Fall 2021 - So Far

October 1st, 19:06

After a crazy year and a half things are finally starting to look like something normal. The winter of 2020 we had something called a solar minimum  so there was less Auroras than usual. Now the solar activity is picking up again and we’re looking forward to guests being able to visit us again and go chasing again. 

September 15, 23:49

September and October are great months to visit Tromsø and to see the Northern Lights. They are also the best months to see and to take photos of the Milky Way. 

September 15, 23:21

September 28, 20:56

September 29, 21:08

October 1st, 21:06

We hope to hang out with you on beaches, on the tundra and every dark place in between where we can see, enjoy and take photos of the Aurora and the starry sky. And of you under them.

October 1st, 21:17

October 3, 01:00

And we hope for many opportunities to see the lady dancing and dancing. We need more dancing this year. 

September 15, 23:50

September 15, 23:54

September 28, 23:14

September 28, 23:32

September 28, 23:32

September 30, 01:18

We have had our first trip over the border into Finland. As usual we found a starry sky and Aurora and while it was rainy and cloudy on the coast. 

October 10, 23:10

Fisheye Schizophrenia

Every time I pull out my fisheye lens my mind goes into schizophrenia. One part says: "This will be great!" and, another part says: "Fisheyes are overused, the images look cheesy and lensy and the effect is cheap and over-used!"

My teacher at Concordia University Mark Ruwedel, a distiguished landskape photographer and a fantastic teacher, didn't like images that looked "lensy." 

Sorry Mark. Sometimes I must be allowed... 

Or do you prefer this one that is shot with the narrower 14mm lens? 

34 things you need to know about dressing for the cold (or 8 if you're in a hurry)

Short Version

1. Dress in layers - many layers - 3 or more.
2. Wool closest to your body.
3. All the layers have to be loose.
4. Change your woolen socks frequently. 
5. Warm hat and warm boots.
6. Mittens, not gloves.
7. Use hand and feet warmers if you need. 
8. Be nice to the planet and the animals on it. 

Full version

1) 

Three layers is the basic for dressing in the cold.
The three layers are:

1. a thin layer next to your skin, called underwear. 
2. an insulating layer, thicker than the first layer.
3. an outside layer that protects against wind, rain and snow.

Full moon or no moon. What is best?

One of the most common questions that I get is about the moon.

Normally it goes like this:

"It's best to avoid the moon to se the Aurora. Right?"

or

"I read on the Internet that it's best to avoid the full moon."

or

"We booked our plane tickets so that we avoided the moon. At least we got that right. Right?"

Not right! To ask what is best, no moon or full moon is like asking what is best, coffee or tea. 

Full moon and Aurora.

The Lighthouse

There is a lighthouse just south of the island of Tromsø.
I've been thinking of it and wanting to take a picture of it for a long time. I've driven by it, seen it, imagined it , for a year. The problem is that most of the time when I go out to take Aurora photos, I'm not alone, I'm with a group of people. The places I choose are chosen because there can be a bunch of us together and we can take photos without us actually being in each other's photos.

Update! two new versions. New Music! Epic night and timelapse video

Sometimes it is nice to be flexible. Actually most of the time it's nice to be flexible. The weather turned out pretty bad on Monday and on top of that the newspaper called me to shoot video of the prime minister of Norway who was meeting local heroes from World War 2. After e-mailing the clients we decided to go on Tuesday instead. I got my time with the prime minister.

Tuesday night turned out to be the best night so far this season, one of the best shows that I've ever seen.

I'm first and foremost a photographer. I'm definitely not a musician. After having the video out there for a few days I've gotten some feedback about the music. Some like it others don't, and I've had some suggestions about what to put instead. Please tell me what you think.

The season has started!!!!!!

Finally the Aurora season is here! I'm stoked! 

Just outside our door, in our garden we witnessed the first Aurora show this season. I believe this season is going to be a great one. 

Corona!

All the photos were taken between 22:45 and 23:00 the night of August 28, 2014. The nights are not completely dark yet, but dark enough to see the Aurora for a few hours.

  I was wearing T-shirt when I shot these photos. A bit strange, and a lot of fun.

Please share the good news!

Searching Mr Kreutz – The end of the season

The season is over. The last tour on the night  of the year turned into an epic adventure that made me feel like I was in some Joseph Conrad novel searching Mr Kreutz. If you haven't read "Heart of Darkness" yet, I suggest you use the time before the next Aurora season to do so. For me it's there on the list of "must read." Together with "Catcher in the Rye" and "Crime and Punishment."

March 24 the weather was horrible in Tromso so we drove inland. It was horrible in Skibotn and the Skibotn valley too. At the border to Finland it was so much wind and snow that I could only see two meters in front of the car. Things were looking bad and I think that everyone in the car was expecting to see nothing but snow and clouds. I was worrying that the road may close. So that we would be stuck in No Man's Land (aka Finland). A few kilometers passed Kilpisjärvi I stopped the car to have a look outside. To my surprise I saw a completely clear sky. Lots of stars, and some clouds by the horizon to the west, were we came from.

