Frozen Sentinels
Alaska
The band came in low and fast that night, a full arc of green pulling east while the star field held steady behind it. Down at ground level the snow-loaded spruce turn into something else — hunched, sculpted shapes that stop reading as trees. I set up beneath them so they'd rise straight into the light. Cold enough that the tripod squeaked when I planted it. Some nights you chase the aurora. This one, it came to me and stood still long enough to let the whole scene line up. Photo © copyright by Michael Schultz.