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.

100 days in the Arctic

Just wanted to share a short little video I did with scenes from my first 100 days up here in Vadsø (Arctic Norway). I recommend you turn on full 1080p HD  enjoy!

Sunlight: a dwindling commodity

As you can probably infer from today's title the days up here in the arctic are getting mighty short. Mixed with an extremely overcast sky, the result has been very very little sunlight... and its going to get worse. In about 10 days or so the sun will rise for the last time in about three months. While this of-course in theory sounds kind of interesting and exotic... the part of me which is susceptible to the winter blues is quite concerned. It is however true that my concerns have absolutely zero effect on geography, the positioning of the earth or the weather... so I guess that the discussion is mute. I guess it will be interesting to see what kinds of photos come out of this experience. Thats all for now!

First week of November

Well, we are now in full blown winter. We had our first big winter storm last Monday and the temperatures have continued to drop... that being said I really think Finnmark comes in to its own during the winter. It also seems that we have moved up to the arctic on a good year since solar activity has been fairly high and therefore we are getting to see the northern lights every day. My neighbors say that around January or February they will be even better... so yeah, I am looking forward to that. At home all is going well, little Emma is a handful but she is so much fun... I think she is already a better football player than I am, but then again that is not that big an achievement... even for a toddler. Hope you enjoy the photos.