01/04/2026
When my wife and I went out to dinner on New Year’s Eve, the topic of our favorite moment from the last year came up - both of us without hesitation chose the moment we saw the northern lights in Lapland this past April. The first night was thanks to the expert guidance of Paul Buyck ( on Instagram) on a northern lights hunt that took us from Rovaniemi, Finland nearly 2 hours southeast to Vuono, Sweden. (Photos 1-5) The following night - armed with what we learned from Paul and a couple useful aurora apps - we drove three hours north on our own into the Arctic Circle near Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park and beyond. (Photo 6)
Booking a trip around natural phenomena like aurora borealis is always risky. You plan months in advance for something that you may not see at all, because weather or other natural circumstances could easily prevent or occlude what you’re there for through the duration of your trip. I feel incredibly fortunate and grateful that during this trip - despite lots of overcast nights - we were able to see the beauty of God’s creation in the aurora borealis on two separate occasions.
I didn’t share these photos previously because I thought the lack of foreground interest made them pretty basic and uninteresting compared to other landscape photographers who specialize in photos of beautiful landscapes with the northern lights. That may be true, but these photos are still deeply meaningful to me for capturing one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. My wife said that she couldn’t remember the last time she felt as alive as the first time the sky seemingly opened and danced above us. I couldn’t put it better myself.
