Lapland Day 4, January 13 2023

Pack, move, unpack. Off to the Aurora Camp near Kiruna. Nothing much happening today, just trying to fit everything into the suitcase, plus the massive size 1,000 boots, and the oversize overalls (x10) into the cars that are already bulging with people, bags, photography equipment. Thankfully, Peter had a trailer with his snowmobile and we managed to take it all… I think.

So, nothing happening today… Hmmm

We drove to the Original Ice Hotel for lunch. So that was about an hour and a half, or maybe a little more and had a very nice, fairly quaint affair from the salad and meat selection. After this, on a whim, we decided we would take a few photographs of the ICE HOTEL!!

The Ice Hotel. Described on its website:

a hotel and art exhibition made of ice from the river Torne, each year reincarnated in a brand new design. A place to discover silence, northern lights, glistening snow clad forests, reindeer, cloudberries, kettle coffee and much more.

The Ice Hotel, was the first of it’s kind in 1989 (with similar ventures now on the Map). Each year they manufacture several wings of the hotel cut from Ice from the river Torne, running (or not running as the season dictates). Artists across the (snow) globe submit an imaginative idea to create a room. The themes cannot be reused year after year. The selected artists are sent to Kiruna where they are given a month’s training, from which they make their room. The prize for such an opportunity is to 1) make the room, and 2) sleep in it on the first night.

At the end of the season, the rooms and the entire wing of the hotel melt into the Torne from where it began.

Of course, photographing this wasn’t actually a whim, but rather a planned visit. Each morning all guests vacate, and the rooms are opened for visitors.

There is an area known as Icehotel365 which is open all year round and includes the Icebar, with all of the glasses made from ice (flaming zambuka anyone?). With no more waiting, here are the photo’s.

Oh, note being a Hotel, of course safety is of the utmost importance and there are fire extinguishers placed all over.

If you look through these images, try and see some of the amazing detail that is carved either into the room, or the sculptures. And yes, it’s all Ice. The only things in these rooms are electrics, ice and bed linen.

So that was the Ice Hotel. Expensive night’s accomodation, great for those with bad backs (although the beds are quite comfortable) but worth the experience just to visit if nothing else.

I’ll keep this second part brief. Look, I’ll even dot point it for you.

• Settled in at the Aurora Camp (more on the campsite later)
• Dinner
• Get all our snow stuff on, coz we’re out for a cold night!
• Drive to an area somewhere near the place we go Dog Sledding on our last night. It’s right near a bridge.
• Photograph the Aurora near the bridge and running river.

It was a good Aurora, with a lot of movement, from one side of the sky to the other. It’s certainly the best we had seen and we kept shooting for what seemed like hours, and probably was. Who watches the time? But it was fun. Setting up our cameras for landscapes, sweeping river, trees in different formations, and even some astro photography. What wasn’t to love?

If fact I even took a photo of a part of the auroro going right through Orions Belt also known as the Three Kings / Three Sisters.

So check out these few images. You see I also tried my hand of zooming a long expsoure of the Aurora. Something of course, than I had never done before. Did it work? Does it look alright?

Peter really is a nice guy to have around. Hot Chocolate anyone? So whilst the Aurora had certainly performed it’s duties this evening, it slowly left us and we were left with empty cups, smiles on our faces and a rewarding trip.

Pack up, walk the 0.7 kilometres (we were told it was 100 metres) to the car and head back to camp. I was in the car with Rob, Christine and Chauffeur David. Dark roads back, he was checking the mirror and looking up into the sky. “The Aurora is still going and it’s quite active”. Moments later… “We should stop and check this out”.

We pulled over into a side road, to get off the main stretch and “What the hell”. The aurora went crazy! I had seen an a full on Aurora in Iceland with Jane and friends in 2018, but this was something special, even beyond that. It was bright green, it was full of waves, and as I like to explain it, like a woman waving her dress. This Aurora was exciting. Wow!

And with that done, we returned to camp, pretended when the others returned that we had missed it. Apparently, this was a KP6 Aurora. Quite high.

Off to bed around 12:30 I think.

That was an eventful day.

Lapland Day 5, January 14 2023

Dog Days!

A super cold day in Sweden with a high of -10* and a low of -17°. Of course, on the Torne River, expect to have a wind chill of considerably less.

Meeting after breakfast, as the sun was rising, we were met by 2 Dog Sleds and about 20 Dogs. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be dog sledding. The way this works is, we have 8 participants split between the 2 sleds. We sit on the sled in front of the Musher, very tightly indeed. But it’s comfortable. I was right at the back which helped provide some kind of stability, I am told; and on occasion, myself and the person in front must lean to the left or right. In places on the snow/ice, there is a little bit of water rising to the top and this causes the sled to lean. We don’t want to lean into the ice or we could potentially cut through it. What??

