Many people here believe that you can only see Northern Light during the winter months, bit we saw Northern Light on 25th August at around 23:00 and again on 3rd September at 21:30. Here are a couple of pictures from 3rd September, taken from my house.
On Wednesday night between 10 and 11pm there was a fantastic display of the Northern Lights; the best many people can remember here!!
I stood in my garden watching the beautiful colours and patterns in the sky, coming from every direction (even in the south). After some time I realised I should be taking some photographs but unfortunately by the time I had fetched my camera and located my Gorilla Pod the best of the display was over. However, here are the best pictures I was able to take
In this final picture the light was so bright that it is actually over exposed with a 15 second exposure!
Some pictures I took last night taken with Panasonic Lumix FX60
There was a Tengmalm’s Owl singing while I was taking these images.
I arrived back yesterday from another visit to the UK. Unfortunately I am still not feeling so well and so did not do all the things I had planned, but I did manage to meet up with all my green woodworking friends at Bradfield Woods.
It very quickly felt like I had not been away for one year.
Some of them were busy installing a second stove for cooking and heating,
everyone spent much time eating and talking, and some were even doing some green woodworking!!
I arrived back hereto find that spring has suddenly arrived. When I left on 28th February the temperature was just above freezing, and it has been the same every day during my absence, with much sunshine also. The trees have lost their thick white coating of snow and ice and are green again, the surface snow on the ground has melted and that makes it much easier to get around now.
Last night when I was out just after dark, I was treated to the most spectacular display of Northern Lights I have ever seen. The whole sky from west to north to east was full of colour as the green, blue, yellow and red light danced across the sky. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me but you can see for yourself what it was like via Arctic Color. Here are the images taken from webcam number 3 three yesterday and these images show particularly well what I was seeing!!
Teres’s children had been given time off school to join us at the cabin, to learn more about nature and improve their English. Before driving back to the cabin I visited the Dollar Store to buy a variety of items with which the boys had to build boats to sail across the lake.
In addition to the items I purchased they could also use any natural resources.
Seb and Emma where keen to try out my hammock
Emma spent more time trying to fall out of the hammock with much success I might add!!!
Ingvar had purchased a new axe shaft to replace one I had split
so we went to Anki and Ingvar’s cabin to fit it and to have some lunch
While splitting logs my chopping block had split in half and so Ingvar cut me a new one…..the easy way!!
Having spent some time teaching Seb how to use a firesteel he spent a lot of time trying to make fire and I was impressed at his determination to achieve fire…..and he did.
In the evening the boys put their boats on the lake
and once the wind caught the sails we watched them race across the lake.
We had the perfect end to the evening with a nice display of the Northern Lights at about 10pm (unfortunately my picture isn’t as good as those of Tricia)
While staying in Gallivare I travelled to Porjus which is about 50kms away or 5 Swedish miles (it is worth noting here that 1 Swedish mile = 10kms) . I went there to meet with Tricia Cowern and her son Toby who both moved to Lapland from England. I was interested to know why Tricia had decided to make the move to Porjus and how she finds living in Lapland. Tricia writes for you below in her own words and provides the images;
I first came to Porjus in the summer of 1995, for a holiday with my youngest son. He was a participant is a survival course and I was here to enjoy some nature photography. After spending three weeks in the forest surrounded by a landscape which had no end, birds, animals and wonderful light, I had completely fallen in love with this wide and wild expanse.
I returned to my life in England, driving to and from Birmingham on the M6 three times a week as a book keeper. But my mind and energy were always in the forests of Lapland! 6 months later in January 1996 I returned to the forest but this time alone. I rented a small cabin in the forest with no electricity or water – just birds and animals for company. In January there are only 3 hours of daylight above the Arctic Circle. So these hours were spent collecting wood for the fire and drilling through the ice for water and trying to stay upright on skis. It is very difficult to read by candle light so 21 hours of the day were left for my own thoughts and sleep, along with the resident mice in the cabin!!! Breakfast was eaten outside sitting on a fallen tree with Siberian Jays
and Siberian Tits for company.
