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Author: Hanneke

I started my first blog when I left the Netherlands (my home country) for an internship in Alaska in 2004, to keep my friends and family updated on my adventures over there. Little did I know it would be more than 13 years before I'd move back to the Netherlands! I spent a year in Toulouse (France) before starting a PhD in meteorology at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK) in 2005. That's when I started this current blog, first in Dutch but I soon switched to English. I really enjoyed life in the UK, and was actually planning to stay there after my PhD, but "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans" and I ended up moving to Tromsø in Northern Norway in 2009. Tromsø is a photographer's dream, surrounded by spectacular mountains, with the light ever changing from the midnight sun in summer to the dark days compensated by aurora-filled nights in winter. I learnt Norwegian and got a job as a weather forecaster - I got thrown in at the deep end, doing radio interviews and speaking with fishermen with way-too-strong dialects straight from the beginning, before I was anywhere near fluent in Norwegian :D I survived though, and slowly started to do some research on the side. I got more and more involved in research projects and in August 2015 I moved 2000 km south, to Oslo where I started working 100% as a researcher. A year after moving to Oslo, I met Michiel at a music festival in Brussels :) and we started to travel very frequently between Oslo and Rotterdam, where he lives. You can't do that forever though, and I soon realized I found the perfect "excuse" to finally move back home, something I had been considering many times before. So since July 2017, I'm living in Rotterdam! I'm actually taking some time off before finding a new job, and I'm looking forward to lots of adventures in the near future - so stay tuned!
Skating on Ramfjorden

Skating on Ramfjorden

Between all the aurora watching, we also found time for skating. Paul bought some skates and he was very keen to try them. On Sunday we got a text message from a friend who lives on the shore of Ramfjorden, to tell us the ice was safe and there was very little snow – good skating conditions! I had a day off on Monday, and the weather was good, so off we went…

Ramfjorden, with the back of Tromsdalstinden glowing red in the last sunlight Sunset on the opposite side

I had never skated on sea ice before, it’s a bit more challenging as the surface is not very smooth. We had a lot of fun though. We skated about 8 km, and got quite sore feet… we obviously need a bit more practice 😉

Paul skating over a crack Giving my feet a much-needed break Back to where we started, with the blue light that comes after sunset

My new SLR camera can also take videos at very high resolution, something I hadn’t actually tried yet. We shot a few videos, and Paul edited them together to this nice movie:

What a nice day! The skating season is very short here, as once the snow comes you won’t be able to skate anymore. We’ve had a few snowfalls this winter, but we keep having periods with very mild temperatures which melts it all away. And what didn’t melt, will blow away in the strong winds we’re having. Oh well, by the end of April I’ll be cursing the snow, so I shouldn’t complain 😉

Who needs sleep?

Who needs sleep?

The northern lights have been extremely active, and I went out to watch them last Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, usually staying up until 4 in the morning. On Monday I needed a break, but when they forecasted an extreme aurora event last night, I knew I couldn’t stay home! I convinced Paul to come with me, luring him with promises of “the best aurora since 2003″… We left the house at 19:00, with very bright auroras dancing overhead. Even with all the city lights, I could watch them from the car, and it was so impressive. It took us a while to find a good place to take photos – and guess what, the northern lights were completely gone by then…

Eelke en Roy soon joined us, and we sat up a nice tea party on some deserted parking place in a valley not far from Tromsø. It was really dark there, and we impatiently waited for the lights to come back. And we waited… and waited… and waited… and we got very cold feet. We started taking silly photos to entertain ourselves…

The things you do when you are bored of waiting for the aurora... there is actually a vague green glow on the horizon but we could hardly see that with our eyes

After 2 hours of hopefully watching the vague green glow on the horizon, we decided to give up and go home. After about 10 minutes of driving, the sky was suddenly filled with auroras again 😀 We quickly stopped at a nearby beach and gazed in amazement at the aurora dancing and moving and twirling very brightly, all over the sky. So impressive!

Beautiful green snake :) The aurora was moving very quickly here, you can see the ripples in the curtain on the right

There were a few clouds around, sometimes obscuring the northern lights, but I think they also add some depth to the images.

A huge spiral formed in the sky Roy, Eelke and Paul gazing at the northern lights

We spent about an hour on the beach. On the way back, the northern lights kept dancing around, and we had another quick photostop at Telegrafbukta for some final photos.

Northern lights from Telegrafbukta

After so many nights with very little sleep, I’m happy the northern lights are taking a break. But even if they were disco-dancing in all the colours of the rainbow, I would stay at home tonight. Or would I? 🙂

Aurora time lapse 22/23 January 2012

Aurora time lapse 22/23 January 2012

This weekend was filled with northern lights! Yesterday they showed up as soon as it was dark enough, and continued almost all night. I braved the cold wind for a couple of hours, and made this time lapse video. It consists of 367 images taken over about 2.5 hours, each image an exposure of 20 seconds. Enjoy! 🙂

(For best viewing, choose HD and watch fullscreen!)