Exploring Ilulissat, Greenland (Part 6)

After another great night’s sleep we headed to the excellent Hotel Arctic lunch restaurant. All the comments we’d read about difficulty sleeping in almost 24 hour daylight had proved unfounded for us. Maybe it was because we were so tired from our excursions or maybe it just didn’t bother us but nobody in our party complained of lack of sleep.

Considering the limited ingredients that must be open to the Chef at the only 4* Hotel within literally hundreds (thousands?) of miles, the spread and choice of food available to the hotel’s guests at all times of the day is quite incredible. We tried to limit ourselves to a snack as we were off to a different settlement, this time North of Ilulissat, to have a traditional meal and wander around onshore for a few hours.

Views from the harbour

The weather as we departed at around 3pm was just fantastic. Wall to wall blue skies and the air, oh that air, so clean and crisp and cold, I swear you can almost taste its purity!

‘Black Death’ hadn’t been fixed so we commandeered a Hotel Shuttle and headed down to the harbour once again to meet the Rusarc.

I’d decided to have a play for a bit with my fisheye lens on the trip out. Shots of the boat and any close up ‘bergs, just to mix things up and keep my eye fresh for new opportunities. The results weren’t great but it’s always nice to experiment.

Captain Daniel at the helm

Hels on deck, drifting gently in the calm

The Bay was just so calm with no breeze which meant the gorgeous looking deep blue sea was acting like a giant mirror at times. The contrast between the white of the icebergs and the blue sea/sky was just another incredible wonder on this totally brilliant trip. The shadows were creating such sumptuous texture on the giant lumps of ice that meant as we circled the more interesting shaped ones, camera shutters were going crazy. Any second you’d thought you’d captured the shot, we’d move slowly a few degrees left or right and you’d realise there was another shot to be had! Icebergs with a distinctive shape one side had a completely different look and feel viewed from the other. It was almost too much for this photographer! Kinda iceberg porn overload. There were times I stopped shooting in order to just take it all in.

After what felt like only 5 minutes (actually a couple of hours) we were making the very slow progress into Rodebay, a very small settlement, accessed via an extremely shallow inlet to a small lagoon. Capt. Daniel took it very carefully, tiptoeing through the narrow channel. We hopped into the ribs again and got to the settlement via a well maintained jetty. The sun, the comparative warmth and the season meant we were no match for the millions of mosquitos waiting for us on land. We were literally live food begging to be feasted upon. We sprayed up, donned our less than glamorous mossie headnets and set forth.

After a very brief wander to get the feel of the place, we entered the restaurant at H8. Yes, a restaurant in a place with less than 50 inhabitants! This is an old whaling station and staffed by a lovely young couple with an equally delightful daughter.

We were presented with a platter of ‘traditional’ food. Seal blubber, dried fish, whale, shrimp and other delights from the sea. I tried most, (I couldn’t face the whale for moral reasons) some elements were much tastier than others but all in all, it was good to experience what the native people survived on here. Raw Seal blubber wasn’t my favourite but its a high calorie food source for Inuit people and very important nutritionally. The dried herring(?) were my favourite and ripping them apart, chewing the salty flesh was strangely satisfying and very palatable.

We headed out to explore the village and clambered over rocks, through a bog and wandered around brightly coloured houses. We came across an abandoned larger house which was decaying and unsafe to enter. Through the window we saw a living room with an old piano covered in dust and rotting away.

As I was about to see if a photo was possible I heard a thump behind me and turned to discover Hels on the ground and in some considerable pain. The long grass had concealed an extremely uneven base and she’d heavily gone over on her ankle. Looking at her, we feared the worse and managed to help her to a nearby rock for recuperation and our (very) limited assessment. After half an hour or so she said she felt the pain was easing and insisted she was fine and that Ian and I should carry on exploring. We headed off in different directions but were back again after only a few minutes as any attempt at getting photographs seemed a bit trivial and we were too worried about her.

We virtually carried her back very slowly across the rocks to H8 where the only ice (would you believe) they had was a couple of ice-pops. We strapped them around her ankle as best we could and waited for the others, all the while being attacked by mossies and worrying how on earth we were going to get her back aboard the yacht via a rib!

Three Husky pups were a welcome distraction and I tried my best for 20-30 minutes to get a good shot of them playing and snarling at each other but failed miserably as they just wouldn’t sit still for 3 seconds. I gave up. Imagine my annoyance when a fellow member of our party returned 20 minutes later, said ‘Hi’ to us, saw the dogs, wandered over to them and they sat still for a good 10 minutes in the golden sunlight almost like he’d posed them!

Hels, post fall, claiming she’s fine!

Those pesky Huskies!

