I'd seen this phenomenon before, on New Year's eve a few years ago but wasn't in a position to photograph it at the time.
I noticed last night it was happening again and although I was planning to be in for the night and it was about 0 F I decided to go see what I could catch. I hiked up a hill North of town in the quiet darkness and shot from a couple of different spots. I think my favorite is this panorama stitched in LR6. Glad I made the effort to go out!
Light pillars are formed when a light source shines up into tiny suspended ice crystals in the air. It needs to be pretty cold but fortunately for me it was about 20 degrees warmer than the previous night.
IMGP1555-Pano-Edit by
Matt Burt, on Flickr
