AURORA SKIES & JAMES STUDARUS
James
Studarus
Adventure photographer, aurora chaser, and the man who got his last name autocorrected to Stardust by Instagram and decided to keep it.
"The first night I saw the aurora in Iceland, I experienced natural cosmic beauty that was on another level of what I had experienced before. I was blown away. Much of my travels, photography and writing have been focused on the northern lights ever since."
Instagram autocorrected his last name from Studarus to Stardust when he set up his account. He decided to keep it. The name now seems very appropriate for someone who spends his nights lying on the ground in the Yukon or the Westfjords of Iceland, pointing a camera at the sky while the aurora borealis rips through the darkness above him. James Studarus lives in Santa Barbara, California, and has been chasing the northern lights across Alaska, Canada, Iceland and Scandinavia. He started StardustImages.org to share beautiful natural images and raise money for charitable organisations. He has won multiple photography awards. He got held up amicably at the Canadian border while explaining the Kp-index to an interested border guard.
Travel and seeing this magnificent planet is his primary inspiration. Being surrounded by powerful, beautiful nature is his great motivation and thrill. The aurora borealis, once seen, becomes a kind of obsession: the intersection of science, beauty, and pure luck that makes every successful aurora photograph feel both inevitable and miraculous.
Travel and seeing this magnificent planet is inspirational to me. Being surrounded by powerful, beautiful nature is a great motivation and thrill in life. Lately, seeing the aurora borealis in Iceland, Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories has been hugely influential. The first night I saw the aurora in Iceland, I experienced natural cosmic beauty that was on another level of what I had experienced before. I was blown away and much of my travels, photography and writing have been focused on the northern lights.
Tombstone Territorial Park in the fall has been my favourite place to shoot so far. I was able to incorporate my love for backpacking, the northern lights, travel and photography in a surreal week of the impressive Yukon skies. Not only was the mountain landscape dramatic but the aurora borealis rips through this region. I timed my backpack with the peak of an aurora storm: I saw the northern lights all seven nights, with three of the nights being epic displays.
One particular night the aurora was dancing past the grand Tombstone Peaks with a perfect reflection occurring in Divide Lake, which culminated in a grand flash that I was able to capture with my lens. That image changed everything for me.
"I was amicably held at security while I explained the Kp-index forecast and the aurora oval to an inquisitive border guard, who was very interested in travelling to see the lights himself."
James Studarus · Canadian border, en route to aurora countryA dream project for me would be to catalog all the amazing places in the world you can backpack while seeing the northern lights. I would love to camp at Gates of the Arctic in Alaska, or Baffin Island in Canada, or Hornstrandir in Iceland, or Lofoten in Norway, and photograph these incredible areas while backpacking under aurora skies.
I use Instagram frequently and like checking out Mia Stalnacke (@angrytheinch), a Swedish northern lights photographer. She has so much experience with the aurora it is very impressive. I also met Michael Shainblum, Toby Harriman and Andrew Studer last winter in Iceland. They are all amazing digital artists and I like to see what projects they are working on. They each have their own style from cosmic nature to aerial amazement.
In the northern hemisphere, the lights accumulate around a band, the aurora oval, that hovers near the Arctic Circle and looks like a halo on the top of our planet. It runs through Alaska, Canada's northern territories, Iceland, Scandinavia, and Siberia.
The Kp-index is the measure of geomagnetic activity that aurora chasers track obsessively. A Kp of 5 is a minor storm. A Kp of 7, as James experienced in Iceland's Westfjords, is a significant event. Timing your travel to a peak aurora storm, in a location with clear skies, dark nights, and a dramatic landscape in the foreground: that is the entire art and science of what Stardust Experience does.
James participates in carbon neutral travels to respect the planet's health and beauty. The landscapes he photographs are the ones most at risk from the changes he is travelling to document. The approach is deliberate.
StardustImages.org sells photographs to raise money for charitable organisations. His first gallery show raised $1,000 for bicycle causes in Santa Barbara. He has donated work to Sarah House, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper and the Wilderness Youth Project.
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