Aurora Borealis

What does the aurora borealis have to do with orcas?

Not much! However, Haro Strait and San Juan Island — a frequent haunt of orcas, humpbacks, and greys — feature in most of our aurora portraits offered here.

We love that even at mid-latitude, our eyes or (more often) our cameras have regular views of the Northern Lights. In 2025 alone, Jenna captured 30 distinct auroral displays. The spectrum of colours often departs from the typical green to feature bright pinks, peaches, reds, turquoise, and more. Further, the colours and patterns may undergo dramatic transformations as substorms come and go in the same night.

Fun fact! The cones of our retinas are what detect colours and colour variations. Their sensitivity wane with age. But even in young eyes, they are not as sensitive as the current generation of DSLR camera and even cell phones (with night mode). Below shows an example of how a mid-latitude aurora short of a G4 storm might appear to the human eye (left) compared to what the camera sees (right).