This weekend, Northern California is experiencing a rare opportunity to witness the Northern Lights, and you don’t need professional camera equipment to capture this spectacular phenomenon.

Triggered by heightened solar activity, this extraordinary display became visible Friday night far south of its usual geographic range, with photographs surfacing as far as Yosemite National Park in California. Residents who missed the initial display might still have the chance to witness the phenomenon, as the NOAA predicts that storming of varying intensity will persist through at least Sunday.

While the best photographers came out with some of the best NorCal photography we’ve seen in years, you can still capture this incredible event without expensive equipment. In fact, with a few tweaks to your smartphone settings, you can photograph the aurora borealis right from your phone.

1. Use Night Mode

Modern smartphones, particularly newer iPhone models from the 11 series onwards, come equipped with a Night Mode feature. This mode is specifically designed to enhance your camera’s low-light capabilities, allowing it to capture more detail and color in dark environments than the naked eye can see. Make sure Night Mode is activated in your camera settings before you start shooting.

2. Adjust Exposure Time

To capture the best possible images of the Northern Lights, you should adjust the exposure time on your smartphone. On an iPhone, you can do this by opening the camera app, tapping the arrow at the top of the screen to access hidden settings, and then selecting the Night Mode icon. Here, you’ll be able to increase the exposure time, ideally to the maximum setting. For the best results, an exposure time of about 30 seconds is recommended, but note that this usually requires the phone to be completely still, so a tripod might be necessary.

3. Stabilize Your Phone with a Tripod

Since long exposure shots require your camera to be stable, using a tripod can greatly improve the quality of your photos. This is particularly important when trying to capture something as subtle and dynamic as the Northern Lights. Invest in a sturdy tripod that can handle your smartphone and withstand outdoor nighttime conditions.

4. Location and Timing

Being further north improves your chances of seeing and capturing the aurora, but clear skies are crucial regardless of your location. Check the weather forecast and aim for a spot away from city lights with minimal cloud cover. The darker the environment, the better your chances of capturing the lights.

Even if you can’t see the aurora with the naked eye, your smartphone’s camera might still pick it up due to its sensitivity to different light spectrums. Take multiple shots to increase your chances of capturing a clear image of the Northern Lights. Remember, patience is key when photographing this elusive natural wonder!

59th Annual Downtown Bethlehem Fine Art and Craft Show photos

59th Annual Downtown Bethlehem Fine Art and Craft Show

A sudden “solar superstorm” has seen vivid displays of aurora in both the northern and southern hemispheres this weekend—and many of the best images have been taken by nothing more than a smartphone.

Colorful displays of green, red and even blue patterns dancing overhead places including Florida, the Bahamas and Mexico, all far beyond the regular reach of the auroral oval, which typically hangs around the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.

With more displays likely incoming across the globe, it’s important to understand that using a camera is a great way of observing the phenomenon. That’s because aurora can be faint and/or affected by light pollution. Taking a long-exposure photo—even if only for a few seconds—is a great way of seeing reds and greens in the sky even when your eyes cannot.

Here’s how to photograph the northern lights with both a smartphone and a DSLR/mirrorless camera.

Photographing The Northern Lights: Smartphone

Not all smartphones are created equal. If your smartphone has a “Night Mode” feature, that should be good enough to get a more than impressive souvenir shot of the aurora. It likely means a long exposure of between five and 10 seconds, which will look much better if you do three things:

• Use your primary lens, NOT the super-wide lens (which is inferior).
• Use a basic smartphone holder and a small tripod to prevent any camera shake, keeping your images sharp.
• Shoot in raw, making it easier to improve your photos using simple edits.

Photographing The Northern Lights: DSLR/Mirrorless Camera

If you have a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you can manipulate the ISO, aperture and shutter speed to capture the aurora with more control and quality.

• Use a tripod to prevent camera shake and bost detail.
• Shoot in RAW to make post-processing easier.
• Use a wide-angle lens (14mm is a good choice)
• In manual mode, set the lens to focus on infinity.
• Use a low f-number (f/2.8 or f/4) to allow lots of light into your camera.
• Use an ISO of between 100 and 800, depending on how dark your location is.
• Experiment with different shutter speeds from three to 15 seconds.

