I was in Jasper national park two weeks ago and got a surprising opportunity to photograph the northern lights!
It was our last day in the park and we had to leave early to get to the airport. We decided to try some astrophotography from 2 AM to 5 AM and head out from there.
For those that dont know – – Jasper national park in Canada is the world’s second largest dark sky preserve where they restrict the amount of artificial light.
I was not expecting any northern lights and went to the location (Pyramid Lake) because of the mountain and lake. I was hoping tonget some cool star reflections on the lake during the shot.
I’ll never forget the first photo I took! My dad mentioned that the sky was a little brighter than expected. Our eyes had not adjusted totally yet so I didn’t see the northern lights. But after the first photo and when I saw the back of the screen with the bright neon green I was shocked!
I quickly made sure to lock in my settings! I tried to get my interval as fast as possible. I opened up my aperture to f/2.8 and then ISO 6400 gave me a 20 second exposure. My interval was 26 seconds to allow a buffer.
The light show was amazing! You could see pillars of white in the sky (and in the final video)
Abssolutely amazing experience!
Look for more content here on the Canadian rockies in the future!