Aurora, galleons and butterflies oh my!
I have come to the end of my second week of holidays and what a week it was! Some of you might have heard of a little event that happened in the Northern hemisphere on Friday night. We had one of THE most spectacular showings of the Aurora Borealis, better know as the Northern Lights witnessed for a long time. A huge CME combined with some other solar event to cause a massive wave of particles to collide with our upper atmosphere, creating a dazzling light show that was awe inspiring and highly emotive to view. Myself and Dave headed to a local ruined dovecote to add foreground interest and once it was dark it was pretty clear we were going to be in for an incredible display. It was so powerful that you could clearly see it above our heads with the naked eye. Now to the eye it looks kind of muddy with just hints of colour but the camera collects light better than our eyes do at night so what we were capturing on the cameras was truly mind boggling. Dave had to bail at 1am but I stayed out and moved over to the Deverills in Wiltshire so i could get a wider image. I was doing a timelapse and chatting to a couple of other photographers when i noticed a flash of light across the side of one of their cars, quickly followed by an exclamation from one of said togs “Did you see that meteor?!” Well, I figured my timelapse would have caught it and after trawling through the videoI captured I found it. Northern Lights AND a meteor? Just candy floss land astrophotography!
A meteor streaking across the night sky lit up by the Northern Lights.
I finally called it at 3.30am after finishing a timelapse and headed home a very happy boy. Instagram the next day was literally full of images from everyone getting the lights and I was just happy that so many managed to witness one of natures most extaordinary events. What a night!
So apart from this what else did I get up to? I paid a visit to my parents, taking the opportunity to visit a wood near them that I scouted last year. This wood has an area full of twisted, gnarly Beech trees, with tendrils of roots exposed. Fantastical behemoths and I had fog this morning too. Now fog and woods go together like Trump and courts and I filled up on some really mythical looking scenes. The only problem was that one of the best compositions was up a near vertical muddy slope. I struggled my way to the top of this, using an old concrete fence line to aid me, looked back down to admire my accomplishments….and one of my airpods fell out of my ear and rolled down the hill, coming to rest at the halfway point…..the noises that emanated from me must have sounded like the mating calls of a frustrated Sasquatch! Any dog walkers nearby would have hastily grabbed their hound and headed home for a nice cup of tea to calm the nerves!
After struggling BACK down the hill and then BACK up it again to retrieve the lost airpod and then taking a few minutes to regain some oxygen back into my body and to allow for the head spinning to ease I set up my shot and got the image below. Worth it? Let me know in the comments!
The following morning I headed out early and drove over to one of my old haunts, Penarth. A small victorian seaside town that I have many fond memories of. My aim was to experiment in some street style photography using my 7artisans 35mm lens. You can see a few of these in my latest images portfolio. Whilst wandering around I bumped into another photographer who informed me a replica Spanish Galleon was due to sail by at 9am. Well that was a stroke of luck! I waited for the pier to open at 8am and quickly headed to the end where I snuggled into place between two early morning anglers. Sure enough, just before nine this stunning museum galleon sailed into view and gently motored by the pier (A modern addition to an otherwise faithful replica). It was definitely a sight to see! Below is one Image of it. When you look at it you have to say “arrrrrr” though okay?
Hide the rum!
And if that wasnt enough, on Sunday Dave had arranged a visit to a private butterfly house near us. They were nestled among one of the most incredible estates, filled with sculptures, replica neolithic huts and eccentricities. My Grandfather would have loved it. The owner, a very kind gentleman called Clive gave us a brief tour and then left us to photograph his beautiful butterflies. We spent and good hour in their company but eventually I had to bail as the heat and humidity was just too much for me! I was happy with some of my images though, helped in no small part by the Nikon ZF’s incredible autofocus system. I was shooting with a 70-200mm f4 lens on the FTZ adapter which is notorious for throwing off the cameras AF. But the ZF coped beautifully.
Thats it, back to work now. There are more images to view in my latest image portfolio, feel free to have a peruse. Thanks for reading!
