Beautiful woman and amazing Bokeh courtesy of Carl Zeiss.

OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 01.09.2010.
A woman is sitting at the bar of a dimly-lit cafe. Lost in thoughts, she doesn’t notice the glass of wine the bartender places before her. From a distance, a photographer tries to capture her mood. He brings her face, which is leaning toward her phone, into focus. Everything around her becomes a blur, and the lights in the background coalesce into a wild “dance” of diffuse shapes.

This shot will only work with a fast lens with short focal length and harmonious bokeh. Carl Zeiss introduces a new lens for just such images: the Distagon T* 1,4/35.

This lens likes dimly lit bars, curly hair, red wine, and long walks on the beach.

Screw the lens, Carl, I want to know more about the woman! Who is she waiting for? Did she like the wine? Is she a secret agent? How does this story end?

Oh well, if you still care about the lens, specs and other blah blah can be found at Carl’s digs. It will initially be released in Canon and Nikon mounts in the first quarter of 2011, but I would expect other mounts to appear soon after. MSRP in Europe is €1385.71 (exc. tax), which would put the US price (comparing Euro vs US prices for other Zeiss lenses) at around $1,546.52. Wine is not included in the price.

All photos: ©Carl Zeiss.

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Amazon US (and B&H) have this very good deal going today on the well-regarded Tamron 18-200mm superzoom. It has a sale price of $290 and a $60 rebate on top (rebate PDF here), so after cashing that in the final price is $230. The link on the right is for the Canon version, but it’s also available for Nikon, Pentax and Sony (although there’s no mention of a rebate on the Sony Amazon page, the PDF form linked above clearly lists Sony as a qualifying mount for the rebate). Here is the B&H link for all camera brands.

The catch is this: The rebate ends today! To qualify for the rebate you must make the purchase today and send in your form (postmark it) by September 15.

Clicking through the links above and making the purchase will provide EtL with a small commission that helps us keep running and writing this site for you. This commission is taken from Amazon’s cut of the sale, not yours, so you always pay the same amount whether you purchase through our links or not. So why not use our links?

Note: Links in this article might be to one of our affiliate stores. Purchases made from our affiliates through these links will benefit Enticing the Light at no extra cost to you.

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by Miserere

The Birth of a “New” Camera System

Sony today unveiled the A33 and A55, the first two in a new line of digital cameras that resemble traditional digital SLRs, but which Sony are calling SLTs, for Single Lens Translucent. The translucent term refers to the mirror inside the mirror box which, unlike those in SLRs, isn’t fully reflective¹ but actually partially translucent. This has several implications for the functioning of the camera:

1. The mirror is now stationary, so it won’t flip up and down with each exposure (but it can be flipped up for sensor cleaning).
2. Sony are being tight-lipped about the exact value, but given past designs we can guess that the translucent mirror lets ~2/3 of the light through and reflects ~1/3. The reflected light makes its way to a phase-detection autofocus system, while the light passing through the mirror hits the CMOS sensor.
3. Because light hits the sensor continuously, there is no need for an optical viewfinder (OVF).

The advantages of the above over a standard SLR are numerous:

1. The camera is quieter as there will be no mirror slap.
2. You should be able to hand-hold slower shutter speeds, as with a rangefinder, do to the lack of a moving mirror.
3. A stationary mirror should theoretically keep phase-detection AF precise over longer time periods due to the mirror not becoming misaligned quite as quickly as in an SLR.
4. Phase detection AF can now work at all times, as when shooting videos or following a moving subject.
5. Because there is no OVF, a pentaprism (or pentamirror) isn’t required, saving space and weight, so the camera can be made smaller and lighter.
6. You can compose (both stills and video) either with the rear LCD or looking through the electronic viewfinder (EVF).
7. Video can be shot with smooth autofocusing thanks to the always-on phase-detection AF, but there is a price to pay (see below).
8. The frames-per-second (FPS) that can be shot only depend on the shutter and the readout speed of the chip, so higher FPS can be more easily achieved.
9. Without a pentaprism (or pentamirror), VF screen or flipping mirror mechanism, costs should come down, making the camera cheaper to produce and cheaper for the buying public.
10. The EVF can more easily be made larger than an OVF, and according to the specs from Sony, the EVF on these two cameras is 15% larger than that of the Nikon D300s, usually considered the best VF within the APS-C segment.

