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TritonTheDark OP t1_iqth9fa wrote

Northern Lights over one of the coolest mountains I've ever seen. I was about to fall asleep when it suddenly got very bright in my tent. I looked outside and straight above was this crazy, green glob of Aurora. Glob is the only word I can think of to describe it - it was unlike any Aurora I'd seen before. I yelled to wake my friends up and got dressed. I got out of my tent, looked up, and of course the Aurora had died down significantly. But it was still beautiful and I figured since I was dressed I'd wander around and watch the show anyway.

One of the benefits of going far North is that you can often look in any direction to watch the Aurora. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a trip to the Arctic or near Arctic where this wasn't the case. For this shot I was aimed almost directly south! This image is not a day/night composite, however I did combine three back-to-back exposures for the sake of dynamic range and avoiding too much motion blur in the Aurora.

All shots: 14mm, f/4
Foreground: 30s + 15s ISO 6400
Sky: 6s ISO 3200

I no longer carry fast lenses meant for nighttime shooting, so it was difficult to get a usable result, but combining mean stacking and AI noise reduction did the trick.

If anyone would like to see more of my photography, I post regularly on Instagram @tristan.todd!

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curioushom t1_iqwmi54 wrote

Wonderful shot! Thanks for the great narrative and technical explanation. I also struggle with carrying the extra weight of fast lenses, stacking is a good solution.

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TritonTheDark OP t1_iqx0e8y wrote

Yeah it just doesn't make sense to carry around my 14-24 f/2.8 all the time. Switching to mirrorless allowed me to save a ton of weight. Thanks to amazing stabilization I barely even need a tripod, so I switched to a smaller/lighter one for the few situations where I prefer it.

And I could have done a much better job with the stacking, but I was too excited by the Aurora and forgot to take more frames lol.

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sw3rv1n77 t1_iquvtuh wrote

Looks like the picture taken of the surface of Venus by the Russian probe.

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admiraltubby90 t1_iqvze68 wrote

Is that in the tombstone mountains? Not sure if its the same mountain i hiked into this summer. Of course i could just google it but this seems more fun :) edit, nm as i reread and you mentioned nwt whilst the tombstones are still Yukon territory. Beautiful shot tho :)

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TritonTheDark OP t1_iqx13ko wrote

Not Tombstone (Ogilvie Mountains), but it is part of the Laramide Belt which contains both ranges!

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Lvzbell t1_iqv51ub wrote

Looks like a Corben illustration

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toastibot t1_iqv80j8 wrote

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mlkdoidohk t1_iqvbdhg wrote

maybe there are no words to describe it !!

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Spunky_Meatballs t1_iqy0hr0 wrote

Wow were you guys hiking/backpacking obviously? Looks like an incredible area to check out.

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TritonTheDark OP t1_iqz2hz9 wrote

Yes, basecamping. We took a float plane into the valley and hiked up.

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