Gale-Force Aurora H
by Tim Newton
Title
Gale-Force Aurora H
Artist
Tim Newton
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
One winter afternoon, I set off for a high tarn in Alaska's Chugach Mountains. The tarn has a Northern view, and the Aurora was forecast to be exceptional. I was hoping for Aurora reflections in the ice on the tarn, with surrounding mountains for context.
I arrived here about 6:30 pm Saturday night, and immediately began battling numbing fingers & toes. A freezing gale was roaring through this high mountain pass, and though I was bundled in six layers top, and five below, I shivered all night and kept wishing I'd brought one more layer, and warmer gloves and boots.
No sooner had I arrived, and the Aurora came out. It was quite a promising first wave, but it was over before I could set up for photography. Worse, an overcast drifted in, blanketing out the whole sky at my location. The frozen wind carried with it bits of rocky grit which - if they stabbed my open eyes or any bit of momentarily exposed skin - also polished the ice to a mirror, and swept it clean of snow, promising to reflect the hoped-for aurora should it appear in the tortured frozen surface.
I stayed awake all night long, buffeted behind a boulder to stay out of the hurricane most of the night while overcast prevailed. All night I could see a glow through the overcast, and knew that a spectacular display was going on overhead, but out of sight. Every time a break in the clouds presented itself, I'd clamber across the boulder field in the dark, trying not to get blown over (and not always succeeding) and racing to find a composition that worked for each hole in the clouds I was allowed, before it too disappeared.
Finally, at around 6:30 Sunday morning, this view opened up for me, which worked for the composition I'd envisioned in my climb up here. After all, I was only allowed a more subtle Aurora display, but I still loved how the light played on the tortured ice of that high, gale-swept mountain tarn.
Source:
2014_11_16_085172_GaleForceAurora_Full_sRGB_s06c_2x3h_Copyright_TimNewton
Uploaded
November 19th, 2014
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