Aurora Borealis Alberta

Aurora borealis Alberta photography prints. Northern lights captured over the Canadian Rockies on some of the most extraordinary nights of James Andrew's career.

Photographing the aurora borealis in Alberta requires an unusual combination of knowledge, patience, and a willingness to spend hours in sub-zero temperatures waiting for the sky to perform. Most aurora images are taken in flat, featureless terrain where the foreground is an afterthought, a dark silhouette beneath a spectacular sky. This collection is built on a different philosophy. Every image pairs the northern lights with an iconic Alberta or Banff landscape, creating photographs that work as much on the power of their subject matter as on the spectacle of the sky above.

Alberta sits in a prime aurora viewing zone, particularly from late September through March when the nights are long and the geomagnetic conditions are most favourable. The Canadian Rockies provide an extraordinary foreground that most aurora photographers never have access to, frozen lakes reflecting curtains of colour, snow-covered mountain peaks rising into illuminated sky, ancient forests standing silent under green and red light. These are not images of the aurora alone. They are images of the Canadian Rockies at their most extraordinary, with the aurora as the element that makes an already remarkable landscape feel genuinely otherworldly.

Making these images requires more than showing up on a clear night. It requires knowing the locations intimately enough to compose in complete darkness, understanding aurora forecasting well enough to be in the right place before the display begins, and accepting that most nights produce nothing. The aurora is unpredictable. The conditions that make a great aurora image, strong geomagnetic activity, clear skies, an interesting foreground, and the right quality of light rarely align. James has spent many nights in the field that produced nothing worth keeping. The images in this collection are the reward for all of them.

Aurora Over Peyto Lake was photographed on a winter night at -30°C after a late text from a photographer friend about aurora activity. James drove two hours alone, hiked to the viewpoint in complete darkness, and witnessed the first aurora of his life, green pillars rising above the frozen lake, stretching across the Waputik Range. It was the night that changed the direction of his career.

Aurora Over Bow Lake was photographed on Remembrance Day 2025 during one of the strongest solar storms in years. The image captures red and green aurora rising above the mountain, the red caused by oxygen at higher altitudes and seen far less often than the classic green. James was not alone that night, a small group of photographers stood together along the shoreline watching the sky fill with light all at once. Nobody said much. Nobody wanted to be the first to leave.

Aurora Over Castle Mountain captures one of the most vivid aurora displays James has ever photographed, a full-spectrum event with pink, purple, and green curtains rising directly above Castle Mountain's distinctive battlemented ridge, reflected in a pool on the Bow River below.

Three locations. Three completely different nights. Three images that don't repeat themselves.

Each print in the aurora collection is available as either an open edition or a limited edition Master Collection piece, produced on Hahnemühle German Etching paper or acrylic facemount. Limited edition aurora prints tend to sell quickly, these are moments that don't happen twice, and once an edition sells out, it will not be reprinted.

Related locations

Drawn to the night skies and frozen landscapes of the Canadian Rockies? You may also be interested in:

→ Peyto Lake photography prints — the iconic turquoise lake on the Icefields Parkway, photographed across the seasons → Bow Lake photography prints — Bow Lake in summer drama, deep winter, and aurora → Banff National Park photography prints — the full collection from across the park

Or browse the full Alberta landscape photography prints collection.