I have been hunting the aurora for about the last 15 years and missing it every time, bad weather, wrong time of day, you name it. I'm pretty familiar with coming home disappointed by now and i've found the best way of dealing with it is to have a second reason to go out, to stop focusing on the result and just have a nice night out. While i did miss the powerful May aurora, it clouded over again, i managed to capture the tail end of the storm the next day, it was barely visible with the naked eye but i finally saw it. Then in September, a bit better prepared, i went out early for a G3 storm, looking for a better location to shoot and ended up waiting for hours for a storm that didn't seem to come, in the end i decided to just shoot the Perseids and after just a few minutes a green and purple haze started appearing in my shots. Minutes later and a third of the sky was filled with dancing pillars and curtains, it was spectacular. Then on October the tenth i went out to shoot the C/2023-A3 comet but was unable to find it, soon after the sky clouded over seemingly ruining my chances to see the comet and the aurora predicted for later that night, so i just went home. I did check some aurora webcams but nothing seemed to be happening and then a few hours later youtube served me a webcam from Finland showing the aurora in the south. Miraculously the skies had opened up again and i raced back out to my dark site, just outside of town i could already see an enormous green curtain dancing in the sky. I arrived just in time to set up my camera for the next big wave and it was beyond spectacular, it quickly took up almost two thirds of the sky, filling my view completely. The photos turned out to be even more spectacular than what my eyes saw, i shot a total of 9 panoramas most of them over 240 degrees wide, to capture it all. A few days later i also managed to get some nice shots of the comet. If i had let myself be discouraged by disappointment i never would have been able to see and capture these amazing spectacles. Don't give up!
That is such a great reply, thank you! And you are completely right, finding those other reasons is very important. For me, it is the stillness and total silence, seeing the nature as if I was alone in the world. It recharges my batteries from the day to day stress 🙂 And honestly... if there was spectacular aurora each and every day and you could just go out there and take any pictures you wanted... then it wouldn´t even be fun. Right? Almost like seeing wild animals in the zoo, not at all the same as in nature. And as you might have seen in one of my recent videos - I got an absolutely fantastic aurora show along with the perseids. So I have no reason to complain 🙂
Best intro ever!!! That made me laugh out loud! Great video as always, Martin. Completely agree that you just have to get out, and “failure” is just part of it. Being under the stars is always awesome. Those noises were like nothing I’ve ever heard - hope someone can identify them. That aurora / Milky Way image was beautiful - nice one. 👍
@@nightscapejournals Thank you! 🙂 When I reviewed the footage and saw my blank stare I couldn't resist 🤣 About the sounds I'm leaning towards wild boar fighting a badger. Thank you for the support! It's not easy trying to reach an audience 🙂
@@MartinFransson”wild boar fighting a badger” is the sort of thing my kids talk about. “What would happen if….”. 🤣 Always enjoy your videos, Martin - so well produced. 👍
Living in Finland with potential Aurora's all the time I've learnt the same lessons and always go out with hopes of a great capture but sometimes conditions are not right but I still get to learn new places and I practice my settings on different topics. Other times I walk 5 minutes and the sky explodes with colours. Hopefully your endeavours are always fruitful
What the fell were those noises?! :D nice vlog and I do understand the feeling... my success rate is around 25%, which can get very frustrating, sometimes I even ask myself if its really worth it, but then I get an image with which I am really happy with and it reminds me it is worth it. Great you got the shot at the end.
Regarding the geomagnetic storm on the night of May 10-11 that "everyone" photographed: you weren't the only one who missed that, I would have been on a suitable location with hardly any light pollution on a somewhat remote island at Lake Saimaa, but sadly also there the clouds were the problem (and there would have also been strong cold winds, which would have made outdoor night photography less pleasant experience). Next night I did manage to catch few aurora pictures, although 1) in May dark night time is surprisingly short and it gets suitably dark for night photography very late and disturbing glow from the sunset lasts long 2) I didn't first notice that the auroras were not in the northern horizon (where also the light from the sunset was still problematic), but above my head 3) aurora photography didn't get my undivided attention as that night was also when Eurovision Song Contest final was held, so I ran between beach and cabin much of the night (yes, the location was our family holiday home).
@@HezuFoto ha ha, yes I guess there were a few of us who missed it 🙂 But judging by the flow of posts on my social media it looked like everyone got it. But better luck next time!
I have been hunting the aurora for about the last 15 years and missing it every time, bad weather, wrong time of day, you name it. I'm pretty familiar with coming home disappointed by now and i've found the best way of dealing with it is to have a second reason to go out, to stop focusing on the result and just have a nice night out. While i did miss the powerful May aurora, it clouded over again, i managed to capture the tail end of the storm the next day, it was barely visible with the naked eye but i finally saw it.
Then in September, a bit better prepared, i went out early for a G3 storm, looking for a better location to shoot and ended up waiting for hours for a storm that didn't seem to come, in the end i decided to just shoot the Perseids and after just a few minutes a green and purple haze started appearing in my shots. Minutes later and a third of the sky was filled with dancing pillars and curtains, it was spectacular.
