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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!
Autumn Fairytale

Autumn Fairytale

My brother and his girlfriend came to Tromsø for a short visit. The weather was stunning, and on Thursday afternoon we walked to Nonsbu cabin to spend the night there. We started from Tønsvik, where I’ve been many times in winter and in summer, but never in autumn. It was so beautiful! All the trees in full autumn colour and all the blueberry bushes a bright red. It was quite warm in the sun, we walked in tshirts.

Walking up through the yellow forest Above the tree line, looking back at the stunning view!

It’s not a very strenuous walk, the highest point is about 380 m. There you find this beautiful lake with a cute little island in the middle…

Cute little island in the middle of the lake

From there it’s a short walk down to the cabin. We met many people on the way to the cabin, but everybody was out for just a day trip, and we had the cabin to ourselves. The thermometer next to the door showed 23 degrees in the sun!

Destination in sight: Nonsbu cabin 23 degrees in the sun!

We had dinner and when the sun had set, we built a camp fire. It took a long time to get really dark, but the evening light was beautiful!

Nonsbu in the evening light Hot chocolate by the camp fire

We stayed up hoping the northern lights would show up. To keep ourselves entertained we took photos while we “painted” with fire, good fun!

Painting with fire :) All three of us - I kept hitting a bush, oops

It’s nice to be in a place where it gets really dark. The stars were amazing, we could clearly see the milky way and several satellites passing, as well as a few falling stars. I took this 7 minute exposure of the stars and the cabin which was lit by the camp fire.

Star trails and the cabin lit up by the camp fire

It was now after 23:00 and we started to give up hope that the northern lights would come out. But then suddenly, a weak light at the horizon… getting stronger, moving and becoming an arc. So beautiful! I had been looking forward to the opportunity to take photos in a completely dark place, but found out it was actually harder to find something for the foreground as it was so dark. In the 30 seconds exposure, it looks like there’s still an orange glow from the sunset – we couldn’t see that with the naked eye however! My favourite photo is the one of my brother and his girlfriend standing by the camp fire watching the northern lights. Soon after I took this photo, the northern lights became very weak and we went to bed.

Beautiful northern lights! The orange light of the sunset (?) was not visible to the naked eye but came out in the long exposures Watching the northern lights by the warmth of the camp fire

The next day was just as sunny, and we walked the same route back to Tønsvik. On the way back to town, we took the cable car up to enjoy the view of Tromsø island from above.

Enjoying the view of Tromsø island

What a perfect little trip! Today it’s back to work for me, and they’ve left for a trip by car. They’re flying back to the Netherlands tomorrow. I will follow them a day later 😀 I’ll be in the Netherlands for a week to attend the wedding of a friend and to spend time with family and friends for a bit. It’s nice to spend some time back home, especially while Paul is at sea for the whole month.

Autumn Mist

Autumn Mist

This morning when I opened the blinds – still half asleep – I noticed fog over the fjord. The sun was shining, which made the fog look very bright white. So pretty! I grabbed my camera bag and an apple for breakfast, and went out to take photos. Early morning mist is quite common on clear days, especially in autumn, but it tends to disappear quickly when the sun is strong enough to burn it away. It was 11 when I got up (my daily rhythm still disturbed by yesterday’s night shift) so I knew it probably wouldn’t last much longer.

These photos are taken at Telegrafbukta, this is the jetty that I took the northern lights photos from two weeks ago.  The second photo is zoomed out so you can see the blue sky above the mist. I think the bright area would form a fog bow (rainbow without colours) if there had been enough fog.

Jetty at Telegrafbukta in the mist Above the mist the sky was blue. It looks like there's a vague partial fog bow visible (a colourless rainbow visible in fog)

I watched some ships looming out of the mist – an impressive sight. All around Telegrafbukta, there were groups of students (from a high school I think) doing some kind of project about marine life.  They also seemed to use the boat in the second photo, it came to the jetty a few times. How cool is that!

Ship appearing out of the mist I believe this ship was used by the high school students for their project - how cool is that!

The autumn colours are beautiful at the moment! When the sun comes out and the sky is blue, it just looks so pretty 🙂

Autumn colours at Telegrafbukta

The mist started to disappear, in the photo below you can see there are only a few patches remaining. There were several people walking around, taking photos. I talked to one guy who showed me his photos from earlier this morning…  he made me very jealous 😀 The mist had been denser then, and he took beautiful photos of the bridge and the city centre. I should get up earlier next time!

Here the mist has almost disappeared, just a few patches remaining Beautiful autumn colours!

I thought about going to one of the bridges, or up Fjellheisen, but the mist had completely disappeared by then. Instead I drove to Prestvannet, the lake on top of Tromsø island. On sunny days it’s not very difficult to take nice photos there 🙂 with Tromsdalstinden reflected in the lake and the colourful trees.

View of Tromsdalstinden from Prestvannet Feeding the ducks

What a beautiful morning! It was great to be out and take photos again. Can you believe I haven’t taken any photos since the northern light photos 2 weeks ago? It was a very busy time, I’ve been working a lot and Paul was getting ready for his annual research cruise. He’s the cruise leader this year which meant he had lots of organisational things to take care of. He flew to Longyearbyen to board the ship there, but he’ll come back to Tromsø by ship at the end of this month.

Tonight my brother and his girlfriend are arriving in Tromsø, it looks like they’re going to be extremely lucky with the weather – we’re supposed to have sunshine until Sunday. Perfect! I have two days off, so we’re planning to go hiking and stay in one of the mountain huts. I’m really looking forward 🙂 I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll also see the northern lights 😀

Aurora in August

Aurora in August

Even though I don’t really want the summer to end – especially not when we finally have some really sunny weather lately – I’ve been impatiently waiting for the nights to get dark enough to see the aurora. I read on Spaceweather that auroras were forecasted for tonight, so I kept an eye on the sky, even though I didn’t think it would be dark enough yet, especially with the full moon out as well. Oh how exciting when I stepped outside and saw beautiful aurora dancing in the sky – I was literally jumping for joy 😀

I quickly went to the jetty at Telegrafbukta with my camera. The show didn’t last very long, but it was beautiful. Even the bright full moon couldn’t overpower them!

The first aurora of the season! What a beautiful evening... Aurora and the bright full moon

When the “lights went out”, I stayed for a while longer hoping they would come back. The moon was reflected in the fjord, it was beautiful. To entertain myself, I took a self portrait 🙂

Self portrait :)

Less than 5 months ago, I was at the same place enjoying the last aurora of the season. It’s so exciting to be at the start of a new season 🙂