Blog

This is my first blog post so be gentle :-)

I work a constant night shift rota in a high pressure/stressful job so on my days off I like to get out of the house and relax doing what I love... photography.

Photography is my escape, it's what I do to unwind and forget about stuff and as I'm a night-shift worker that means mostly going out for sunsets and star trails and last night was no different. I was just getting my evening meal and thinking about places I could go to take some star trail shots when a friend posted to Facebook that there was a very good chance the Northern Lights would be on display. Now, I've seen and photographed the Northern Lights many times before and mainly from the same spot on Loch Lomond as its easy for me to get to but as I had a little advance notice I started to think of other spots I could try and get the Lights from. After checking weather reports and lots of toing and froing it turned out that the usual spot was the best bet again.

I picked up a friend and headed to the spot. We got there at around 19:45 and there were already a few others with their cameras out saying they were getting the Aurora on camera. A quick setup and a few test shots and I was in business. There was indeed a nice green glow but there were also clouds rolling in which was a disappointment as the forecast was to be clear skies, but then, at about 20:30 the clouds started to clear and we started to get pillars of light from the now very visible Aurora. By 20:50 the show was brilliant and then by about 21:05 the pillars were gone and we were back to a nice green arc. I thought it was over but decided to hang around anyway and take more shots for a time-lapse video.

Just 15mins later the Aurora began to get brighter again and for the next 10mins we were treated to yet another bright display with pillars arcing over Loch Lomond. This time I knew I was going to be hanging around to see there was any more in store for us. Sure enough, about 30mins later we had yet another 10min display of pillars.

Fast forward to 23:00, I'm standing on the shore of Loch Lomond, it must have been about 0 degrees C and I'm damn cold. We've been watching a nice green arc in the sky now for about an hour... then it happened, for the next 25mins I saw what was probably the brightest I've seen the lights in Scotland. I know there have been others as bright if not brighter but I've been working when those happened (damn night-shift). Myself and those around me could not believe what we were seeing. This was amazing and also frustrating as I had to keep stopping the camera to clean the fog off the lens but I knew it was worth it.

It was a spectacular night.