Shooting for the skies Four women’s aurora photos focus of exhibit By: Matt Goerzen Posted: 3:00 AM CST Saturday, Mar. 8, 2025 Last Modified: 9:42 AM CST Saturday, Mar. 8, 2025

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They call themselves the Sisterhood of the Aurora Chasers.

Well, no, not really. But almost. Perhaps it’s an unofficial title.

Brought together by their mutual interest in outdoor photography and a growing love for astronomy and scientific study, four women from rural Manitoba have turned their hobbies into a lifelong passion.

But Jodi Baker, Alysa Ferguson, Tracy Gregorash and Donna Lach will also be sharing something else next month — the spotlight — when their best aurora photography is showcased at the ArtsForward centre in Neepawa as part of the Northern Skies Through Women’s Eyes exhibition.

“I’m going over and above with this exhibit because of the importance it is to me that we’ve got four female rural northern lights photographers who are all amazing in their own right,” said ArtsForward administrator Yvonne Sisley. “We have amazing artists in our community, and I always have just amazing exhibits. It’s so easy to find creative people in our area and our gallery always looks amazing.

“But this one, to me, we’ve knocked it out of the park with these four ladies bringing four different perspectives. Strong, all strong women, all women who’ve been through so much in their lives. And they’ve all found this art and have met and come together through this. To me, it’s a very, very special exhibit.”

The exhibit is part of the Flash Photographic Festival in Manitoba, which will run from April 1-30. Until now, the Flash Photographic Festival has always been held within Winnipeg city limits. But this year, organizers reached out to many of the rural galleries outside Winnipeg to see if anyone was interested to put on shows and be part of the festival.

“I knew right away, because we actually had just had Jodi doing an exhibit, and I knew some of these women. I reached out to her and we got a game plan together.”

Ferguson is from Thompson, Lach is from Plumas, Baker is a Neepawa resident and Gregorash is from Minnedosa.

“They all have different perspectives from where they are,” Sisley said.

“And just to kind of get them in and have it be an all-female northern lights show was pretty cool.”

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Donna Lach has nearly always had a camera in her hand.

At the age of 10, she took an interest in photography, and for the next 50 years she has enjoyed snapping shutters and adjusting camera settings as she focused on scenery and crocuses and lady slippers as subjects.

But it wasn’t until September 2014, that she discovered the joys of nighttime photography — particularly the magic of dancing aurora across her lens.

“I had heard someone in the news say that it would be a good night to see the aurora, and I thought, well, it’s something that I haven’t tried before. I want to try. So I went to Google to see what kind of settings I would need, and dug out my tripod and was able to capture the aurora then,” Lach said.

But she had trouble getting a good shot, as she had made a mistake in the focus settings. So she waited for another chance.

“I had found a website to follow for aurora alerts and had been able to capture (aurora) a few times until March 17 to 20, 2015. There was a huge solar storm, and I’d gotten the alert that said it was just blazing.”

Lach went out and found herself a spot near a big grassy marsh, and sat waiting for the sun to set. It was starting to get dark enough, but she couldn’t see them.

“I thought, why don’t I see any aurora? So I stepped on my car and looked up, and it was right above me, dancing wildly. That was the first big night, and the first night that I was able to actually get it focused.”

From that point on, Lach was hooked. She now goes out often, just to get out under the stars to view the night sky.

But her interest in the northern lights has evolved beyond the beauty of the image. Lach is part of a contingent of night sky observers who provide data on the aurora to the Aurorasaurus project, a NASA-led citizen science initiative that uses data collected by enthusiasts to learn more about what causes the phenomenon.

“Each report serves as a valuable data point for scientists to analyze and incorporate into scientific models,” reads NASA’s Aurorasaurus website.

Lach has also connected to a group in Finland known as Skywarden, which collects aurora reports. As a result, she has connected with women from around the world who share her passion for aurora chasing.

“Two are in Finland, one is in Denmark and the other one is in Germany. We chat together quite regularly about what they’re seeing there. And they can give me a heads up as to what’s happening before it gets dark here, or I can give them a heads up. There’s a lot of women around North America who I’ve connected with as aurora chasers and citizen scientists.”

Her goal is not to be some professional photographer or even a scientist, though she would love to sell her prints a little more. It’s the thrill of the chase that gets her out of bed and under the night sky in the middle of the night, and the chance to contribute to something larger than herself.

“If I can take some pretty pictures and I can sell a little bit here and there, and contribute to science, that’s my goal.”

In her conversation with the Sun, Lach said the experiences she has enjoyed in working with scientists and other amateur astronomers around the world has been fascinating. But when it comes down to it, she says it’s the local connections with like-minded women that have had the most meaning.

When she first started taking photos of the aurora, she was looking for a community online to talk about it, and she found other individuals here in Manitoba and in other provinces who she could communicate with. Over the years, this group has included Baker, Ferguson and Gregorash.

Rach says she has gone out aurora hunting with most of them, and keeps in regular contact with them. It’s a group friendship that she has grown increasingly fond of over the years.

