SO, you’re in Iceland, enjoying a crisp winter evening, waiting and hoping to catch a glimpse and perhaps even a picture of the aurora  .. When you finally see it, you grab your camera and realize that pictures don’t come out, at all. There’s literally nothing except the black sky. No Northern lights.

This is how our first night of chasing the norther lights started. We realized we had forgotten some important equipment. It took us a few nights to get it right so i’ll share what we learned in hopes that it will save you some time while trying to take a picture of the norther lights.This article will be broken down into a two part series, one for equipment and one for settings.

Equipment:

• Camera – DSLR

Your average point and shoot will not capture those breathtaking waving beams of radiation. You will need a camera that has the versatility to change lenses and most importantly, Shutter speed. Your shutter speed indirectly defines how much light will pass through when snapping that photo. Since you will be in a dark setting, taking pictures of very distant and faint subjects, you will need a slower then normal shutter speed, allowing more light to pass through the lens.

• Tripod

A tripod is a VERY important piece of equipment, that I forgot to bring. With a wide open shutter you wont be able to hold a camera like you normally do, as the image will move as you move. Even the slightest moments with this technique will render a blurry image. So the best option would be to bring a tripod from the USA, or where ever is home to you. In Reykjavik we found only one decent photography store, which was charging about $50.00 american for something that costs around $15 on Amazon.  Long Story short, we made do by propping a $1,000.00 camera against a rock (Not Suggested).

• Remote Shutter Release

You might wonder why i added a remote shutter to this list. It is absolutely essential to take the most still picture.Instead of pressing the button on the camera body and risk shaking it a bit to take the picture, take a step back and press the remote control. We did get around this by using the delay function built in, but it became incredibly annoying.

• One or more memory cards

The last time we went to Iceland, we took 2000 pictures in 4 days. Bring plenty of storage, its cheap and doesn’t take too much space in your bag.