So on this particular Thursday, we decided to change the scene by changing countries. Off to Narvik in Norway.
History Lesson: Narvik is steeped in history, named as such due to its merchant shipping port. Knarr ‘merchant ship’ & vík ‘inlet’. The port of Narvik never freezes due to its proximity to the Gulf Stream, There is evidence of Viking settlements in Narvik, but not much is known about this. Certainly there were also settlements as early as the Bronze Age (approx 3000-1000 B.C.) But more likely if you know the name it may be due to the “Battle of Narvik” in World War II. The Germans took control of the port town briefly before Winston Churchill sent in the British Navy to defeat them and take control for the Allies. The iron ore mining and shipping was a very important strategic win in the war at the time. However troops were soon needed elsewhere and the British pulled out and Norway lay down it’s arms to Germany, although pockets of Norwegians continued fighting during the war with it’s guerrilla tactics.
But… our trip involved a far different purpose. Lunch and Photos. Or rather the other way around. We travelled through Narvik on this very cold day (we were in the -10°s regularly at this point), and made a couple of stops in various locations.
The first was in a nice bay before we arrived in Narvik where the photo of David & Peter was taken.
A second stop as we had driven through Narvik. The interesting thing was how low the tide was. When we returned on our back track toward lunch, maybe an hour later, almost the entire bay had refilled (or as some might say, the tide had risen).
A few kilometres later, we arrived at a lovely photo opportunity in a lovely Fjord, Skjomen.
Lunch was at a local Fish Restaurant in Narvik (Fiskekroken). A great selection for the 10 of us to choose anything we liked (assuming we liked fish) caught locally and cooked to perfection. Who could really go past the Boknafisk, eh? It’s actually a traditional method of cooking the fish, rather than a type of fish. “Boknafisk is a variant of stockfish and is unsalted fish partially dried by sun and wind on drying flakes or on a wall.” Without doubt the main part of their business is selling fresh fish through their market, as a steady stream of locals came through the restaurant to purchase the evening’s meal.
We had a nice 1 1/2 drive back to Abisko and had some quiet time until dinner. Afterwhich we headed out for the night shoot. The aurora forecast was really quite low, around the 2 KP mark, which is the method they use to classify the Aurora. Low is considered 1-3, 4-6 would be medium, 7-8 would be high and 9-10 is outstanding. Most auroras we see are in the 2-5 range, from what I am aware. We had a 1 1/2 – 2 the first night. Still visible, and able to be photographed. The main problem we had though, were the clouds.
An idea Peter had was to go back to the Ice Formations and use that as a foreground. A great Aurora photograph needs a great foreground. We trudged through the well worn path, made by slightly less than a dozen people a day earlier, and found our spots. The air was still, cold and it was a very clear night. There was absolutely nothing above us between our heads and the clouds covering the sky. Above that however, there was an amazing Aurora doing its thing onto the earth’s magnetic field. I have never seen anything like it. Well, still to this day because I couldn’t see anything this time either. Bloody Clouds. So we concentrated on doing some night landscapes, as best we could. What was unique though, was the green tinge to pretty much everything.
This was pretty much the way our photographs were turning out.
Alas, we could do better. Set the right aperture, keep the ISO as low as we could, and adjust the shutter speed to obtain a better image… or just put in on Auto…
A cloud restricted Aurora adds a Green Blanket to the Sky. I dub thee image “Green on White”
Whilst this isn’t my most exciting image I have ever taken, it’s a similar view of the Gates of Lapland, but showing the lights of Abisko. I promised I would show this image a couple of days ago.
I shall forevermore call this image “Gates of Lapland, but showing the lights of Abisko”.
See you tomorrow!
Steve Hunt 