Photographer Captures Striking Time-Lapse of Aurora Borealis From Plane

The aurora borealis are hauntingly beautiful, but we're used to seeing images of them shot from the confines of the ground. One photographer looked out his airplane window and saw them, however, leading to this unique and spectacular time-lapse. 

Photographer Aryeh Nirenberg was flying from New York to Reykjavik on New Year's Eve, when he looked out his window and saw the aurora borealis. Having a row of seats to himself and sensing the opportunity, he grabbed his gear out of his carry-on and improvised a setup to keep light from inside the plane from ruining the shot by wrapping a blanket around the camera.

Nirenberg provided us with this great behind the scenes shot of his setup:

In it, you can see his Nikon D810 with a 20mm f/1.8 lens, which he shot wide open with four-second exposures at ISO 3200. He then used the LRTimelapse plug-in to complete the project. 

I'll be flying to Iceland myself soon; I'll be sure to have my gear ready in case I get lucky enough to see such a light show outside my window as well! Be sure to check out Nirenberg's Instagram for more.

[via DIY Photography]

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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1 Comment

It's amazing, but also shows the limits of photography ..i haven't seen an image of the aurora that comes close to inspiring the humbling awe of watching from the ground and seeing the full panorama.