Now let’s review some of the drawbacks:

1. There is no OVF, which to some is a drawback.
2. In order to shoot video using phase-detect AF, the lens has to be wide open. If you want to shoot at a smaller apertures you’ll be forced to use contrast-detect AF, which is not as smooth.
3. Because the mirror doesn’t flip out of the way, you don’t expose the sensor to all the light coming through the lens, but only 2/3 of it, thus losing 1/3 of a stop. In theory, this degrades IQ. It’s not clear how Sony have addressed this, but I expect they’ve adjusted the reported ISO so that it shows a value 1/3 stop lower than what the camera is actually using. Given how imprecise camera makers are when setting ISO values, this may not be a big deal. As sensor performance continues to improve, it will be even less of a problem.
4. Dust has always been an issue for DSLRs, accumulating on the sensors and creating the infamous dust bunnies. On an SLT design dust now has an extra surface to accumulate on: the translucent mirror, and because it’s far away from the sensor, a mote of dust will create a halo, not a spot, making it more annoying to fix in postprocessing.
5. Light going through the mirror will be refracted twice: first as it goes into the mirror and then as it comes out. Not all colours of light are refracted by the same amount so this could induce a degradation in IQ by creating colour fringing effects. I trust Sony engineers worked long and hard on this issue and found a solution for it.

The Best of Both Worlds?

The rise of DSLRs as movie recording devices in the last 18 months or so has been nothing short of meteoric. And thanks to the required live-view (LV), even still photographers have benefited as LV makes shooting cameras in awkward positions a lot easier, especially with articulated LCDs. The main gripe with shooting video was AF, which relied on a contrast-detect method, and is generally regarded as being slower and incapable of smooth continuous focusing. With the new SLT system Sony is trying to bring together the best of both worlds: DSLR functionality and focusing with the added flexibility of LV.

The problem I see is that the SLT camera might be a solution to a quickly disappearing problem. As some of the latest MILCs have proven (such as the Panasonic G2 or Samsung NX10), contrast-detect AF can be fast, and is likely to keep improving with each new iteration thanks to its inclusion in the rising sector of mirrorless cameras. Once contrast-detect AF is capable of determining distance to subject, it will not only be fast, but smooth also. We may see cameras with such an AF system as early as this Autumn at Photokina 2010. When this happens, what will be the point of SLTs?

I expect SLTs to become a footnote in the history of modern camera designs, nothing but a stopgap solution to a short-term problem. I think Sony also believe this because they’ve maintained the same mount and registration distance, when they could have made the mount smaller for APS-C and shortened the registration distance by having the mirror slide to the side instead of flipping out of the way for sensor cleaning. I imagine Sony will release one or two further SLTs and then drop the line as the simple solution of MILCs takes over.

None of this should stop you from purchasing these cameras. Like I said, Sony knows they are temporary and have changed nothing essential about the Alpha system, so all Sony and Minolta lenses are fully compatible with it. If you enter the Sony system with one of these camera, any lens you buy for it will still work on any of their current or future DSLRs as well as SLTs, so there is really no risk involved in purchasing either of these cameras.

If you want precise specs, you can find them here. Both the A33 and A55 share the same body, but the A55 has 16.2MP vs the A33′s 14.2MP, 10 FPS vs 7 FPS (both very high values), larger buffer and better battery life. The A55 also has GPS while the A33 doesn’t. The A55 is US$750 (body only) while the A33 is US$650 (body only). Needless to say they both shoot RAW, have PASM shooting modes, a fully articulated LCD, shoot 1080i HD video and feature sensor-based image stabilisation. Given these specs and prices, I expect Sony to sell a boatload of them! I’d even be tempted to pair the A33 with Sony’s recently announced 35mm f/1.8 for a total of $850 and hit the streets with it.

So What Was That About Old Technology?

You may have been wondering about the title of this post, and I thank you if you’ve made it this far in order to find out. The fact is that semitransparent mirrors are very old technology, and using them inside a camera first happened in the mid 1960′s when Canon released the Pellix, so called because these mirrors are also known as pellicle mirrors. The disadvantage back then was that the VF in those first pellicle cameras was 2/3 stop less bright, because 2/3 of the light went to the film, but today, with film being replaced by a digital sensor, this is actually a benefit because thanks to the EVF, we’re now using the same device to preview an image and capture it.

