Not Quite But A Happy Accident

Century Park

Vernon Hills, IL

Last minute effort to shoot the Northern Lights with photo buddy Steve P.  Not quite successful but also not a wasted effort.  The previous night would have been spectacular.  On the second photo. Steve was fooling around with his flashlight while we were trying to capture the Northern Lights.  The bright colors against the night sky caught my attention.

Photographed with a Sony A7IV camera and 14mm F2.8 Series II lens.

All Photographed 11/12/25

  

Not Quite

Happy Accident

A Rare Occurrence

52Frames - Week 41 - Panorama

Earlier this month the Chicago area was graced with an occurrence of the northern lights. It was a clear night so I went out to shoot star trails since the forecast was only a 10% chance of being able to see the aurora.

I got lucky with both! This photo is a 5 shot panorama merged in Lightroom. The star trails + aurora photo was posted earlier on my blog at https://jeffm211-p52.blogspot.com/2024/10/good-fortune.html.

Sony A7IV @ f2.8 | 5 x 1.6" | 28mm | ISO 1600

Tamron E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A067

Photographed 10/11/24

Good Fortune

I'm taking a short hiatus from posting an Africa photo due to the extraordinary opportunity that came to pass on Thursday evening.

Last May, I missed the aurora (northern lights) so hoped to capture a semblance of it this week in our area...which is a rare occurrence.  My expectations were low since NOAA Space Center forecast was for a less than 10% chance (with low energy) of seeing it in northern Illinois.

It was a clear night, so I figured worst case would be some star trail photos and giving my buddy a lesson on how to do them. Good fortune came when the aurora appeared during the last 5 minutes of star trail exposures. We hung around awhile after the star trails were completed to capture additional shots of the aurora.

Sony A7IV @ f2.8 | 30" x 121 | 14mm | ISO 100

Rokinon 14mm F2.8 Series II


Sony A7IV @ f2.8 | 30" | 14mm | ISO 100

Rokinon 14mm F2.8 Series II

Sony A7IV @ f2.8 | 1.6" | 28mm | ISO 1600

Tamron E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A067

Sony A7IV @ f2.8 | 1.6" | 28mm | ISO 1600

Tamron E 28-200mm F2.8-5.6 A067

Photographed 10/10/24