This photo was taken on a trip to Iceland in March, the season of the Northern Lights (Sept to Apr). I learned many things while practicing my night photography on this spectacular display.
Firstly, the lights themselves look brighter in a photo than in real life. This is because to take a night photo you will use a long exposure, so the photo is a collective of multiple seconds of light put together.
Due to the long exposure of a night photo there is plenty of time to accumulate blurry movement into your photo. Essentially a tripod is your best friend so that your camera is as still as can be. Not wanting to travel with a tripod, I found a table to rest my camera on.
The lights are in the North. This may seem obvious enough to most people, but the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. So when you see stunning photos of Northern Lights over a mountain or lake, that landscape must also be to the North of you.
They aren’t around every night or all night and to see them best, the sky needs to be mostly clear of clouds. This mysterious light display comes and goes at will, popping up and disappearing whenever it chooses. They are higher than the clouds, so clouds will obstruct your view of them. This means that to take the ultimate Northern Lights pic you needs a bunch of patience to sit up all night and watch the sky in a freezing cold environment.
Conveniently we stayed in a hotel which gives you a wake-up call when the night security person sees the lights appear. Great for us to get some sleep, but this means that the landscape you are photographing the lights in wont be as impressive as camping on the south aspect of a gorgeous mountain or lake.
Laura Lecce's art and photography 
This is precious!!
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This was such a cool post!! Seeing the northern lights is one of the few things actually on my bucket list. 🙂
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Thanks Aubrey. I hope you get to tick this one off your bucket list one day it’s well worth it. As a bonus, the places you go to see the lights are usually very beautiful as well.
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What a beautiful phenomenon to photograph. Thanks for sharing what you learned in the process.
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Thanks for commenting Ellen, I’m glad you enjoyed what I wrote. I think much of this is applicable to all night photography.
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Stunning photo Laura and as Ellen says, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
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Thanks Greta, I learned a lot, so I’m glad I have a way to share it.
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Nice photo, I’m very jealous, I’ve always wanted to see the Northern Lights. That’s cool that your hotel had a wake up call for them.
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Yeah, it was the lazy way of seeing them, but I highly recommend it. Hope you get the chance to see them one day!
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I wish I could see them one day! lovely Pic!
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Glad you could enjoy them in my photo, but I really hope you get to see them for real, they are worth it.
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