Last week I went Aurora Australis hunting in the Cardrona Valley outside Wanaka, New Zealand. Everything aligned perfectly and we were treated to a beautiful lightshow as the Aurora danced across the night sky!

One of my goals while in New Zealand was to (hopefully) view and photograph the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights. I’ve now been able to do so on two occasions! I always get super excited on Aurora nights, like a kid in a candy store! Of course, many factors need to align while Aurora hunting: the KP#, or solar activity needs to be high enough (and at the right direction), and the weather needs to cooperate. The biggest storm during our stay in Wanaka occurred in early July, but all of the South Island was covered by a blanket of clouds!

Hunting the Southern Lights is a little tougher than the more widely known Aurora Borealis, as there isn’t as much landmass in the southern hemisphere, so there are less places you can see them! Ideally one would be down in Antartica to view the Southern Lights, but of course then you’d be faced with the Antarctic winter (generally, in my experience, viewing either Aurora is a cold, sometimes windy experience).

Photographing the Aurora with a DSLR Camera is easy to do (if they’re there)! To start out with you’ll need a sturdy tripod to keep the camera still during the long exposures. A fast wide angle lens will be the best bet, ideally something faster than f/2.8 but f/4 will work! Be sure to get the focus at infinity using manual focus, or using autofocus if there is enough light to do so (if the Aurora are bright enough to do this I’m VERY jealous). Set the ISO around 2000 and start with a 30 second exposure. From there it’s all about fine tuning to maximize the movement of the Aurora! Good luck!

My photo above was taken with a Canon 5D mk III and Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ f/2.8, 20 s, ISO 1600. I used my beloved Petzl headlight to illuminate the wagon in the foreground.

For more Aurora photos check out my gallery. Happy Aurora hunting!