Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the weekend, it is no surprise to see thousands of images from the extreme G5 geomagnetic storm, which triggered auroras down to Florida—reportedly the largest in 20 years. Many people seeing the aurora for the first time, except through photographs. It is rather coincidental because I posted about one of my other few forays into night photography ten years ago this month.¹ I think it’s been ten years since I fumbled in the blackness. However, the weekend events proved to be another lesson in night photography and how much human eyes see or can’t see.

Not wanting to drive as far as I did then to get to one of the closer dark sky spots, I opted for a local suburban “high point” in front of one of our Metroparks. On a clear day, you can see the taller buildings in downtown Detroit from here without binoculars – but I use the quote marks because the elevation is only 867 ft (264 m). (I put that little stat in there for you west-coasties 🙂 ) While it was never really a secret spot, I don’t remember so many people being there the last time a night sky event was happening. It was fully packed. As a result, I didn’t stay long and opted to try out a nearby spot overlooking a lake, which in hindsight, turned out to be a good call.

Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D lens

I haven’t written much about my investment in a new camera this year yet, a Nikon Z8. Frankly, I feel like I am still getting to know it. The menus and features differ enough from my old D810 to warrant some in-the-field use. Many reviews already do a much better job than I could, so I tend to leave such things to the more capable hands.² But the camera has been an absolute dream to use, and I am ready to sell off all my old cameras. With this particular event, the feature of Starlight View (custom setting D10) proved quite helpful. It is like a steroid shot to the LCD/Viewfinder to help see in low light.

Around the same time I invested in the camera, this new lens from Laowa caught my eye. I already own one Laowa lens for high-magnification macro and like its build quality, optics, and value. So, I ordered this one for the Nikon Z-mount, and it conveniently arrived just a few days before the G5 solar storm. Perhaps not too pragmatic to get to know a new lens at night, but the situation was fitting.

Where’s the Aurora?!

Ten years ago, when I attempted to photograph the Milky Way, my research frequently revealed how a camera sensor is much more sensitive to many wavelengths of light than our eyes are, especially with long exposures. It picks up details and colors you don’t realize are there – especially if there is a lot of light pollution. So if you had an app that showed the position of the Milky Way, you would set up your composition, trigger the exposure – and Ta Da – a gift appeared on your camera’s LCD screen!

But back then, phone cameras didn’t have the night capabilities they do today, which made the quick snapshot this weekend quite the gift, at ISO2000! So it is no wonder social media was flooded with aurora photos. Anyone with a reasonably new phone could utilize this magic viewing portal!

But social media being what it is led to misplaced commentary from one fella, supposedly a photographer, who should know better, saying: “I just think photos are much easier to appreciate if we realize what they do and do not represent. If we come to them knowing they are art rather than objective documentation of reality, then they are less likely to make us feel manipulated and lied to.“

Well, the dozens of teenagers out at my first stop seemed to realize their phones were more sensitive to capturing the aurora colors than their eyes were quite quickly. I didn’t notice one bit of outrage about the Great Aurora Grift of 2024! I recognize the spectrum of opinions on post-exposure development work, but this wasn’t a case of that. It’s a case of ignorance, misunderstanding, or a heavy dose of cynacism, maybe a bit of all three.

A good example related to the aurora, even without a camera involved, is light pollution. One can look up from a city or suburb above and barely see any stars. It’s a visual buzz kill. Go to a certified dark sky spot; it is a dramatic, perhaps life-altering experience. Which is “objective reality?” Of course we are going to frame everything according to human perception, but a dose of humility when it comes to the majesty of such events couldn’t hurt either.

And if you venture deep enough to question why most auroras appear green to the naked eye, you’ll find it is because humans are most sensitive to wavelengths of light representing green. This is why a night-vision goggle view appears green as they utilize that green sensitivity to see in the dark. Perhaps it is also why the first greening of foiliage in Spring seems so electric. With more powerful geomagnetic storms, you get more charged particles, resulting in more colors. And why the colors? Because the gases in the atmosphere act like the gas in a neon sign tube, emitting colors as they react to the energy hitting those molecules. So, there are more physics and significant improvements in camera sensors than deception here.

Seeing In The Dark

This makes it difficult to answer the question, “Are those colors real?” According to my eyes? Someone else’s eyes? How about my dog’s eyes? Someone’s expectations? Or what the camera saw? Who is the authority and ultimate judge here? If the camera can detect it and I cannot, is it any less “real?” It’s like using a hearing aid or a set of fabulous headphones to enjoy an audio experience. You may hear instruments you never knew were part of a song before.

And it did take a bit of trial and error with these images. I started over three times on them, each discovering a better development path. A few hours later, I’d come back, find something that bugged me, and start again from the raw file. I don’t have a good frame of reference or a lot of experience developing aurora photos because, well, this is Michigan, duh. 😉

I am very happy with this first field trip with the Laowa 10mm. You’d expect to see a lot of distortion in a lens this wide or curved horizon like a fish-eye. None of that – so I’d say it lives up to its label as “zero distortion.” I did make a few photos with my F-mount Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 (with the Nikon F mount to Z mount adaptor), which I would typically use for scenes like this. It’s kinda amazing to think of it as having a “narrow” view now.

I have no idea if I’ll ever get the chance to experience another geomagnetic storm of this magnitude again. So, I’ll consider myself fortunate to have clear skies, not have slept through it, and not fumbled the technicals too much. I spent several hours just in this one spot on the lake. Cars would stop for a while, then leave – and close to 1 A.M., I had the place to myself. A wonderful contrast to how the evening started!! Whenever I thought I’d had enough in this spot, the sky kept changing, or I’d play with longer or shorter exposures.

After a while, my eyes adjusted well enough to see the lights dancing across the sky. Coyotes howled in the distance, fish jumped in the lake, and an occasional bird could be heard. I think they also thought it was pretty cool.

1. Photographing the Milky Way – May 2014 ↩︎
2. Alex Kunz “Six Months with Nikon Z8” ↩︎