Careful With Color

Whatever device you use to capture the aurora, don’t be tempted to oversaturate color during editing. Sure, you’re proud of the reds and greens you captured, but oversaturating them can easily make them look fake and awkward.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

Bird photography is arguably the most demanding genre. The equipment quality, the photographer’s camera skills, and their ability to create a narrative are pushed far beyond any other genre. Here’s what I discovered about cameras, lenses, and bird photography.

I’ve always wanted to delve into bird photography. Around six months ago, I spent a lot of money buying a top-quality long lens. I found that it helped me get photos that I previously thought impossible. Coupling it with the new camera that I had in advance of its later official release in April, my bird photography has been revolutionized.  

With all other genres, the photographer has greater control over the photograph than when photographing birds. Studio photography is usually entirely staged. Sports photographers know where the start and finish line are or where the goal mouth is. Landscape photographers can plan where to stand at what times. Not so with birds.

Although some behavior can be anticipated, there’s no directing a wild bird. You can’t insist that it perches on a particular branch or dives for food right in front of you at a certain time. It’s not going to turn its head on demand, so the catchlight is in its eye. Furthermore, birds can move from being in deep shadows to flying against a bright backlight in a fraction of a second. Most birds are small, often moving quickly and randomly to evade predators.

I am not saying that shooting landscapes or studio portraits don’t require a high level of proficiency, and I am certainly not running down any other genre. However, a bird photographer must learn how to predict a bird’s behavior, have gear that will cope with their speed and size, shoot without disturbing the subject, and have enormous patience waiting for the action to happen. Furthermore, they still need the creative ability to take compelling images.

Buying the Right Equipment

I wanted a decent wildlife lens for a long time, especially for photographing birds. But I was dithering over what I should get. I’ve always only bought things I can afford and, at the same time, the best my budget can manage. Some sad personal circumstances led me to receive a modest inheritance last year. That meant I could buy a lens I previously had not considered viable.

Most camera brands produce premium-quality telephoto zooms. I bought one that works with the system I use.  I chose it for multiple reasons, but primarily for its outstanding performance. I realize it’s beyond the budget of many photographers. However, some features are worth looking for on lenses you buy to fit your camera.

It’s Not All About Reach

Good-quality telephoto lenses are essential for good-quality wildlife shots. That’s not solely about reach, the lens’s ability to get the sensor filled with the bird. Most importantly, the lens also must gather sufficient light to achieve a fast shutter speed. Plus, it needs sharpness to show the fine detail.

Yes, the ubiquitous 75mm – 300mm f/4-f/5.6 lenses are far more affordable, but they are also slow to focus and suffer from poorer image quality that you will find in lenses costing a little more. Many years ago, when using a different system than the one I use now, I owned such a lens. It was unusable beyond 200mm because it was just too soft. I swapped it for a 50-200mm f/2.8 professional lens and although it was shorter, I had far greater success, and the images were crystal clear.

My new lens has a constant fast f/4.5 aperture throughout its 150-400mm focal length range. This is clever engineering because as a lens’ focal length increases, the size of the aperture should be proportionately smaller. Usually, the F-number increases because the focal length is divided by the aperture. As a result, one must usually compensate by either decreasing the shutter speed, thus potentially getting movement blur, or increasing the ISO, which will lead to more noise in most circumstances. With a constant aperture, this is unnecessary.

Reach is Still Important

Although secondary to its light-gathering capacity, a lens’ reach is important. Although I got good results with that 50-200mm f/2.8 lens, it was too short. Being able to zoom to 400mm gives me much more scope, especially as my Micro Four Thirds cameras give me effectively more reach than I would fitting a similar unit to a 35mm-sensor camera. Importantly, having extra reach means that a photographer is less likely to disturb the subject, and the creature’s welfare is of paramount importance.

