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Arctic Norway in January.

I'm sitting down by the log fire after two weeks of shooting in the far north. I have a folder with 1TB of RAW files to rummage through. Might take a while :)

This image was taken in Grovfjord, a real hidden gem that sits half way between Senja and Lofoten. Most people think of January as one of the dark winter months, but there is just enough light to bring the colours too :)

#Norway #Photography #Lumix #EwenInNorway
Clear skies in Grovfjord. Flat water. Hues of blue giving way to the pink and peach of dusk.
#photography #Norway #lumix #eweninnorway
Ewen Bell 📷
I love the combination of winter cold and clear skies. Indeed the coldest days are the clearest up here.

Blue skies, a fjord freezing over with ice, and just a hint of sun even though it's still below the horizon at this time of year.

#Norway #Photography #Lumix #EwenInNorway
Fjord ice cracking in the foreground, with snow covered mountains in the background.
#photography #Norway #lumix #eweninnorway
Ewen Bell 📷
Sometimes when I sit and watch the fire, I can almost imagine what the sun is like. The fluidity. The motion. The flux and chaos.

Our little planet is so calm and gentle in comparison to most of the known universe.

#Photography #Norway
Birch wood burning hot in the iron stove.
#photography #Norway
Ewen Bell 📷
I'm often asked what lenses to pack for travel in the Arctic, and while I lament the chore of lugging about a telephoto there are the occasional moments when punching in to a mountain ridge is exactly the creative direction I want to take.

This is a popular walk with locals in the Grovfjord area. My idea of a walk however usually ends in hotdogs or cinnamon scrolls :)

#Photography #Norway #Lumix #EwenInNorway
Can never remember the name of this mountain ridge. But it's in clear view all over Grovfjord. I love peering through a layer of birch branches for a sense of depth and distance.
#photography #Norway #lumix #eweninnorway
Ewen Bell 📷
Stepped out this morning when I saw the light hitting nearby peaks. It started off pink but turned a little peach by the time I got out there with a lens :)

#Norway #Photography #Lumix #EwenInNorway
Morning light cutting through the valley at Grovfjord, catching on the snow filled peaks and lighting up the birch forest on the mountain flanks. Lumix S series full frame with the Sigma 60-600mm telephoto.
#photography #Norway #lumix #eweninnorway
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leChris :mastodon: hat dies geteilt

Ewen Bell 📷
Every so often I remember to try a panorama of the location where I am. Am rarely disappointed. Something about the compression plus wide aspect feels lovely compared to just shooting with a super wide lens.

Anyhoo, will start sharing pics outside of Grovfjord soon. Still working my way through the backlog of RAW files. This was taken yesterday when the light was peachy.

#Photography #Norway #Lumix
Wide scene of the fjord at Grov, looking to the south from Balteskard. Taken with a Lumix S series full frame and the Sigma 60-600mm.

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Ewen Bell 📷
Early January in Tromsø is a great time to catch some Nacreous Clouds. We saw a heap of these over the course of a week. They don't photograph very well though, as a lack of structure/texture is their nature.

These kinds of clouds are caused by sunlight over the horizon hitting high altitude clouds.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/clouds/other-clouds/nacreous

#Nacreous #PearlyClouds
A break in the clouds let me shoot through to the higher elevations with nacreous cloud.
Zoom in on the same frame

Nacreous clouds

These clouds form over polar regions in the lower stratosphere when the Sun is below the horizon, glowing in vivid colours as they are illuminated from below.
Met Office
#nacreous #pearlyclouds
Ewen Bell 📷
There are loads of really cool mountains around Narvik.

Most folks think of Tromsø or Lofoten or Senja. Narkiv and points south are pretty special as well. Can recommend.

#Photography #SlowExposures #Norway #VisitNarvik
Polar night in the Narvik region. A glow in the sky behind the clouds bleed light into the snow dusted cliffs of yet another Norwegian mountain.
#photography #Norway #slowexposures #visitnarvik
Ewen Bell 📷
Hoping to get a nice timelapse out of this scene today. Clear skies are such a treat in the middle of winter.

#Norway #Photography #Lumix #EwenInNorway #VisitNarvik
Just caught a glimpse of the sun coming down the fjord at Grov
Herring Gulls dancing in the breeze
Cloud and sunlight breaking on the mountain ridge
Morning light peeping around the corner of Nova, casting golden hues across Grovfjord and my tripod setup.

