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(Pocket-lint) – Each year, travel photography blog Capture the Atlas puts together an annual Northern Lights Photographer of the Year competition. This year, the competition has had entries from around the world from the US, Finland, Iceland, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway and more.
25 photographers from 13 different nationalities have submitted phenomenal images to the competition.
With a multitude of images to choose from, selecting the winner is no doubt tough. The Northern Lights aren’t easy to photograph either. They’re best shot between September and April in the Northern Hemisphere and from March and September in the Southern Hemisphere and you need a dark sky without light pollution too.
We’re collecting some of the winners for your enjoyment.
Polaris Dream
This striking photo came from the frozen depths of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It certainly looks like a winter wonderland.
“I had dreamed about photographing the landscapes of Northern Russia for a long time, and this year it came true! There, you feel like you’re in the realm of snow monsters, in a landscape where the mountains and trees are dominated by ice and snow. That night, the Northern Lights put on an incredible show!
It was hard work to get to this place, since exploring this location and organizing logistics required a lot of time, effort, and the help of the friendly locals we found in our path. I only hope we can see the peace reestablished soon and re-connect with so many incredible people and landscapes on this planet.”
Elves’ House
It seems that the skies above Stokknes, Iceland are also a great spot for viewing the Northern Lights.
“On my last trip to Iceland, I decided to try my luck in one of its most iconic locations, a magical place for any landscape photographer.
It snowed the day before, and the air mixed the fallen snow with the fine sand, making the textures on the ground incredibly beautiful. Then the sky did the rest.
The biggest problem in photographing this kind of scene is the limited information you get for the foreground since the exposure times are usually short (between 2 and 10 seconds) in order to capture the shape of the Aurora. That’s why I was forced to take pictures with different settings for the foreground and the sky.”
Under a Northern Sky
Rachel Jones Ross snapped this impressive photo in Tombstone Mountain Range, Canada.
There are a number of fantastic mountains making an appearance in these Nothern Lights photos and it’s great to see the beautiful backdrops.
“We have all heard stories about the land of the Midnight Sun: in the summer, the sun doesn’t really set, and in the winter, nights are long with no sun, or very little sun at all. But there are also 3-4 days each month when the moon doesn’t set (circumpolar) and 3-4 days each month when it doesn’t rise!
Before I left, I checked the moon calendar, and I was a bit disappointed to see that my visit would coincide with a waxing gibbous approaching a full moon. But on closer investigation, there were four nights when the moon didn’t make it above the horizon, and I had dark nights for shooting the Aurora!”
Michigan Night Watch
The Northern Lights come in a variety of colours, turning the skies into a magical place like no other.
“Lady Aurora waits for no photographer or schedule. However, when I returned from Canada to Chicago, I was greeted by an Aurora forecast that was slated to be quite good (G1/G2 with a slight possibility of G3 conditions).
I decided to choose Point Betsie as my main location for this Aurora chase. I was greeted with quite heavy winds but a beautiful sunset and warm weather. It was super busy since it was a Friday, and there were good conditions for Auroras. It was fun to make some new friends, and we chatted while waiting for Lady Aurora to make an appearance.
Around 11:30pm, she made herself known. We cheered. We clapped. This is what makes all of it worth it! Afterward, we packed up and drove the three hours back to Martin, MI, to start work for the day. Ah, the life of an Aurora chaser!”
Explosions of the Sky
On the other side of the world, the Auroras are just as striking with bold colours playing wonderfully with the backdrop of billions of stars.
“New Zealand is really a special place for astrophotography. The skies are beautifully dark, and there are so many interesting landscape features to take in. Despite this, I’ve never managed to capture an Aurora shot with an interesting foreground element prior to this moment.
Unfortunately, the Aurora activity is not as consistent compared to other forms of astrophotography, so I had to be patient.
It was a cold night when the alerts and posts from other excited Aurora chasers popped up online. I sent a quick message to a few friends and went out to this spot. I ended up spending some time here with a friend as the lights put on a show, but the display kicked it up a notch once he left. With the whole beach to myself, no pesky lights from other people or cars, the perfect weather and strong beams… I really couldn’t have asked for anything better.
