I was part of a small group who went to Fairbanks in hopes of seeing the Aurora and taking some pictures. Three of us signed up for The Aurora Chasers photography tour, which included detailed instruction on how to use our cameras to photograph the aurora. The night we had scheduled was really bad in terms of weather and aurora activity, and Ronn called us and offered to change to the next night if it fit our schedule. Fortunately, we had allowed for several days in Fairbanks, so we happily switched days, which turned out to be a really good thing.
Prior to that, I had never even used manual exposure or any other settings to enable taking pictures at night. We got excellent tips on how to set up our cameras and managed to get some good photos of stars and the aurora, despite the relatively low activity level of the Aurora.
The weather was generally awful in Fairbanks, but they shuttled us off to a remote location that was mostly clear of clouds, at least for a while. Long enough to get some nice pictures. We sure were grateful they allowed us to switch from the previous day, which was worse than generallly awful, weather wise. Ronn and Marketa are a great team. She was searching for good weather in real time as we drove in their 10 passenger van.
Ronn was fully prepared to drive as far as it might take to find a good location. We stopped about 30 minutes outside Fairbanks and I was amazed to see a clear view of the sky, with hardly any clouds for the first hour we were there. No way would I have been successful getting the photos I did without they expert help they provided. And I finished up with a nice portrait they provided, a four page instruction manual, and several good pictures I took, using the settings and advice they provided. Ronn seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of cameras of all brands and know how communicate them succinctly and clearly to a diverse group of camera owners, I was really impressed. Definitely the highlight of my stay in Fairbanks!