This image has been in the making for a number of years. It’s surprising how difficult it is to not only get a good display of northern lights with a great landscape, but with a foreground and the northern lights that tells a story. It wasn’t until Tom and moved to northern Minnesota that we even tried to photograph this amazing phenomenon. There is an airport light that swings through my go-to spot in Babbitt, often sending me half an hour north just to get that out of my frame. It seems to be Ely where the magic actually happens. Sometimes I’m on the east end toward the end of the road, and other times I’m on the west side by some of the more populated lakes. It’s rare that I’m in the town proper, since there are so many street lights that would wash out the scene. But for years, I’ve strived to put Ely in the scene with the northern lights. At the end of August that happened. Right place, right time, and a nice display of lights.
