Astrophotography: lots of looking up and tripping over things at night,

Wildlife photography: your subject has a mind of its own and hides, till it moves fast and fleeting,

Landscape photography: the hunt for an interesting foreground to draw the viewer into the scene without stop signs and parking lots.

Like most triads, life will give you 2 and maybe 2.5 of the three things you really want. In this case the featureless volcanic plain was "behind" everything cool like the ocean cliffs, and rock stacks. But that's where the aurora were, and this is aurora photography after all!

Since there is no foreground of interest, I've added a horizontal strip of samples from the colours in the aurora above. Next time, I will try to be better positioned!