Gilded Skies

For the nights worth staying up for.

Aurora photography from the Rocky Mountains — dark skies, unexpected nights, and the moments that make you stop and look up.

How this works

You can't book the aurora.

You watch the forecast. You wait. You drive. You stand outside in the cold with your hands going numb, and you hope.

Most nights, nothing. And then occasionally the sky decides to put on a show, and you're standing in the dark thinking wait — look at that. That unpredictability isn't a problem with the work. It's the whole point of it.

One night

How it usually goes.

Mountain silhouettes under a dark starry sky near Golden, British Columbia

A dark pullout somewhere off the highway, engine off, eyes adjusting.

The first faint green glow of the aurora above a mountain ridge

A pale band above the ridgeline that you're not sure is really there yet.

Northern lights bright over the Rocky Mountains, British Columbia

And then it isn't subtle at all.

Aurora borealis stretching across the sky over the BC Rockies

A Night Sky Rainbow stretched from one end of the valley to the other, moving faster than you expect.

Some of the most beautiful things aren't planned. You just have to be outside when they happen — ideally with someone who'll stand in the cold beside you.

Two friends standing together beneath a vibrant aurora borealis, surrounded by the dark mountain landscape of Golden, British Columbia. Green and purple Northern Lights stretch across the night sky above them.

The Night We Looked Up, Together.

Some nights are worth staying up for, especially when you get to share them with your bestie. In a place that is so special to your heart. (The old Big Bend Hwy)

Around the aurora

The rest of what's out there.

The mountains

Peaks disappearing into cloud, silhouettes against a sky that's still deciding what it's doing.

The drive

Backroads, pullouts, and a viewpoint you found once and now check every clear night.

Good company

Some nights are better because someone was standing beside you, equally cold and equally delighted.

Aurora is the reason you're outside. Everything else is what you notice while you're waiting.

Prints

Some nights are worth bringing home.

The night itself is gone by morning. A print of it can stay on a wall for years.