A Calgary photographer’s two-year aurora borealis project is lighting up social media.
Richard Gottardo was fascinated by the phenomenon from the time he first moved to the city two years ago. He said he would travel out to the Rocky Mountains to try to get shots of the lights when they were at their most brilliant.
The professional photographer said it took some time to figure out how to successfully forecast the best viewing times, but once he got the hang of it, he was unstoppable.
WATCH: Photographer Richard Gottardo spent two years and took over 6,500 photographs to create this stunning video of the northern lights over the southern Alberta Rocky Mountains. Courtesy: Richard Gottardo.
Gottardo captured over 6,500 photographs over the course of two years. He traveled to Canmore, Banff and even up to Jasper.
The downside is that the Northern Lights are typically most active when it is cold-so at times Gottardo found himself travelling along logging roads and on frozen lakes in the middle of the night in temperatures below -35 degrees Celsius.
The stunning video took three full days of photo editing and one day to produce.
Gottardo said he used very little in the way of effects to create the video, since the lights are radiant enough on their own. The key is just having a camera that is sensitive on low light, and of course, really good lenses.
For folks who want to try to capture their own shots, Gottardo has some tips here.
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