it is a perfectly composed shot as well...

Charl wrote:That's an astonishing shot, amazing that this is visible in NZ.
Someone took a (slightly feebler) shot of the Lights off Manakau Heads which is unheard of.

Is that what you see?
Is there much change over the length of the exposure?

Yes, I saw the Manakau Heads photo and was quite surprised that it was visible that far north.

This was visible as mainly grayish shapes and rays. You can see the straight from the camera shot on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/greg.mckenzie , if you are interested. The rays move around quite rapidly, over the space of 5-10 seconds and so the longer the exposure the more movement and more blurring occurs. I had set my camera up on the tripod and was walking down the track when this started, I had glanced sideways and realised that there were squares and lines moving around on the horizon so stopped where I was and started taking photos

toprob wrote:Yeah, I'm amazed that it shows up so well, not to mention the fact that it is a perfectly composed shot as well...

You're amazed that it's a perfect;y composed shot!! LOL - I know you didn't mean it that way, but . . . .

I was pretty surprised too and also pleased that I had fluked being there at the right time

My sloppy grammar is part old-age, and part adaptation to the web, sorry about that. I'd say I'll be more careful in future, but I know that I won't.
I've been thinking of trying some sky photography now that I live close to the Dark Sky Reserve. Even here at Geraldine the Milky Way is a lot more impressive than I remember it from the city. However it would mean being out in the cold and dark, which I might have to psych myself up for...
I remember my old flatmate in Lyttelton saw me browsing your images on Facebook, and made me download one for her desktop.

Really nice shot, I have never seen in real life the southern lights before.

toprob wrote:My sloppy grammar is part old-age, and part adaptation to the web, sorry about that. I'd say I'll be more careful in future, but I know that I won't.
I've been thinking of trying some sky photography now that I live close to the Dark Sky Reserve. Even here at Geraldine the Milky Way is a lot more impressive than I remember it from the city. However it would mean being out in the cold and dark, which I might have to psych myself up for...
I remember my old flatmate in Lyttelton saw me browsing your images on Facebook, and made me download one for her desktop.

No Worries there Rob, I too find myself making resolutions or promises that don't ever take place. It seems to become more common as I get older - but luckily as one get older one doesn't worry about it so much either!

Yes the cold is something that I struggle with too. I have good intentions and then decide that really it's just too cold and the lens would fog up or the battery won't last . . .

Pleased your flatmate approved - obviously very discerning!

Aviator 1 wrote:Really nice shot, I have never seen in real life the southern lights before.

I remember one time driving down to Ashburton when I was in my 20s (that seems a long time ago sadly) - I was wondering what the green glow in the sky was and then twigged that is was a bright auroara, much much brighter than this one in my photo above, so it must have been a doozy, if only digital cameras has been around in those days.