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Image (Left) courtesy of Steve Lansdell of myself in front of Oxararfoss waterfall, Iceland.
January 2025 Norway. Aurora hunting
January 2025
In search or the Northern Lights.
It’s that time of year again where I head off to the Norwegian Arctic Circle & begin my adventure in Alta which is 69° North. From there we drive towards Karasjok where we meet up with our Sami friends, park the van up & then head to the cabins as Ravnastua on snow scooters.
It’s a harsh environment to work in let alone try & operate camera gear. Temperatures on average sit at around -15C but frequently dip down to -25C & has been as cold as -37C. Its a strange experience to feel the environment stealing the heat your body despite your best efforts to keep warm so you have to move & generate some body warmth to try & combat it.
I’ve been very fortunate with my trips here & have seen the Aurora every time, it’s not always strong displays but the more subtle ones can often be prettier with the more delicate colours picked up by the camera. Even shooting the aurora whilst there was some post sunset colour to be had in the southern sky, it was a real challenge with multiple exposures to create the panoramic image to capture this rarity.
There are plenty other things to get up to other than waiting for the aurora to show up. We often venture up on to the Finmark Plateau to watch sunrise/sunset as they both are the same event where the sun crests & rolls along the horizon before dipping back down out of sight. Quite an experience to observe along with the post sunset colours which take a long time to fade in to darkness.
Often dog sled teams come by the cabins & is also an opportunity for the tour guests to have an excursion with them. It’s quite a thing to hear nothing but the sound of the sled sliding across the snow as its being pulled by 6 dogs. They provide some really great photographic opportunities.
This year (Jan 2025) I have been asked to lead the adventure by Alister as he is unable to make it, frustrating all round & I’ll miss not having my friend there to prank & be pranked by. Still, i’ll be sure to send him photos of what he’s missing during solar max in the Arctic circle to put a big smile on his face.
10-11th October 2024
Well that was quite a night & one of note to make my first blog about, not sure I could top that as a first entry here.
Normally I head up to the Arctic circle to enjoy the Aurora but once again the approaching solar maximum has other ideas & spat out an X-flare directly at our little rock floating in space. As always though there was no guarantee of the aurora being visible, only hope & a backup plan of shooting some deep space objects on a crystal clear night. I headed out to Bradwell-on-sea in Essex (51.7° North). Once the cloud began to break up it was obvious that the telescope & tracker was going to stay in the car with a green colour visible at the bottom of the Plough. Over the course of the next hour or so the clouds began to dissipate to reveal the colours of the aurora which were all visible by eye. It was a night that kept on giving as multiple waves of aurora kept bringing more excitement & hope for stronger displays. I ended up taking a chance with a lul in activity to get in the car & hit the road to try & find a new location with some interesting foreground but 20 minutes out I could see the aurora was ramping up again with the promise of something strong about to happen (00:20). I managed to find an entrance to a field & jumped out of the car, with only moments to spare I mounted the camera on to the tripod & was treated to a wall of colour begin to weave its magic & the sky disco was in full dance mode. I took a few record shots before standing back to fully enjoy the display & watch it move overhead. For the next 10-15 minutes the night air was filled with my uncontainable laughter.
Sometimes it’s not about the photography, all your effort & concentration is on the viewfinder which means you miss what is really happening about you. Let go of the distraction & be immersed by what’s going on & really get to enjoy them rare moments.
What a night….