EagleEyes Photography

08/11/2024

The strongest Aurora in the past 20 years occured on the eve of May 10th this year. The most seen and photographed Aurora of our time and of the digital era of cameras. As it was also the most heavily shared across all media platforms millions went out to witness this event.

I chose Three Crabs Beach in Dungeness, Washington for this one as it has the widest angle of view in the Port Angeles/Sequim WA area. We were not disappointed! the statistics kept on improving to the most impressive numbers I have ever witnessed. The Aurora was visible feintly even before "dark night" arrived and the moon had no effect on the intensity at all!

In this time-lapse you will see various angles from straight up, north, south (over the Olympic Mountains), west, east, southwest, southeast, northeast (Mount Baker in frame as well as a lot of the cascades), northwest. Essentially every angle was captured.

What enabled me to effectively cover the different angles without losing too much was that the Aurora was a KP9 G5 storm with 100% overhead and 100% Horizon viewability. There were moments that the Aurora was so bright that everything was illuminated by it.

The fact that the Aurora that night and into the wee hours of the 11th was that strong allowed for vastly different camera settings from lesser Auroras.

For example on May 10th I was at 1" exposure, F1.8 to F2.0 at 800ISO. Also, in post processing only Denoising (to remove the "grainy" look and minor exposure adjustments, distortion, and lens corrections were made! NO VIbrance, Clarity, Saturation, nothing that changes the color at all were made. That is saying something because most lesser Auroras those adjustments, albeit most of the time in small amounts, are necessary.

Equipment used - Sony A7r3 camera body, Rokinon 24mm F1.8 Compact Lens, tripod.
Additional Settings - Sony Interval shooting at 150 shots so I could enjoy looking while the camera took images.

A normal Aurora say a G1-G3 I would typically be anywhere from 6-15" exposure F1.8 and ISO 1250-2500. I after the fact summized I could have even had my exposure to every .5 second and still come out with an ISO of around 1000 to 1250 max.

Over 8000 images taken that evening I had to remove about 900 or so due to when I changed the angle the normal focus for stars and so on was off and the stars were a tad blown out. The Aurora itself was fine but I am not a fan of blown out stars personally.

My girlfriend focused her efforts mainly on the Coronal Aurora (the one straight up) while I focused on all different angles. She did change it up from time to time but the period of time I lost with out of focus stars she captured! So all in all the most amazing display in our lifetime very possibly.

We are nearing the solar climax which means more activity and intensity from our Sun which could in fact cause another G5 storm and only time will tell!

If you are interested in learning astrophotography whether it's bioluminescence, Aurora, meteors, or the Milky Way Galaxy, feel free to comment on this video and i'll reach out, thanks!

The strongest Aurora in the past 20 years occured on the eve of May 10th this year. The most seen and photographed Aurora of our time and of the digital era ...

10/10/2023

On August 15th my girlfriend and I were about 30 miles north of Arch Rock State Park in Oregon at Ophir. We were planning on photographing the bioluminescense there. I noticed the red signal light on the 101 illuminating the waves red and was highly disappointed until we saw a flash to our south. Another one confirmed it was lightning. We hurried back up the sandy beach to our Jeep and hauled south. Shortly after arriving we setup due south and enjoyed the Thunderstorms and bioluminescence in the water until dawn!

Arch Rock State Park is one of my favorite locations on the Pacific Coast. It is beautiful in the day let alone at night. Listening to the waves crash against the rocks, seeing bolts of lightning and then hearing the thunder made this night one for the record books!

I did a time-lapse and that is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At0VIxwrvRU&ab_channel=CharlesLevy Please sub to that channel and hit like for more incredible time-lapses of bioluminescence, thunderstorms, meteor showers, and the Aurora Borealis!

Full Album of this amazing night is at https://eagleeyesphotography.zenfolio.com/p327745685

More posts are coming soon as well from the next night here at Arch Rock and the most amazing bioluminescence we have seen to date at Kalaloch Beach 4 on the Washington Coast! Stay tuned! I won't be hitting the @ followers again I did so this time as it has been quite some time and you'all have remained faithful and I want you all to see what I have been up to!

04/10/2023

March 21st into the early am hours of the 22nd!

As we arrived and setup we could see the Orion belt and nebula! You can see it in some of the images toward the top of the frame and getting lower. The bioluminescence was vibrant and very active that night!

Due to clearer skies my settings changed from anywhere from 8 to 20" and a range of 1250-3200 ISO. I even captured a meteor! Both Adriana and I had a fun time and would cheer as we saw what we were getting on our lcd's.