Then on October the tenth i went out to shoot the C/2023-A3 comet but was unable to find it, soon after the sky clouded over seemingly ruining my chances to see the comet and the aurora predicted for later that night, so i just went home. I did check some aurora webcams but nothing seemed to be happening and then a few hours later youtube served me a webcam from Finland showing the aurora in the south.
Miraculously the skies had opened up again and i raced back out to my dark site, just outside of town i could already see an enormous green curtain dancing in the sky. I arrived just in time to set up my camera for the next big wave and it was beyond spectacular, it quickly took up almost two thirds of the sky, filling my view completely. The photos turned out to be even more spectacular than what my eyes saw, i shot a total of 9 panoramas most of them over 240 degrees wide, to capture it all. A few days later i also managed to get some nice shots of the comet.
If i had let myself be discouraged by disappointment i never would have been able to see and capture these amazing spectacles. Don't give up!
That is such a great reply, thank you! And you are completely right, finding those other reasons is very important. For me, it is the stillness and total silence, seeing the nature as if I was alone in the world. It recharges my batteries from the day to day stress 🙂 And honestly... if there was spectacular aurora each and every day and you could just go out there and take any pictures you wanted... then it wouldn´t even be fun. Right? Almost like seeing wild animals in the zoo, not at all the same as in nature. And as you might have seen in one of my recent videos - I got an absolutely fantastic aurora show along with the perseids. So I have no reason to complain 🙂
Great video. Really catched the waiting and mood of being in the night forest. The photos in the end were superb too 👌👍🙂
@@stigfloberghagenphotography thank you! 🙂
Martin, those ending images are spectacular! Well worth the bloody shins and banged-up shoulder!
@@filmwabbit thank you very much! 🙂
Never giving up has its rewards and well shown Martin, another run of beautiful imagry indeed.
@@StarHugger-kw1by thank you very much! 🙂
Best intro ever!!! That made me laugh out loud!
Great video as always, Martin. Completely agree that you just have to get out, and “failure” is just part of it. Being under the stars is always awesome.
Those noises were like nothing I’ve ever heard - hope someone can identify them. That aurora / Milky Way image was beautiful - nice one. 👍
@@nightscapejournals Thank you! 🙂 When I reviewed the footage and saw my blank stare I couldn't resist 🤣 About the sounds I'm leaning towards wild boar fighting a badger.
Thank you for the support! It's not easy trying to reach an audience 🙂
@@MartinFransson”wild boar fighting a badger” is the sort of thing my kids talk about. “What would happen if….”. 🤣
Always enjoy your videos, Martin - so well produced. 👍
Dude, don't fall on a nightscape adventure! I can know! 😅. Glad you persisted though on both nights and got a beautiful experience out of both 👌.
@@StarScaperPhoto ha ha, yes I will try to keep my legs intact 😉 I've tried breaking a leg before and it's not fun.
Nice video
@@AnupAdventures thank you! 🙂
I enjoyed your adventure Martin and the Milky Way shot is fire! I do question going to look for the sound that makes your neck hairs stand up. Haha
@@scottmcnally ha ha, yes the searching might not have been the wisest move 🤣
Thank you for watching!
Living in Finland with potential Aurora's all the time I've learnt the same lessons and always go out with hopes of a great capture but sometimes conditions are not right but I still get to learn new places and I practice my settings on different topics. Other times I walk 5 minutes and the sky explodes with colours. Hopefully your endeavours are always fruitful
@@peterrichardson4439 thank you very much! 🙂
What the fell were those noises?! :D nice vlog and I do understand the feeling... my success rate is around 25%, which can get very frustrating, sometimes I even ask myself if its really worth it, but then I get an image with which I am really happy with and it reminds me it is worth it. Great you got the shot at the end.
@@matej.mlakar I know, right? You don't have sounds like that in Slovenia either? 😅😱
@@MartinFransson at first it sounded like wild boars or something, but later I wasnt so sure anymore?
Regarding the geomagnetic storm on the night of May 10-11 that "everyone" photographed: you weren't the only one who missed that, I would have been on a suitable location with hardly any light pollution on a somewhat remote island at Lake Saimaa, but sadly also there the clouds were the problem (and there would have also been strong cold winds, which would have made outdoor night photography less pleasant experience). Next night I did manage to catch few aurora pictures, although 1) in May dark night time is surprisingly short and it gets suitably dark for night photography very late and disturbing glow from the sunset lasts long 2) I didn't first notice that the auroras were not in the northern horizon (where also the light from the sunset was still problematic), but above my head 3) aurora photography didn't get my undivided attention as that night was also when Eurovision Song Contest final was held, so I ran between beach and cabin much of the night (yes, the location was our family holiday home).
@@HezuFoto ha ha, yes I guess there were a few of us who missed it 🙂 But judging by the flow of posts on my social media it looked like everyone got it. But better luck next time!