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

One Night, Four Photographs, Four Settings: White Balance and Aurora Borealis Photography

What is the correct white balance for Aurora photography?

Like almost all answers to questions about photography it starts with "It depends."

First of all there is hardly any such thing as "correct white balance" in any photograph. It is an esthetic choice. What do you want to communicate? What kind of mood do you want? and, what feels right to you? Two photographers may very well interpret the same situation and scene differently. To learn more about white balance visit this article on how to get it right.

2 things I go for 

1 - I want the photograph to look close to what I saw in the nature.

2 - I want the photograph to feel as how I felt it. In the winter that mostly means "cold."

The night it got complicated

Saturday March 7, things got more complicated than usual. 

My normal standards are  4000 Kelvin in moonlight, and 3200 Kelvin on nights without moonlight. Or tungsten/incandescent setting for no moon, and fluorescent setting for moonlight.  

Now that we have reached March the days are much longer than January and February. That means that in the beginning of the night there is still a lot of daylight. The sun sat at 17:08 that night. But, here in the north the sun sets at such an angle that it takes a long time from it sets until it gets really dark. Astro twilight lasted until 20:37 that night. So when we got out of the studio at 19:00 it was still twilight. There was also another type of light: Northern Light. The photo below is shot from the field across the road from the studio on Håkøya.

Aurora showing up early at night, late in the season. Photo taken at 19:05.

The white balance settings are very different from twilight to night. The twilight is also called "The blue hour."

The Aurora Portraits

As a service to those who join our tours I always try to make portraits of everyone who wants. Sometimes the conditions don't allow it, and sometimes the photographers on the tour are too busy taking their own photos. But very often it happens. I don't take the photos to show off on Facebook or here on the blog. I do it as a service to everyone who wants to come Aurora chasing with us.

Often there are couples who are on their honey moon. 

Or couples who are just really sweet...

Or a radio star from Ireland.

A series of family portraits:

And this gang from India who cam with me in spite of horrible weather forecast. The forecast turned out to be wrong and we enjoyed a very nice show. This is one of the biggest groups we do, and only on special request. Normally we only have small groups. 

 A very busy photographer.

And people taking a break and just watching the sky.

The photos are done in a very simple manner. I just use one flash, mounted on the camera. Yeah I know it's not very "professional", it's down and dirty press-photographer's style. But hey, that's what I am when I'm not doing Aurora tours. The portraits are memories for the ones who come on these trips. My main focus is to help the client get good photographs, and to experience the Aurora. That's what important. 

The way to do these photos is to use a flash to light up the face of the person, and then to let the time go so that the ambient light in the background comes in. Thus the exposure times are fairly long for portraits. Often 10 - 15 seconds. It is important to stand still all the time during the exposure. I could have gone for a shorter time, but then the ISO would have been too high, or the depth of field too short. To learn more about flash and ambient light check out Strobist, or come to one of my tours and practice for yourself.