About the Artist

Shawn Malone is a landscape photographer and visual artist having made Marquette, Michigan her home for nearly 25 years. Drawn to the region by the alluring forces of Lake Superior, it was a natural progression to develop her niche in the world of landscape photography with a body of work focused on the grand landscape of the Lake Superior region.  

Shawn is in her 11th year running Lake Superior Photo 

Gallery - Studio - a photographic art gallery storefront of her own work in downtown Marquette, MI. She is honored and humbled by the many people that visit the gallery every year from near and far that share the same appreciation for the natural wonders of our region and beauty around us. 

In 2005, Shawn began exhibiting at top juried outdoor art shows around the country with her work receiving numerous awards. She still continues to exhibit at a few art shows each summer. Shawn is an exhibiting member of the   Ann Arbor Art Fair with the Michigan Guild, where she has exhibited since 2008.  Shawn's landscape photographic art of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Lake Superior region can be found on the walls of businesses, medical centers, offices, hotels, restaurants, and homes around the country. 

Shawn's art and art gallery have been featured in television shows such as Under the Radar Michigan, Great Lakes Now, and John McGivern's Main Street.   Her extensive aurora and night sky photography and videography has been internationally published, and her work has been recognized and awarded most notably by the Smithsonian, among others.  

Shawn's uniquely immersive night sky aurora borealis time lapse work which has been captured mostly in Upper Michigan, and entirely the Upper Midwest, has received numerous awards and has appeared in national television shows and movie documentaries, most recently in National Geographic's "America's National Parks". 

Shawn's interest in the night sky and aurora began with her first aurora photo on negative film in the late 90's. It was a different time back them with no instant results such as digital cameras provide now, (digital also greatly aids in the learning process too!) and waiting for and finally seeing the results on a paper print was frustrating, but magically unforgettable!

Shawn immensely enjoys helping others experience that exhilaration of capturing their first aurora and Milky Way in a photograph.  She also guides seasoned astrophotographers to optimal locations in the region for compelling, artistic nightscapes.  

In the past few years, Shawn has been studying wet plate collodion, one of the first photographic processes invented in the 1850's. This is a logical progression for her, as her focus has always been about creating PHOTOGRAPHY with minimal post processing that is authentic and true to the subject being photographed.  She looks forward to producing a new body of work of wet plate collodion originals using glass, silver, light, and an 8x10 large format camera. 

Shawn enjoys presenting on the aurora and night sky and has been speaking for over 10 years at theaters, schools, libraries, camera clubs, state and national parks, dark sky parks, and anywhere else interested in discovering the night sky. 

She enjoys educating and inspiring others about the night sky and motivating them to get outside under a calm sparkling night sky and contemplate the cosmos.    

Shawn has a new program premiering in 2024 that dives deeper into all things aurora and night sky.   Check back for dates of this immersive event! 

Shawn has over two decades of experience photographing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Lake Superior region and enjoys sharing her insights, helping aspiring photographers be in the right place at the right time to discover and capture the natural beauty of this region's wonders. She has been leading workshops in the Upper Peninsula for over 10 years.   

There's nothing better than seeing the success of participants after having learned something that they always wanted to and grow to become successful at capturing stunning photographs! 

Memories and friends are made during these photography workshops. It is truly gratifying the number of old and new friends that return year after year for a new photographic reunion!