I was caught off guard when my buddy posted a photo of the capitol tower with the American Flag colors adorning the front windows on his Bismarck Bubble page. How did I not know this was coming? I’m normally so plugged in! Of course, 2026 has not been my year. I ramped up in December 2025 with plans to “flip the script” on what had been four pretty awful years in many respects…but 2026 has had plans of its own. Nevertheless, I persist. I’ve been focusing on a threefold plan to take care of my spiritual, physical, and emotional wellbeing, and I’ve been succeeding wildly despite some pretty terrible circumstances. One component of that is actually getting out with my camera, which I have managed to do a little bit despite not posting anything here (yet). Running out to get my own photos of this beautiful capitol tower fits in perfectly with that plan.

First off: how about these colors? They’re amazing. They’re vibrant, brilliant, and not the least bit faded or washed out. They look stunning. They’re an absolute delight, and the photos are representative of how they really look in person – no “Saturation slider” in Photoshop going on here.

Jory and his crew from Nightlife were still tearing down a bunch of their gear at the top of the loop road, since they had a gig for the car show earlier in the day. That cramped my style; I couldn’t find any angles I wanted. I figured I’d go roam around and do some other stuff, maybe just enjoy the fireflies in the cattails behind my house for a bit. That’s when I realized something: The auroras were out. Northern Lights? I hadn’t counted on that. That meant it was time to let the fireflies be fireflies and bolt back into town and to the capitol.

Jory and crew were buttoned up and gone, so I grabbed a few shots from the angle I wanted. The big stage trailer was still…well, staged in position, so a straight shot from the grass wasn’t really in the cards. But that’s okay…I wanted the flag poles in there more prominently anyway.

I did manage to get some pretty cool aurora shots like this one. I haven’t played around with them all, but there are some good ones. The lights started to streak pretty heavily and even do that thing where “sheets of light” dart across the sky into a “vortex” overhead.

This is that vortex. I took my iPhone 17 Pro and pointed it straight up, using a beta Adobe app that does some wicked nighttime stuff by belting out a ridiculous number of exposures and then doing its wizardry on it to remove noise and stuff. This is one of my favorite aurora borealis features, and it doesn’t happen all the time. Conditions have to be just right – and they were.

The clouds started to roll in, the auroras waned a bit, and I felt satisfied in moving on and calling it a night. I got a couple of cool shots, and for once I was there right when the conditions were perfect. I’ve often said the secret to a great photo is “right place, right time.” This was proof of that.

I was so delighted to get the camera out of the bag for the first time since February 16th, roam around a little bit, take in a historic display in the capitol windows, and let the Lord sprinkle in a little of His own design with some auroras. The heavens declare the glory of God, as Psalm 19 says.

Happy independence Day, everyone! It sure started out happy for me!