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Ewen Bell 📷
Time lapse from Grovfjord, with the midday sun clipping the horizon and so very very nearly popping through to greet the village.

#Norway #Photography #LumixS9 #Grovfjord #VisitNarvik
#photography #Norway #visitnarvik #lumixs9 #grovfjord
Ewen Bell 📷
Let the sun shine in.

Today we had lots of lovely sunshine kissing the cheeks. I love the combination of sunny and cold.

#Norway #Photography #Lumix
Birch and snow
Glimpse of the sun peering through the pine forest
Sunlight glistening on the water
#photography #Norway #lumix
Ewen Bell 📷
I did leave the comfort of my log fire last night, and the clouds did clear away in time for a little aurora activity around midnight.

This planet is just such a remarkable place to live. It's worth preserving.

#Photography #Norway #Aurora #Nordlys #Lumix
The wave and dance of an aurora pulsing overhead in Grovfjord, with the silhouette of a tree and a snow capped mountain.
#photography #Norway #aurora #lumix #nordlys
Ewen Bell 📷
Two things I wanna point out about the techy stuff.

Firstly, the scene always always looks brighter on screen in the night than it actually captures. In this case I ended up adding another 2 stops of exposure in post, which is very naughty. Pushing an underexposed file at high ISO is a great way to maximise noise!

Second, my preference is to edit as little as possible, and dial down the saturation. The defaults are too intense for me, and very misleading.

#Photography #Auroras #LumixS9
Capture One interface, showing all my tweaks. A lot of exposure lifting in this file, and reducing contrast in general. I lift the white point for these very gentle moments. When the aurora is dancing hard I need to drop my highlights to avoid blow outs. Just depends what phase of the nordlys we're shooting.
Side by side look at before and after editing. I'm going for a lighter sky, to pull in a little of that moonlit night.
Some folks prefer a darker and punchier scene. It's a night sky after all so that's not unusual :) You get more colour when you dial up the contrast. If you're curating a set of images, you might want to balance your aurora to run alongside the other landscape scenes perhaps. It's a creative decision.
#photography #auroras #lumixs9
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Ewen Bell 📷
Today was lovely.

Am very lucky to share so much of my life with people who show me a path to being my best self.

#Norway #LastLight #Photography #EwenInNorway #GrovFjord
A hint of the sunlight on the horizon, behind the snow capped peaks. A warm glow gives way to a rich blue sky as night begins to fall. A pine tree rises above the snow.
#photography #Norway #eweninnorway #grovfjord #lastlight
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Ewen Bell 📷
This evening we got a little aurora dancing before dinner.

Am starting to get a better knack for reading the satellite data. I still tend to be overly optimistic about how quickly the space weather will arrive on earth, but at least I was ready and waiting when the nordlys began their thing.

#Aurora #Photography #Norway #GrovFjord
The old boat shed and jetty at Elvegård, to the north of Grov. Street lights illuminate the foreground, with auroras illuminating the sky.
Satellite data from the NOAA space weather website. Essential tool for aurora chasers.
#photography #Norway #aurora #grovfjord
Ewen Bell 📷
It's a foxy morning here in Norway. Little paw prints leaving a trail in the snow, and purple hues filling the fjord.

#Photography #EwenInNorway #14mm
Paw prints make a track in the foreground, revealed in the snow by the first light across a cloudless sky. Purple and peach hues dominate the landscape. The village is called Balteskard.
#photography #eweninnorway #14mm
Ewen Bell 📷
Today just keeps getting better. A hint of sunlight across the salt lake, and time stands still.

#EwenInNorway #Photography #Grovjford #Lumix #Norway
Sunlight glistens over the ice on the surface of a frozen lake.
#photography #Norway #lumix #eweninnorway #grovjford
Ewen Bell 📷
This time of year we very excited to see the sun. It reaches out across the frozen lakes, painting in the snow and ice with golden tones. I love it.

#EwenInNorway #Photography #Norway #Lumix
The sun illuminated through thin clouds, behind the branches of a birch tree.
#photography #Norway #lumix #eweninnorway
Ewen Bell 📷
From two nights ago. We had clear skies last night but pretty close to zero solar wind. Plenty of stars but no aurora.

