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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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leChris :mastodon: hat dies geteilt

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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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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
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.
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