This is what we saw as the sleds came around for us,

As you can see, the sky is still pink from the sunrise at about 10am, although this was about 11am I think.

So, no photos whilst on the Sled as I was holding on for my dear life. These dogs are amazingly strong and super fast. As you can see, they run in pairs (generally) but if there is an odd number, they are equally happy to be on their own. They don’t need to be paired with their fav, and move around quite a bit, but it’s super important to have an experienced dog at the helm. There are no reigns to steer the dogs, and they pretty much know which way to go, and that’s generally on a path pre-cut by a Snow Mobile, but occasionally these paths diverge. A single word instruction (don’t ask what is being said, but I expect it is Left or Right in Swedish, or Dog-ish) and the lead dog goes in that direction immediately.

The bond between the dogs and the Musher is unmistakeable. They are friends, although the Musher is still their boss. On race days, the Musher is the only one to take care of the dogs, or risk disqualification. The only other person who can help is the Vetinarian, who will give the dog a green light to continue. But the musher knows the dogs the best, and will not risk hurting them if they are unwell or injured. The sleds must be big enough for their supplies, plus a dog if they cannot run.

Make no mistake with these dogs. This is not Cruel. This is the life the dog wants. It is cruel to NOT let the dogs go on the sled. Those who have been in a location where there are dog sledding and they are barking like crazy, it’s not because they don’t want to be there. It is more like “I smell a rabbit“, or “what did you say” to another dog, or “hurry up, we wanna go!” If I dog doesn’t want to run, it doesn’t run. Not all dogs enjoy sledding, and in that case, it’s not for them.

Dog sledding these days is usually confined to either Racing or Tourism. They are generally not a working concern these days, as they have Snow Mobiles for that, which are far more capapable. But Tourism allows the dogs to get out and exercise, plus it helps pay the bills to keep the dogs to race. Musher (at least in this case) doesn’t have sponsorship, like in some other place (Alaska I’m looking at you) and it’s not a cheap sport. It’s purely for the love and the challenges.

Greenland Huskies in Iceland 2010

I recall seeing the Greenland Huskies in Iceland in 2010 on a Glacier. You can’t see it here, but the eyes were a bright blue, and I remember one staring at me and it was quite unnerving. Having had my career involve working dogs (Police Dogs) I would never go close to them, for fear of setting them off, or too close, who knows what will happen. But I thought they were similar, as they were working dogs right? No way. These dogs are soooo friendly. They love interaction, and by that, I mean being patted, or spoken to in a language they have no clue. In fact, out of both of these 2 groups of huskies on this cold day in Lapland there was one particular female dog (the only one in the group), who knew how to get attention. She was showing off to the boys, and was the first one to want to be pat by us. She was gorgeous and gentle. But to be honest, they all were. But this one was the only one, that when my attention was diverted somewhere else, it pawed my leg, saying “more…more…” Beautiful. But you should never have one as a pet, unless you were prepared to put in the work. They need a lot of exercise.

So, off we went. We travelled maybe 2 kilometres or so. Who would know? It could have been 5, but I felt it was a couple. For accuracy, we will say it was 2.4 kilometres. We made our way to what would be a lake. Now, I don’t actually know where the River ends and the lake begins, but there was a boat you see, and we were told it was a lake. It’s all under snow or ice or both so who really knows who doesn’t aleady live here. But this was our photo stop.

Walking into the snow was quite hard. There was a lake cabin (ah, that’s how we know), and of course we had to walk as close to that as possible. The snow falls away quite quickly and you need to have solid ground, otherwise, you could go down 30 cm, 50 cm, or a metre if it were off the edge of a mound. Or maybe even splash! Not gunna try. Just stay on the path of the person who didn’t go splash!

But the scenery was beautiful. The light was golden, still. Many trees were covered in snow, and there were lake/river cabins dotted alongside as far as the eye could see. Most were in clusters of cabins as roads moved in and out of the forest for access, which would be quite restricted, given the forestation of the area. It’s a fishing area. Even upon our return a little later, we saw people drilling into the river with a Ryobi One+ Auger (or some such device) making a nice hole to catch something for later.

But it was very very cold. To be honest, it was too easy to take a nice shot. Between the gold light, the snow, the boats, sloping hills, rivers angling away from the forest for nice composition. It was too easy. You don’t need a super expensive camera to take photos here as it’s too beautiful. Just use the iPhone if you have one, or just put the camera away and relax in the silence and enjoy the location. Just stay warm!

It’s funny to look at the images that are so serene, but I am reminded of the harshness of the environment. This is what -25° looks like on the River.

