Merry Christmas, Steemit! Like many of you (who celebrate the holiday) today was a busy day and things are still sorta of chaos now, so I'll make this quick. I like to save some of my coolest stuff for special occasions, and today can be considered one... even though I'm not religious at all. So then, I wanted to share a few photos of the Northern Lights that was saw two weeks ago in Iceland. We were lucky enough to see them on two nights, and they were two very different displays.
^^^This was from the first night that we were able to see them. I think it was the Tuesday before last. It was cloudy out, about a 70% overcast and the lights forecast was pretty dismal. Around 9pm Kylene and I spotted that glow in the sky though and sure enough, the aurora borealis was out for a visit. Instead of patterns and designs, it was an ambient glow, as seen above.
^^^The very next night, the cloud forecast was perfect. Not a cloud in sight. BUT the aurora forecast was terrible. Only a 2KP on the activity scale, out of a possible 9. However, as we drove home from an evening in Reykjavik, we took the scenic route through Þingvellir National Park; one of the darkest areas in the country. Kylene was driving and I wasn't expecting much... but then I saw it out of my window, just above the horizon. That telltale glowing cloud look. It was hard to tell if it was the lights or a cloud, so we pulled over and I set my camera on the roof of the car and opened the shutter for 25 seconds. This was just a test really. If it was the lights, they would show up green on my camera. As you can see above, it certainly was them! You can also see the lights from a car that passed.
^^^What followed was the lights getting brighter and brighter and putting on one hell of a show, which rivaled the one we saw in 2016. I was completely unprepared for this though. I was planning on just a trip to Reykjavik for dinner, not to do much photography. I didn't have my tripod or anything. Working with what I had (like setting the camera on the roof of a running car), I did have one or two photos that I liked. This is one of them.
^^^And this was another. This was later as we were leaving the park. The lights began to do the classic Northern Lights swirly thing. I wish I had a tripod and all, but we were so lucky to have no clouds in the sky and such an active light show.
Sooo... it wasn't all that quick after all, but I hope you enjoyed one of the most incredible natural phenomena that I've ever seen. Happy Holidays, everyone!
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***These daily blogs showcase the natural world. It is all original content using photos, stories, and experiences from my own travels.***