The Red Aurora

The aurora storm that produced this light was strong enough to push the entire color spectrum south. The dominant color over Yaquina Head wasn't green. It was red — a deep, almost biological red that filled the upper half of the frame and put pressure on every other color in the photograph. Some green was visible lower down, near the horizon, but the red was the photograph. I shot it intentionally close to the lighthouse and intentionally wide. I wanted forced perspective. I wanted the lighthouse to loom over the viewer, to feel like the subject was standing right next to the tower, to give a sense of being there rather than observing from a distance. The warm light on the side of the lighthouse isn't from any lamp or any added illumination. It's from the setting moon, which was bright enough that night to function as a continuous warm-tone light source. The moon also slightly muted the aurora — the red would have been even more intense without it — but the trade was worth it for the way the moon's light shaped the structure of the tower. You don't get this color over Oregon often. I've seen the aurora here twice. I've seen it like this once.