Aurora Borealis and Fifty Below

I love the cold and had always wanted to visit Yellowknife in the winter. So on Black Friday 2018 a few friends and I impulse bought some super cheap flights for January 2019. Photography wasn't the goal of the trip - we just wanted to relax, have fun, drive on a frozen lake and experience the cold winter nights! We did all that, and the highlight was definitely the Northern Lights.

If I recall correctly, I shot this image on our third night there. It was -35c with a windchill of -50c and we hit the highway to go for a midnight hike. We arrived at the trailhead and got moving. It was cold and it made me feel truly alive. The Aurora started to go crazy and we couldn't believe our eyes. Explosions of green whipping and shimmering across the sky, with occasional short bursts of red. Even to our naked eyes the snow on the ground turned green because of how bright it was! After a couple hours we were starting to get cold from sitting around and watching the lights so we decided to go back to the car.

An evening well spent.

Image settings: 14mm, f/2.8, 10s, ISO 1250. Single exposure. I may re-process this image at some point as my editing style has developed significantly since 2019... but it's not a priority.

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