As a landscape photographer, I capture light, typically sunlight reflected off the landscape and all that it contains, but in some cases, light direct from its source. The color of that light, and the patterns and textures it enables me to see, are what most attract me and motivate me to photograph the landscape. I believe the true artist is the Creator of the landscape, and my role is to faithfully point to the true artist. This photo of the Northern Lights, taken during the exceptional display on May 10, 2024, exemplifies this.
Seeing the Northern Lights has long been on my bucket list. Upon learning they might be visible at my location, I drove to the southern end of the Hood Canal near Potlach, WA, where I could view them over the water, possibly affording the potential to reflect the light under dark sky conditions. I found a wide spot beside the highway that would meet my needs, set up my camera on a tripod, and waited for the show to begin.
As the colorful lights filled the sky, I realized God was painting with light, and his canvas was the whole sky! I used a wide angle zoom lens to capture as much of the sky above and muted reflections below as possible, taking longer exposures to capture the vibrant colors but short enough to minimize blurring of the moving lights, maximizing depth-of-field yet minimizing digital noise. I noticed that the headlights of the occasional cars on the highway lit the foreground, which I used to enhance the photo.