It’s this exact shot that made me addicted to chasing Auroras, and I’ve had the privilege of enjoying this sight many more times since then, with hopefully more of these moments to come.”
Nugget Point Lighthouse Aurora
As if these views of the Northern Lights weren’t staggering enough, this one also manages to capture the beauty of the Milky Way as well.
“Nugget Point Lighthouse is on the eastern side of New Zealand’s South Island. It rests above the famous rocks, which were named by Captain Cook because they looked like pieces of gold. The lighthouse is set on a precipice, where the ocean meets the sky. From here, you can get panoramic views of the southern seas, so it’s a photographer’s dream location.
I arrived here early one autumn morning to capture the Milky Way rising above the lighthouse. It was an image that I’ve planned to capture for a long time. However, I was greeted by a surprise visitor. The Aurora Australis began to glow, its beams blooming over the ocean. I quickly changed my approach and got excited as flashes of yellow and red began to appear in my frame.
Eventually, the Milky Way and the Aurora began to synchronize harmoniously, resulting in this image. I love the leading lines and the way the Milky Way surrounds the Aurora. Mostly though, I love that this wasn’t the picture I planned. It reminds me that sometimes the best shots happen unexpectedly. You have to take risks and go exploring because you just never know what you might come across.”
Captain Hook
When looking at these photos we’re often reminded of how staggeringly beautiful our world is. These Northern Lights are also intriguingly curling around in the skies above.
“This day will probably remain etched in my memory forever.
It’s difficult to explain with words since to fully understand it you had to be there. To take this photo, I had to stay focused while contemplating this immense spectacle of nature, trying to stay as calm as possible despite my strong emotions.
Unexpectedly, this was one of the most prominent displays of the Northern Lights in recent years, with a KP 6.33. This powerful solar explosion caused blackouts across India, (as the newspapers reported the following day), but paved the way for this beautiful light show.”
Inception
This photo has it all. Not just the Northern Lights, but the Milky Way, a shooting star and a breathtaking view too.
“These are the Arctic nights that leave you breathless!
I decided to spend that night up in the mountains with one of the most beautiful views of the Lofoten Islands. My goal was to photograph a “double Aurora & Milky Way arc”, to add to my Aurora collection. I had been planning this pano for a couple of years, and finally, all the elements aligned.
It wasn’t completely dark yet when I began to see the faint Milky Way in front of me. I hoped that in the next hour, a faint Aurora would appear on the opposite side, creating an arc that would fit perfectly into the composition, and so it was! What a night!
Under the Milky Way, you can see the Andromeda Galaxy in the middle of the two arcs. A shooting star acts as the cherry on top, and above a colorful Aurora, there is one of the most beautiful constellations, the Big Dipper! To the north, you can still see the light of the sun, which had recently gone below the horizon.”
Previous winners
The year-on-year popularity of this competition brings plenty of photographers with awesome photographs to show off. Below are some of the best we saw from the previous year’s awards that are worth seeing too.
Forest of the Light
Snapped in Alaska, Marc Adamus managed to capture this magical view of a snow-covered landscape with an amazing background.
“Temperatures are often in the minus 30s and negotiating the easily broken, crusty snow on snowshoes with nothing but a headlamp makes for great challenges in hiking and composing. I used the last light of twilight to set up the shot you see here and returned to it hours later as the lights were dancing overhead.”
Polar-snow monsters
This photo comes from the incredible depths of the Kola Peninsula, Russia and offers a lot more than just an awesome view of the night’s sky.
Photographer Sergey Korolev explained a bit about their logic when taking this sort of image.
“I always thought it was boring to take pictures of just the sky, but one day, I saw Marc Adamus’ photographs with the aurora borealis over some beautiful mountain scenery and I was really impressed. Since then, I have had a new passion – taking Northern Lights pictures where the landscape and its composition play the main role, and the sky with the aurora is in harmony with the composition. In this picture, I also focused on the “snow monsters” in the composition to make this shot look like an alien scene.”
