Articles Table of Contents   Page 1: Keep and Use Classic Lenses For an Unusual Look Page 2: Shoot One and Only One Subject Page 3: Shoot One Lens, and Not a Zoom Page 4: Choosing a Lens by Focal Length Page 5: Fast Lenses—Shutter Speeds / Background Blur (Bokeh) Page 6: Shoot a Fast Lens at Dusk or Dawn Page 7: Blur Can Be Beautiful Page 8: Making Sharp Photos Handheld Page 9: Shoot Another Format (Size or Aspect Ratio) Page 10: Use Manual Exposure for Perfect Results Page 11: White Balance Tools Page 12: Understand Perspective and Size Variance Page 13: Look For Natural Patterns Page 14: Depth of Field Is Oh-So-Shallow Page 15: Depth of Field—How Far To Stop Down Page 16: Depth of Field and Megapixels Page 17: Never Go Traveling Without a Backup Camera Page 18: Don’t Assume a New Lens is Good! Page 19: Infinity Focus Requires Care! Page 20: How to Carry Large and Heavy Lenses Page 21: Shooting Tip: Use Mirror Lockup Page 22: Shooting Tip: Aurora Borealis Page 23: Shooting Tip: Grizzly Bear vs Black Bear Scat Page 24: A brief glossary of photographic terms

Shooting tip: aurora borealis

The Aurora Borealis (or Aurora Australis) can make beautiful images.

You best best is to choose a camera with low noise, like the Nikon D3s (see the review in DAP); this allows shorter exposures with still very low noise, important for such beautiful smooth color.

You must use a tripod, and don’t be discouraged by just what you can see; I could see very little color in these images, but the camera certainly could. Exposures typically were in the 2-30 second range at ISO 200 or so.

You can liven up some scenes by lighting the foreground. For the image below I used the Lupine Wilma, powerful enough to illuminate the trees and antlers.