This weekend was a working weekend, but it was one I’d been anticipating for a while. Friday and Saturday were spent working as a graphics, animation, and CG guy for a college football game on NBC in Fargo. What made it special was that my wife came with. She got to spend time with the crew and/or their wives while we worked, and then we got to have a mini-vacation afterwards. The most important part was the scenic route we took back from Fargo, dipping into the southeastern part of the state and working our way back.

We were in the vicinity of Crystal Springs, having just visited the oasis in the dark, when we spotted some white spikes on the northern horizon. Naturally we pulled to the side of the gravel road for a few quick snapshots. Above is what we saw!

Part of the challenge in photographing auroras is playing around with settings. I typically don’t mess with any aperture settings, but might toy with the ISO and shutter speed a bit. Something like this typically takes 20-30 seconds of open shutter at 100 ISO.

These faint flickers didn’t last long. After only a few minutes of dancing around, the aurora borealis settled into a hazy ring around the north. At that point we hopped back into the truck and took off for home. Once settled in, I did hop in the truck and zoom out to my favorite vantage point, but there were still no flare ups, only that glow.