Aurora Sherbet in the Apostles
This wonderfully colourful view was influenced by interesting activity in the night’s sky.
“The aurora sparked on this night was from a combination of an M-class solar flare and a CME; on their own, they were not much, but together, they sure packed a punch. No one really saw this coming, and we had recently been burned by the solar storm that was but wasn’t, i.e., the X-class event that never materialized. In any case, I saw the initial “hit” in the data, immediately jumped into the car, and drove eight hours north to get away from the horrible cloud cover over much of the Midwest Great Lakes region.
I went to a location I had never been to before – which is always a gamble – but made it work somehow! Hunting for compositions in the dark is always a challenge. The amount of color detail in this image is amazing. I’ve never seen so much teal and purple. The whole night felt like a dream. Here’s to solar cycle 25!”
Narnia
Amy J. Johnson tells a wonderful story of serene and peaceful it is being an aurora photographer who is hunting down incredible shots like this.
“In March of 2021, a G1 solar storm was predicted when I ventured to this forest north of Fairbanks. For years, I’ve spent many nights in this region waiting for a beautiful aurora display only to be disappointed.
This night, however, I reached my set location right in time for the start of an amazing show. The black spruce in this part of the boreal forest are caked with snow due to hoarfrost and the forces of wind. Finding a nice composition has become more challenging due to a forest fire that spread through the region in 2020. As I set out on snowshoes into this enchanted scene, temps hovered at -21 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Spectrum
Iceland has plenty of fantastic views and this one taken over the iconic Vestrahorn location is no different.
For the Northern Lights
This image almost looks like it’s from another planet, with incredibly harsh wintery conditions backdropped by a gloriously colourful view. It might as well be too, as the photographer explains:
“This night was definitely special. The perfect conditions for shooting the Northern Lights came together: frost, ice, a full moon, a clear night, and no wind. The weather was extremely difficult; the temperature was 34 degrees below zero, but flames like these make you forget the temperature. I had a certain vision of the photo I wanted, and because of the extreme weather, I had to build the photo in stages. Thanks to the moonlight, the landscape was nicely illuminated, and I got a decent balance with the overwhelming display of the aurora borealis.”
Aurora Australis
Another colourful view, this time from Australia. David Oldenhof’s photo is fantastic not just for the view, but for the reflection as well. Perfectly peaceful.
“Tasmania is the most southern state in Australia. As well as having beautiful coastlines, World Heritage rainforests, and national parks to photograph, we also have the added bonus of being able to witness the most intense auroras in the country because we are the furthest south.”
Heavenly Dance
This image was snapped by Sergey Korolev at the Kola Peninsula in Russia by the coast of the Barents Sea. The combination of incredible light show in the sky and mist-like waters at the coast’s edge result in a staggering view.
Sergey Korolev explained that the image is actually the result of two photos combined into one – a quick exposure to capture the lights and a long one for the rocks.
The Hunt’s Reward
Another incredible view of a colourful night’s sky, this time from Tasmania, Australia.
Ben Maze, the photographer explains it best:
“Captured in this image is a trifecta of astronomical phenomena that made for some of the best astrophotography conditions one can witness in Australia, namely, the setting Milky Way galactic core, zodiacal light, and of course, the elusive Aurora Australis. On top of this, a sparkling display of oceanic bioluminescence adorned the crashing waves, adding the cherry on top to what was already a breathtaking experience. “
The colours of this one are most unusual when compared with the usual photos with a green hue that you’d see from these night-time shots.
Dragon Eggs
This photo is almost other-worldly with an amazing icey view and broken areas where the ice has seemingly shattered.
Roksolyana Hilevych created this shot with images taken in the Lofoten Islands in Norway and crafted them together by focus-stacking three photos for the perfect image.
“I found this unknown place on the Lofoten Islands as I was moving around the Gimsoya Islands. That night was very cold, with temperatures reaching -20º C. It was probably one of the best shows of watching and photographing the Northern Lights I’ve ever experienced, because in a place like this, it’s not easy to find something new with such a magical foreground and the kp5/kp6 Northern Lights dancing all night long.”
