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 :)
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.
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.
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 :)
#EwenInNorway #Photography #Norway #Lumix #LumixS1RII #LumixS1R2
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 :)
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Herring Gull enjoying the scenery.
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.
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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.
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.
Hoping to get a nice timelapse out of this scene today. Clear skies are such a treat in the middle of winter.
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Quick and dirty TL from last night. Gentle activity and a little extra colour before the high clouds claimed the night.
#Norway #Aurora #Photography #Nordlys #EwenInNorway #LumixS9
Time lapse from Grovfjord, with the midday sun clipping the horizon and so very very nearly popping through to greet the village.
Let the sun shine in.
Today we had lots of lovely sunshine kissing the cheeks. I love the combination of sunny and cold.
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 #LumixS1RII #LumixS1R2
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.
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.
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.
It's a foxy morning here in Norway. Little paw prints leaving a trail in the snow, and purple hues filling the fjord.
Today just keeps getting better. A hint of sunlight across the salt lake, and time stands still.
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.
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 :)
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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.
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 #LumixS1RII #LumixS1R2
@ewen Yes, this exactly. We are winners of a galactic lottery to be part of a civilization of smart animals on a spectacularly alive planet. There may be nothing remotely like Earth, and nothing like humans, anywhere in the galaxy at the moment.
Yet, so many of us are lost in our daily affairs burning it all down.
Somehow we need to translate our individual wonder for the world into thinking at much longer and larger scales and caring a whole lot more.
That we're not is heart breaking.
@joncounts @ewen
"All of humanity's problems come from man's inability to sit in a room all by himself doing nothing".
Historically, people who like the place where they are from were responsible actors.