But lets not get carried away with that cold stuff. After our return and relaxation, dinner etc, in the evening some people went back out to the same location for the Aurora, this time by Snow Mobile with Peter. They had a nice one althouhgt it was often partly obscured by cloud but at times it wasn’t. I was actually pretty tired at this time and I needed some rest. Tomorrow was going to be Reindeer Day! Where we have to Mush our own reindeers I needed all my strength and wit just in case… Little did I know.

But to close, here are a few of my favourite images from the dog sledding day. Tbe final one is definitely my favourite. It’s one of Christine enjoying the locatoin.

Lapland Day 3, January 12 2023

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.

David Evans (left) / Peter Rosén (not left)

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 low tide, gathers no moss.

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!

Lapland Day 2, January 11 2023

It’s funny how you lose memory after a short time. Because this was only 10 days ago, and I may have forgotten some details and have to rely on my photos. So doing so, means this will be a quite short post. But that doesn’t mean this was not a spectacular day.

There are these things called “Ice Sculptures”. I’m not talking about carvings, which can be beautiful, and real works of arts, I am talking about those that happen in Nature. As you are aware, it can get really cold in these places, and the lakes and rivers freeze over. The large lake that runs alongside Abisko is Torneträsk. It’s about 70 km long, 170 metres deep and when the wind hits it, is a crazy sight to see. I watched a video of Peter’s when this occurred. The waves crash onto the shore, some of the water freezes. this continues and eventually you get this amazing sculptures forming.

Peter, as just mentioned had been there earlier and said this was quite an unusual event, and would we be interested? Yes we would. So we drove about 5 km from Abisko in the direction of Navik, Norway (I have no sense of direction at this point) and pulled off the side of the road unto a culvert. With cameras in hand we all trudged through the snow, mostly on a path that had been trodden before us, and made out way to what would have been mainly ground, but also sometimes on ice. It’s notable to say that you don’t want to veer off the path, be aware that you might suddenly sink 15 centimetres, or 50 cm or even a metre. Who knows what lies beneath? The snow is soooo soft. It is dry as sand and soft as.. as.. it’s hard to describe. The snow crystals can’t stick to anything as they are so dry. You can’t make a snow man in this kind of weather (it was probably -12° or something this day) When you consider snow is 100% water, and it is so dry, the mind boggles. So, yeah, snow is effectively a trap. Sure, it packs down, and that is the aim. Meanwhile, try and stay on the track. More on that one later…

The image below is a toward Abisko (which you can see in a photograph from another day, when we return) and what are known as the “Gates of Lapland” in the distance Very Lord of the Rings. The Ice is forming on the lake (too dangerous to walk on) but in March will be at least 1 metre thick.

The ice sculptures are so varied. Some are sharp as stalactites vertically coming from something above, Some are balls as they just built up, and in an array of form. What I really liked was how the ice would adhere to a plant. It would build up from the front naturally, and ice would build up on that etc. Yet because of the direction of the wind, it wouldn’t adhere to the back, getting some kind of x-ray look. It’s bizarre and pretty cool. I love nature Of course in the image below, the ice at the front is at least as thick as the ice at the side.

Almost of x-ray of ice forming

I’ve added a few of the Ice Sculpture photos to show what it was like. Zoom in if you can and see how varied they are. I really like the sign and the way the ice stalactites formed on a slight angle and add to the scene with the leaning sign.

Ice Sculptures forming on a small peninsula

But not to forget this is a lake and a fishing area. You see these little huts dotted everywhere. Some have fires inside, and some even have televisions. The boat beached on the snow gives the lake away.

A reminder that this lake isn’t always covered

These final 2 images are my favourites. The light was beautiful as, when there is light, it is either Sunrise or Sunset, but I felt the Black and White look really gave it something.

I’m scratching my head to work out what we did in the evening, but I am pretty sure it was Lightroom Night, where we helped those who were not to familiar with the app. It’s pretty much my mainstay of photoshopping. It’s a part of my workflow every time. Why photoshop? Well, we shoot RAW format because it retains so much more detail than a normal jpeg photograph. But this means we get a pretty flat image with no pop like a jpeg might have, and we have to do all the work ourselves. That is what Lightroom is. You won’t find me posting a RAW image without anything done to it, I promise. The same thing happened in the ‘old days‘ with film, but jpeg does this for you automatically, but not always in the way you want.

That’s it for now. I’ll continue to post through the week and I promise the photos get more and more exciting!

Lapland, Day 1: January 10 2023

It’s been a while since I posted. I didn’t have time to post whilst in Lapland (a full schedule) and when Jane and I met in Barcelona at midnight, we basically got sick and we’re still recovering. I think I caught something on my last day or so, or maybe in an airport. I can’t imagine viruses would travel too well in -15°.

I’ll start off with a couple of maps, as they may help talk about the areas we travelled on this tour. But first I want to talk about the trip. As you all be aware, I had a dinner with a photography friend in Launceston and met her partner David Evans. This was the start of the planning.