We were to be treated to one more sight before we left. A small boat had pulled up to the jetty and a guy got off and tied a couple of ropes from the boat to the jetty. He then departed again and walked back 10 minutes later untying the ropes. It wasn’t until a few minutes later we realised he’d had a successful hunting trip and had shot two seals. He proceeded to drag one up onto the rock next to the jetty to skin and butcher it. An older Husky pup sat, barked and watched the whole scene from only a few feet away. It never dared to go too near the carcass but barked at the hunter almost constantly. It was a strange sight for us. We’re brought up in such a sanitised society where we don’t get to see these things. I decided it was just part of everyday life here and that I’d photograph the scene although it was a bit gruesome to witness.

Getting Hels back on the yacht was painful for her but somehow, between us all, we managed. How she grimaced through the pain I’m not sure but she seemed as comfortable as we could get her on the deck, leg raised on camera bags and wrapped up warm against the now setting sun and reducing temperature. I concealed my fears that if it was a broken ankle, I wasn’t sure what medical facilities were available on Greenland and how we’d manage. I think all of us had the same thoughts but none of us voiced them at the time.

The setting sun was now making the return journey much more interesting and we cruised around, circling icebergs that had incredible shapes. With the shadows we were spotting all sorts of faces, animals and gargoyles in them and continued to snap happily away.

Some of the ‘bergs looked like they’d been carved into statues!

It was a true “Fire & Ice” moment as the setting sun had turned to a real orange/red, basking the ice in front of us in a very exciting light. Where should we point our cameras?

A gargoyle faced iceberg that from front view had no face at all

Hels’ injury and by now, badly swollen ankle had meant she spent an uncomfortable evening on the boat, mostly looking at the backs of the rest of us happily stood directly in front of her. Like the trooper she is, she winced a few times but never complained. She was mostly cross with herself for letting it happen and how it might effect the rest of her stay. Getting her off the yacht was another painful experience but between quite a few of us, we managed to carry her over the guard rail and onto the jetty. She decided to take the night to see how things were in the morning. We were beginning to hope that it wasn’t broken and it was just a bad sprain but only time would tell us.

Hels’ view for most of the return journey!

The day had been another brilliant day (from a photographic perspective) and we, not for the first time, made our way back wearily (with able assistance for Hels) to the hotel and a good night’s sleep and some pain killers.

Exploring Ilulissat, Greenland (Part 4)

We were seriously knackered after all the excitement and the very late night the previous evening. Not surprisingly we missed breakfast and decided instead to grab a small lunch. We wandered down the road again to see how far away the town was from the Hotel. Having got to the top of the hill overlooking the harbour, we decided it was too far so turned around and came back to the comfort of the hotel and another snooze! This nocturnal existence was necessary but hard to keep up with. There was so much to explore and see.

Before we knew it, we were having dinner again and preparing to head off out on the boats for our next adventure. The weather was overcast but we were excited again to be cruising around Disko Bay. It was early evening, around 7pm when we set out.

We’d plumped for the red sailed ‘show’ boat again for two reasons; firstly we’re anti-social Brits and secondly because we had no idea why no-one else wanted to be on it so it was less ‘busy’.  We later realised that photo opps were much better on the other boat as the one we were on hoisted it’s vivid but apparently useless, red sails and served to make the ice look even prettier and provided some oft needed scale as to how massive these things are. We weren’t out for long however before we encountered a bizarre looking iceberg that had a long dinosaur ridged back. As can be seen above, it’s at these points that any photographer manners and decorum is temporarily waived. Ian is practically mounting me from behind as I’ve pushed in front of him cos “I’ve got a 14mm lens” and ‘need’ to be at the front so as not to get any boat in my shot! Ian responded of course, as he should have done and I deserved.

We continued pootling around with all of us marvelling at all the different shapes and sizes of these incredible structures. We snapped and snapped away at anything and pretty much everything. My philosophy was that I’d never be here again and I can worry about what’s good and what isn’t when we get back home. Others were more circumspect but after a while, it became hard for me to make a decision so I shot anyway!

We found this particularly odd looking iceberg (above) whilst cruising around. I’d seen it from the terrace of the hotel earlier in the day and it’d drifted quite some way before the evening. We have no idea what the jet black strata are in this lump of ice that appeared to have calved from the glacier and fallen onto its final resting place but it sure looked odd!

As the sun set, the clouds cleared a little and we were afforded some stunning shots. Each twist and turn of the boat (and our heads) afforded a different coloured light and reflection on the ice in front or behind us. We were in photography heaven, deciding which way to point our camera was fast becoming a problem. Being on board with other photographers meant you just couldn’t help but sometimes feel their shot was going to be better than yours so you’d better take their view as well, just in case! It was almost an overload of views and sights.

The cloud formations all around us were different depending where you were pointing your camera. Even the background was teasing us.

It became apparent after a while that each of us had a shape or ‘style’ of iceberg that we preferred. I loved these huge, smooth looking lonely ones while others picked the craggier, rougher shapes.

Likening the shapes to objects, animals or seeing faces in them became a ‘sport’ and I think in our delirium during the wee small hours, we even started naming them!

