OPINION: Technology helps Chilliwack photographer see auroras for the first time
Millions now have the ability to see the Northern Lights firsthand, while smartphone cameras see what the eyes can’t
Years ago, I ventured to Alaska in the dead of winter to play roller derby with my teammates.
The game itself was what I was most looking forward to, but potentially witnessing the Northern Lights would have been a close second.
It was December, right in the middle of ‘auroral season’, but I didn’t see anything. Not a bright ray of light. It’s not a little green swirl. Anything.
I was so disappointed.
Fast forward over 12 years and this time the lights were supposed to come to me. A solar storm brought the Northern Lights to BC on Friday, May 10th.
I headed to Old Orchard Road in Chilliwack, a street that hugs the mighty Fraser River, and hunkered down just before 11pm with my tripod and full-frame mirrorless camera, alongside about eight other people.
Soon, to the north, I could see a faint white vertical line. As time went on, more lines appeared, but they weren’t the super bright greens and purples I’d seen in so many photos — at least not to the naked eye.
However, when I looked at the images on my camera’s LCD screen, I was amazed. Vibrant lime green lights swept across my body. Motions of magenta filled each image.
PHOTOS: People watch the stunning Northern Lights show in the Fraser Valley
Auroras are typically not as vibrant to the naked eye because our eyes don’t see well in low light. Cameras, on the other hand, can capture much more light in an image than our eyes can see.
If I had brought my professional camera with me to Alaska, I probably would have witnessed this incredible sight in 2012.
Later, I realized why the Northern Lights show on May 10 was so spectacular and so impressive to so many people – technology.
The last time this phenomenon was visible in our region was 20 years ago. The first iPhone was released in 2007 and it certainly couldn’t capture nighttime images.
But now smartphones can.
Today, millions of people have the opportunity to witness the Northern Lights firsthand because they have the tool to see what our eyes – for the most part – cannot.
Although Friday night’s show put on by Mother Nature started out faint and I could only see it from the periphery, slowly but surely the sky got a little brighter.
People pointed up and looked up. When 11:30 pm arrived, the night sky definitely had shades of purple and green.
And although the lights were now more visible to the naked eye than when I arrived, the auroras were still not as impressive as when I saw them on my camera.
The eight to 30 second exposure shots captured much more than my photographer’s eye ever saw that night.
I’ve always considered myself lucky to witness and document so many events in Chilliwack, but this one took the cake.
And from what I saw on social media that night and after, people in Chilliwack were just as lucky as I was, thanks to technology.
Jenna Hauck is an award-winning multimedia journalist who has worked at The Chilliwack Progress since 2000. For more Northern Lights photos, see the online slideshow.
