Photographer Recalls the Challenges of Filming a Surfer Under the Northern Lights in Winter

Photographer and filmmaker Chris Burkard sat down with Great Big Story to talk about his love for the art, how started specializing in surfing photos and films, his passion for the unknown. He also of the challenges he faced while trying to film a surfer under the Aurora Borealis in Iceland during the winter for his film “Under an Arctic Sky“.

We’re sitting in the boat we’re looking at this wave. It was everything we had hoped for. The captain came out and said that the largest storm at 25 years is coming right now and we literally had to turn and hightail out of their back to the harbor. The weather changed like that and it was like Armageddon people were just like getting food storage and stocking up. All the flights were grounded, so we made this decision that we’re gonna drive 11 hours to the next safe town so we don’t come home empty-handed.

A photo posted by ChrisBurkard (@chrisburkard) on Jan 11, 2017 at 9:01am PST

The trailer for the hard won “Under an Arctic Sky”