Some nights it's on fire, some nights it's asleep :)

#Nordlys #EwenInNorway #Photography #Norway #Aurora #TimeLapse #Lumix
#photography #Norway #timelapse #aurora #lumix #nordlys #eweninnorway
Ewen Bell 📷
Textures and a mood.

These two images are from several weeks ago when we visited a Sami family and got a chance to say hello to a few of their herd.

If you know nothing about the Sami people, then it's worth seeking those who wish to share their stories. These are the people who inhabited the Arctic long before the crowns made it up north. There is great diversity in culture and language across the Sami, and a deep connection to the reindeer.

#Photography #Sami #EwenInNorway #Lumix #Norway
Reindeer antlers in the fading light
ICM by the open fire
#photography #Sámi #Norway #lumix #eweninnorway
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Ewen Bell 📷
I wish more people could see the beauty in our world. The things that make this planet remarkable. The little details. The grandeur of its complexity. The harmony of nature. The preciousness of our very existence.

I wish every human on the planet could experience the beauty I've seen, and not just from the photos.

#EwenInNorway #Photography #IceAndAuroras #Norway #Nordlys #Lumix
Ice cap on a frozen lake.
Aurora above the ice cap
#photography #Norway #lumix #nordlys #eweninnorway #iceandauroras
Ewen Bell 📷
Current mood.

A hint of colour in the clouds from a trip to Senja a few weeks back. The sun wasn't yet brave enough to peak over the horizon, but was throwing a few rays for the clouds to catch.

#Norway #Photography #Mood
Just a hint of light over the horizon, the profile of a mountain stands in the darkness while fluffy clouds high over head are painted peach and pink.
#photography #Norway #mood
Ewen Bell 📷
Flashback to a couple of weeks ago, our first night arriving into Senja. Had a lot of aurora activity through the night, and a beautiful location to enjoy the photography.

Today it's still 5°C outside and rainy, and most of the snow is long gone. These heat bubbles in the Arctic look like a permanent feature of winter now. That makes life much harder for chasing auroras in the night.

#Norway #Auroras #Photography #EwenInNorway #Lumix
Just a mild aurora event on the island of Senja, near Tromsø in Arctic Norway.

JimmyB (he/him) hat dies geteilt

Ewen Bell 📷
The snow came home today!

OMG the change in mood to look out the windows and see a foot of fluffy white stuff in every direction.

Some folks get sad in winter from a lack of sunlight. I get sad from a lack of snow. Climate Change is wrecking the party in Arctic Norway, and we've had weeks of rain instead of snow. But today is a good day. Today is lovely.

#EwenInNorway #SnowIsLove #Grovfjord #Lumix #Photography
A hint of light sneaking through the fjord into the town of Grov, just after a foot of fresh snow, and just before the next foot arrived.
#photography #lumix #eweninnorway #grovfjord #snowislove
Ewen Bell 📷
Was a bit slow of the mark to notice we had clear skies tonight, and when I stepped outside to check the nordlys were already dancing.

Was a lovely show. The moon is super full tonight and lighting up everything. Hence the intense colours. Regardless, this moment of aurora was good enough to compete with the street light just behind the house :)

#Norldys #Aurora #Photography #NorthernLights #EwenInNorway
Photo from behind the house, with auroras dancing up a storm high above.
#photography #northernlights #aurora #eweninnorway #norldys
Ewen Bell 📷
Ended up with more clear skies tonight, despite the forecast. Was testing out the S&Q video mode on the new camera today and it happened to be rolling when the aurora spiked in the early evening.

I love a little moonlight with aurora photography, even a full moon.

Here's a lowres version so I don't fill up the hard drive space on our mastodon instance :)

#Norway #Nordlys #EwenInNorway #Auroras #Grovfjord #Photography #TimeLapse
#photography #Norway #timelapse #auroras #nordlys #eweninnorway #grovfjord
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Ewen Bell 📷
This morning we had a hint of light getting underneath the snow clouds. Enough to make us smile.

I'm using a 60-600mm telephoto by Sigma for this scene. It's a big lens that I usually don't make an effort to take off the shelf. This winter I've really loved having it with me for chasing birds and snow capped peaks.