While Sony is resurrecting old Canon technology, maybe they’ll reintroduce eye-controlled autofocusing, a much-requested feature that would make my life a lot easier. OK, so maybe not my life, but certainly my Photography.

¹ In SLRs with autofocus (AF), the mirror isn’t 100% reflective, as some light needs to be diverted towards the AF sensor, generally located at the bottom of the camera, opposite the viewfinder screen from the mirror. However, because the mirror flips up out of the way when taking a photograph, this loss of light only affects the brightness of the image in the viewfinder.

Note: Links in this article might be to one of our affiliate stores. Purchases made from our affiliates through these links will benefit Enticing the Light at no extra cost to you.

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As photographers, we’re always looking for something different we haven’t tried before. In many places around North America and other regions, this is the season of summer fairs. They offer some interesting photo opportunities—many have the ladies at the bake tables, the big BBQ spot, candy apples and cotton candy. My home town is hosting one right now. It was fun to go out and see the kids of all ages, still enjoy going to these events. Then there’s the animals in the petting zoo, the farm displays and in the case of our fair, lots of harness racing which will test your high-speed shooting skills.

This shot was taken at 1/5th second, f/5.6 ISO 200. Note the kids shoes in the foreground.

What I wanted to do in this short article is suggest that you get out the tripod, a cable release, a wide-angle lens and prepare to shoot something a little different and a bit on the abstract side. It’s fairly simple and as long as your camera can shoot in manual mode (or a couple of tricks to get around the auto functions) you can get some very interesting results. The setup is fairly simple. Use the widest lens you have and try to frame the ride to get the entire motion in the frame. The great thing about this type of shooting is, there’s nearly no post processing involved. You’re either shooting it right, or you’re not. You are going to shoot at low ISO, partly to control noise and partly to get slow shutter speeds. At high ISO the lights on the ride can often be bright enough to get blown out and without an ND filter, your shutter speeds will be too fast to blur the motion. All the samples here were shot at ISO 200 at 12mm on a 24x36mm sensor. On a crop sensor, an ideal lens could be the Sigma 10-20mm or the Tamron 10-24mm. This might just be the excuse to get Sigma’s new 8-16mm ultra wide lens for APS-C cameras (like we really need an excuse to buy a new lens!). In any case, just pick a lens wide enough to get everything in, and don’t worry about the maximum aperture; the speed of the lens is not a concern because you’re likely to be around f/16 to f/22 for many shots.

Just like a wildlife shooter, watch and study your subject, see what the path and motion is so it doesn’t go outside the frame. Keep an eye on the sky. In the shot above, I think the sky adds quite a bit to the final image and might be better than just a black sky. Take a few test shots to see what length of time to leave the shutter open to give you the correct amount of blur or motion and the right exposure. You may decide that 1 second is right, and to keep the image from being over exposed, shoot at the lowest ISO available and stop the lens down to f/16 or more. It all depends how long you want the light trails to be. On average, I would say 0.5 to 3 seconds is about right. If your camera doesn’t have a manual setting, you may be limited in controlling the shutter speeds, but try to lock the exposure on something darker that will trick the camera into staying open long enough to give you the motion you want, or if you’re shooting a P&S with a “Night Scene” mode, use that. You have quite a bit of latitude in exposures as the night sky will stay fairly black. We just don’t want all the coloured lights to look white because they have been over exposed.

The Freakout from a different angle. f/22 and 0.5 sec

I will confess to not listening to my own advice. I hadn’t considered shooting the rides this way on my visit to the fair. So I had a monopod and no cable release as the harness racing was the intent of the visit. So with a tripod, you will get sharper details on stationary foreground subjects and that can make or break a shot. Without a cable release, you will have to gently hold the shutter down. Alternatively, if you can lock the exposure, you could use a setting like A (or Av). Gently squeeze and release the shutter, letting the camera close it when the shot is completed. Look for interesting angles to shoot from with few obstructions. In this case, the tripod is your friend and will keep a path clear. Just be prepared for the teenagers mugging for the camera! In 4 separate instances on this excursion, kids wanted their photos taken for Facebook.

Getting low and shooting nearly straight up can give you an interesting abstract. f/22 0.5 sec

So the equipment list is:

1. Camera (Duh).
2. Wide angle lens from fisheye to 16mm on DSLR’s. Wide adapter for a P&S.
3. Sturdy tripod with (recommended) quick release for multiple moves and setups.
4. Cable release.
5. Admission fees, water and some time.

