Northern lights and binging on podcasts

Well its amazing to think but we are now full in to December. My days with Emma have been rather uneventful but full of playing with Emma and watching silly kids shows. She is such a cool little kid. Anyway I have been quite good about getting out in the evening and taking photos. My hikes also give me time to catch up on my favourite podcasts and this week I have been binging on the new This American Life podcast "Serial" and catching up on old episodes of Hardcore History... its pretty awesome. This week I also found a little patch up in the tundra with a few little pine trees which someone obviously planted there (perhaps the commune). They look very pretty with all the snow on them but they are actually quite a bit smaller than they appear in the photos. Hope you enjoy the photos!

 

Winter Colors

With the winter and darkness here in the Arctic, I have been quite good about getting myself outside to enjoy the little "daylight" which is available. Though the sun is not making it past the horizon we are getting a little bit of dusk at about 10am though it of-course does not last very long. The light does however have a special property to it, or at least that is my impression... which is likely a result of my desperate hanging on to it! In any case it makes for some nice photos. We have all been struggling with colds and trying to make the most of the winter by looking forward to Christmas, but I would be lying if I said it was always easy. Anyway that's all for now, hopefully the sky will clear up this week and I will be able to get some more northern light shots.

More Northern Lights!

Well, another week has come and gone up here in the arctic. Jeanette, Emma and I all seem to be better from our colds and things are going well but have been fairly uneventful. The one upshot of all this darkness has been that I have been able to take a few opportunities this week to go out and photograph the northern lights. Taking photos of the aurora is fun but very different from what I am used to do.. and lugging that heavy tripod through the tundra does not make it any easier. I feel like I am getting better at it, but I am really feeling the limitations of my camera. Hopefully I will be getting a new kit sometime in the not to distant future (I have had the current one for about 10 years). Anyway I hope you enjoy the photos.

Vadsø to Kirkenes and back

Yesterday I finally escaped the confines of Vadsø for the first time since we got here over three months ago. I went on a small road trip with my friend Diego to Kirkenes to pic up a few things he needed. We did not really spend much time in town but the drive was nice, the conversation entertaining and the scenery gorgeous. We made a few stops to take some photos and video... and by we, I mean "I", but I have to say Diego was very patient with my insentient need to stop and/or slow down! Kirkenes is known in Norway as a frontier town as it sits right on the border with Rusia. As we drove along and looked over to the fjord you could actually see Rusia on the other side and at one point our phones acutaly thought we were in Russia and went on to roaming mode. Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos.

... And the thermometer keeps dropping

I hate to keep bringing up the weather, but keeping warms is becoming a major preoccupation for me these days. The cold never really bothered me in my twenties when I was living in New Brunswick, but for some reason I have become far less tolerant of winter with time. At heart I guess I have always been a warm climate kind of person, so living in the Arctic is particularly tough. But its not like I am going to allow -30 degree c. (with windchill) stop me from going out and getting some nice shots. Hope you enjoy.