We were patting ourselves on the back as we looked at the never too far away ‘Rusarc Aurora’ and its busier decks before we came to a halt and the crew started to raise the fake red sails. We sat helpless as our boat positioned into the middle of the berg below, under the moon, while the ‘other’ photographers snapped merrily away at our pretty boat through the ice. Damnit, now we understood and didn’t make the same mistake again on this trip.

We continued floating around the icefjord until sunrise and didn’t get back to shore until 5am, by which time we were exhausted but still hugely grateful to be in such an incredible place in this world. We decided that as they were serving breakfast in the hotel, we may as well grab some sustenance before heading to our beds for a well earned sleep. Another gorgeous and productive night.

Ezzie

Model: Erin                   Location: Wiltshire, UK

One of the aspects I want to capture in this B&W portrait series is a kinda candid feel. That not all of the pictures are staged and posed. To be honest, for a model and photographer, these more ‘relaxed and natural’ shots are probably amongst the hardest to capture. It’s like setting up a video camera and being told to ‘walk normally down this road while we film you’. As soon as you think about how you walk ‘normally’, you can’t.

The reason I think, lies in the fact that you don’t think, you just do it. As soon as your conscious brain takes over, it becomes hard to be natural. It’s why most of us really struggle to act well or perform simple ‘natural’ poses when being photographed.

From a photographers perspective, the key to getting these shots is to create as relaxed a shoot as possible. However, for different sitters this will mean different things. What is relaxing and natural to me isn’t necessarily the same for your model. Judging and reacting to your sitters character, attitude and even mood during the shoot can be vital in achieving the results you want.

I have no idea how a model like Ezzie manages to make this look so easy. I know it takes a lot of hard work and I also know she sometimes mentally puts her mind in a situation that invokes the look she’s after. Beyond that I’ve no idea and just marvel and am in awe at the seeming ease she is able to transform from one look to another.

All that said, for me, shooting with Ezzie means none of the above applies. Over the couple of year’s we’ve worked together we’ve become friends and her full time job is an actress. We have to occasionally remember we have work to do and have to literally drag ourselves away from tea drinking, chattering and laughing in order to do some serious work!

These shots were achieved with one strobe/beauty dish and during a moment we were either taking the piss out of each other or performing our huge array of fake accents that always revert to Irish for some reason neither of us has yet fathomed!

The technicals are Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70 II f2.8 L at 50mm, 1/160th sec, f5.6, ISO 100 for the top image and Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 24-70 II f2.8 L at 70mm, 1/160th sec, f5.6, ISO 100 for the bottom.

 

Portrait Series

I’ve embarked on a new project that’s aimed at simple, natural portraits of beauty.

I make no apology for this. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I’m holding the camera! So it’s my eye, my take and my series.

I’ve started with four amazing models that’ve each been fun and exciting to work with. Their abilities and skills in achieving my aims have been amazing. Although the brief sounds simple enough, it takes a great degree of effort, practice and dedication to simply “look natural”.  Add into that, a lighting set up and a photographer gabbling on ten to the dozen and you have to know what you’re doing as a model!

The series will one day be published in a coffee table book but will take some time to amass a portfolio. However, the shots published here won’t be the ones I’ll use, not the shot I’ve chosen as the photo that ‘takes my breath away’! However, they will hopefully give you a flavour and serve as a reminder for me.

The intention is to produce them all in a B&W. I saw a video of shots of actors, some posed, some shot on set but all having a natural, almost candid feel to them. As a lot were stars from yesteryear, most were taken on mono film and that’s the look I’ve adopted. It isn’t a revolutionary style or anything that will wow the photographic community but I don’t normally shoot with B&W in mind and it’s been some time since I produced anything without colour. My usual attitude is that it takes away a vital aspect of information from the viewer and is an oft used excuse for poor colour management/composition by the photographer, so this series is a challenge for me.

This session with Rebecca Perry was shot here at my place. Rebecca arrived and we chatted and drank tea as we got to know each other. For the next 2-3 hours we shot and chatted and laughed and shot. The lovely thing about these projects is that you meet wonderful people as strangers and, after an intense and personal period of time, you inevitably leave as friends. This is exactly what happened with Rebecca. (I’m planning on writing a blog post just about the creative process and it’s alluring and seductive aspects which sometimes lead to misunderstood emotions.) Rebecca’s an amazingly brave and driven individual. She has that gorgeous sophisticated look, professionalism and hard work ethic that will take her far in whatever career she eventually ends up in whether that remains modelling or not.

I love this shot but have not given it the green light as the ‘one’ because it looks and feels too much like a studio shot. It wasn’t but it could easily be mistaken for one. As for her beauty, well, that’s for you to decide!

A Guide to Photographing the Northern Lights in Tromso, Norway

This is a summary of the experience I had trying to Photograph the elusive yet magical Aurora Borealis in Tromso. Please bear in mind I am no scientist or expert in this subject but am a professional photographer by day. I have put this together as I found it difficult to find one resource that gave me the information I needed for my trip and to help fellow photographers who may be planning a similar visit in the near future.

