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Category: Norway

The last day of 2011…

The last day of 2011…

We spent Christmas in London this year, at Paul’s parents. It was wonderful, but my 6 days off flew by way too fast. Before I knew it, I was on my way back to Heathrow the day after Christmas. Back to work… but also back to beautiful Tromsø, and nights filled with northern lights 😀

It finally cleared up after days of cloudy, snowy weather, and the webcam showed beautiful northern lights. Just before midnight, I drove to the same place where I took the sunset photos in the last post. It’s very close to the airport (with all its lights) but you can walk far enough onto the beach to get away from the lights. I was standing in puddles trying to get photos of the reflections in the water 😀 My shoes are waterproof, but this is still a guaranteed method to get very cold feet!

Northern lights on the last day of 2011, reflected in the fjord I got very cold feet taking these photos, but it was worth it! Northern lights seen from the beach

I was very happy with the photos I got, and when the lights became weaker I decided to head home. When I was almost back at the car, I noticed this beautiful old hut near the beach. I just had to get a photo, even though the northern lights were very weak at that point. The lights from the road were lighting the foreground nicely, and while I was taking a few photos I suddenly noticed some very bright northern lights appearing. Soon the sky was full of them…

A beautiful old hut, near the airport. The foreground is lit by the lights from the nearby road Suddenly aurora filled the whole sky

They were getting brighter, and I had to adjust the exposure times with every photo I took. At some point they were the brightest lights I have ever seen! I just sat down in the snow next to my tripod and looked up at the sky, and couldn’t believe my eyes. And my luck, since I would have driven home if I didn’t find that hut at the very last moment!

Incredibly bright northern lights A curtain of northern lights above the hut

What a way to end 2011!! I still have to watch the fireworks tonight, but I know they won’t compare to this light show 🙂

And with this last post of the year, I would like to wish everybody a very happy 2012!!

And thank you for reading my blog, and for all the kind comments and emails 🙂

En deilig søndag

En deilig søndag

We’re deep into “mørketid” now, the time when the sun doesn’t come above the horizon. This year I find it harder than previous years, I am struggling to get up in the morning and feel chronically tired. This weekend the weather was beautiful, cold and calm winter weather. So I decided to go out and take photos, and make the most of the (twi)light we do get. I drove to Håkøya, and stopped a few times along the way.

These photos are taken on Tromsø island, where these skeletons of Tromsø Palms (giant hogweed) make for a nice foreground 🙂

Tromsø Palms (giant hogweed) along the coast The light is so blue at this time of year!

At Håkøya the fjord was really calm, which made beautiful reflections. I love this house by the water with its own jetty 🙂

View towards Eidkjosen, in the background Store Blåmann I love this house with its own jetty and boat :)

I took my macro lens and tried to get some photos of the ice crystals. It’s not easy, but I managed to get a few – it’s fascinating to see all the different shapes they have!

Ice crystals Ice crystals Ice crystals

In the mean time it was getting darker. Very pretty sky!

Beautiful sky reflected in the calm fjord

While driving back, I noticed the sky had turned a deep red and I stopped near the airport to take some photos from the beach. It was so beautiful… at some point I was standing ankle deep in the rising water on the beach, but I just didn’t care 🙂

I guess we technically don't have a sunset, but the colours can be just as beautiful! I took several photos to make up a panorama, but then found out my wide angle lens could capture it all :) This photos is made up of three different exposures so the foreground doesn't get too dark

I got home at 14:15, and by then it was almost dark. We only have about 4 hours of usable daylight, and usually I spend these hours at work, in an office with no view. It was great to get out and enjoy the day properly!

Northern lights at Håkøya

Northern lights at Håkøya

Last night skies cleared up just in time for a beautiful aurora show. We were getting a bit bored of taking photos from the same jetty every time 😉 so we decided to drive to Håkøya, a small island (reachable by bridge) which is only a 25 minutes drive. Eelke and Roy decided to join us too 🙂 The northern lights were bright and active in all directions when we just got there, and as a bonus they were also reflected in the fjord – beautiful!

Northern lights dancing over the bridge to Håkøya Aurora Borealis combined with Aurora Urbanis as Roy calls it... it's the city lights of Tromsø reflected on a cloud

Northern lights and Christmas trees :) The aliens in this photo are some reflections from the bright lights on the bridge

After a while they weakened, but we kept taking photos on the beach where they were reflected in all the pools of water. The tide was coming up fast though, if you weren’t careful suddenly your tripod was standing in the water 😀

Northern lights reflected in the rock pools Northern lights seen from Håkøya - what a show!

We stayed out until 01:30, chatting and drinking hot chocolate. There wasn’t much activity anymore, so we decided to go home. Looks like we should have stayed a little longer, as a while later some red aurora showed up. Oh well, you can’t have everything and it’s also good to catch some sleep. I’m sure there’s more to come 🙂