Interesting Photo of the Day: Surfer Under Auroras

Interesting Photos

This amazing photo makes you stop and wonder how the photographer did it. Several elements had to come together at the right moment in order for this image to be possible. The Northern Lights, the crashing of waves, the position of the surfer, and the moon:

Surfing Under the Northern Lights (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

For a picture like this, you need a clear night, good surf, and of course the Northern Lights. So it’s a tricky combination to start with.

To capture the color in the sky, photographers Emil Sollie and Mats Grimseth had to keep the shutter open for several seconds. That made it very difficult to get a clear, sharp image of the ocean waves and the surfer. To counter this, they used a flash to freeze the movement, which you can see at the lower left part of the image. It was hand-held by Grimseth in the water! It did not help that it was a supermoon night. And it certainly didn’t help that the shot was made at an aperture f/1.4.

A number of things could have gone wrong resulting in a wasted evening, but they didn’t. All we can say is Murphy’s Law, for once it seems, was not at play.