We found a quiet place with good photo possibilities, and waited... and waited. Then as if it came out of nothing it was snowing. Snowing!! We had to go further in. We repeated this several times. We drove east, the snow caught up with us. We went further... Maybe Mr Kreutz and Mdm Aurora was waiting around the corner? Waiting to tell us that IF is the middle word of LIFE.

Aurora came and told us we were worthy of her presence.

A few nights later, March 27, we were celebrating the end of the season with another guide. Looking out the window we saw someone waiving us good bye. 

Good bye! see you soon!

After being used to go to bed at 6 am and waking up at 2 pm for the whole Aurora season, it was quite a shock for me when Silvia woke me up at 10 am the next morning. "you have to get used to it" she said. I did. And I had to start post production on her photos that she was going to exhibit. Ain't no rest for the wicked!

Could this be Mr Kreutz' daughter?

The photos took me back to the summer and the work Silvia had done with a very talented and expressive young dancer in Ersfjordbotn. Ersfjordbotn is one of my favorite places for Aurora pictures, but it turns out that it's also a very good location for dance pictures. 

Silvia had an exhibition in a gallery called Small Projects. She did it together with another cosmopolitan South American artist: Maria Eugenia Poblete Beas.

The exhibition was a success! There were lots of people on the vernissage. 

Guess What Waited for Me When I Got Home in the Morning?

The last week has been great. I've been shooting time lapses, and have lots of pictures to process. I think I have grown a little spoiled. Aurora has been dancing non stop this week, the weather has been very nice; cold and clear. 

Last night we waited until 9 pm until we saw her. Aurora danced for us for about 30 minutes before she almost stopped. 

 There were still activities but, very little.

We waited and waited. At 12:30 am, my guests were cold enough and wanted to go back. So we did. We were a short hours drive from Tromsø. After dropping the guests at their hotels, I went back home. Guess what I saw when I got out of the van at home at 2:15 am? You got it: Aurora. She was dancing. Partying. telling me who's in charge.

Aurora seen from my drive way.

Corona 

Corona saying good night.

Happy New Year! Happy Clear Skies!

Happy accident. A car lighting up the foreground and making flare in the lens.
Luck and chance is and has always been a part of photography.

2013 has been a remarkable year for us at Creative Vacations. We have seen a lot of Aurora, been fighting to find a clear sky, we have increased the number of tours and the number of clients. Vidar has recovered from his broken leg, Silvia is doing more art and she is now preparing two exhibitions.

Aurora dancing for us on the last tour of the year.

I don't want to bore you about stories about bad weather and the search for clear skies. I know you all want to see the Northern Lights not a clear sky. But here's the thing: If we find a clear sky; there's a 80-90% chance to find the Northern Lights. So I and the other Aurora guides drive around searching the clear sky. The Northern Lights take place 180 km to 500 km up in the atmosphere. So if we drive one hour to the west or one hour to the east, doesn't matter for the Northern Lights, but it makes an enormous difference for the weather. Sometimes driving just ten minutes makes all the difference.

Tough weather!

How do we find the clear sky then. For me it's a combination of forecast and local knowledge. I'm from a family of fishermen. My family has lived here for generations. We have a profound interest in the weather. Even more than the average Norwegian.

Do I always find clear skies? No.
Do I often find clear skies? Yes.
Do I find clear skies when the others don't? Sometimes.
Do others find clear skies when I don't? Sometimes.
Is local knowledge important to find clear skies? Yes.
Is luck  important to find clear skies? Sometimes.
Can you trust the forecast? No.
Can you trust the forecast more than local knowledge? No.
Do I find a clear sky when the forecast tells there is none? Often.

December 27th.

December 29th.

December 30th.

Since we came back from spending the Christmas in London we have been out four nights. On those four nights the forecast has predicted overcast. Still we have had clear skies and Aurora on three out of four nights. On the night of the 29th, the forecast predicted a window in the clouds around midnight, it started raining instead. The day after on the 30th, it looked so bad in the afternoon that I offered the clients to cancel. None of them did, and it turned out to be super clear and super good Aurora. That was the best way for me to end 2013. Not let us all make 2014 the best year ever!

Going the extra mile - or not...

 I'm all in favor of going (or shall I say driving?) the extra mile. But sometimes it's best to stay home.

Last nights we had some guests with extra needs, so the arrangement was a little different. We were extremely lucky with the weather, and with madame Aurora. Aurora showed up at the time when I would normally pick up the clients, but yesterday was special in that way too.

Statistically there is most Northern Light activities from 10 to 11 pm. That's statistic. Yesterday there were most activities from 6 to 10 pm. A week ago there was an explosion at 2 am. To check it out for yourself, please go to http://flux.phys.uit.no/cgi-bin/mkstackplot.cgi?&comp=H&cust=&site=tro2a&Sync=& Click on real time to see what is happening now, or what happened an hour ago. Click on Prev. day to see how it has been. If the graph stays flat, there is no activity, if it goes up or down, something is happening. Be aware that even if the graph is flat we can often still see the northern lights.

This photo was taken on 25.11.2013 at 23:34
Here are the activities: http://flux.phys.uit.no/cgi-bin/mkstackplot.cgi?&comp=H&cust=&site=tro2a&Sync=1385420400&

Back on our not so usual day on Håkøya. Here are Silvia's photos taken a few hundred meters from our house.