Photo: Dan Zafra
Photography has a way of leading us into rare and unrepeatable moments. Such was recently the case for photographer Dan Zafra, the co-founder of Capture the Atlas. While capturing the dark skies of New Zealand, Zafra witnessed red sprites flashing above the Milky Way. Making it even more special, the scene was accompanied by some Aurora Australis glow and a little comet called SWAN.
Zafra says he was photographing at the Clay Cliffs, South Island, New Zealand, on October 11, 2025 under clear skies when he began to notice faint flashes on the horizon from a distant thunderstorm over the Southern Alps in New Zealand. "At first, they looked like normal lightning, but after a few test shots, I realized my camera was capturing red sprites," Zafra explained.
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Red sprites are luminous flashes that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, typically at altitudes between 50 and 90 kilometers (unlike traditional lightning, which is within the lower atmosphere). They are almost impossible to see with the naked eye, but in images, they appear as red tendrils and usually only last a few milliseconds. They are a rare phenomenon, especially in New Zealand, where major lightning storms are rare.
Zafra said it was even more magical because of how things aligned. He explained that he could see the Milky Way glowing above the horizon while seeing red tendrils of light above the storm hundreds of kilometers away. "It was one of those moments when you know you’re witnessing something you’ll probably never see again," he said.
To capture this incredible event, Zafra used a Sony a7 III with a Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM lens. His settings for the sky exposure were F1.4, 10 sec. and ISO 6400, while the foreground exposure was a longer 2 minutes (with the rest of the settings remaining the same). He says he used minimal contrast and noise adjustments during processing. He blended the foreground for clarity, but didn't use any other stacking or star-tracking techniques.
Zafra also created a timelapse video of the event that shows the sprites flashing in real time. It shows just how fleeting those flashes are.
Zafra added that, as far as he's been able to find, there are no previously registered images or timelapses showing red sprites and the Southern Hemisphere Milky Way together. "I’ll never forget the adrenaline rush of seeing those first frames appear on my camera, realizing what I had captured," he explained. "I felt incredibly lucky to be there; in the right place, at the right time, and ready for it." Moments like these remind us how powerful a tool photography can be.