“It’s the camaraderie that we have and the relationships that we have to share and experience and talk about, and encourage each other about. We celebrate our successes and help each other to get better and move forward, and pull each other along the road. That’s what the Sisterhood of the Aurora Chasers means to me.”

Her love of aurora chasing has also given her one more reason to get out of bed at night, even if it makes for some sleepless nights.

“You know, before this, if it was nighttime, I wanted to be sleeping. I had no interest in being outside. But the Aurora has taken me outside, and I just love being out there underneath the stars and skies and taking pictures and seeing what I can find in them.”

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Jodi Baker is a relatively new photographer who started hard into aurora photography during the COVID pandemic about four years ago.

Among the four women, Baker is unique, in the sense that she does not use professional gear to take her photographs.

Counterintuitively, she uses the latest iPhone.

“That’s everybody’s surprise because I only do iPhone photos,” Baker said. “I don’t even have a real camera. You just need to make sure you’ve got your tripod so you get the longest exposure possible, and just make sure your settings are right.”

Baker says iPhone photography works just fine for her aurora chasing, saying that the smartphone is an easy tool for anyone to use.

“You can just take a picture anywhere,” Baker said. “I don’t have to lug everything around, and they take beautiful pictures. I just like to be able to teach people that you can take beautiful aurora photos with whatever you have in your hand.”

That simplicity will come in handy next month when her photos hang on the walls of the ArtsForward gallery in Neepawa. As part of the exhibit, the gallery will be busing in several classes of students from the local school division to meet with the four photographers and learn about the Northern Lights.

Baker, who serves as the Town of Neepawa’s chief administrative officer, says she’s excited for the chance to meet the students and share her love of science and photography.

“I’m really looking forward to talking with them, showing them that they can get outside and enjoy nature, take some picture, and teach them a bit of the science. There’s a space weather app that I use, and so I’d like to teach them how to watch that and see what the data is doing, and whether its worth going outside or not.

“That I get to do it with these three women is amazing.”

Like Lach, Baker is also participating in some aspects of the citizen science project, though she fully admits she’s not as die hard as her friend from Plumas.

“I’m getting involved in that and making my reports and stuff. But yeah, (Donna) is our expert in guiding us along being a citizen scientist for sure.”

She says the biggest challenge for her is learning the science behind the aurora phenomenon, and figuring out how to read the data.

“Not that I’ve mastered it by any means, but to me, the challenge and the fun is learning the science behind it.”

Like Lach, Baker makes a dash for the door often when it comes to nighttime photography. Just this past week, she went out three times to catch aurora.

“Two were decent shows, one was kind of a bust, but it all depends on what the sun is doing. I’ve got a pending retirement, so now I’ll get to go out more often and stay out as long as I like.”

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Each of the four women photographers have been asked by Sisley to exhibit at least six of their favourite aurora photos for the ArtsForward gallery next month.

While the gallery for Northern Skies Through Women’s Eyes opens on April 1, the month-long exhibit includes a special public meet and greet on April 10.

But if anyone is interested in having a sneak peak at some of the art work that will be hung on the gallery walls, Neepawa’s Farmery Brewery has got you covered.

ArtsForward partnered with Farmery this year for this particular show, with the company putting one of each of the photographers stunning aurora photographs on cans of its Northern Lights lager, which is being sold as a four-pack.

“They’ve been a huge promoter and a huge sponsor for this,” Sisley said, adding that the company manufactured a short run of them.

“There’s very few left,” Sisley said. “So what they’ve done is they took off the shelves what they had left so we can have it for the artist meet and greet.”

While that may be the case for the time being, it may not be for long, according to Farmery Estate Brewery co-owner Lawrence Warwaruk, who said the plan was to see how much interest there was in the colourful beer cans with the local aurora pictures.

“The intention was, if there was an interest, is to offer other pictures that these women could offer,” Warwaruk said. “So it can almost be like a series. This is the series that we start with, and then there’s going to be a second series, like the next iteration.”

Each can has a QR code that matches the photography website of the artist featured on that particular can.

“I believe we’re showcasing really the best of Manitoba,” Warwaruk said. “Once you get out of the city centres, you really get a chance to see the northern lights. And they are something to see, to be honest.”

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If you asked the ordinary person on the street what makes the northern lights so mesmerizing and memorable, chances are they would say something about the beauty of the changing colours that dance across the sky.

From the reds and greens to the shades of purple and white, the colours of the aurora borealis are highly dependent on the kind of gases involved, as well as the altitude where collisions occur between charged particles and atmospheric gases, according the Canadian Space Agency.

But the dazzling aurora take on a different hue when you’re colour blind like Thompson kindergarten teacher Alysa Ferguson.

“We get a lot of great northern lights up here,” Ferguson says during a noon-hour break between classes on Friday. “We’re very spoiled and very lucky. And I think I like it because I really like the movements. I see them in white, like I’m colour blind. I can see purple, but it’s the movements I just love.

