Aurora Alert! Yet Another Awesome Experience in Alaska...

Braving the gusty winds at Point Woronzof was completely worth it to be able to see and photograph the Northern Lights tonight!  What a surreal experience, especially when it was very vivid and dancing, changing colors, and taking different shapes in the sky.  I saw my first real Northern Lights about a week ago, but it was nothing like this.  I can only imagine what it looked like north of the city where there is no light polution! 

The lights were in front of me, over my head, behind me... seemingly everywhere in the sky.  It was hard to keep up with where the best display was at any given moment... it was all so amazing!  Considering I've only been in Alaska for 5 months, I'm so thankful to have seen something like this so quickly.  You know the comments people make when watching a fireworks display on July 4th?  Well, the group of us there watching and photographing the aurora were doing the same thing... but it was even more awesome than the greatest fireworks display you've ever seen.  I was playing around with the camera settings while taking pictures tonight (since I really don't have any experience photographing the Northern Lights) as well as trying to steady the tripod in the wind, but these are my favorite shots that I got.  I know you'll find it shocking that I would say such a thing, but these photos don't even do the experience justice.   With that said... enjoy the photos!