I’ve been chasing Lady Aurora since I first picked up a camera over 20 years ago, and in November, I fulfilled a dream I’ve had ever since!
When I saw the forecast for strong Northern Lights, I dug through my brain for a friend with well-trained horses and a clear view to the north, and my dear friend Alecia came to mind!
Not only is she close by and has the most amazing, beautiful Gypsy Vanner horses, but she has never seen the northern lights herself!
To say that night was special would be a major understatement! 
Pulling this off technically used every ounce of my brain and experience. To capture the lights, get the horse in focus, and use a shutter speed high enough to freeze the subtle motion in the horse, I had to push my gear to extremes!
My camera settings were:
- Canon R5 mk II
- Canon RF 16-35 f2.8 lens
- ISO: 6400-10,000 (if I go out again tonight, I’m going to stick to 10,000 because I underexposed in camera due to shooting in the darkness)
- Aperture: 2.8
- Shutter: 1/5-1/10
- NO TRIPOD!
Since I shared these images on social media, they have received over 4 million views! This is my first time to have images go legitimately viral, which has been very exciting
You can order prints at: https://gallery.shelleypaulson.com/fineart/
The number one question I got from people was, “Where were these taken?”
And honestly, it makes me smile every time. 
It wasn’t Iceland. It wasn’t Alaska.
It was right here in Minnesota, USA, just west of Minneapolis, on a simple hobby farm.
I placed the horse and rider on a septic mound, then got down on my side at the bottom of the hill so I could shoot upward with a 15-35mm lens. I kept it mostly at 15mm to pull in as much sky as possible and played with my distance to shift their scale.