I travelled to Tromso on 2nd January 2014 and stayed for 5 nights.

I researched where in the world would be a good place to view the Northern Lights. There are a few countries in Europe on the list, Iceland, Sweden, Finland and Norway to name a few. I decided on Norway due to the fact that there was more scope to travel if the weather was against me and percentage sightings of the Northern Lights seemed to be high compared with other destinations.

FLIGHTS

There wasn’t much choice and the cheapest seemed to be from Heathrow on SAS. This involves a stop in Oslo before an internal flight onto Tromso itself. The flights cost around £350 return and I made a slight mistake of picking flights that left only 1hr 20mins at Oslo. I say mistake because although that sounds great, Oslo often has poor weather in the winter (snow) and I suffered an hours delay to take-off due to it snowing heavily in Oslo. The flight itself takes around 2 hours but thanks to a following jet stream, flight time was reduced to 1hr 35mins. This left it tight and SAS weren’t going to hold the ongoing flight to Tromso for me! I made it, just, but mainly because the onward transfer was delayed by 15 mins. Be aware that currently, Norwegian customs do not operate in Tromso and I therefore had to claim my hold luggage in Oslo, check my case back in (in the normal way) and go through all the security gates and passport control again as if I was travelling from Heathrow to Oslo only. There were no transfer arrangements as normally happens with a short stop-off and being with the same airline. This left me even less time. Luckily, there were no queues at check-in or security and I sailed through with minutes to spare. SAS keep baggage check-in open until 20mins prior to flight take off time. In hindsight, it would have been more sensible to get an earlier flight and have a more relaxed stop over in Oslo (around 5 hours). There are direct flights on Norwegian Air from Gatwick but the prices were higher and flights less frequent. Flight time to Tromso from Oslo is also around 2 hours.

Tromso is a small airport and although I arrived at around 1am there were plenty of taxis around to pick everyone up. The airport is merely a 10min drive from the main centre of town and cost about £25 even at that time.

ACCOMMODATION

I chose an Hotel to stay in for several reasons. Firstly resources, a large Hotel is central, has room service, breakfast and information readily available. As I was going to be somewhat of a night owl, these things would be important. Free and reliable Wi-Fi was also essential to enable the hourly updates on weather and Aurora activity. Cost differed little from apartments and I chose the Radisson Blu on the harbour front as it was located well, had free reliable wi-fi, is large and generally has good reviews. The rooms all over town in most hotels are reportedly small (unless your budget stretches to a suite!) but it was comfortable and cosy enough for my requirements. Cost was around £100 per night including breakfast. The breakfast was vast with a huge choice to suit every dietary requirement. It was also available from 7am until 9:30 weekdays and 7:30 – 10:30 on weekends.

LANGUAGE

Everybody speaks Norwegian (no surprise there) but slightly unexpectedly, everyone also spoke English. Fluently. Embarrassingly, I didn’t even get to learn ‘Hello’ in Norwegian as I didn’t have to. I always feel massively guilty when this happens but that’s just the way it is there.

TROMSO

The town itself is quaint, functional and I grew quite attached to it although I can’t say I did too much sightseeing. There seems to be plenty to do if you aren’t simply staying as a stop-over to explore the region in search of the Aurora. It is large enough but not too large it loses its identity and has a population of approx 73,000 which is smaller than Worcester or Chester in the UK.

People there get on with their lives with the minimum of fuss. Everyone I met was friendly, helpful and took time to chat if I wanted to. I never once felt ‘uneasy’ walking around late at night in the city and I can honestly say it was one of the most relaxed comfortable places I have ever visited. If there is crime there (and I am sure there is) I didn’t come across any hint of it at all. As normal, be sensible and aware but certainly no more than you would be in the UK and probably much less!

FOOD

Everything in Norway is expensive! That means everything. Get over it or begrudge every penny (or pound) you spend there. A cup of tea and a muffin cost £7.50. One Burger King Chicken Burger meal (standard size) around £12. A pizza in a large restaurant with a fizzy orange £26. Some of the restaurants a good three course meal would easily have cost £40 without drinks. It startles at first but you quickly realise that this is just the way it is for everyone in Norway and you are not being ripped off as a tourist. It is just very expensive there as it is in most Scandinavian countries. Food choice is fairly wide but there does seem to be a large number of burgers and pizzas around. There are Thais and Indians etc but I didn’t try so can’t pass judgement. I was there for the Lights, not the food. Everything I ate was as you would expect and the pizza at Peppe’s delicious!

Given the large breakfasts, I didn’t require too much else and in fact, often skipped a meal during the day as I found I didn’t need one.

Supermarkets are around in town where you can buy all the normal snacks etc as I did to quell the night time hunger pangs during the Aurora chases!

