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Dunstanburgh. Northumberland.
21st - 22nd January 2005
Some times luck favours the bold. I often stay overnight at a location to get an early start in the morning. Finishing work in Tyneside I decided to drive up into Northumberland to do some photography and arrived near Dunstanburgh Castle just as the light of sunset was fading.
I made myself some food and settled down down for a read as the darkness settled.
It was about 7 pm that I noticed something odd. there was a strange light in the sky, the sort of light you see hanging over a city, but this was out over the sea?
I put out my reading light and paid more attention. The sky was clear so it was not reflected from cloud. with the light out I could make out shifting colours. What my dark adapted eyes could now see my mind was not quite ready to believe.
It was the Northern Lights......
At this time I had never seen the Aurora Borealis before so I came as a bit of a shock really. I had heard that they were occasionally seen in the UK but mainly in Scotland and I certainly never dreamed I would see them in such a wonderful location.
The only problem now was how to get them in a picture.
I grabbed the camera and tripod and headed for open ground. Cameras meter wouldn’t stand a chance so I set it on bulb and started counting the exposures out, checking the monitor in between. Twenty seconds seemed to be the optimum wide open.
Armed with this information I headed for the castle. I was expecting to get a silhouette against the sky but to my surprise there was enough light to show a remarkable amount detail in the walls too.
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