southern lights in Queenstown

A rare occurance in Queenstown. any thoughts?

I would exclude the black area a bit, I think a crop of 3/4 of the frame starting from the left top corner would work well. Well captured.

We don't as a rule see red auroras here in Fairbanks. We are too *far* into the auroral zone!

 

I'm not overwhelmed by the composition. I avoid large expanses of dark terrain in my aurora photos. A little moonlight is really helpful. The frame looks awkward. Crop it.

 

I hope you got some other photos of this aurora. Even given that you have a good location with regular clear skies, and monitor solar activity (http://www.lmsal.com/solarsoft/latest_events/, http://www.n3kl.org/sun/index.html, http://www.spaceweather.com ...) you might go a year without seeing a nice one.

 

People don't realize how difficult serious aurora photography is. It's extremely time-consuming, the weather can be horrible, it can involve a lot of driving during the season and during off-season scouting, it involves a lot of sitting around for hours at a time cold and bored for something that may not happen, you have to explain to your boss over and over again why you won't be in till 10AM or noon, you have to keep tabs on solar activity every day, and even given all that you usually have only 5 minutes to take a good shot. THE SHOT might come next week or 5 years from now.

 

Good job. You can crop this one and sell it. I'm giving it 6/6 based on the rarity of the shot and its potential after a little cropping. I have more like 6.5/6.5 in mind.

the blend of colors is nice