The Northern Lights in WNY

Planning for landscape and cityscape photography can be either methodical or it can be a crapshoot. You can easily plan for a number of things like sunset timing, building illuminations, full moons, etc. However, there are other subjects that are more difficult to plan for, including anything weather related. 

Last year WNY enjoyed a couple of Northern Lights spectacles. The first one was in May, and while it was predicted a little, it took a lot of people by surprise. 

The second one occurred in October. Now, because of the first one, people were more aware of what to expect, and the word spread more easily. 
Not knowing what to expect, I ventured to Golden Hill State Park on Lake Ontario. This provided dark skies over the water, creating almost ideal conditions to capture the Norther Lights. The park also features the Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse, an impressive structure that lies on the shore of the lake, 30 miles east of the Niagara River. 

That evening, the most prominent color in the sky was a pinkish purple, which I could actually see while in my car driving to the park. As I turned away from the lake for a moment, the lighthouse sat in the foreground of the sky, providing great context to the evening’s phenomenon – and provided an ideal image for this month’s page in the 2024 calendar.  

There have some other Northern Lights appearances over the past year, but I don’t think any of them were as spectacular as that evening last October – and I am glad I was able to capture a number of images that evening. 

And since it’s November, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that the 2026 calendar is now on sale. Click here to order it from my Etsy shop.
Enjoy!

Calendar Cover Image

February Image

March Image

April Image

May Image

June Image

July Image

August Image

September Image

October Image