During a trip to New Zealand, in the south of the South Island, we were coming home after an astrophotography session. With the sky clear and having predicted possible auroras australis, we managed to find an open place in the forest from which we saw this luminosity and colors on the horizon. Indeed, they were from an austral aurora, which must have been very intense to be seen from that latitude. We were very lucky because few people have seen and photographed the Northern Lights and the Aurora Australis.

Note: the cloudy patches you see are the famous Magellanic Clouds

Panasonic GH4 camera. Lumix G Vario 12-35 F/2.8 lens. ISO 1600, 60" and f/2.8. Author: Juan Abal

We often find forests with magnificent colors in autumn, but we are not able to take any photographs that reflect their splendor. So I was, walking around to see if I could get an interesting frame when I looked at the ground and found this group of leaves that perfectly reflects the colors of that season.

PhaseOne XF + IQ160 camera. Schneider Kreuznach LS 80mm f/2.8 lens. ISO 100, 1/20 and f/8. Author: Juan Abal

We had gone for a walk through the town and we saw that the clouds were beginning to take on a very photogenic colour, so we went to a place where we could comfortably watch the sunset and, incidentally, take some photos.

The houses were very dark so I had to increase the exposure a lot in post-processing. The wide dynamic range of this camera and the noise reduction in the DxO PhotoLab prevented noise from being too noticeable.

Pentax K3 camera. Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8 lens. 1/60", f/4, ISO 280.