It was an amazing night of northern lights storming over Auke Lake, Mt. McGinnis, and the Coast Mountains. Unlike the high arctic which is regularly awash in the aurora, many outsiders seem surprised to know that Juneau gets northern lights. I usually go out five to ten times a year hoping the shoot the lights […]
Northern Lights
Aurora Borealis , Juneau, Alaska #3434
Last Saturday night, April 4, Juneau experienced a stunning display of northern lights. The best of the lights happened between 10 and 11pm. I showed up just as the lights started to dwindle away and hung out for a long time south of downtown Juneau next to the Douglas Harbor hoping for some additional night […]
Aurora Borealis, Brooks Range, Alaska #3431
Getting to experience the northern lights is one of the unique pleasures of living in Alaska. One of the best places to watch the lights, also called the aurora borealis is in the Brooks Range above the Arctic Circle. I watched this amazing display on a frozen riverbed next to the Dalton Highway, the only […]
Northern Lights, Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska #3392
I had a wonderful shoot on Friday night (see previous posting), and the northern lights’ predictions were strong as well for Saturday night. To tell the truth, I have not had much luck shooting the aurora for the past year. Understandably, I was overjoyed but a little skeptical with the possibility of shooting the lights […]
Northern Lights, Echo Cove, Juneau, Alaska #3391
This past weekend was dreamy. My nights were spent shooting northern lights into the wee hours of the morning. My days were spent skiing Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area under blue bird skies and 70-degree temperatures. Life just doesn’t get much better. I shot these northern lights, reflecting in the still calm waters of Echo Cove […]
Aurora Borealis, Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska
This aurora borealis photo is my new Facebook banner image that I took some time ago. This fall/winter I have spent a number of very long, frustrating nights out thinking I was going to get strong showings of the northern lights, only to have no luck. I used to plan on three to four good […]
Aurora Borealis, Arctic Circle, Alaska #3376
Every March for the past five years I have headed up to the Arctic in search of images of the Northern Lights. I usually travel up the Dalton Highway, the road that was built along the pipeline corridor to support the building and continuous upkeep of the Alaska oil pipeline. My favorite place to photograph […]
Happy Holidays from Alaska 12-20-2020
This image just shouts “Alaska.” It has all the necessary ingredients: endless pristine white snow, beautiful mountains, northern lights, and a full moon lighting the whole scene. I took this photo of the Brooks Range along the Dalton Highway about 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Photographing northern lights around full-moon nights is especially cool […]
Moon-Lit Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska #3126
I have always dreamed of lighting up the Mendenhall Glacier for a night shot. Of course, the only way I could figure out how to do this was to wait for a clear Juneau night sky along with a full moon. At the end of November, two years ago, I was out on a frozen […]
Northern Lights, Arctic, Alaska #3104
This will be the last northern lights image that I will post for a while. I say this because starting at the end of May the Alaska night sky is too bright for the lights to shine through. The latest I have every taken a photo of the aurora is May 21 to be exact. Summer solstice is […]
Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska #3102
I have loved every cover of every Juneau Calendar since publishing the first calendar 31 years ago. Yet, this cover is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorites. I remember the night well: I was standing along the edge of Mendenhall Lake in late November and it was around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. My car was […]
Aurora Borealis, Brooks Range, Alaska #3100
I spent the last week of March along the Dalton Highway, mainly around an area 72 miles north of the Arctic Circle. I was traveling with two friends, and we were eager to photograph northern lights. We were lucky enough to be greeted by the northern lights three nights in a row. In this image […]
Aurora Borealis, Arctic Alaska #3099
I shot this photo while conducting an aurora photo tour for two photographers last week. This past summer I helped organize a very successful four-day whale watching tour out of Juneau in conjunction with the Maui Whale Trust. Two tour guests asked me to put together a private aurora photo tour so off to the […]
Aurora, Gull Cove Lodge, Alaska #3095
Last week I finished printing the 2020 calendars in Manitoba. Now I am shooting for the 2021 calendars. On the rainy days I look through my digital collection of some 80,000 images, in search of the forgotten treasures to add to the 2021 calendar files. I found this gem from last September when Jan and I were […]
Aurora Borealis, Juneau, Alaska #3089
All of us at Mark Kelley Photography send you our best wishes for the coming new year. I always try to save a really special photo to share on the cusp of the new year. This image is of an amazing night of northern lights I shot across Auke Lake looking up at Mount McGinnis […]
Northern Lights, Auke Bay, Alaska #3075
Last Friday night I photographed the northern lights from Portland Island in Juneau, Alaska. I faced the mainland and my view included the Mendenhall Towers, Auke Bay, and Lena Cove. The light show started around 10 o’clock in the evening and it was still illuminating the night sky when I crawled into my tent exhausted […]
