Laughter at Laughter Bay

The trip went to Lyngen this time. The lovely family from Singapore had chosen to stay in a cabin in Lyngseidet, in the middle of the Lyngen peninsula.

The lovely family from Singapore 

We had different options of where to go. We could have gone to Skibotn, but it's a place I've been visiting so much. Instead I decided to go north on the Lyngen peninsula, to Lattervik. Lattervik means Laughter Bay, and it was quite telling. Aurora was laughing when we arrived, and she kept laughing with us the whole night.

Try to spot the photographer.

To get a photo where the Aurora is mirrored in the water, it's important to find some water that is not moving too much. There is too often too much waves on the sea to get it right. The solution is a lake, if it's not frozen over, or a pond. On the beach there is almost always a pond to be found. If you're lucky you may also catch a photographer. 

Sometimes sitting on a rock is enough.

The last week of February was really tough in many ways. The weather was bad everywhere. Driving conditions were very difficult with a lot of ice and big dams of water on the roads. Clouds everywhere, no northern lights to be found and both Silvia and me were down with the flu. On the last day of February things changed to the better. We drove through snowy weather and I could hear a few people in the back of the van mumbling about not being able to see the Aurora. When we reached the destination it was very windy, very cold and a clear sky with Aurora dancing over our heads!

We went down to the beach and had a fantastic time. These three young gentlemen from tropical Singapore were laughed in the face of cold arctic climate as long as Aurora was having a beach party for them.

When I made this picture I was thinking of the use of foregrounds. Someone said about photography that "the World has been seen." Meaning that it is super important to try to find new angles to things. Bring your camera low, bring it high. Use the golden rule, brake the golden rule. Make pictures, don't just take them. It's too easy to get so overwhelmed by the northern lights that we forget to be photographers and just click away at the lights, forgetting to compose. 

Joe McNally, a great photographer and an excellent writer about photography, says he always tries to put a ballet dancer in the photo. So I did. Unfortunately Mariann Csikesz had hurt her foot so she couldn't strike a pose with a foot in the air or something. But she did great just sitting on a rock. Sometimes sitting on a rock is enough. We let Aurora do the dancing.

An Angel Looking Over Us

There has been an angel looking over us in February. So far I've only had one night out where we haven't seen the Northern lights. We've had many nights with very strong lights. Under this Aurora a couple got engaged! We have had some great nights going to many different places, but there are two places that are special in my heart.

The North Facing Fjord

In the bottom of this little fjord we stay protected from the wind and we enjoy a great scenery even without Aurora. I sometimes tell myself that I should stop coming here but, it's so beautiful that I cannot help myself.

When Aurora come to visit; this place is breathtaking.

 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

This place that some people call "The Moon," I call "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe." Or if we have had our dinner in the fjord I call it "The Café at the End of the Universe." Even without Aurora it's a nice place to stay. This is where I used to ski when I was a kid. (I'm still a kid in many ways, so you might catch me skiing here when my leg gets better.) When the moon is up we enjoy the landscape. When there is no moon we can see the stars better, even the Milky Way as on the above picture. 

Even though Aurora is a bit shy, we still enjoy taking photos and having a snack. It has happened that a group that has been chatting away in the car gets completely silent when they come here. It's like being closer to the Universe when you see all the stars and Aurora is dancing for you.

When Aurora comes to visit we feel really blessed.

 The picture under is special to me because it is taken looking south. It is rare to see the Northern Lights so far south towards the horizon. I think it's because we have a peak in solar activity this year. In Tromsø we can see the Northern Lights any year, but this year we see them more often to the south than usual.

This timelapse was largely shot at these two locations.

Hanging Out with the Wild Bunch from 37 Frames

A group of photographers from Japan or shall I say somewhere in that corner of the world came up to Tromsø to pay us a visit and to go Aurora chasing with us. We spent three nights and an afternoon together. Tracey Taylor and Dee Green are two very talented Australian photographers who live in Tokyo, Japan, and run 37 Frames. They put together a group of photographers and came exploring the north. I have to admit that I have rarely been with such a positive group of people. They are writing a series of no less than 3 blog posts from the trip. Read the first one here.

In the blog they mention a five seconds long time lapse that they did the second day. I made a short little answer to that one. Check it out:

On the third day it was cloudy, cloudy and then some more. We drove and drove, and ended up by the Finnish border. Normally people who don't get to see anything because of clouds just sit in the car. Not this gang. First of course we had to prove we were on the border to Finland.

Then Tracey and Dee started doing their thing. Which is photography!

They used two light sources and made some really cool shots. Some of them are here and here and even here.

Then a little chimping: