“The concept began as sketches in 2021,” says Reuben Wu of his “Siren” series. He’d created his “Aeroglyphs” series by using drones equipped with lasers to create geometric light patterns in his images. But he wanted to create something more fluid. “The breakthrough came during a family trip to Lake Michigan in August 2024,” he says. He was testing a new laser technique during the Perseid meteor shower when the aurora borealis made a surprise appearance, “extremely rare at this latitude in the summer,” he says. He found that when he moved the drones toward the shore, the movement of the waves as they hit the beach modulated the laser light, which resulted in the curtainlike look when captured during a long exposure. Meanwhile the sky is filled with stars, shooting meteors, and gorgeous green light.

Process: To create the photos, he mounted lasers to drones, which he flew over the water in the darkness. Exposures were around 15 seconds. “The challenge was to find the sweet spot where I could capture aurora glow and the laser-created forms without overexposing any element,” he explains. He typically shot at ISO 800-1600 with apertures around f/4 to get enough light and still maintain sharpness. 

Equipment: For the light patterns, he used a custom-mounted laser fiber optic on a DJI drone. For the captures, he used a Fujifilm GFX100 II or a Fujifilm GFX100RF mounted on a sturdy tripod for long exposures.

The challenges: It was difficult to balance the three main elements: the moving aurora, the occasional meteor streaks, and the lasers. “I was adjusting exposure times on the fly to time the duration of the laser forms,” he says. “In situations like this, you rely heavily on intuition and enter a flow state.” 

Amanda Arnold is a senior editor.