Aurora, Brooks Range, Alaska #3052
In March I spent three days on a northern lights shoot in Wiseman, Alaska, located on the Dalton Highway about 63 miles north of the Arctic Circle. What I like about this location are the mostly treeless mountains blanketed in snow. Everything is so pristine white, and once you add the northern lights streaming overhead, […]
Northern Lights, Mendenhall Glacier, Alaska #3048
In early November I spent two cold nights on a northern lights watch in front of the Mendenhall Glacier. I logged four-hours each night and got two ten-minute opportunities of actual shooting time, and what a great twenty minutes! I posted the first image from this shoot during the holidays in late December and named the image “Rainbow […]
Northern Lights-Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, AK #3041
Rainbow Aurora over Glacier Lit by Full Moon During a northern lights’ shoot in Alaska, I usually spend the night in my car at a good overlook, and step outside to shoot if and when the lights appear. For this particular photo shoot in early November I spent two nights outside of my car and […]
Northern Lights, Meteor Fireball, Mt Dillon, Alaska-3038
I rented a cabin in the little town of Wiseman, population 11and about 250 miles north of Fairbanks along the Dalton Highway, for a week-long photo shoot of northern lights. With clear skies and a full moon I spent my nights driving up and down the road looking for great mountain landscapes and waiting for […]
IT IS A CELEBRATION
Come to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center on Wednesday, May 10, from 6-8pm, and celebrate with Mark Kelley and friends his new book release: “Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier.” Juneau’s own Nick Jans wrote the text for this 80 page book which features 78 photos along with a 10-page section showcasing historic photos of the glacier. At […]
Northern Lights, Pederson Creek Salt Chuck, Juneau, Alaska #3002
Oh What a Night! This weekend Juneau experienced an amazing show of northern lights. It all started Friday night and lasted through both Saturday and Sunday nights and into the wee hours of Monday morning. Each shoot started around 11PM and ended between 3-4AM. I am suffering from what we locally refer to as “a […]
Northern Lights, False Outer Point, Juneau, Alaska #3001
Oh What a Night! This weekend Juneau experienced an amazing show of northern lights. It all started Friday night and lasted through both Saturday and Sunday night and into the wee hours of Monday morning. Each shoot started around 11PM and ended between 3-4AM. I am suffering from what we locally refer to as “a […]
Oh What a Night! Juneau, Alaska – Image 2985
Two winters ago Juneau experienced an amazing show of northern lights in the beginning of March. After this particular shoot I knew I had a winner. Some years I struggle to find the right calendar cover image, but this image is a quintessential Juneau image and is featured on the cover of my 2017 Juneau […]
Auke Lake Aurora, Juneau, Alaska #2958
Last night I went to bed with my world covered in clouds. But I knew the northern light predictions were calling for strong aurora displays. I happened to wake around 3 am and looked out my bedroom window to a star-filled sky. I checked three aurora websites showing current and strong aurora activity. I quickly […]
Aurora Borealis & Shooting Star, Brooks Range, AK #2956
Last week I spent seven days in a cabin in Wiseman along the Dalton Highway (the Haul Road) in the Arctic. My friend and fellow photographer, Murray Cohen planned this trip a while back in order to shoot the northern lights up north. The trip had all the great ingredients for a wonderful photo: the […]
Aurora Borealis, Juneau, Alaska-Image #2952
Last night (2-17-2016) I shot this photo of the Aurora Borealis over the mountains surrounding the valley and the Mendenhall Glacier from the North Douglas boat ramp. Although I spent most of the night and early morning hours looking for northern lights, I only witnessed one powerful display sometime between 11:30pm-12:30am. The northern lights created […]
Amalga Harbor, Juneau, Alaska – Image #2944
What a great moment to represent the holiday season…a lighted holiday tree on a dock in an Alaskan harbor, with the Chilkat Mountains as the backdrop, and a clear night with northern lights dancing overhead. I could not wish for more… This is the December image in my 2016 Juneau, Alaska calendar, enjoy! Happy Holidays and we will see […]
Aurora, Echo Cove, Juneau, Alaska-Image #2940
Green northern lights, or aurora borealis, stream in the sky above Lions Head Mountain in Berners Bay, while casting a mirror reflection in the calm waters of Echo Cove. In Juneau, Alaska, the northern lights do not display as often or as strongly as for our Alaskan neighbors to the north, and of course a […]
Aurora Borealis, Juneau, Alaska – Image #2912
Juneau experienced an amazing show of northern light on Sunday, March 1. For some reason it took me a while to check out my images from the shoot-OMG! I could not believe that I did not post this image sooner. It reminds me of the song, “Oh What A Night.” On another note – PLEASE VOTE for my entry “Silver […]
Northern Lights, Juneau, Alaska – Image # 2899
I took this image of the northern lights the same night that I shot the cover of my 2015 Juneau Calendar. Many folks ask how I know when to shoot the northern lights. I wait for the next clear night and then check out several websites that make predictions on the relative strength of the […]
Aurora Borealis, Juneau, Alaska…Image # 2896