MONEY

As stated, everything is expensive in Norway. Norwegian Kroner is the currency and currently the exchange rate is around 10NK to £1. This makes conversion easy. I took £150 worth of currency but cards are pretty much accepted everywhere, even in the Taxis so no need to carry wedges of cash around.

AURORA TOURS

I didn’t know the area at all and so decided that on the first night I would book a “Northern Lights Chasing” tour to help orientate myself. There are quite a few available and they promise to dash all over Norway in search of the lights. I picked one that claimed to be run by professional photographers that would take you to the most ‘scenic’ spots for photographic excellence. However, in reality, it was a tour for people that wanted to take pics that had less understanding of their cameras. The guides offered valuable basic help with settings and gave out tripods etc. I think I was looking for a better idea about locations than I was settings etc but I did manage to glean some valuable information on where they visited and how they ‘read’ the weather and aurora forecasts.

Tours generally cost around £100 – £140 per head. Be aware that the cheaper end of the market then require additional fees for hot food (you might need it) and sometimes warm clothing and tripod hire etc. I paid £135 all in and got a snow suit, snow boots with crampons and a head torch. I booked with http://chasethelighttours.co.uk and Marianne and George were very helpful. Unfortunately we didn’t see any light show that night but that was due to the weather not the tour. We did have a great BBQ on the beach and the warming hot chocolate was much appreciated! In hindsight I might have booked with the Arctic Guide Service who were right behind the Radisson Blu Hotel and were extremely helpful in assisting me read the weather updates and giving hints on where to chase to get the best chances of a sighting.

You can also go on Dog Sled Tours that also hope to see the lights as well but I am not sure how much serious photography can be done and how much say you get in where the dogs go. Cars and buses travel faster and can cover more ground!

CAR HIRE

I decided before I left the UK that I would do one tour on the first night and get to know the lie of the land. I would then hire a car for the remainder of the stay. The cost was unusually low for Norway when compared to going on a tour each night and meant I could go where I wanted, when I wanted and for as long as I wanted. Four days rental cost £132 with Hertz (who seemed a lot cheaper than others) for a Golf equivalent car (Toyota Auris inc. a very valuable factory fitted Sat Nav). Petrol for the four days totalled a further £70 and boy did I cover some miles!

I think all cars come with studded winter tyres as standard and this makes driving on the snow and ice covered roads a breeze. I have no particular experience of driving in these conditions and the roads (I was told) were at their most ‘dangerous’ due to melted snow turning to water and then freezing again to ice. However, despite this, I never had a ‘moment’ at all and given I traversed mountains and many many miles surely gives testament to the grip the tyres provide. Of course I drove steadily with smooth everything, acceleration, braking and steering but don’t be afraid. Having a car gives you much more freedom and much more time viewing, at a pace you decide, than a tour does.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE AURORA?

I am not going to get all sciencey here but it does help to have a few bits of basic knowledge and understanding of when the Northern Lights are on show and what factors need to be in place for the best displays. I may have some of this wrong but hopefully it will give you an idea on what to look for. Conditions tend to change VERY quickly and are notoriously unpredictable. This is what I learned and some of the resources I used whilst in Tromso.

Essentially you need three things to see the lights:

1. Sun spot activity
2. The right magnetic field conditions
3. No cloud cover!

Resources I found helpful were these two main sites. Space Weather and Norway Met Institute With Space Weather, the important info is down the left hand side of the page. Firstly, read it a few times and click on the ‘more data’ buttons to see graphs etc. From the top left:

‘Solar Wind’ is important because it tells you the strength of the wind. The higher the number, the greater the strength, the better the potential Aurora. The info at the top regarding the sun spots is also crucial, here taken as a snapshot of the site from around midnight 10th Jan 2014 there has just been a “Coronal Mass Ejection” (CME) from a large sun spot. These cause the magnetic storms that can result in very good Aurora displays. Don’t worry however, activity was pretty quiet when I was there and I saw the lights on every day the weather was clear!

The other details down the left hand side also help in predicting the auroras likelihood:

The map (‘Current Auroral Oval’) above left, here of Europe, shows the band of aurora and its likely reach. In this case, unusually stretching down into even the mid UK due to the CME earlier in the week. We were also told that Auroras were more likely to be better if the ‘Interplanetary magnetic field’ was south rather than north. This has something to do with a blocking effect if it is north. However, this data is only historical and changes quickly. If you click the ‘more data’ button under the current readings you will see a graph showing a line that seems to dip south and north fairly frequently.

Although hard to see, the 2nd graph here (Bz) shows that over the past 24 hours, the magnetic field (Bz) was mostly getting tugged north (above the line) but it did have periods where it dipped under between 1-3am for example.