This one looks like a flying saucer. f/18 3 sec

Technique:

1. Frame the entire ride path in the veiwfinder. Try to level the shot as much as possible with vertical or horizontal elements.
2. Test the exposure times to increase or decrease the motion captured.
3. Set the camera to as low an ISO as possible to reduce noise and slow the shutter speeds.
4. Adjust the f stop as needed to expose the image based on the shutter speed/ISO combination.
5. Look for unique angles that site staff won’t mind. Keep aware of where you are and that equipment can be flying around near your head.

Cheers and good shooting!
–Peter Zack

Note: Links in this article might be to one of our affiliate stores. Purchases made from our affiliates through these links will benefit Enticing the Light at no extra cost to you.

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What does one do when one finds oneself jetlagged, having taken the redeye to England, and unable to check in to one’s hotel for a further 4 hours? One begins by not referring to oneself with the pronoun ‘one’. Then you take out a light camera from your backpack and go into town to walk and take photos. The walking is very important because if you stop, you’ll likely fall asleep.

Maybe you’re beginning to fall asleep too, so I’ll shut up and just post up some of my pictures from these few hours. They were taken in Southampton, a city located in the south of England.

They were shot with the Samsung NX10 with 30mm f/2 pancake lens, in Samsung’s RAW format and processed with Adobe ACR 5.7. They’ve been resized for web viewing in Photoshop. Click for larger version.

f/6.3, 1/400s, ISO 200	f/5.6, 1/640s, ISO 200
f/2, 1/2500s, ISO 100	f/4.5, 1/250s, ISO 100
f/4.5, 1/200s, ISO 100	f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO 100
f/5, 1/400s, ISO 200	f/3.2, 1/250s, ISO 100

I’ve been enjoying Samsung’s 30mm f/2; it’s small, light and a good optical performer, which makes it a superb lens. And did I mention it only costs $300? That’s a bargain for such a great lens. Coupled with the low-profile NX10 they become a very compact street camera that you (and people) barely notice is there.

I had so much fun photographing on Sunday morning that I almost forgot I was half asleep

Note: Links in this article might be to one of our affiliate stores. Purchases made from our affiliates through these links will benefit Enticing the Light at no extra cost to you.

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The Earth from Above gives us some stunning photographs. Someday, I’ll buy an ultralite.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand created the Altitude Agency in 1991, specialising in aerial photography and has taken over 1/2 million photographs in more than 100 countries with a team of over 100 photographers. He has taken images of the world’s most beautiful landscapes, from helicopters and hot-air balloons. The book from this project, Earth from Above (‘la Terre vue du ciel’) sold over 3 million copies and was translated into 24 languages. In July 2005 he created an environmental organization called Good Planet to help people and companies, reduce and offset their climate impact by funding projects on renewable energies, energy efficiency and reforestation. His DVD Home has been viewed by millions worldwide.

Bora Bora by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

From the series, Earth From Above by: Yann Arthus-Bertrand
“With Earth from above, I simply want people to see the Earth as it is today, as faithfully as possible. What motivates me is the impact a photograph can make within the framework of environmental preservation. The great novelty of our time is that mankind has the power to change its environment and I want my photos to testify to this fact so people can realise this.” (Yann Arthus-Bertrand)

National Military Cemetary of Notre Dame de Lorette by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

From the site:
“Earth From Above” is the result of the aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s five-year airborne odyssey across six continents. It’s a spectacular presentation of large scale photographs of astonishing natural landscapes. Every stunning aerial photograph tells a story about our changing planet.

Boat graveyard France by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

You can see much of the collection here: Earth from Above.
And here: Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s site.

Cheers and good shooting –Peter Zack

All photos: ©Yann Arthus-Bertrand.

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When babies take naps, busy mums generally sigh with relief and either fall on the sofa exhausted or use the time to clean up the mess left behind by the baby when it was awake. But what happens if you’re a creative mum who has no professional outlet left because you’re on maternity leave? Maybe you go crazy or you take up knitting…or if you’re like Adele Enersen from Finland, you might grab your sleeping baby, some clothes and your P&S camera and let your imagination fly.

Behold Baby Mila’s soirees! I wonder if her dreams are anywhere near as adventurous as what she appears to get up to on the outside.

