Shooting Northern Lights Handheld

We drove down to my home home for the weekend and the skies really delivered some magic one evening. We were chatting with the family and drinking wine inside when dad said there are faint northern lights showing up if anyone cares. I'd say it took me 60 seconds flat to be out there with my camera.

No tripod or nothing of course, we are going freehand with this. Manual focus to infinity and then a hair back and hope for the best. Aperture 2.8, ISO 5000 and shutter speed about a third of a second. Hold your breath and let's see what happens. Camera is the trusty Nikon D750 and lens Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8.

It was -15 degrees Centigrade, two days shy of full moon, almost cloudless sky at first and pure glittering snow in the ground. The colours in the sky were quite faint mostly, but there was a few gorgeous bursts. Of course I gave these some razzle dazzle on Photoshop but considering these were taken handheld, and not with a super long shutter that could really bring out evvvvverything, I'd say this is not too shabby.