The Norway Met Institute is the weather site that all the tour guides use to try to get the best idea of where to head for the evening for clear skies. It gets updated at around 5pm so wait until then to make a decision on where to go. Basically, the Aurora could be putting on a fantastic display but if you can’t see it due to cloud cover, you will be disappointed. Short of hiring a plane, study this site for the best location to head. Sometimes it is better to get away from the coast and head south, other times north. The forecasters do try to be VERY localised so you can search the site for very specific locations. The main locations I searched were Sommaroy, Hansnes and Tromvik to the North and Skibotn and Skjold to the South. The site is really simple to use. Type in the name of the place you want info on and then on the left hand side click the ‘Hour by Hour’ button and then (again on the left) the ‘Detailed’ button. It should look something like this:

The top graph is the crucial one in that it shows the likely cloud cover. In this case, virtually none! If there is any then below the top graph is a detail of likely high, mid and low cloud forecasted. Now, this is a weather forecast and on one night I was there, the site showed thick cloud all night. We decided to head south and never saw a cloud in the sky at all so remember it is only a guide. Importantly, it is there to give an idea of what the conditions are likely to be. Given the activity of the CME and the clear skies around at time of writing, I wish I was back there right now!!! Do your research, make your decision and head to your location. Staying in Tromso is generally not an option due to the light pollution from the city.

LOCAL ‘HOT’ VIEWING AREAS

One of the things I was frustrated by when booking the trip was that I couldn’t find any information on where to drive to best see the lights when I got there. So here is a brief and quick summary of what I learned while there on the all important where to go. I not only wanted to get to see the lights but also wanted to find good locations that were ‘scenic’ and help my compositions when and if I got to take some shots!

As hinted at above, the general areas to look for that are within a good drive are these:

• Sommaroy (1hr 10mins)
• Tromvik (1hr 5mins)
• Hansnes (1hr 10mins)
• Skibotn (1hr 45mins)
• Skjold (1hr 45mins)
• Finnish Border (2hrs 10mins)

Now, remember, to get a good look at the Aurora, you need minimum light pollution so try to get as far away from Tromso as possible. Heading north is good as the ocean tends not to have too much light pollution(!), head south and the ‘Tromso Glow’ remains for many many miles and does show up in your images. The image below is slightly enhanced but is looking south from Sommaroy to the north and shows the level of light given off by Tromso to the south.

If you head North then there are a good number of beaches and backdrops of mountains to enable you to grab a good composition. The bonus being they are not too far from the road making falling into deep snow drifts less of a risk! A good spot near Sommaroy is a lay-by on the right hand side, just before the bridge over to the island itself. It has a good beach and a view over the bridge itself if required. Keep going to Hillesoy island a few miles to this point (shown as ‘A’ below) and walk up a small hill for a great view looking North. However, be prepared for windy tripod toppling gusts of wind up here!

Photography point on Hillesoy:

Heading south to any of the areas listed above and there are plenty of stop off points. The E8 road can get busy in the early evening but the E6 nearer Skibotn seemed less busy to me. Nothing worse (as happened to me) than having to wait for passing traffic to take your exposures just when the lights are at their best! However, it is easy to walk off the road toward a Fjord and reduce this problem. A great little tip we got whilst there was to take an alternative road back to Tromso from Skibotn/Nordkjosbotn via a coastal route. This affords great views over the Fjord and has many places to stop along the route.

Turn off the E8 and follow the left hand coast road. It adds time and miles but is a much more scenic route:

Further to the south around Skjold is are more forests which give the chance to show the lights around trees and mountains rather than water.

Obviously there are many other places to take wonderful photographs virtually anywhere in this part of Norway which is what I now realise is the reason why I probably couldn’t find any specific recommendations. I am trying to give some guidance to provide an idea and understanding to new visitors of general areas to DIY and hire your own car for a more relaxed and photographic study of the lights.

CAMERA SETTINGS (the important bit!)

I have a full frame DSLR that has good high ISO performance. I like to shoot in RAW mode and post process my images using Lightroom and Photoshop. Here were my approximate settings for my shots.

• Camera set to ‘Manual’
• ISO set between 1600 and 3200
• Shutter Speed between 8 and 20 secs
• Lens Focus set to ‘Manual’ (MF)
• Focus set to ‘∞’ (Infinity) Check in daylight where your lens focuses infinity, it may not be fully to the right! TIP:  keep checking you haven’t nudged the focus ring off its setting as it’s easy to do as you constantly alter shutter settings, tripod levelling and overall position and the biggie, get in and out of your car
• f stop as wide as it will go: f2.8 (or faster) lenses are better but my f4 seemed to work fine
• Use as wide an angle lens as you can (not fisheye although it might be kinda cool!) I found my 24mm sometimes wasn’t wide enough! The lights can stretch from horizon to horizon. I therefore used a 17-40mm f4 lens at 17mm often
• Experiment with exposure times as each location throws up quite different conditions. The shorter the exposure the better as you can get good definition of the Aurora otherwise it can get a bit ‘mushy’ with the lights just looking a like a lump of green!

POST PROCESSING

Remarkably, very little is required. In a RAW convertor, a tweak in Clarity, a touch on exposure if needed and maybe a slight brightening of shadows to ‘lift’ the surrounding landscape more than anything. It can be tempting to push the saturation slider up but as soon as this is done it all tends to look a bit ‘false’. Its all down to personal preference so experiment away.