See more quirky, lovely photos from Adele Enersen on her blog Mila’s Daydreams, where she proves that imagination, enthusiasm and love will go a lot further than an expensive camera (she uses a simple Canon IXUS/SD).

All photos: ©Adele Enersen.

Note: Links in this article might be to one of our affiliate stores. Purchases made from our affiliates through these links will benefit Enticing the Light at no extra cost to you.

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What’s wrong with the two class portraits above? What’s wrong with taking street photographs in public places? What’s wrong with taking photographs of people in public places? What’s wrong with taking photographs of children in public places?

If you live in the United Kingdom, you probably know the answers; if you live elsewhere, you might be bewildered by those photos…or that I’m asking these questions at all.

And what about if you’re a child (16 years of age) and taking photographs in a public place? Is that a problem? It might be if you’re in the UK.

Please remember (and remind others): Photography is not a crime in the Civilised World.

All photos: © Anna Brooks & Samantha Harvey.

Thanks to Eolake for bringing the class portraits to my attention.

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by Miserere and Peter Zack

This might come as a surprise to you, but maintaining a blog is a tough job. You might think writing a few hundred words takes no time at all, and if they were random words that would be true, but writing a few hundred words that concisely outline and expand on a topic in such a way to be both informative and entertaining does take time. It’s not just about the writing either; we tend to provide abundant links to other sources in our articles, and these sources are not chosen at random. I can speak for myself (Miserere) and tell you that when I include a link to a page explaining a term or concept, I’ve probably read 10 or 15 similar pages before deciding which one to send you to. We take pride in what we write—there would be no point writing it otherwise.

I must mention the equipment reviews, which Peter and I write after spending a few weeks with the camera or lens in question so we can give you opinions and insights that a late afternoon stroll taking pictures can’t give you. We don’t just throw a bunch of spec numbers at you, but instead try to give you a photographer’s perspective, gained by taking many pictures in different conditions and using the equipment as if it were our own, something that we find lacking on the major review sites.

Then there’s the boring backend HTML, CSS, PHP and other assorted coding paraphernalia that needs to be taken care of. If the site works, looks good and all links go where they’re supposed to, then it means I’ve taken care of that part. The aim here is for you not to notice that everything works and to just enjoy reading and roaming EtL.

So why do we do this thing called Enticing the Light? Because we love Photography and want to share our enjoyment of it with you. We also want to share our frustration with it too. Our hobby/profession is not all rosy coloured under a sky of fluffy white clouds, and it’s important to us to communicate both the good and the bad. You can tell what our state of mind is by the frequency of articles: When we’re happy there are more of them, when we’re sad there are less. But we’re always here, thinking of new things to say, and telling you new things to think.

That doesn’t mean we couldn’t use a little help, financial or otherwise. We want to keep growing as a site, and we’re not going to lie: We wouldn’t mind having a bit of profit left over after the site bills are paid each year. We’re human, and we’re photographers, and we’d love for the hard work we put into EtL to recompense us with a new lens each Christmas.

We have plans for improving EtL, features we plan to implement in the near future, but there are also some things you can do to help EtL continue to grow strong into the future. Following are 5 easy ways you can help EtL.

1: Send Us Stories

If you come across a story on the news or an interesting article or blog post related to Photography and find yourself thinking I bet other photographers would love to read this, send it to us! We’ll share it with everyone, maybe add our own comment or spin to it, and everyone comes out winning. Be sure to send us a URL to your gallery or webpage so we can link to it—we always reference our sources.

2: Write a Guest Post

Do you think you have something to say about Photography (or maybe just a small aspect of it)? I bet you do! Then why don’t you write it down and e-mail it to us? If you think you’re not a good writer or English is not your native language, we’ll be happy to work with you in editing your text. But we are, after all, a Photography site, so words aren’t a requirement; have you been on a trip recently or just completed a photo project? Then send us your photo essay and share it with thousands of readers.

3: Tell Everyone About EtL

Spread the word! Did you just read an article that you don’t agree with? Publish a response on your own blog. Did it make you think? Post a link to it on your favourite Photography forum and start a discussion. Maybe you just thought it was a cool post that you’d like others to read, then go wild and use the social site links found at the bottom of each post. Stumble, Digg, Tweet, Reddit or Facebook us—or maybe do all! You can even e-mail the story to your buddies; how old-school is that? The point is, the more people know about EtL, the better.

