Light Painting under the Northern Lights
Jan 04, 2026
Here’s a topic I’ve wanted to add to my Light Journal for a long time - and one I never thought I would get to experience while living in Southern California.
That changed on May 10, 2024, when a powerful G5 geomagnetic storm - the strongest in two decades - lit up the sky with auroras across the globe.
I watched the images pour into my social media feed in real time:
Australia. Norway. Germany. The UK. Iceland. France. Canada.
Then places I never imagined seeing aurora from - Alabama, Florida, Colorado, and Arizona.
So, like any light painter would, I packed up my gear and headed for the darkest skies and widest views I could find just a few hours from home.
When the Sky Turned Pink
I arrived around blue hour. The moon was already up, so I took a quick test shot to see how the frame looked.
When I checked the back of my camera, I honestly thought my trusty old sensor had finally died.
Half of the sky looked normal - the other half was glowing deep pink.
That wasn’t what I expected.
Aurora is supposed to be green.
I took another shot, shifting the camera to make sure it wasn’t a malfunction.
It wasn’t.
The aurora had already begun.
Light pillars formed and shifted in the distance, painting the sky with surreal color. My mind was completely blown. I knew I was standing inside something rare - something I might never see again.
They say fortune favors the prepared, and in that moment, it couldn’t have been more true.
Four Hours Inside a Solar Storm
Over the next four hours, I worked nonstop. I only packed up after completing two ambitious animated light paintings, a series of light fossils, several skeleton compositions, and a handful of spontaneous creations - aliens, a rocket, an airplane, a cowboy, and even a peace dove.
Light painting under the aurora was unlike anything I’d ever done before.
The sky itself was glowing, which meant every exposure became a balancing act.
Camera Settings Under the Aurora
Because of the intense ambient light from the Northern Lights, I had to adjust my usual approach.
I started with a very high ISO, then gradually lowered it depending on exposure length, using a low-to-mid f-stop to balance the light painting against the glowing sky.
For example:
-
The skeleton group scene below required about five minutes of exposure, during which the aurora slowly blurred into a fog-like glow.
- The single cowboy skeleton exposures were under a minute, allowing the aurora to stay sharper, with distinct light pillars visible.
The Northern Lights were literally moving during every frame - so each image became a collaboration between my light and the sky’s.
Favorite Aurora Light Paintings
Here are a few of my favorite pieces created that night:
After the Great Aurora
In the year that followed, there were several more chances to see the Northern Lights from lower latitudes - but none quite like that first night.
August 11, 2024
October 7, 2024:
October 10, 2024:
June 1–2, 2025:
Each was beautiful in its own way, but May 10, 2024 remains something I still can’t fully believe I witnessed.
A night when the sky itself became part of the art.