My lens also has a built-in teleconverter that multiplies the focal length by an extra 1.25, giving a maximum reach of 500mm. Though I am not a fan of such comparisons, on my camera, that is the equivalent focal length of a 1000mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera. It’s worth noting that teleconverters do reduce a lens’ f-number. By activating the switch adds an extra stop to the lens. Furthermore, fitting an additional 2x teleconverter, like the OM System MC-20, gives a huge 1000mm reach. That’s 2000mm, equivalent to a 35mm camera.

I find that having a lens with far more equivalent reach than most people have with 35mm full-frame cameras with the equivalent lens gives distinct advantages when it comes to photographing birds. With this lens, a subject that was a meter long would need to be 23 meters away to fill the frame horizontally, and the depth of field would be 0.44 meters. With a 35mm full-frame camera with a 400mm lens, the subject at the same distance would be approximately half the size in the frame, and the photo would have double the depth of field.

Other Useful Features

One useful feature to have is a focus limiter switch. That speeds up autofocusing by restricting the focusing range to fall within certain parameters. For example, I can make my lens focus only between 1.3 to 6 meters, or 6 meters to infinity. I can, of course, select the entire range too. Although available with this lens via a switch, my camera also has a focus limiter built within the menus. It’s worth checking your camera menus to see if it has a focus limiter.

A related feature is having buttons that will prefocus the lens on any distance you have set it to. Again, this speeds up acquiring the subject. Not every lens has it, but speed

You should also be able to switch quickly between manual focus and autofocus on the lens. Check the robustness of this switch as it may be something you use a lot. With many of the professional OM System lenses, this is not a switch but what they call a clutch. The entire focusing ring can be pulled back. That changes the lens to manual focus and, at the same time, reveals the focusing distance scale.  Manual focus is something you may find evermore useful when you focus on the eye of a bird that’s otherwise hidden deep in the foliage.

Having the zoom and focus rings close enough together to be operated with the finger and thumb tips of one hand is essential. You also want those rings to have exactly the right amount of resistance. Furthermore, they should start turning smoothly and not suddenly jerk when you begin to rotate them.

My lens has a switch that turns off the beep, telling you the camera is in focus. That is so as not to disturb wildlife or other photographers. Again, this feature is usually also available in the camera menus.

Image stabilization is another essential feature of any wildlife system. My lens provides up to 4.5 steps of image stabilization (IS). Moreover, when partnered with the OM-1 Mark II’s In Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS), it increases up to 8.5 steps of IS, allowing you to hold the camera steady at very low shutter speeds. More useful still, I find, is its ability to counteract the movement of a boat or withstand me being buffeted by strong winds; I live in the windiest county in England.

Most wildlife photographers turn off IS when capturing birds in flight. In my camera, it is possible to engage image stabilization in just one direction. For example, when tracking birds in flight, I turn off the horizontal IS and keep the vertical turned on.

Other things to consider are a carbon-fiber lens hood that helps keep the weight down, strap mounting eyes on the lens, and an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod mounting foot.

What’s the Weakest Link in Your System?

Although lenses improve image quality far more than camera bodies, any system is only as good as the weakest link. There is little point in buying a superb camera if your lens is slow and soft. Similarly, a fast, ultra-sharp lens will be held back by a camera that has low performance. Also, the conditions you shoot in can affect your images too.

Are You The Weakest Link?

The weakest link could, of course, be the photographer. I know this is contentious, but I believe in giving novices tools that will not restrict them but enable them to take the best possible images right from the start. Cameras that are a delight to use are far more inspiring than cheap plastic lumps found on the shelves of supermarkets. Give a beginner a camera with AI bird tracking and a fast lens with quick, accurate focusing, and they will walk away with better photos than if they use cheap, so-called entry-level gear.

Tamron – Need lightweight, compact mirrorless lenses? Tamron has you covered, with superior optics perfect for any situation. With weather sealing and advanced image stabilization, you’ll open up your creative possibilities.

Radiant Photo – Radiant Photo superior quality finished photos with perfect color rendition, delivered in record time. Your photos — simply RADIANT. The way they are meant to be.

Mylio Photos – Access your photos from anywhere, without the cloud! Easily showcase your photos on-the-go, resolve duplicates, find faces and look for those stunning locations.

