Chasing the Aurora Borealis. In winter.
In P.S. 89, my 6th grade teacher, Miss Denman, gave me an assignment to write a report on the people who lived in Lapland under the Northern Lights. I was also to paint a glass slide of what the land looked like at night with the lights glowing. Ever since then I’ve dreamt of going to see the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis. When I began writing Blood Rainbow I thought: “How can I write about this if I’ve never seen it? ”
So, in March of 2018, I booked a tour with Lights Over Lapland in Abisko, Sweden, and set out on a one week trek in the Arctic near the North Pole. I picked the week of a new moon, then prayed for clear weather and some big solar flares.
Most exposures were 8 seconds at f2.8. The images seem grainy because the ISO was set at 2000. The colors are real. The red trees are reflecting the fire pit in the yurt. We were warned not to touch the metal tripods with bare hands because our fingers would stick to them and be burned. It was true.
I call this image “Ron’s Heart”. He so wanted to go with me on this trip, but he passed away a few weeks before I left. He sent me his love through the lights.
All suited up. We left at 8:30pm and returned at 11:30pm. It was 20 degrees below Fahrenheit. Hot chocolate and a fire kept us warm in the yurt on frozen Lake Abisko, but we kept running outside because we were afraid we’d miss a grand display. The lights kept moving and changing and one never knew what what about to happen. It was thrilling.