Antarctic Night
From the freezing zone of Antarctica comes another incredible photo, with a colourful aurora over the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in the South Pole.
It’s actually part of a long-term time-lapse that Benjamin Eberhardt was crafting at the time, which is a tricky thing to pull off in the ultra-low temps:
“…to achieve 24h-long time-lapse shots, you need some creativity to heat and insulate your equipment in order to keep it running, and even rotating, in temperatures ranging down to -80ºC (-112 ºF). In my case, this was a learning curve over multiple months, with a lot of trial and error and frostbite. On the upside, once you have tackled all the challenges, you have plenty of reasons to be proud of your shots.”
Convergence
In September 2020, Agnieszka Mrowka took this image on the Northern Lights in Jökulsárlón, Iceland.
Calm weather, a bright moon and a wonderful view of the glaciers around the lagoon resulted in one of the most impressive images you’re likely to see of this region.
Finland at night
Nestled in the cold forests of Ruka, Finland, where temperatures were down to minus 36 degrees C, Kim Jenssen managed to snap this image of the Northern Lights dancing in the sky above.
After spending hours waiting, they were finally giving up and heading home just before this happened:
“On the trail down, I saw something on my left side and told my friend to stop and wait. Suddenly, the aurora started to “dance”, and all I had to do was to jump in the snow, get my camera ready, and shoot! There was no planning or time to focus on composition. After 5 minutes, the Northern Lights disappeared, but it was a night with a happy ending.”
Lofoten ice lights
Another breathtaking image from the Lofoten Islands. This time with incredibly thick icicles framing the outside of the image and adding an interesting highlight to the Northern Lights.
Photographer Dennis Hellwig had to be patient to get this one as the lights from passing cars were apparently ruining the shot:
“Another challenge was the light pollution from passing cars (it was only 8 p.m. and there were still a lot of people on the road) and other photographers with their headlights on. But in the end, everything went well and I got my picture.”
Epic images from the Northern Lights Photographer of the Year Competition
This photo was actually taken in 2019, in April, which is the end of the aurora season in the Arctic. Finally, the patience paid off:
“I have been chasing the Northern Lights for 10+ years now, and I know that they are quite unpredictable. However, some of my best Aurora captures have indeed resulted from unexpected events or uncertain forecasts.”
“That night was one of those when the forecast was uncertain, but I decided to go out to this fantastic location called “Ersfjordbotn”, which is a 20-min drive from the City of Tromsø, and I was so glad that I did it. A magnificent display took place over my head after one hour of waiting. I shot many different images, but this one stretching all over the sky with me standing on the rock in the foreground shows very well how amazing and large the auroras can be.”
The Aurora Borealis, for me, is a wonder of the world. It is the most magnificent celestial and astronomical observation we can make with our eyes. Although most Northern Lights move slowly, or appear static, if you are lucky like I was that night, you can enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
“I think that everyone should put “chasing the Northern Lights” on their bucket list. It is definitely something you should witness and experience with your own eyes.”
Symphony of the lights
This photo by Iurie Belegurschi is another story of good fortune. After waiting for ages for the Northern Lights to appear at Thingvellir National Park, Iceland, they gave up. But when the car got stuck on the way home the dancing Northern Lights finally made an appearance.
When a dream became a reality
Mohad Almehanna put maximum effort into this shot, taking the time to plan it out and find the perfect spot for an awesome composition in Yukon, Canada.
Despite all the planning, difficult weather and low temperatures made the actual photography tricky. The end result was worth the effort though:
“The day I took this photo, the weather was extremely difficult; the temperature was 20 degrees below zero and the strong wind didn’t make the situation any easier. I had a certain vision of the photo I wanted, and because of the extreme weather, I had to build the photo in stages. Taking many shots in different stages of the Aroura rising gave me a good chance to get the final photo here. The overwhelming feeling of seeing the spectacular phenomenon for the first time and racing against time and cold to get the photo was such a thrill that I want to experience again.”
Writing by Adrian Willings.
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