Aurora Borealis-CNY

My first attempt at shooting an Aurora Borealis.

It’s rare! Anywhere really, but especially anywhere near Central New York State. I’m speaking of the Aurora Borealis we were fortunate to see tonight. Okay, we had to drive 40 minutes north to the shore of Lake Ontario and brave 28 degree temperature in a 20 mph wind to be fortunate. Then again, by the standards we normally only get to see in videos and photographs shot in places like northern Canada, Alaska and Iceland, maybe what we felt fortunate to see, wasn’t all that great.

At this point we were thoroughly enjoying our first Northern Lights shoot.

But, for me at least, it was a first. I’ve never seen the northern lights before, much less tried to photograph them.  So, at 9:47 pm even the first, ever-so-faint glimpses of green above the cloud bank that was resting on the horizon above the lake was a thrill. We would have liked to be able to photograph this gently shimmering green display without the intrusion of local security lights that cast their color on the icy, snowy shoreline. Still, even as brief as our half-hour of excitement was, it was worth the trip.