If you’ve been paying attention at all lately you’ll know that I’ve been fiddling around with time-lapse photography quite a bit. Well… there has of course a reason behind it and that was this we had a trip to Iceland planned; and I was hoping to see the Aurora Borealis (northern lights) and capture it using time-lapse. All that effort paid off this past Monday night when Holly and I got to witness the most amazing show in the sky. I’m super pleased with how the video turned out, but like anything, you really need to see this in person fully grasp the awesomeness of it. God’s creativity was definitely on display in the night sky. If I could have a dollar for every time Holly and I exclaimed “WOW!!!” while we were watching this in person, I’d probably be a millionaire.
For the techies out there who will want to know, this is about an hour’s worth of photos compressed in to 23 seconds worth of video. Each frame consists of 10 second exposure at f/4.0 and an ISO of 2500. We were setup about an hour north of Reykjavik, Island on the 1 Ring Road just at a little pull off. The flashes in the trees were actually semi’s going by with their hi-beams on. 🙂 This one is really worth watching in HD, in my personal opinion just to catch all the details of everything that is going on.
–Dan Thompson
So cool! Glad to see you’ve progressed beyond those early time-lapse tests of paint drying on your house. 😉 BTW: Did you realize the Aurora was visible over Knoxville while you were gone? Anyway, as your video shows, you had a much better view. Really nice, great work!
Super WOW!!
Very cool Michael, I had no idea. This winter is supposed to be very active for the lights, so maybe we’ll see them again!
WOW! That’s awesome Dan!
That’s sweet Dan!
Love it!!!! My 1st time seeing the Northern lights was in Michigan 2003/2004 It was amazing WOW!! I didnt get to see in person this yr. but the pics were awesome… I got one on my wall it looks like an angel it gave me cold chills….
Well done Dan! This is just beautiful…I’m looking forward to hearing about your trip.
Very cool! I still have yet to see them in person. And yeah, they were also visible here in Washington that same night. Though I only found out the next day!
Lovely time lapse. I have been playing around with time lapse a lot in SE Asia recently. It is sooooo much fun.