“I’ve memorized movement, so I started getting more into the science of it, and Donna’s been helping me a lot and a few others, to learn the different phases and formations.”

All of the four women photographers have their own online galleries where they publicly display their images and have them available for sale. Ferguson’s pictures tend to edited “colder” she says with hues of darker blues because she can see them and enjoy them more.

But looking at samples of her reflective and vibrant aurora photos, you’d never know it.

Like Lach, Ferguson describes herself as one of those hardcore “die hard” aurora photographers who go out under the night sky at all hours.

She normally goes by herself, and if the lights are really spectacular she’ll often stay out until two or three in the morning.

“So lots of people don’t like to go with me because I don’t like to leave,” she says, laughing. “I enjoy them the full maximum time.”

Sometimes her husband will come out, and every now and again her boys will come out and fish at night while she takes photos. Having family out there with her can be especially helpful when it comes to discerning the colours.

“My son will be like, oh mom, there’s a red aurora. You need to turn this way and get it right. He’ll point out things because he knows that I can’t see it right. So it’s nice.”

When Ferguson goes out, she takes a pair of cameras with her, with one camera set up for time lapses for her friend who’s looking for science research help, and the other that allows her to express her creative side.

“So my camera for scientific reports is (aimed) straight overhead, and then the other one allows me to angle, because we get a lot of different overhead formations and they move quickly. I have to be fast.”

As a teacher, Ferguson sees her participation in science as more than just an interesting hobby. She says women only make up about 30 per cent of the science field. The upcoming gallery exhibit in Neepawa is yet another chance to show the next generation of women that they can do the science too.

Part of the reason that the numerical gap between male and female scientists exists, she said, is that the lack of role models becomes self fulfilling.

“I feel it’s important to be a role model for younger women, because it shows them that girls can be in that position, they can do these things. And it can inspire the next scientist that is a woman, right? One way to improve it is women be put out there more in a visual spot where the girls can see us. I think it’s important to have women representation, since we are underrepresented in this field.”

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Minnedosa’s Tracy Gregorash, a retired teacher, says the community of women photographers is an incredible one.

Gregorash first met Lach and Ferguson on Twitter, finding that it was a great way to connect with other photographers.

She had actually bought a tripod from Lach so she could take photos of Comet NEOWISE in 2020, and the relationship seemed to blossom from there.

“We met up in Neepawa the first time in the evening, and she showed the best settings to help me out,” Gregorash wrote in a message to the Sun while on vacation in Cuba this past week. “Donna also helped me learn the settings for the aurora and how she would edit them.”

Aside from her love of aurora photography, Gregorash is also a big fan of storm chasing, and met up with another woman photographer named Jenny Hagen for her first real storm chase across Saskatchewan. The two ended up chasing a storm across the province back near Melita before they parted ways again.

“Another photography session happened when Donna, myself and another photographer named Eniko from Winnipeg drove to Thompson to meet up with Alysa. She hosted us at a beautiful cabin near Pisew Falls. Again, the camaraderie of lady photographers sharing the love of nature and photography was such a special experience.”

One of the characteristics shared by all aurora photographers is a desire — a burning one — to get out into the open air well after dark. Once she saw her first real show of aurora dancing across the night sky, Gregorash says she was hooked.

“I prefer to go out with company, but I go out on my own, too. I go and I’m terrified sometimes with the coyotes I hear that seem close and I park my car on the side of the road. I feel much better with company because often it is late at night and you’re on your own. But it doesn’t stop me.

“My husband thinks I’m crazy because I just jump in the car with my tripod and cameras and away I go to find the best spot.”

While she says she’s not as dedicated to citizen science as Lach, she has still signed up for Aurorasaurus, too. It’s Lach, she says, who keeps inspiring her to push forward and learn more.

“It’s her love of always looking at photos and saying “what do you think that is?” And she really looks at like the black aurora and she points out more than I can honestly say. I’m fascinated, I truly am.”

She says it’s that shared passion for photography and a kind of kinship that keeps them together. When they go out together, they can stop on the side of the road and no one will complain that they’re bored or don’t want to stop.

“Here I was with ladies with the exact same passion, and everybody’s like we’re all jumping out, all wanting to take photos of this and that and at the night sky at Pisew Falls.

“I think we just have a different type of passion about things. We all get along great because we enjoy the same thing. And when we get extra excited, it’s OK because we’re all ladies … and we’re not going to drive the guys crazy this way.”

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There are times when a name is just a name. And sometimes there can be more to it. Something underlying.

Months ago, when the four women first learned their photographs would be part of this exhibit, they were tasked with coming up with a name.

Lach says the name “Northern Skies Through Women’s Eyes” was the one they ultimately chose to go with. But there was another that cross their minds.

What resonated with the four of them was a shared experience they continue to build upon that goes beyond just the camera and even the aurora.

“You know, another name that we thought of was something about the Sisterhood of the Aurora Chasers,” Lach said. “But you know, that’s why we came up with the name Northern Skies Through Women’s Eyes, because of all the things I mentioned before.”

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