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22nd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Travel
Bridge To The Heavens

This night is one which I will never forget. I never in my lifetime thought that where I live I would be able to see the cornea pulsing overhead and aurora in all directions. On this magical night in May we had a display that was mindblowing. I knew that there would be some aurora so I set out early to get to a spot that required a one-hour drive and one-hour hike to get to. As the sun set and darkness fell the aurora started to appear, but not on the Northern Horizon as is normal here, but in the West and East. I was totally unprepared for this and scrambled to try to move my equipment to capture from an unexpected direction. Over the course of the night, I traveled to several locations, covering almost 400km of driving. One of my last stops was this one. The Confederation Bridge is an iconic landmark where I live. Normally this image would be impossible as it is facing West, but on this night I was finally able to capture the Aurora there. This was a bucket list image for me. I tried to crop it to show the sense of scale above this 13km long bridge.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 05.2024
Date Uploaded: 12.2024
Photo Location: Canada
Camera: Canon EOS R5
Copyright: © Glen Strickey