Steve Kelsall, Southern Lights by Flight (AERIAL 2024)

This photo was captured during a recent 'Southern Lights by flight’ experience with Chimu Adventures and Qantas, during which we spent a few hours flying around the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica, to see Aurora Australis. Not something I’ve ever had the opportunity to see firsthand before, and therefore my first time photographing such a natural phenomenon. I understand from the professional photographers onboard the flight, that photographing the aurora is “super hard”, especially when you factor in the movement of the aircraft, and added challenge of having to shoot through a small window with some interior lights reflecting. This photo was taken with my Nikon D4s with AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm 1.4 G ED lens, manual focus, ISO 6400, Focal Length 24mm, Exposure time 3s, and f/4.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.