4: Purchase Your Photo Gear Through Our Affiliate Links

As you can see from the column on the right, EtL is associated with the 3 main vendors of photographic equipment in the Western hemisphere: B&H, Adorama and Amazon (US, UK and Canada). When you enter their stores through the links we provide and make a purchase, EtL receives a small commission. You pay exactly the same price, so it’s no loss for you.

We are especially happy to have B&H onboard because they lend us equipment to test. For this reason, I would encourage you to consider them first when purchasing through EtL—the more sales they see coming from us, the happier they’ll be to lend us equipment, and we may even get a chance to test some exotic gear every now and again.

The easiest way for you to use our links without ever forgetting or having to think about it is by bookmarking them. That way whenever you go to their sites through your bookmarks they’ll know EtL sent you. Below are the links to each site; what you need to do is right-click on each one of them and then choose ‘Bookmark This Link’ (in Firefox) or ‘Add to Favorites…’ (in Explorer). Alternatively, you can copy the text of the link and manually edit your current bookmarks for the sites.

• B&H: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/?BI=5704&KBID=6578
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• Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/?tag=entitheligh-20
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There are two simple yet important rules you need to follow to ensure EtL receives the commission:

1. Items that were already in the cart when you go to the vendor’s site will not generate a commission. You need to delete them and then add them again after going through our link (or bookmark).
2. After items are placed in the shopping cart, you must complete the purchase within 24 hours.

A question I get asked is whether non-photography items earn us a commission too. The answer is absolutely YES, even on Amazon, anything you buy (socks, books, frogs, lawnmowers, pens…), however small, helps us a lot, and the number of items gets factored in too. So don’t be shy, give it a try, see if there’s anything you can’t buy.

5: Make a Donation

That’s right, we’re now accepting donations. What do you do when someone does you a favour? You buy them a drink, right? Well now you can do the same for us. If you’ve just spent the last 2 hours reading articles on EtL and feel like it was time well wasted, consider inviting us to a coffee, a beer or maybe even a bottle of wine. Don’t worry, we drink responsibly, and we never drink and write. Well, almost never.

If you enjoy our site, you can thank us by clicking to buy us…

We’ll be leaving the above buttons on the right column for the sake of visibility, but like all donations, they’re optional! All our content is free for everyone, and we’re pleased to keep it that way.

Thank you for your continued support!

        –Miserere and Peter

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This is what the Sun looked like in X-rays at the time of writing. (Courtesy of NASA's SDO.)

Our Sun has been unexpectedly quiet over the past few years, but on Sunday August 1^st 2010 it performed the equivalent of a middle-of-the-night snore and covers-grab. At around 08:55 UT a C3 class flare appeared on the Earth facing side of the Sun (see video above, and here’s another). Solar flares are classified as A, B, C, M or X according to the peak flux (from low to high) such that each class is 10 times more powerful than the one preceding it; each class is further subdivided into 9 levels numbered 1 through 9. This flare, being C3, is close to the middle of the scale, which normally wouldn’t raise any eyebrows, but according to the folks at the Solar Dynamics Observatory, it was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection headed towards Earth. There is no need to run underground with your collection of tinned food just yet. In fact, what you might want to do if you live in the extreme Northern or Southern hemispheres is go out at night with your camera and a tripod…if you’re lucky, you might get to see an Aurora (Borealis in the North, Australis in the South), which is caused by the particles coming from the Sun when they interact with the Earth’s ionosphere a few hundred kilometers above the ground.

Aurorae tend to be visible in a belt area located between latitudes 65° and 72° (North or South), but it’s possible that this large mass ejection will allow them to be extend outside this region. In fact, in Europe earlier today lights were spotted as far South as +56° in Denmark (see Jesper Grønne’s photograph below). So whatever you do, make sure you keep looking up at the skies tonight and tomorrow!

Jesper Grønne photographed this Aurora over Denmark in the early hours of August 4^th.

If you’re wondering just what it is you need to photograph an Aurora, read this Aurora Photography tutorial by Mark Dubovoy. You might also enjoy the words and photographs in Ben Hattenbach and Henry Throop’s Hunting The Great Alaskan Aurora.

If you manage to snap some Aurora shots, let me know and I’ll share them on EtL.

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