Most landscape photographers pack up at sunset. I'm just getting started.

I'm Scott Rud, a Minnesota-based landscape and astrolandscape photographer. My work follows the light most people miss — the blue hour after the sun drops, the first stars over Lake Superior, the slow wash of aurora across a North Shore sky. I'm drawn to the idea that a place doesn't stop being beautiful when it gets dark; it just asks for more patience, and a longer shutter.

Minnesota is the constant in my work. Whether it's a quiet stretch of shoreline, a fog-covered forest, or the Milky Way rising over a familiar ridge, I'm photographing the state I live in and know well — not chasing exotic locations, but finding what's extraordinary in the ground beneath my own feet. That said, the pull of night skies has taken me farther too, including trips to Norway to photograph the aurora at its source.

My prints are exhibited at SEMVA Gallery in downtown Rochester, MN, where I get to meet many of the people who bring this work into their homes. For those farther away, the collection is available here online — so wherever you're standing, a piece of a Minnesota night can find its way to your wall.