Sámi & Kiruna

The tour was in Lapland, Sweden. Now Lapland is a region of the Sámi. Sámi are indigenous to the area and have been around for millennia as far as we know. They were a nomadic culture and travelled primarily in the area of Sweden, Norway, Finland and a bit of Russia. They are no longer nomadic, due of course to the way our world is structured, but they do have special rights in areas that allow them to live in a way they are accustomed. Probably similar to the way Australian Aboriginals are able to live and have specific cultural laws. The Sámi, for example are the only ones allowed to herd reindeer. They tend to live in settlements, but that does not preclude them from living elsewhere. Like the Aboriginals, they have lost much of their language. Sámi schools have started to appear in the education system to allow those with Sámi heritage to learn about their culture.

The area we will be staying is north Sweden, and the area we arrived is in Kiruna. It’s an Iron Ore mining town now, even though it has history and evidence of dwellings 6,000 years ago. There was a railway built to Narvik (Norway)in the late 1880’s that transports the ore and was used extensively in the war, given its closeness to the Finnish and Norwegian border. Unfortunately, the mining has caused irreparable damage below the ground causing possibilities of the town being swallowed up. Therefor there is now a Multi-Billion dollar reconstruction and moving of buildings 3km west. A new Kiruna. The biggest hurdle is the 120 year old church that they want to move in its entirety.

All that history aside, you’re here to find out about the trip. Landing in Kiruna (pronounced Ki as in the beer Kirin, U as in Up, and Na, as in Nut) KirUNa. Arriving in a fairly packed plane, and sitting next to Gary and Angela (who I didn’t know were Gary and Angela, until we met inside the airport) and sitting in the same row (on the opposite side) as Mark and Sue whom I had met for a drink the day earlier in Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. I rarely have a window seat, as is my preference but I was able to take a shot on the way down and also a photo on the runway area as we left. At this stage, I think it was a mild -6° or something, but more about cold later..

We met up in the arrivals hall in Kiruna, which was about as small as you could would imagine. Kiruna has a population of about 20,000. The people on the trip are as follows:

Me: Launceston, Australia

Gary & Sue: Perth, Western Australia

Sue & Mark: Latrobe Valley, Victoria

Christine & Rob: Somewhere just outside of Canberra but in New South Wales

Richard: Dallas, Texas, USA (say it with a drool)

Plus the guides David Evans & Peter Rosen (of Lappland Media and Photo Adventures)

Off to the local sport store to get some stuff for the tour. From there we each got given a pair of insulated boots, fur trapper hat, and some insulated gloves. The trip was supposed be starting in Kiruna and ending in Abisko (pronounced – A as in Ar or Ahh, Bis as in Biscuit and Ko as in my favourite cleaning product, Koh- ABisKo), but it had been changed to suit the schedule. So we drove about 90 minutes in the dark (it was about 4pm) to the hotel in Abisko. There we were given a pair of insulated overalls from Peter. Check the photos out. My feet are a Size 11 in Australia.

Oversized clothes for overseas weather

After settling in we met in the dining room of the hotel. I won’t go through each meal, but basically most meals consisted of reindeer, or moose, or arctic char or something along those lines.

When dinner was done we had their arduous task of putting on all our clothes. It always consisted of, Thermals (top and bottom) pair of trousers, jacket and overalls, 2 pair of socks and boots. Later it in the trip, at Kiruna, I added another pair of trousers and a shirt and another pair of socks. I also had a Head Sokz as supplied by my good friend Trevor to shield my face from this arctic cold.

We drove just down to the lake which was nearby, got our cameras and tripods at the ready and waited for the Aurora, I almost forgot why we were here! About 3 days before our trip, we were all sent an email from David asking us to temper out expectations. They had some pretty cloudy weather and the aurora forecast wasn’t good. You need it to be clear and maybe the aurora will come.

No fear, we had a clear night, for sure. and there was a grey haze through the sky that Peter suggested was the aurora. We pointed our cameras up and it was definitely a green cloud. Our first Aurora! Now I had seen an aurora before in Iceland in 2018 and it was completely around us. It was pretty spectacular. But to honest I was a tad disappointed this time. Ah.. the email…

We stood and watched and talked. And nothing much happened so we decided to pack up for the evening, to get a good rest before the tour really started.

We started piling into the van and car, then this weird thing happened. The grey light came down over the nearby mountain, and also from different directions, the light turned visibly green and “Boom” it was like an explosion. Colours were going everywhere. But even though the multi-colours left, the green aurora stayed behind. It wasn’t huge, but it was far better than attempt 1A. 1B was a success. Big tick for the guys, no more pressure for the remainder of the tour.

So the night was over and breakfast scheduled at 8am!