Radiant Jasper 🇨🇦 ✨

A night I will never forget, the ethereal prisms of light dancing across the forested mountains of one of my favourite places in the world ✨

This campground was actually burned down a few years ago and was rebuilt over the last year. I'm not sure if it survived the fires this month, but I am sure that Jasper will bounce back as it always does 🇨🇦

This animation is a breathing guide, timed to reduce anxiety and increase mindfulness 😌

6 seconds inhale
6 seconds exhale

Repeat until relaxed ✨

Over The Mountain Green 🏔️🟢✨

While my dream may have come true to see the Aurora, I was a bit confused: where was the green? As the sky exploded with colour, most of it was pink and blue.

In almost all photos I had ever seen, the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) was a beautiful green colour, snaking across the sky as it moved through space and time. My friends in Scandinavia even call it the "Green Dragon" 🐉

Thankfully, I was not to be disappointed. As the pinks and blues faded away, new shards of green emerged, twinkling across the sky. But this was not the green dragon, this was something different. A deep ocean of green, stretching like prismatic waves across the mountainous skyline.

It was incredibly surreal experience to watch the entire night sky burst into green, showering me and everything around me with brilliant emerald light 🏔️🟢✨

And the show was just getting started 👀

PS this animation is a breathing guide to help reduce anxiety and increase mindfulness 😌 try breathing along to see how you feel ✨

A Dream Come True ✨

Witnessing the Aurora Borealis was a dream of mine for as long as I could remember.

Living in southern Canada, it is an extremely rare occurrence for the Aurora to appear, especially in Toronto, where the light pollution makes it impossible. I always dreamed of travelling north and being lucky enough to witness this incredible natural phenomenon.

A few weeks ago, I travelled to Jasper, one of Canada's largest dark sky preserves.

As luck would have it, I was camping with a panoramic view of the mountains at the same time that the Earth was struck by the greatest solar storm in 20 years.

What are the odds that I was in one of the darkest places in the world, at the same time the Earth was hit with the solar storm of the millennia, with perfectly clear skies?

My mind was absolutely blown as I looked every direction, watching the swirling colours as the sky was painted with an ever-changing rainbow of photons energized by the sun 🌈

It was a dream come true ✨

Prominenced Totality
Total Solar Eclipse - April 8, 2024
Music by petercloud.eth

One week ago, totality began. I spent the next 3.5 minutes in a state of pure awe, watching as the moon eclipsed the sun 🤯

Here is a series of unedited photos, animated to show the dynamic range of totality ✨

The music/sound was created by petercloud.eth, including actual raw sound from the surface of the sun and a breath of Peter's 😌

During totality, the sun is revealed in ways I had never before seen in my life, with both the corona and prominences.

The sun is WAY bigger than you think, with the corona stretching far out into the solar system, hotter than the surface of the sun.

At the surface, prominences (pink plasma) loop out into space and back to the sun.

I could see both the corona and the prominences with my naked eyes 🤯

I hope this helps share some of the awe I felt in that moment ✨

The animation is timed to be a breathing guide to reduce anxiety and increase mindfulness 😌 🧠

The full story of this photographic experience may be found here: www.wanderloots.com/recalibrating-43

Total Solar Eclipse - April 8, 2024

I feel incredibly grateful to have been able to witness the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse today in Canada ☀️🌑🌎

Here is a series of unedited photos, animated to show the moment of totality.

Despite the clouds, I managed to get some clear shots of totality, a moment of awe that will stay in my mind's eye for the rest of my life.

With so many people in the world unable to see this incredible event, I wanted to create something so that you could experience a sliver of the awe that I felt in that moment.

The video is timed to be a breathing guide to reduce anxiety and increase mindfulness 😌 🧠