Aurora Borealis over Coast Guard Beach

This photo almost didn’t happen. I was getting home from dinner when I happened to check Threads and my entire feed was people talking about the aurora being visible around Boston and the south shore. From my back porch I could see a familiar milky glow along the horizon. I took a quick night mode photo with my phone which revealed the aurora low on the horizon. I quickly grabbed my camera bag and rushed out the door, forgetting a coat, gloves or hat. I drove over to Millway Beach in Barnstable where the aurora was faintly visible to the naked eye in the sky over Sandy Neck. I hung out in Barnstable for an hour or so taking a timelapse and trying to decide if it was worth driving up to the National Seashore for darker skies. I checked one of the apps I still had on my phone from my last trip to Iceland and it was predicted a stronger substorm hitting in about an hour. Needing some time to charge my camera and warm up my extremities I hit the road for Eastham.

I got to the National Seashore about an hour later and drove past Coast Guard Beach to Nauset Lighthouse. The aurora was back in the sky and clearly visible to the naked eye even with the light from the lighthouse. It seemed to be fading, though, so I got back in my car and drove towards home passing by Coast Guard Beach. Out my window I could suddenly see a towering red pillar in the sky over the ocean. I quickly parked and spent the next 45 minutes alternating between taking photos like this one and staring in shock at the bright green band of color stretching from horizon to horizon and the red pillars dancing around in the sky overhead. I almost turned around two different times on the way to taking this photo and I am so glad I didn’t. Besides taking this photo, the experience of standing on the beach in the bone-chilling cold watching the sky light up with towering waves of red and green is an experience I will never forget.

A note: if you would like a print of this photo, please get in touch with me first so that we can talk about paper and print options. This photo has a wide range of contrast and subtle color tones that lends itself to specific print options depending on where you would like to display it.