B&H – B&H is a world renowned supplier of all the gear photographers, videographers, and cinematographers need and want to create their very best work.

MPB – Grab used but perfectly working cameras and lenses for less, or turn your old gear into cash by trading and selling them on MPB!

Whispers of Freedom by Maria Marriott

Photographer Maria Marriott with her artwork, Tango

Windswept I by Maria Marriott. A powerful bay wild stallion from the McCullough Peaks, WY, tangled mane blowing in the wind.

Traveling the most remote regions of the Western states Maria Marriott documents wild horses, using her photography to highlight their beauty and conservation

ROSEVILLE, CA, UNITED STATES, May 11, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Brazilian-born photographer Maria Marriott has made it her passion project to photograph America’s wild mustangs across the Western United States. This project has taken her into some of the most remote regions of the United States to follow and document mustangs in the wild.

Marriott’s photography and story were recently featured in Neoque Magazine, an Italian e-magazine focused on exploring and amplifying the voices of female artists.

Neoque recognizes leading female artists in an attempt to expand the ideals of what it means to be a woman in the arts, recognizing the “complex, dynamic, elegant and sophisticated personalities” of these creators. “The specificity of being a woman is broader than the traditional concepts of grace, gentleness or tenderness.”

Neoque was founded to create “a space where [women] can feel represented, where they can feel culturally and artistically enriched. NEOQUE is aimed at women who want to emerge in their own complexity.”

Joining several other female artists, Marriott showcased some of her new artworks, including the “Whispers of Freedom” image from her photographic series McCullough Peaks Wild Horses.

Of her feature in Neoque Magazine, Marriott says, “When the Editor of NEOQUE, Paola Ghidotti, reached out a few weeks ago with the intent to publish an editorial about me and my wild horse photography, I was honored, but not sure at first as I wasn’t familiar with the magazine. Upon browsing the publication, I was blown away and humbled by the many talented artists, such creative minds and incredible work.”

According to the publishers of Neoque, “There is a growing need to represent the new facets of femininity in a way that reflects the active identity choices of contemporary women. It is not purely about aesthetics: this is something that exists as substantial value.”

Marriott’s work documenting the American mustangs is rooted in her desire to bring attention not only to their beauty, but also their current situation. Each year, tens of thousands of mustangs are rounded up from the Western states and are placed into crowded holding facilities where many die or are injured. According to Marriott, “this is an unsustainable situation, but it doesn’t have to be this way.”

She says, “Wild horses are so intertwined with the American story, and have become closely associated with the traits we value in the American identity. This desire for freedom, the determination and persistence, the sheer grit – these are the things that have helped make this country great, and are embodied by the mustangs.”

Through intimate and minimal compositions, Marriott tells visual stories of the beauty and mystery of the wild. Her emotional images give viewers a window into a world that most do not know exists, using her art as a powerful form of advocacy for the wild horses.

Maria Marriott’s growing body of work, both wild horse art and equine portraits, has previously been recognized internationally at the Prix De La Photography Paris, the Budapest International Photo Awards, the Tokyo International Foto Awards, the Black & White Spider Awards, and in several other international forums. She was recently recognized as a leading female photographer by YJ Contemporary Gallery in Rhode Island in the Women Behind the Lens series.

Her work has been showcased in various publications, including Cowboys & Indians, Calling All Horse Girls, 65 Degrees Carmel By The Sea, and other equestrian magazines in the U.S. and Australia.

Marriott’s hope is that her “work will help others feel a strong emotional connection to the American mustangs and the importance they have played in our nation’s history. Ultimately, this is what will help the most in efforts to preserve their freedom.”

About Maria Marriott

Maria Marriott is an award-winning equine photographer based in California and Nevada, best known for several wild horse photography series. Her project following and photographing wild mustangs across the Western states has allowed her a platform to bring attention to the pressing issues faced by the American wild horses. She works with several nonprofit organizations committed to the preservation and safety of mustangs and equine therapy.

Maria Marriott
Maria Marriott Photography
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