{"id":137539,"date":"2025-11-13T12:37:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T12:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/137539\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T12:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T12:37:20","slug":"kerry-photographer-captures-stunning-images-of-northern-lights-were-blessed-here-with-dark-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/137539\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerry photographer captures stunning images of Northern Lights \u2013 \u2018We\u2019re blessed here with dark skies\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tralee<\/p>\n

Tralee photographer Mark O’Sullivan pictured surveying the Northern Lights at Shore Acre Beach in Kerry at 5.30am on Wednesday morning. Photo by Mark O’Sullivan. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s never easy dragging yourself out of bed in the early hours, but for Tralee photographer Mark O\u2019Sullivan, the effort was well worth it. On Wednesday morning, he captured a stunning photo of the Northern Lights over Shore Acre in West Kerry<\/p>\n

Mark, who works as a photographer here for The Kerryman, is a huge nature lover and is someone who has always had a gr\u00e1 for all things space and outdoors, and has captured some amazing landscape and night sky shots over the years.<\/p>\n

His latest effort, though, might just be one of his best yet, and he spoke to The Kerryman about the process involved in capturing it this week.<\/p>\n

“I could see that the stats and the conditions were looking good for the night but I actually ended up going to bed early but I woke up randomly at 5am though and I could see that the conditions were still going strong and so I said I’d take a chance and drive back to Shore Acre and see what I could get,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Tralee<\/p>\n

Tralee photographer Mark O’Sullivan pictured surveying the Northern Lights at Shore Acre Beach in Kerry at 5.30am on Wednesday morning. Photo by Mark O’Sullivan. <\/p>\n

“The conditions back there were really amazing. You could see the whole beach there with the moonlight. It was just a really beautiful morning,\u201d he continued, adding that he follows a group online called Aurora Alerts Ireland and that they are really good for keeping people up to date on when auroras such as this will be visible.<\/p>\n

“I was delighted with how it [the photo] turned out. I was there from twilight until it started to get bright. It was amazing. You can see Orion’s belt too in the picture, which is amazing. We’re so blessed here with the dark skies.”<\/p>\n

This blessedness is something he expanded on when asked what he\u2019s thinking about in the photo as he looks up at the night sky above.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Northern Lights as seen from Shore Acre Beach in Kerry at 5.30am on Wednesday morning. Photo by Mark O’Sullivan.<\/p>\n

“I’m just thinking how lucky I am that we have this on our doorstep. The fact that we’re able to head 20 minutes out the road and experience something like this and experience it a lot too recently.”<\/p>\n

For aspiring photographers hoping to capture similar moments, Mark offers some practical advice<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Northern Lights as seen from Shore Acre Beach in Kerry at 5.30am on Wednesday morning. Photo by Mark O’Sullivan.<\/p>\n

“Anybody can get a photo like this, even if they have just something like an iPhone. If they have it on night mode and where you’re taking a three-second exposure, anybody can capture something like this.”<\/p>\n

“For me, I use a tripod and a wide-angle lens that I put on a 15-second exposure, and I just make sure that it’s steady.”<\/p>\n

For Mark, it\u2019s moments like these \u2013 quiet, unexpected, and full of wonder \u2013 that remind him why he fell in love with photography in the first place<\/p>\n

Follow Mark on Instagram at markosullivanphotography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tralee photographer Mark O’Sullivan pictured surveying the Northern Lights at Shore Acre Beach in Kerry at 5.30am on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,14639,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-137539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-fergus-dennehy","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}