The last two winters in Juneau have been very good for shooting the northern lights. Scientists tell us that there is some sort of 13 to 15 year cycle that controls the activity of the aurora borealis and that we are now on the downward swing of this cycle. For this image I pulled into […]
Hale-Bopp Comet above Gastineau Channel with northern lights – Image 2031
April 1997 was a month of cloudless skies. Comet Hale-Bopp was our constant companion from mid-March through April. As the end of April approached, I had not taken a photo of the comet. It seemed like I was the only photographer in the world without some shot of this phenomenonal celestrial event. Towards the end […]
Happy HolidaysRed Northern Lights, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2391
The red northern lights appear above the spruce trees at the end of DouglasIsland. The most common color seen during northern lights displays is greenwith red being one of the least common colors seen. My northern lightsexposures for an ASA 100 slide film range from 30 to 90 seconds at f/2.8.The variation takes into an […]
Northern Light over Gastineau Channel, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2459
The Juneau area has not had much in the way of northern lights this past winter. The northern lights season (September-April) has been very disappointing. I am hoping to have better luck with the northern lights in April because in past years April has been one of the most consistent months for the lights. I […]
Northern Lights (Aurora borealis), Douglas, Douglas Island, Alaska – Image 2812
It is mid-winter and I am missing the northern lights. I have not shot a display of northern lights (Aurora borealis ) in several years. I have gone out several nights on northern lights watch, but the displays never transformed into strong enough displays. When I go on watch, I usually take my car out […]
Northern Lights over Douglas Island, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2097
Most people associate the northern lights with the dead of winter when the night seems endless and the cold temperatures are numbing. But I shot this Aurora Borealis in August in my shorts while sipping a beer. There is not usually enough night time in an Alaskan summer to see the northern lights, except during […]
Northern Lights over Douglas, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2484
Northern Lights blast over Mt Jumbo and downtown Douglas. I shot this photoon the drive to Mayflower Island. This evening was a great night fornorthern lights and Image 2459 was shot the same night. My exposures fornorthern lights depend on the intensity of the lights. I shoot slide filmASA 100 and vary my exposures between […]
Northern Lights, Douglas, Douglas Island, Alaska – Image 2542
I have photographed a lot of northern lights, but this event was one of the most unusual. The northern lights were so strong over the community of Douglas and Mt. Jumbo that they were reflecting in the Gastineau Channel. With the northern lights bright over the town, the town lights lit up the encroaching fog […]
Northern Lights, Gastineau Channel, Alaska – Print #P141 – Image 2601
I love to watch and photograph the northern lights. But, lately the northern lights have become a rare occurrence. Scientists tell us that the northern lights (frequency and intensity) have an eleven year cycle with the bottom of the cycle occurring about three years ago. My observations or lack of aurora observations would confirm this […]
Northern Lights, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2243
Last October, there was one of the strongest displays of northern lightsthat most anyone can remember. I was driving my son, Owen, home frombasketball practice when he looked up and said, “Dad have you seen thenorthern lights.” I looked up and could not believe seeing the lightsshining through the Egan Highway street lights. I shot […]
Northern Lights, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2543
I shot the red northern lights over the spruce trees at the Eaglecrest Ski Area in Juneau. Eaglecrest is a good place to shoot the northern lights because it is far from the city lights where the night is really dark. My normal exposure for a strong show of northern lights is between thirty seconds […]
Northern Lights, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2591
In 1997, the comet Hale Bopp was visible for almost the entire amazingly clear month of April. In early April, I had shot the comet over town but had completely blown my exposures. Every one, I knew was getting great images of the comet. So, toward the end of April and the comets viewing life, […]
Northern Lights, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2612
I miss the northern lights. I used to be able to photograph the nothern lights at least a couple times each fall/winter/spring season. But, the last time I saw the northern lights was over a year ago in March. During that display, I took this photo of them over downtown Juneau. Basically, Juneauites have gone […]
Northern Lights, North Douglas, Juneau, Alaska – Image 2645
Planning on shooting the northern lights in Juneau is a long shot. Northern lights activity centers around the magnetic north pole so the further north one travels the better the odds of seeing northern lights. Secondly, Juneau and Southeast Alaska spend most of the viewing months between September through April cloud covered. Historically, I have […]
Red Northern Lights (Aurora borealis), Juneau, Gastineau Channel, Alaska – Image 2813
Red northern lights blaze over downtown Juneau and Gastineau Channel. Most northern light displays are green. The rarest color phases of northern lights are red, blue and purple. The previous image of the lights over downtown Douglas show a wide color range of the lights. Northern lights are created when solar energy (energetic charged particles) […]