We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vincent Ledvina. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vincent below.

Vincent, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My film ‘Aurora Chaser’ just released in October was the proudest work I’ve ever released. I compiled over 50,000 photos from a 15-night trip to Churchill, Manitoba into a timelapse film with music and my own voiceover that expresses the feelings and motivations I have towards aurora chasing. As a photographer, while I love creating beautiful photos, as an artist, I try and inspire people to go out and enjoy the natural world. I love witnessing the aurora–it’s a powerful experience standing underneath a sky shifting and writhing in a rainbow of colors, and through timelapse filmmaking I try and convey the experience of being in that time and place alone with the universe.

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Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a professional aurora chaser and photographer as well as a first-year graduate student and active research scientist. I have always been fascinated by the natural world, since a young age I’ve been interested in outer space and attracted to the night sky. I grew up in Minnesota and frequently took camping trips in the wilderness through the Boy Scouts. I fell in love with camping and being surrounded by nature. My dad, an engineer and former photographer gave me an old camera to play around with when I was just 13 years old and I took it camping and on family vacations. Soon enough, I was combining my passions for photography and outer space into astrophotography!

In Minnesota, I once saw a very bright auroral display while camping and the beauty of it immediately drew me in. I took my first aurora photo when I was 16 and never looked back. I dove headfirst into “real” photography, purchasing my first camera, a Canon 60D, and learning the basics like manual mode and RAW photo editing. I also spent hundreds of hours learning the science of the aurora, how to interpret space weather data products, track the aurora, and decide when and where to go for the best chances of photographing them. Aurora photography is 90% chasing the lights just to witness them and 10% taking the photo. Even after 7 years of aurora photography, I am still learning new things every time I go out, and the chase to find clear skies, scientific knowledge to interpret solar wind and auroral data, and patience in the field make aurora photography a novel experience every chase–no two auroras are the same and no two chases are the same!

What sets me apart from other photographers is my scientific background and my motivation to provide educational knowledge about the aurora and its photography. I began a YouTube channel, Apalapse, around the same time as I began photography, and through painstaking animation and voiceover, I provided educational photography videos that now have an audience of over 150,000 subscribers. Beginning school at the University of North Dakota (UND) in 2018 for my B.S. in Physics, my time with Apalapse was replaced by aurora chasing and scientific studies. While at UND I was the president of the astronomy club there, founded an aurora camera project (North Dakota Dual Aurora Cameras) which I have presented at international conferences, and I was able to intern with a NASA citizen science project, Aurorasaurus. These experiences gave me a breadth of knowledge I could apply to aurora chasing and my photography, and after graduating college in May 2022, I was armed with a unique skill set that I knew could be extremely valuable to online aurora chasing communities. I began posting my aurora photos and aurora-chasing adventures on Instagram, eventually finding success and growing my account to over 130,000 followers in just one year. Now, I am an intern at a solar physics research company in San Diego and living in Fairbanks, Alaska in preparation to start graduate school at the local university to study the aurora! Through social media, conference presentations, and my active research projects with international collaborators, I hope to be an educational and inspirational figure in the aurora chasing community, devoted to making aurora photography more accessible so that everyone can be inspired just like I was many years ago.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My energy is derived from the potential to make a positive impact in the aurora chasing and space weather communities. Not only do I love the aurora and its sheer beauty, but photography is a vehicle by which I can express what I feel in the field and inspire others.

My goal is to make aurora chasing and aurora photography more accessible–the science behind the aurora and the concepts of photography don’t have to be confusing. I was new to aurora chasing and photography at one point, and I want to make the experience of learning advanced concepts as simple and as straightforward as possible. I believe I can use my skills and motivation to create a more educated and informed public who understands what auroras are, how to find them, and how to photograph them.

The auroras, as simple as they may seem, have completely transformed my life, and now, it’s my job to share that experience and cultivate transformations for others.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Find something that you are passionate about, TRULY passionate about. This applies to life in general–having purpose, goals, and motivation is so important to fulfillment. Once you have found that passion, it will be natural to want to share your skills and motivations with others. Social media is the way you can channel your passion and if you are truly motivated to share your gifts and knowledge, the quality, quantity, and personal connections through your content creation will come naturally.

I knew I was passionate about auroras, but I was also passionate about many other things–sustainability, astronomy, hiking, and football. What I did early on, though, was seriously reflect on my thoughts and search for that ONE thing that was central to my purpose in life. That so happened to be auroras, and now that I look back on life, it seems like everything has aligned with that one central idea. The realization of this didn’t happen right away, but was rather solidified over time through physical experiences–trying new things to test my interests.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vincentledvina.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vincentledvina/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vincentledvina
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincentledvina/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vincent_Ledvina
• Youtube: @VincentLedvina