Spectacular solar show: Local photographers capture Northern Lights view
MINNEAPOLIS -- Photographer Nicholas Narog is running off one hour of sleep Friday.
"I've never seen anything quite like that," he said.
The night before, Narog traveled from the Twin Cities to Duluth – returning home at 5 a.m. He made the adventurous move up north after hearing there'd be perfect skies to capture the Northern Lights.
"What I saw last night in Duluth, was—it just blew my mind," Narog said. "…I was about waist-deep in snow trying to get to the perfect spots. I had three cameras running, you know from all different places. It was just an amazing experience. I was in Alaska three weeks ago, and I would actually put this above Alaska."
Narog says he took at least 10,000 photos among them, a time-lapse of the pulsing purples, greens, pinks and orange flames. In his photography career, he's captured between 20 to 25 Northern Lights. He says Thursday night's show might take the cake.
He wasn't the only one losing sleep to catch Mother Nature's show.
"Am I a little tired because I had to work this morning? Yes," Betsy Bissen said. "But it was worth it."
Bissen made the trek from Hopkins to Zimmerman.
"They started dancing before we were leaving and we had a hard time leaving too," she said. "They looked like flames from a campfire where they were moving and dancing."
The clear skies gave the perfect photo op to capture the Northern Lights in all its glory. Some photographers, like Carson Lennon, were just lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time.
"All the sudden I couldn't tell if it was a reflection in my windshield and I started leaning forward, and I was curious, 'what is that?' I ended up pulling over and got out of my car, and I was like, 'is this real?' Like I couldn't tell if that was actually what I was seeing," she said. "I've never seen the Northern Lights and I was super excited."
Check out photos of the Northern Lights from local photographers here.
