We’ve all seen the northern lights (or at least pictures of them) dancing in the pre-dawn sky. The Internet is filled with images and videos of the phenomenon that happens due to charged particles interacting with our upper atmosphere. While we’re not much bothered by the exact ingredients of that heavenly concoction, we’re definitely excited to see the end results, hopefully with an unique treatment. So, when photographer Ole C. Salomonsen, a fellow Aurora enthusiast, decided to make an attempt to capture this magnificent natural wonder he decided to go the old fashioned way, shooting videos:
Much of the footage was shot around the vast arctic wilderness of the city of Tromsø. The island of Senja was yet another favorite location for Salomonsen. What’s incredible about these footage is that it almost truly represents how the northern lights appear in real life. Slow, graceful, majestic. Salomonsen had a trying time capturing them even with realtime video shot at 25 frames per second.
A still from the short video created by Salomonsen
What adds to the whole ambiance of the footage is the lack of snow around. The bright light of the auroras are even more dramatic without a distracting white foreground.
Just to reiterate, none of the footage is timelapse. All of these have been shot using a Sony A7s. Among the other tools Salomonsen used were a Dynamic Perception Stage One for the pans and a DJI Ronin for stabilizing the hand-held shots.
Another still from the video
The Sony A7s has an incredible reputation for low light photography. Even then you notice some noise if you look closely. But we aren’t complaining are we?
Like This Article?
Don't Miss The Next One!
Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current:
I promise myself that one day I will go to see the Northern Lights. Incredible