Photographer Tori Harp didn’t expect the stunning alignment captured in the top image: a glowing aurora, an icy cave, and the silhouette of a lone hiker. After eight months of scouting Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, Harp had initially envisioned setting up her friend against New Zealand’s night sky when auroras lit it up a brilliant pink—bringing out, by contrast, the chilling shade of blue in the ice caves.
Harp’s photograph is one of 25 winners of the 2025 Northern Lights Photographer of the Year competition, hosted by travel blog Capture the Atlas to honor images that illustrate the surreal beauty of the Northern Lights. And what a year it’s been, with the Sun, now in its solar maximum phase, unleashing geomagnetic storms that lit up the skies with dazzling displays.
You can see the full gallery here, but here are some of our favorites from the list.
“Frozen Silence Beneath the Lights”
The world appears to have come to a standstill in this image by Nikki Born, who took the photograph at Riisitunturi National Park in Finland. The snowy landscape reflects the light of the green sky, making the whole scene glow a blue-green.
“Photographing the Northern Lights demands patience and persistence,” Born said in a statement. “But when they finally appear, time stands still, and nature reminds you just how amazing our world can be.”
“Aurora Comet Lemmon”
Throughout late October, Comet Lemmon shone bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Up north, the streaking tail of the comet coincided with bright auroras.
“Fortunately, I had my camera with me!” Petr Horálek recalled. “The comet and the aurora appeared to be in a sort of dance, giving us an amazing show that I’ll remember forever.”
“Fiordland Aurora and Lupins”
The sky and lupine flowers glow in a similar shade for this stunning panorama by Douglas Thorne, who stitched together six photographs he captured at Cascade Creek in New Zealand.
“I spent quite some time walking up and down this area to find this composition, and in the end, it was well worth it,” Thorne said.
“The Northern Crown”
Mari Jääskeläinen had a clear image of a bright, green spiral raised just above the trees near her house in Pyhäjärvi, Finland. That said, she didn’t expect nature to deliver that exact image. Except it did.
“During active nights, I always follow the real-time solar wind data to predict what’s yet to come,” she said in her comment. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when the auroral arc started taking the exact shape I had only dreamed about for so long!”
“Arctic Rain”
This photograph by Vincent Beudez makes you feel as if you’re standing inside a kaleidoscope. To capture this image, Beudez patiently waited as a veil of green and red unfolded in the sky above Tromso, Norway, breaking apart into choppy pieces as a substorm passed by.
“Corona Blast Aurora Geomagnetic Storm”
A coronal mass ejection on March 21 triggered a G2 geomagnetic storm, also causing a rare eruption of light flowering in the skies over Kirkjufell, Iceland. Photographer Roi Lev created the panorama by stitching together 21 frames.
“This image was captured during the March Equinox, as a geomagnetic storm structure brought a mesmerizing light show,” Lev explained. “With the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfalls in the foreground, this image is a dynamic representation of the sweeping auroral corona.”
“Alone Beneath the Dancing Sky”
This year’s winning images feature a good mix of planned and coincidental photographs. Nikola Vukotić’s entry, a picture of the Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten Islands, near the Arctic Circle, was of the latter category. Vukotić and his friends organically encountered the lights emerging over the beach.
“Moments like this remind us that nature doesn’t always follow our plans,” Vukotić said, “and that the best photographs often happen when we simply stay, watch, and let the world surprise us.
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