#Grovfjord #Norway #Mountains #ArcticLove #EwenInNorway #Lumix #LumixS1RII #SigmaPhoto
Pink and peach hues in the Arctic painting in a little colour over the snowy peaks at Grovfjord.
#Norway #mountains #lumix #eweninnorway #grovfjord #arcticlove #sigmaphoto #lumixs1rii
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Ewen Bell 📷
Last shot of the night.

Clouds were rolling in and hiding the aurora activity. Just a few embers left at the camp fire. Was one of those night were a bunch of things lined up at the same time.

Full moon rising high enough over the mountain to paint across this part of the valley. Fresh powder snow the last few days, but not too deep than I can't walk through it. Warm conditions the week before so the creek was running, and hadn't frozen over yet.

#Photography #Norway #SigmaPhoto #LumixS1RII
Landscape is blanketed in snow. A creek runs between the stands of pine and birch.A few large boulders in the creek are covered in fresh snow too. The sky has a few stars, a pale hint of aurora, but mostly the onset of high cloud. A tree in the foreground arches over the scene, while the glow of a campfire sneaks out from between the pine trees.
#photography #Norway #sigmaphoto #lumixs1rii
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Ewen Bell 📷
On the beach at Grov at low tide.
Scallop shell covered in snow at low tide.
Ewen Bell 📷
Have been digging deep into DxO PhotoLab for my aurora photos and have been amazed just how much better the results are when pushing lenses to the limit.

It handles noise much better than Capture One, while still holding onto detail. And the lens optimisation for my Sigma 14-24mm is just amazing. Never seen such clarity in my night shots before.

Can't believe the software can make such an impact.

#DxOPhotoLab #CaptureOne #Photography #Aurora
Aurora in full moonlight at Grovfjord. A creek spills into the fjord below, while a wave of aurora dances above the village. The moon is bright, just above the nearby peninsula. Lumix S9 + Sigma 14-24mm F2.8 edited in DxO PhotoLab version 6.
100% pixels from the sky DxO PhotoLab v6
100% pixels from the terrain. Pretty clear here. DxO PhotLab v6
Capture One version of same RAW file. 100% pixels showing detail in the terrain. Not so impressive.
#photography #aurora #dxophotolab #captureone
Ewen Bell 📷
That image was taken with the Lumix S9 + Sigma 14-24mm F2.8, and edited in DxO PhotoLab 6.

I am several years behind in my version of PhotoLab, I think the current version is 8 and there's a new one due soon. No need to subscribe either. Pay once.

What is great about DxO is the software downloads whatever lens and camera modules as required. You don't need to buy a new update just to use your new camera.

The interface is nice enough. Simple and effective.

#DxO #DxOPhotoLab #Photography
Modules in DxO
Simple UI for editing. No library/catalogue, none of that malarkey. Just simple tools for getting the job done. Advanced de-noise tools. Advanced lenses corrections. I find DxO defaults for sharpening and contrast are waaaaay too over the top and I pull them back a lot. I reduce the "microcontrast" and that gives a pleasing tone for my images.
Two tabs in DxO PhotoLab. One for browsing folders, the other for editing. A friend of mine just moved from Lightroom to DxO and says he feels like his computer is ten times faster now :)
If anything there are too many options in DxO. They have a lot of smart features to manipulate the tone and colours, and then a tonne of options on how to configure those smart tools so you end up bamboozled with choices. I turn most of it off.
#photography #dxophotolab #dxo
Ewen Bell 📷
Here's a treat for being good this week, a timelapse of the forest last night in Arctic Norway.

There's a very very big mountain to the south of this creek that holds back the clouds. We constantly get long patches of clear sky even when the entire region is clouded over. And sometimes the aurora activity kicks up at the same time. That's a win.

#EwenInNorway #Photography #Aurora #LumixS1RII #SigmaPhoto
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Ewen Bell 📷
The joy of the unexpected.

Yesterday was by any measure a totally shit day for me. Except for one brief break in the clouds. Metaphorical and literal.

I stepped outside at twilight to watch another aurora, and over the next hour the cloud cover thinned. And it was a marvellous show. I decided to pop up a camera and start a timelapse in case more nordlys arrived... and I got lucky

One of the best auroras I've ever seen.

#Photography #LumixS1RII #EwenInNorway #Aurora #Nordlys #Grovfjord
#photography #aurora #nordlys #eweninnorway #grovfjord #lumixs1rii
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