It is in this type of situations you realise what you take for granted. Water from a tap, a light switch, a toilet, toothpaste that is not frozen but these three weeks were the turning point of my life.
After making several returns visits, each one lasting longer and longer, in 1997 I made the decision to leave England and buy the old railway station house in Porjus. As well as my home, Porjus became the centre of my photographic work by opening a Photo Gallery in the summer of 1998 in the station house.
During the first year in Porjus I developed a fascination and passion for photographing the very special and unique Arctic Light.
So many visitors to the north only see the midnight sun of summer. This is wonderful but to me the best time is during winter.
The Northern Lights occur the whole year but we can only see them from late August to early April. There is too much daylight in the spring and summer. My photography covers many subjects but my personal passion is capturing The Northern Light on camera.
During the past 10 years I have accumulated many thousands of images of the Aurora Borealis.
This has resulted in photographic exhibitions and photo presentations far and wide – Paris, Tokyo, Cape Town, Poland, Finland and Sweden.
During 2003 I made an acquaintance with a Japanese man and this has resulted in a project to enable people to see the Northern Lights ‘live ‘ via 5 web cameras situated in my house. Yoshi Maejima controls the cameras from Tokyo and he has written a unique computer program which archives all of the photographs taken by the cameras from the start of the project in December 2005 until today. He also converts the still photographs into short movies if the activity of Northern Lights are particularly good.
In recent years Northern Lights have become more and more of a fascination to people. Many companies have started to offer ‘Northern Lights holidays’. To me, the Northern Lights’ are a phenomenon that everyone should have the chance to experience at least once in a lifetime but not in the company of 500 other people. I understand how, why and when Northern Lights occur BUT please bear in mind I cannot control the weather!!!! With this in mind in 2003 I moved a building which is now situated next to the station house. It is possible to sit in the window of your bedroom and see the Northern Lights – weather permitting. Better still, go outside and experience the full effect of the Northern Lights by lying on your back in the snow and letting the Northern Lights light up the sky over head and perform their ‘ magic dance!’. If visitors stay with me they have the advantage there is an’ all night alert´ – if Northern Lights are visible, you can be woken up in the middle of the night! I can provide still photographs; I can provide film of the Northern Lights BUT the best experience you can have is to see this amazing natural phenomena yourself, in your own company ( we have the space) or at most with only a handful of other people ( if you wish) In Porjus we can experience Northern Lights from September to early April.
I also offer photographic courses for new and amateur photographers.
Welcome to my home and my world where ‘I live in the photograph! ’.
Tricia - www.arctic-color.se
Snowing first thing this morning, but then changed to rain. The cloud cleared mid afternoon and then it was clear and sunny.
Cleaned the cabin this morning and put the boat back into the boat shed.
Using some off-cuts of wood I made a simple frame for a hacksaw
which I wanted to cut off some parts of the reindeer antler to take home.
This afternoon I went fishing with my friend Anki who wanted to show me the best places to fish. Unfortunately neither of us had a bite.
As it was such a lovely clear night I decided to test my camera for photographing the stars. In England you can use the Pole Star or North Star to help you navigate at night as when you walk towards it you are travelling true north, but here the Pole Star if directly above and to photograph it I had to lay the camera down on its back.
If you look at the bottom of the above picture you can see the saucepan shaped “Big Dipper” and if you take a line from the two stars at the right hand end (about six timed the distance between those two stars) you come to the Pole Star (it’s the brightest star on the right of the picture).
On the horizon, to the north I noticed a pale glow in the sky and as I watched it gradually became brighter and it was clear that it was the start of a display of the Northern Lights. It certainly wasn’t the best display I have seen, but was still a nice farewell on my last night at the cabin.
28th September
This morning I boarded the cabin windows and closed it up ready for winter.
I spent the next two days living with Ingvar and Anki learning more about life in Lapland, their family history and growing up following the family Reindeer herd in all weathers and living off the land. On Monday we visited Kiruna
and on Tuesday morning I left to return to England.
There are a variety of large mammals in Lapland including Brown Bear, Lynx, Moose and of course Reindeer. Here is a picture of a small group near to my cabin.
There were also some beautiful sunsets and a fantastic display of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) .
