Its #TravelTuesday and I, Dave Williams, am reporting this week from Lapland. If you”ve been following my socials you’ll know I’m currently on an Arctic adventure dubbed ‘Due North II.’
The van is a self-converted Mercedes Sprinter named Kofifernweh and the whole point is to feed my addiction for the northern lights and cold landscapes. So far, so good! I’ve made it past the Arctic Circle line and into Lapland where I’m chasing lights at every opportunity. The weather hasn’t entirely been on my side but I wouldn’t expect anything else here – a couple of polar storms have rolled through in the north and the temperatures have fluctuated between -13˚F (-25˚c) and 32˚F (0˚c) so I’m glad my heater and insulation are doing well at keeping me warm (and alive!)
The northern lights have been particularly strong at times as we approach solar maximum, a topic I’ll be covering in detail soon. With that and the overdue flip in the Earth’s magnetic field it’s more important than ever to fully understand the aurora if you want to see and photograph it. Forecasting it is not easy but once you get the hang of things, it becomes fairly simple to figure out what’s going on up there. Photographing it is what I want tot touch on today.
As self proclaimed #KingOfTheSelfie it’s important that I continue to preserve my title, so I shot this self portrait a couple of nights back. Here’s how: –
This BTS iPhone shot shows the scene. The camera on the left is a Nikon Z 6 with a 14-24mm which I set on my 3 Legged Thing Bucky. I set the exposure details and then set the camera on Interval Shooting Mode to continually take photos. I shot at 4 seconds, f/2.8 ISO 6400 and simply stood in front of the camera as still as I could to get the shot. The ambient light from a street lights of a road not far behind the camera lit me nicely while the aurora explosion filled the skies.
You can find a whole lot more detail about photographing the Arctic and the Aurora in my KelbyOne class. If you aren’t a member, now’s the time. For the Holiday sale the first month is just $5!
I’ll be back next week to wish you a Happy New Year but until then…
Much love
Dave