As always being on the coast at night makes for a tranquil refresh away from daily life and a sort of reboot! This year the bioluminescence started very early (I'll post some photos of the 1st bio we captured soon!) and it looks to be one heck of a year ahead of us for both bio and the aurora!

04/10/2023

On the evening of March 22nd another great adventure to photograph the bioluminescence at Kalaloch Beach occured!

The 2 hour drive from Port Angeles is worth it every time! Driving around Lake Crescent through to Forks then onto the coast is always fun for me and my girlfriend Adriana :) We have come to know the main areas where Deer and Elk frequent and are always vigilant.

Once we arrived and every time we do I breathe in the first breath of the salty air and listen to the waves crash, it is very calming. Depending on how much bioluminescence movement we see I hurridly set up my camera on my tripod and make sure it is focused. I always attempt to leave my camera focused in my carrying case for cloudy nights.

The fishing vessels are nearly always present but luckily that does not drown the bioluminescence out and actually makes for a decent time-lapse.

I use the Sony A7RIII combined with a 35mm F.28 Zeiss lens, soon to be a 14mm or 24mm. On the cloudy nights I end up shooting at 20-30" expsure times and F2.8 and 3200-5000 ISO.

The darkness has a calming effect and on clear nights the Milky Way Galaxy and various other stars never cease to amaze me. It's very peaceful and never disappoints!

04/05/2023

On the eve of March 23rd 2023 I checked all the normal sources for the Aurora Borealis(Northern Lights) and found that everything was lining up for an amazing show. As I sifted through the windy website checking the cloud layers I was slightly discouraged.

Nevertheless myself and my girlfriend geared up and went out to one of our normal locations. The Nearshore and Estuarine Restoration Project off of 3 Crabs Road in Dungeness, Washington.

Normally we arrive early enough for a setup and wait for the show to begin. This evening we arrived later than we wished and did indeed miss some of the show. However, we did still get an amazing show of the Aurora and S.T.E.V.E. which stands for "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement"

You will see S.T.E.V.E. as it appeared directly above us and spanned nearly the entire sky. The Aurora side has purple and the opposite has green. S.T.E.V.E. was always changing for the brief window we had before the clouds covered it up completely.

Oddly enough clouds so long as they are not 100% do make for a neat effect on an Aurora time-lapse.

This Aurora went from a G3 to a G4 storm with a KP index of 8. The first in 6 years! Up until this time my girlfriend and I had only ever maxed out at a G3 storm. While clear skies would have been prefered we will takew what we can get!

04/05/2023

In recent years I swapped from my Nikon D750 to a D810 and began Astrophotography and occasional wildlife. I then decided to fully swap over to Sony mirrorless with the Sony A7RIII camera. The lens I typically use is a Zeiss 35mm F2.8. I have always had a fascination with the night sky and my girlfriend Adriana has as well. It has been very rewarding sparking the interest in so many people I have met!

On the night of February 26th I went to Freshwater Bay just west of Port Angeles, Washington and photographed the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). It did not take long for the Aurora to put an amazing show on with the pillars reaching nearly directly overhead!

The Aurora has a 1-5 G rating. This one started out at a G2 and went up to a G3! A G2 will allow one to see feint green and all the pillars moving with the naked eye. A G3 and higher you could see the reds greens and some purples as all the pillars formed and danced around the night sky! There is also a KP index with 9 being the Max and a G5 basically. This hit a KP index of 8 and it really did put on a spectacular show for those of us braving the rigid temperatures and ice on the ground.

Equipment used:

Sony A7RIII
Zeiss 35mm F2.8
Tripod w/ gimbal head

Settings varied but were as follows
6" shutterspeed F2.8 ISO 2000
8" shutterspeed F2.8 ISO 1600
8" shutterspeed F2.8 ISO 1250
10" shutterspeed F2.8 ISO 1600

I used my cameras 2" delay and 5 shot option for the majority of the night. It's nights like these I wish I had a wider lens so I wouldn't adjust the composition so much.

I adjusted my settings as the intensity of the Aurora either increased or decreased. No Saturation or Vibrance was added in post processing due to how powerful this storm was. In fact in some instances I dialed the saturation down for the greens and oranges(light pollution) as to allow the different layers and shades to be seen.

04/05/2023

Amazing G4 Magnetic storm on March 23rd! Please like comment share here and on Youtube for more!

On the eve of March 23rd 2023 I checked all the normal sources for the Aurora Borealis(Northern Lights) and found that everything was lining up for an amazin...

04/05/2023

Due to literal no post interaction or comments this page will be deleted unless y'all say you want me to keep it. 2.6k followers no comments likes shares on recent posts. Very discouraging for me. The other option I am considering is rebranding and an overhaul. We shall see.