I have a vague memory that I saw the northern lights as a kid, but the family recollection is weak at best and I’m not confident it actually happened. That being the case, with a quick two day stop-over in Iceland this past march break, among the many amazing things to do and see, high on the list was to officially witness the northern lights. And so, with a significant degree of pride, even despite the fact it wasn’t a particularly strong display (we’ve taken to calling them the baby northern lights), I can now wholeheartedly say that I have seen them! I even have proof with a few photos! In the hopes of seeing them again sometime, perhaps an even bigger display, I definitely wanted to write down a few thoughts I wish I had known before I saw them, and share some tips on photographing the northern lights I learned this time around.
What I didn’t actually prepare for was actually how important a camera is in experiencing the northern lights. What we were actually looking at with our naked eye was pretty disappointing. It kind of looked like cloudy wisps in the air, almost like a distant fog. The closest image I came to taking that photo can be seen below. That’s pretty much what they looked like with the naked eye (not always, but when we saw them, this baby display). When we first went outside to see them, it was definitely a squint and an internal question, is that them? It was only with a tripod and a long exposure could we clearly confirm it was them. With the long exposure, the green popped out and there was no doubt. You CAN of course see the northern lights very clearly with your eyes on a magical night that they are out in full force. No question. I met people who had magical stories of an overhead dancing light show clearly visible. What I didn’t know though is that you might even be able to see them when you don’t think they are there, like we did. I also didn’t realize how lucky we actually were to see the Northern Lights in the two nights we had available to us in Iceland.
There is a great website that forecasts the aurora and estimates (with a high degree of probability) where the aurora borealis might be visible, and as our Iceland trip approached, I was checking it regularly with a lot of excitement. Iceland is wonderfully positioned near the arctic circle to view the northern lights all the time. Like, pretty much every night. As the trip approached, I thought seeing the northern lights was going to be inevitable, all I had to do was just get there. I didn’t fully appreciate how hard it can actually be. Couple of things to consider when wanting to see the northern lights in a country like Iceland. Yes, the northern lights happen there a lot, but there are a number of factors that make even that frequency challenging. Sure, the northern lights might be there when you are there, but the first big hurtle is cloud cover. It’s a pretty overcast country, we got lucky with a clear night, but that’s not a guarantee at all. The second is the light pollution in the major city of Reykjavík (you can see a tiny bit of the city in the bottom right corner in the top photo of this post). We stayed about half an hour outside of the city on a peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, and so the darken sky was right there at our doorstep, but if you stay in the city, your best chance to see them is to get a night tour that takes you out of the city. This can be costly or else time consuming, as the tours are usually a couple of hours long (including pick-up and drop off and 45 minute drive to and from the city). Finally, as a lot of people might think about going to Iceland in the summer, just be aware that it’s hard to see the northern lights in the summer because there is pretty much 24 hours of sunlight/brightness that time of year.
Now, I didn’t go to Iceland to take photos. I went as a family trip and my priority was taking time with the family. As a result, I didn’t bring my nicest cameras or lenses or tripods or go out of my way on time or traveling to take the photos I might have on a photographic specific trip. Sure, I would have loved to spend hours trying to get the best shot, but I was on two hours of sleep and I was driving the rental car for hours the next day so the 30 minutes I had was plenty. The priority I did make was trying to get a family photo taken with the northern lights in the background. I’ve take a lot of family photography, but this is the first time in front of the Northern Lights. It’s a 15 second exposure, and we got a few frames. Pretty fun. Yes we are dancing in some of the photos. You can even see a shooting star in the two of the photos.
Couple of things. I played around with shutter speed a bit, ranging from 5 seconds to 15 seconds, but there was a lot more playing I could have done. I would recommend a sturdy, height adjustable tripod and I would recommend shooting on timer, not on release. There are way more qualified photographers out there who can tell you exactly what to do and how to play with your settings, but man, even in the little time I had to play, it’s a fun thing to photograph.
