Northern Lights Over the White Mountains

Northern Lights Over the White Mountains
Jackson, New Hampshire

What a show last night!  I met up with Jim Salge, Jeff Sinon, and Matthew Stearns in Jackson right after sunset in a field looking towards Mt. Washington and the Wildcat Range.  Starting at about 8:10pm we were able to capture the green glow with our cameras and within 10 minutes we were in full swing with light pillars dancing in the sky visible to our naked eyes - but not in color.  Our human night vision is basically black and white, there just simply isn't enough light for our vision system to pick out the color.  If the aurora is bright enough then you can see it in color, and Jon Secord happened to be farther enough north to see it in color with his naked eye.

That said, the color seen in this image is 100% real because the camera isn't color blind at night and has no problem seeing the vivid aurora display.  What appeared to our eyes as bright white spotlights shining up into the sky were actually green, magenta, and red in color!

We were able to photograph the aurora non-stop for about an hour, we did not have any problem with clouds moving in but the aurora started to slow down and then the bright moon rose and washed out the sky.

While I was excited to have the iconic profile of Mt. Washington in the frame, the foreground was lacking so we decided to use Jim Salge's tent to add something to the foreground.   We would all hit our shutters, Jim would run into the tent and light it up with his headlamp, then run back to his camera.  Wash, rinse, and repeat many times all while watching the amazing light pillars dance in the sky and screaming with glee when the LCDs on our cameras lit up when our dark frames were over.

Nikon D800E, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ f/2.8 and 22mm, ISO 800, 25 seconds.  The sky exposure I used here had a darker tent (light painting quickly while running around is difficult, just ask Jim!) so I used another exposure with the same exact angle and settings and a more lit up tent and blended that tent into this photo, replacing the darker tent.

#Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #WhiteMountains #NewHampshire #AdamWoodworthPhotography

Workshops Now Available!

I'm now offering astrophotography workshops in Acadia and post-processing workshops with Lightroom & Photoshop in Portland, Maine!  For details check out the Workshops page on my website:

http://www.adamwoodworth.com/workshops/

Astro Presentation at Hampton NH Library

On Wednesday July 9th, 6:30-7:30pm, I will be giving a FREE presentation on my landscape astrophotography at the Lane Memorial Library in Hampton, New Hampshire!  This will be a slideshow of my astro work with the stories and techniques behind the photos.  Please leave a comment if you plan to come!  Some of my photos will also be on display in the library, I will have six 20x30 prints hanging on the walls in their gallery for the month of July!

Exeter & MDI Photo Club Talks

I will be giving my presentation on landscape astrophotography at Art Talk Exeter on Saturday May 17th, and doing the same at the MDI photo club on Tuesday May 20th.  Both events are FREE!

Saturday 5/17 - Art Talk, Exeter, NH, 12:30pm at the Town Hall Gallery, 7 Front Street
http://www.meetup.com/SeacoastPhotographers/events/172900102/

Tuesday 5/20 - MDI Photo Club, Northeast Harbor, ME, 6:30pm at the Northeast Harbor Library, 1 Joy Rd

Listen to My Interview on the Casual Photography Podcast!

I was recently interviewed on the Casual Photography podcast about my landscape astrophotography.  I'm on episode 17, you can find it on iTunes, Stitcher, and on the Casual Photography website at: http://www.casualphotography.net/2014/04/22/episode-17-adam-woodworth-and-astro-landscape-photography/

Presentation at the First Light Camera Club April 24th

I'll be giving a presentation at the First Light Camera Club in Topsham, Maine, on April 24th, 7pm at the Topsham Medical Building, 4 Horton Place. $10 fee for non-members.

Introduction to Exposure Blending in Photoshop

In my "Introduction to Landscape Photography" written tutorial I mentioned that I would have a future tutorial on exposure blending, and this evening I was able to put together a video that is a quick crash course introduction to blending exposures in Photoshop.  This covers a basic blend using a layer mask, and an advanced blend using a layer mask with luminosity selections.  If layer masking and luminosity masks are new topics for you then you should Google around for some tutorials on those subjects, fully grasping them will make it much easier to do blending.

You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k5bRHegiXA

The original written tutorial is here: http://blog.adamwoodworth.com/2013/09/introduction-to-milky-way-landscape_2.html

The 720p version of the video should be available but you may have to reload the video to get that option.  Click on the gear icon in the bottom right part of the video player to find the 720p setting.

I hope to eventually put together a more extensive video that covers a start-to-finish project, starting with preparing the images in Lightroom, blending in Photoshop, and polishing the image in both Lightroom and Photoshop.