IMPORTANT BITS NOBODY TELLS YOU

1.   The Aurora can be very hard to see with the naked eye! This is due (I am told) to our eyesight relying on cones and rods for day and night vision. Our night vision relies on rods that predominantly pick up black and white light. Therefore the aurora doesn’t look anything like the greens you see on photographs. TIP: Take exposures of the sky at regular intervals as I found the LCD screen showed me far better when the lights were ‘on’ than my eyes could see. My first sighting of the lights was done by taking a picture of a sky that I thought had some light cloud in the distance. I was shocked when my rear screen showed this!

2.   The lights don’t always show up in the north. We found it was more often displaying in a westerly direction but apparently they can appear pretty much anywhere so keep your eyes and lenses peeled and ready!

3.   It is not necessarily that cold in and around Tromso. In general terms, it tends to sit under the jet stream and so temperatures range between -5 and +5 degrees C. Further south around Skjold in the mountains I experienced temps of -15C with a strong wind and believe me, that was cold! As you are likely standing around for long periods of time it goes without saying that thermals, thick clothing and good snow wear come highly recommended. A hot flask of your fave beverage also helps lift wilting spirits! Good gloves are essential and I could have done with better gloves that enabled me to operate my camera and keep gloves on. A good hat is important as the wind can get up especially in the coastal areas cooling the head and face very quickly indeed.

4.   The sun doesn’t rise in Tromso from the end of November to the middle of January. This is great for Aurora photographers however the show can occur anytime from 7pm in the evening to 3am in the morning.

5.   Although the sun never actually rises, it does ‘nearly’ rise and therefore there is a kind of dawn followed very quickly by a dusk period that can be quite beautiful for photographers. The light is kinda blue and very pleasant. A few weeks later in the year (late Jan to March) and there would be some very good landscaping shots on offer to say the least.

Kinda Blue?

6.   February to March would be a good time of year to visit as there is some sunlight and the area is beautiful regardless of the aurora so photographers should not be stuck for landscaping opportunities.

7.   The Aurora Borealis ‘season’ is anywhere between September and April.

CONCLUSION

Many people have seeing the Northern Lights on their bucket list of things to do. I did and seeing them has simply meant I want to go straight back and see them again. They are as magical and beautiful as you are led to believe. Whilst any break to Scandinavia is likely to be a fairly costly exercise, it is well worth every penny and I don’t begrudge it at all. The north of Norway is a beautiful country with lovely people and I would thoroughly recommend it as a destination regardless of the lights and photography. Combine all of those things and it really is a photographers dream come true. I can’t wait for my return visit!

I leave you with a couple more images of the lights taken while I was there.

Google Business Photos

Well, it has certainly been quiet on here lately! Why is that you ask? If you are sitting comfortably, let me begin….

Earlier in the year I was alerted to a new service offered by Google for businesses. It allows almost any business to add a virtual tour of their premises to Google Maps, Google Streetview, Google+ and Google searches to name but a few. To do this, a business would have to ask a ‘certified’ Google Photographer (‘Trusted’ in Google speak) to come to their location and photograph the premises using specialist equipment. The photographer then departs and creates a virtual 360° tour of the site using the panoramic photographs they have taken. 

Now, to do this, Google need photographers all over the country (and indeed the world) to take part in the programme. This seems like an easy enough approach to most, but, as usual, there is a catch!

The catches are…you need the right equipment, you need to pass the various quality checks and you need to learn the process from scratch. Not too bad but most pro-photographers would be unlikely to own EXACTLY the right lens and tripod heads and these don’t come cheap. Once you have the equipment and are accepted to start, you then have to pass a fairly rigorous training process within a certain timescale. Once this has been done you have to find some businesses, sell them the concept, get them to sign up and then shoot at least 5 different businesses before you become stage 1 ‘signed-off’! 

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I am not averse to learning new things in the name of business and in the name of progress. But it isn’t necessarily easy. 

So, why did I go ahead? Let me list the reasons: 

1. I LOVE the concept. If I owned a business with premises that required footfall, I would do this in an instant. 
2. The cost to businesses is not restrictive. Google suggest a pricing policy but ultimately it is up to each photographer to charge the ‘right’ price. We start at £300 and rise to £750 for very large premises. 
3. The price is a one-off charge to the client. It is not an annual fee and there are no strings attached. You pay your money, have the photographs done and a couple of weeks later they are everywhere on Google and the clients website!
4. Unusually for a pro-photographer, the client owns the images. All of them. Now this puts many off but I cannot see the reason why I would want to retain copyright of panoramas of local businesses so it doesn’t concern me.
5. Clients may put the tour on their own website if they wish at no extra cost. 
6. This one is a biggie! Clients who have adopted the tours are very likely to improve their Search Engine results (SEO), sometimes significantly, as a direct result of becoming part of the process.
7. The tours look amazing
8. It showcases a business and its interior in many more places, not just the main website. Think Google Maps, Streetview, Searches, Google+, Google Local etc etc
9. Not only does a client get a tour, they also get other photographs of their merchandise, food, interior, decor, features etc etc. All this for the same one off fee!
10. It will improve hits to a clients own website
11. The tours are mobile device friendly
12. The tours really bring a business to life for potential customers. They can browse the business interior from home before they visit!

