Dynamic

Something different in between. This is not from our hiking trip but about a week ago in Whitehorse. We went out of downtown up to McIntyre Canyon to see the northern lights with a group of 10 people from the hostel. We were waiting for about 2 hours, seeing faint, green bands all over the sky. Then, around 1 am, the lights suddenly exploded. Giant, bright green lights were dancing right above our heads. It was absolutely incredible. I can assure you that photographs of the northern lights make them seem a lot smaller than they actually are if you see them in person. It's really humbling and it's not hard to imagine why the natives thought they are spirits or some sort of deity.

This was my first time seeing the northern lights and hence also the first time photographing them. I'm not really happy with the shots I got but people here urged me to upload this one so here it is. A bit too grainy for my taste and the "composition" is far from optimal but yeah... I think this is the first time I really wished I had an ultra wide-angle lens as well as a tripod. It would have been a lot easier to get a good composition because you are more versatile and faster, which is necessary because the lights are moving fast. My 18 mm lens (1.5 crop) wasn't wide enough, either. Well, you can only do so much. I hope you still like it and it's save to say that the northern lights are something that is much better to be experienced in person than to see in a photograph.

Location: McIntyre Canyon, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada