One night in September, I had seen that there was some northern lights activity happening. I spoke with a friend and we decided to head north to the lake district to Castlerigg Stone Circle and chance it. I picked my friend up, and she had been to Castlerigg before in the days but it would be my first time visiting this iconic location, and at night!

We arrived and noticed there were cars already parked, and we carried our stuff over. There were plenty of people/photographers set up everywhere, and we were mindful to walk behind people so we didn’t ruin their shots and made our way and set up so we could see the stone circle. The activity had started to die down, and I was able to pick up diffuse aurora on camera.

We also noticed there were people wild camping inside the stone circle- have a look at see if you can spot the tent! They didn’t seem to be taking photographs, and I did wonder did they camp expecting to see northern lights, or were they thinking they would get a peaceful wild camp and were wondering why so many people and photographers were there at night? Who knows, I don’t think they had a peaceful evening though.

Just when I was starting to think of calling it a night, I noticed pillars appearing and started to shoot again. My friend had never seen the aurora borealis before, so it was a pleasure to take her out and for her to see them with the naked eye for her very first time!

Nightscapes