NORTHERN LIGHTS GRASSLANDS PARK CANADA

Northern Lights Grasslands Park Canada:

While staying at our property in the Village of Val Marie, the Parks Canada staff informed me of a fantastic look out point nearby called “Two Trees”.  This is one of the highest lookout points and only a short 10 minute drive from Val Marie.  I was looking for an opportunity to capture some long exposure shots of the stars at night. Finding the site was quite simple, the clue is in the name! Find the two trees on the top of a hill and your there.  I love the simplicity of these directions, definitely something I can understand

Grasslands National Park has in fact been designated as a Dark Sky Preserve, meaning local communities and public sectors are working together to limit light pollution into the night sky.  The Grasslands National Park Dark Sky preserve is one of the largest and darkest in Canada and therefore an excellent place to star gaze. A perfect place for astronomers to observe deep sky projects or for folks like myself to just stand in awe at the beauty of the stars above.

I was extremely fortunate during my particular trip as I witnessed something which is not that often seen so far south in Canada. I was at first not sure of what I was looking at as I had never seen the Northern lights before but after a few seconds, realised what I was looking at.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to capture not only the stars at night but also the beautiful light show I was privileged to be given.  To say that I was pleased is a major understatement and as soon as I got back to the Village, showed my good fortune to all and any I came across.

PHOTOGRAPHY: NORTHERN LIGHTS GRASSLANDS PARK CANADA:

For these images, I used my Nikon D700 with the 18-35mm lens shot at f5.6 at the 18mm focal length.  All images ranged from around a 60 second exposure all the way up to 3 minutes, setting the ISO at around iso1250 to iso1600.  I found these settings gave me the best detail and colour rendition.

The colours captured by the camera were in fact more pronounced than what my eye was seeing, I only saw a little bit of colour and witnessed the movement of the lights more. However, as the camera was exposing for such a long period, it managed to capture all the light rays I was unable to see and therefore had a further surprise and delight upon inspection of my shots.

I used a gorilla pod to mount my camera onto the side mirror of my rental car and took many trial shots to get the correct angle and exposure time.  Two full powered Nikon batteries were drained within a few minutes of shooting.  Tip for next time, bring more batteries!