So happy to be able to share this image that Forrest Montgomery and I made back in May, during an absolutely incredible display of the Aurora Borealis. The potential for the best northern lights in decades coupled with rare clear PNW skies seemed like an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed, so we hastily threw together a plan, and I was glad we were able to make it work.
To get the shot, Forrest had to ride this jump basically blind, with only a couple of dim lights to hint at the lip and landing, while I triggered the flashes manually. A long exposure (15 seconds) helped make the colors pop, but also made things tricky because any part of him that overlapped the sky would look transparent. We set it up so that he would be isolated against the dark trees behind, but if you look closely you can see a hint of green sky showing through the top of his helmet.
Although the camera captures more intense color than our eyes see in the moment, it was truly an awe-inspiring display overhead, which many of you were fortunate to witness. Hands down one of the most incredible things I’ve seen. Forrest is a wizard, so the shot came together surprisingly quickly. I snapped a few others, included here, but mostly we just sat back and enjoyed the show.
Really grateful to everyone who voted for this image at last weekend’s
@wmbcmtb Shoot the Trails, where we were fortunate to take home the top prize. I also am thrilled to see it in print in the new issue of
@freehubmag , which just dropped today. Big thanks to #foregroundsteezeguy
@forrestinthetrees for always being down to go shoot, even when it’s the middle of the night and the odds of success are uncertain. This was a fun one. 🙌