 

There are many other benefits but I sort of stopped there. With regard to Squash Imagery and the benefits to us? Well, they are pretty easy to work out. A product that really adds value to local businesses at an affordable price should be fairly simple to sell. The income stream that derives from it can be steady and help support our other work. The marketing opportunity for us to get our name out locally is brilliant, as is the opportunity for further ongoing work with clients. 

So, all in all, a great opportunity. There is a worldwide online community of ‘trusted’ photographers with helpful hints and approaches and the tours do look amazing (have I already said that?) Each are keen to showcase their latest work and as time progresses, the idea just seems to get better and better. In fact, I struggle to see why any business wouldn’t want this done. 

We have been given the area of Bath in Somerset (beautiful enough in its own right) and Wiltshire together with a couple of other photographers and things are looking good for the immediate future. Getting through the training and quality control has been onerous but now we are up and running, the area is our oyster so to speak. Total classic win-win-win. Clients get great tours, we get to help them, meet great new friends and Google continue to take over the world! 

It goes without saying that if you are a business owner and want to know more then please get in touch asap. You won’t regret it. 

                                                     

 

We are the proud new owners of the above badge to prove we are accredited and trusted by Google to carry out these tours. 

To view a few examples from around the world have a gander here: http://exampletours.com

 

A Lesson in Portrait Photography

I was recently asked to do a portrait shoot for a lovely friend of mine with the purpose of providing some images that could be used for a biog and media information etc in her line of work.

Jane Evans is an up and coming expert in the field of parenting post domestic violence trauma. As her reputation grows she is getting called upon more and more for training and media interviews etc for her particular specialism. Her unique blend of gentle personality combined with a realism of everyday life make her input and training invaluable to anyone that meets her.

The portrait session was arranged and we decided that a studio scenario was just not going to work for Jane. Like most unprofessional models, Jane didn’t relish the idea of having her photograph taken and was understandably concerned how the results might make her look and perhaps more importantly, feel.

It is very important in these situations (i.e. all portraits!), whether photographing for pleasure or commercially, to put your subject at ease and not ‘overpower’ them with paraphernalia or barked instruction. I am lucky enough to know Jane but if you don’t know your subject it is always worth spending whatever time you can, having a chat with them.  This helps you understand what they want from the shoot and get to know the characteristics of the person you are about to subject to, what to many people, is a dreaded experience.  It also means that they can get to know you as well. A good photographer will never under-estimate this conversation.

This quote sums up my philosophy totally and I believe should be taught at EVERY Portrait Photographic training course in the world! “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” – Paul Caponigro.

This is where the difficulty and the excitement lives in photographing people. It doesn’t matter who the subject is, rock star, politician, next door neighbour, brother or a stranger in the street. The skill is in executing the capture of an individual’s heart. Many say ‘soul’. Another famous quote is: “Portraiture is a window to the soul.” I am not sure that is necessarily the case but it certainly is more than just a photograph of a person.

Too many times we are witness to photographs of people that are merely a record of what someone looks like. Capturing the inner person is the secret and the reason the greats are great. Sometimes I have had a portrait session with someone and feel I have let them down. I have failed to capture them in the way I should have. Is that their fault? Is it mine? Always it’s mine, talk to any model sitting for the real greats, Avedon, Blumenfeld, Testino and they will not mention the equipment or the studio or even location. They WILL talk about the photographers passion, engagement, conversation and how they were made to feel fantastic, maybe carefree. They trusted their photographer. This is what should be taught at any photographic educational establishment but is so rarely touched upon. A photographers ‘style’ only develops when they have grasped the mastery of these simple concepts.

Anyway, back to Jane. We decided that as Jane was nervous (not uncommon at all) and that she is a country gal at heart, we went for a walk in the country! As we got going, I shot a few of her with a longer telephoto lens so as not to ‘crowd’ her and get her used to me taking some photographs. I explained what we were doing so nothing was a surprise. As we proceeded, Jane became more confident and we had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

The results are, I feel, fantastic. I showed Jane these images (and a few others) last week and I am always hugely surprised at the impact a good set of images can have on the sitter. It is why I love this job! I didn’t alone make these images….it was, and will always remain, a collaboration. Jane made a comment that I am not sure she realised the impact of. She told me that she trusted me. The highest compliment she could have paid me in my opinion. I hope that although the vast majority of you will not know Jane, you can start to know her from these few images. If that happens, then surely the photography has done its job!