About Aurora Borealis

I can still remember seeing auroras for the first time when I was a child.

It was winter and just outside my childhood home. The giant elm tree that stood behind our sandbox was bathed in a brilliant red shifting glow from behind.

The second time I was walking down a dirt road in my village and once outside of the wooded area, on each side of the road to a clearing we were greeted by a crystal clear sky, with white curtains strewn across the vast openness. These endless dancing white ribbons of light seemed to go on forever.

In 2013, well into my adult life, I began to chase the auroras to photograph them. It was near the peak of a solar cycle, which is roughly an 11 - 15 year period. This Solar Maximum produced storms with such intensity that they created some of the most vivid auroras that I have ever seen.

I recall that I would often find myself staring into the sky at the spectacle that was playing before my eyes, my camera utterly forgotten about. I would just be holding space with the numerous and very different emotions that would wash over me in waves. I felt strong feelings of awe, peace and serenity, mixed with what I could only describe as twinges of fear.

My partner explains that for him, it was a feeling of seeming so small and insignificant in comparison to the vastness of the universe beyond him. This is something that makes absolute sense to me now and provides a much better way to describe those particular feelings I would get, watching the northern lights.

My Indigenous ancestors, the Innu of Quebec, believed that the stone labradorite was a fire stone, created by the auroras. It is said that the auroras were frozen in the sky and then fell to the earth as stones.

In the years which followed, I could often be seen out in the middle of the night, taking photographs of this amazing phenomenon. I have turned many of these images into prints, back when I was pursuing a career as a professional photographer.

Seeing the auroras in person truly is an experience that will invoke so many different things within, especially a sense of wonder.

Auroras are absolutely magical and special to me.

which is why my publisher and I chose to feature two of my aurora photographs for the front and back covers of my soon and upcoming coloring book, Mandalart.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

• Willow