Photos: Seattle photographer captures Northern Lights
A Seattle photographer recently braved the ultra cold winter nights of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights -- and he wasn't disappointed.
Doug Mahugh made the trek up north to visit friends he had met on Facebook who have two Samoyed dogs as he does but took along the camera in the hopes of finding the aurora.
Braving temperatures that were hovering around -25F (-32C) around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday he said the lights were there but weren't very strong and shortly faded. But 90 minutes later: success.
"At 1:00 we drove over to the ice road, a 5-mile path across Great Slave Lake to the village of Dettah," Mahugh told me. "We stopped out on the ice road, and suddenly the lights appeared. They started to the northeast, but soon they were swirling overhead in all directions. The entire show lasted maybe 20 minutes, and then became more subdued again."
He said the lights were amazing to see in person.
"They moved more quickly than I expected, constantly evolving into different hues and shapes," he said. "And the ice road was a stark and surreal place to see them from. The temperature was around -32C while we were out there, and I went through three batteries in an hour or so."
But changing batteries isn't exactly a simple task when it's that cold outside and you're wearing gloves.
"I had to take my gloves completely off to do that, and the second time I changed batteries I didn't get it done quickly enough and within 10-15 seconds my fingers started getting slow and clumsy. Once your fingers get cold in those conditions, you just have to hang on to hot shots inside your gloves for a while, or they won't warm back up."
Here are some of the photos that perhaps made the numb fingers worthwhile and there are plenty more in the gallery link above.
