Creativity on a Cloudy Night

Tonight was very very cloudy. Luckily for me it was my night off. My good colleagues drove far far away and found the Aurora behind the clouds. We did a little Christmas shopping, and a little Christmas cleaning and it was when I was outside doing a little Christmas snow shovelling that I saw the motiv of tonight.

 The wind had stopped, the rain had stopped. Everything was quiet. And monochrome.
I could not resist being a little creative. Aurora is not the only motiv that exist at night. Beauty is everywhere.

Driving to Finland and back, only to find Aurora in our back yard.

Yesterday was one of those challenging nights. Clouds and more clouds, and some snow and rain.
Everywhere.
I talked to the local weather guy and he said my best chance was Skibotn or Kilpisjärvi. So we drove to Skibotn to find rain, then to Kilpisjärvi to find clouds. Finally we gave up and headed home.

Just when we made the last turn, where we could see our beloved Tromsø, we saw a light on the sky. And no it wasn't a cloud lit by the city lights. It was HER! Lady Aurora! We stopped at Berg just outside town. We had a show that lasted 45 minutes.

Troll marshmallows makes an excellent foreground. 

And so does trees.

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!