Best Northern Lights Show Yet!
The Northern Lights on November 4th, 2021 were hands down the most incredible display yet. The Lady Aurora danced away for several hours from east to west and overhead. It was such an amazing light show, and I almost missed it entirely!
Normally I am up to date and alerted to strong Aurora forecasts. This evening I was completely unaware what might be in store. I went to sleep normally but woke up in the night to give my daughter a sip of water. It was during a quick washroom break that I noticed out the east window the sky lit up.
I thought the sky looked incredible but I was tired so tried to head back to sleep. After about ten minutes I realized sleep wasn’t coming. So I gathered my camera gear and left the house about 2:15am.
I headed out to one of my favourite night spots, Alexander Ridge Park which I have shot before. With such little ambient light around it makes for a great spot to shoot the night sky in all directions. With views east, west, and north, it was an amazing first stop on this evening.
There are trees at the park as well which made for incredible silhouettes amongst the dancing Northern Lights.
The colour and variety of movements in the sky were absolutely incredible.
After spending about 30 minutes here, I headed back to town. Noticing the intensity of the lights still super strong, I envisioned capturing the town and the Northern Lights in one shot.
The best way to identify Miami would be with the sign just off the main street which when looking at it, faces north. The problem with it is that there is a super bright light which keeps the sign lit up at night. As I tried to get the exposure for the night sky, the sign and everything around lost all detail and was way too bright to use. So I had to get creative…
I took off my black jacket and covered up the light briefly which lights up the sign. That way I could expose for the sky to get the Northern Lights. This made the sign and foreground slightly too dark however. So I had to use my flashlight to very quickly light up the sign to bring back some detail with it. The results are below.
You can see in the lower shot my jacket still sitting on the light :).
While this type of Northern Lights show is not as common as I’d like down in southern Manitoba, it really was a night photographer’s dream. I’m grateful to have been lucky enough to get out and shoot it as it was a show not to be missed. Here’s hoping another incredible display like this comes along sooner than later!
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