arildheitmann 0 Posted April 15, 2010 My fear of the dark are well-documented. Beginning of last week ichellenged this fear on a whole new level... The aurora forecast was promising and i decided to do my best atcapturing this phenomenon. As darkness was approaching i put on myclimbing skins and started the long climb towards one of the manymountains in the area. First i had to walk through the mountainforest,with crooked creepy trees. I distracted myself by constantly lookingup to the sky instead of looking around for ghosts. Once i got overthe treeline i was forced to forget my fears for about an hour...it`simpossible to be afraid when your climbing up a ridiculously steepmountain... I`d rather be exhausted than scared shitless :-) Eventually i reached the area just under the peak. My original planwas to climb all the way up to the top, but i was too exhausted toeven consider such a thing. My eyes wander across the beautiful mountainscape. The sky was gettingdarker, but my eyes had adjusted enough to get a good view of thescenario. Suddenly i see a creature about 100 meters ahead of me. Acharacteristic shape quicly moving across the white mountain. Theillusive wolverine... Not the most common creature to see. I`ve spenta day or two in the mountains over the years, but this was only thesecond time i`ve come across this cute predator. What a nice start tothe evening.... There was no sign of the aurora yet. I looked up at the clear bluesky, and when i say blue i really mean blue... I saw a white cloud andstarted to worry that clouds would come rolling in. I stared at thisweak cloud when it suddenly started moving. Not moving like you wouldexpect from a regular cloud, it started dancing...up and down and fromside to side. When i realized it was the aurora i must have lookedlike Hank Moody in the company of 20 naked strippers.... I then started the search for compositional spots. Really not thatdifficult in such a place. I fired away frame after frame, constantlymoving around. Then the action really exploded. The aurora was moreintense than i`ve ever seen before, and i`ve lived up here my entirelife. It only lasted for a few minutes, but i`ll remember it for quitesome time... At one point the light would come straight up from the peak, likethere was someone doing nuclear testing just behind it. I shot at iso800 at f/4 and shutterspeeds down to 2 secs. The landscape becamesignificantly brighter and i just smiled for myself... This is 4seconds of concentrated northern lights beaming up from the highestpeak. I have another shot where it seriously looks like the wholemountain is about to go off, but i`ll save that for later... A couple of hours later i was standing at the same spot i shot"Blowing in the Wind" when i heard footsteps in the snow. The snow waswindswept and crunchy so i could hear everything quite clearly. Ifroze when i saw the silhouette of the wolverine just about 50 metersin front of me. It just stood there watching me for a while before itdisappeared. 10 minutes later the same thing happened...this time itappeared closer. My heart was pounding... I`ve never heard of awolverine attacking humans, but in the dark bent over my camera icould pretty easily be mistaken for a big fat reindeer. I dont havehorns, or anything that could resemble horns, at least not on my head,but still.... Kinda like surfers attacked by sharks thinking they wereseals :-) I packed my gear and rushed towards the steep mountainside where i hadplanned to ski down. In complete darkness with a wolverine circling mein... I somehow managed to get home safely without breaking any bonesor becoming the nightly meal for the wolverine....ahhh...good times! 17mmiso 800f/44 sec Have terrific weekend everyone! Cheers! -Arild- Link to comment
kaya_eli_in 0 Posted April 15, 2010 An original photo of northern lights. Green light is making a nice curve which exits from the upper left corner and makes a good diagonal-like effect. Sky is a clean parliament blue for a change.This is a good example of minimalistic night shots. I am into night photography and I have seen enough photographs to know that this is an example of the better ones. Congratulations. Link to comment
arup 0 Posted April 15, 2010 Wow! This is simply majestic. It has taken my breath away. Link to comment
brillb 0 Posted April 15, 2010 Incredible Aurora and an equally incredible story. Absolutely beautiful. Becky Link to comment
melloncollie 0 Posted April 15, 2010 i am a fan of your work, and i think you have a couple of photos which are better than this ( at least for my taste), but in an objective way i must admit that it is very original, interesting, and convincing. well worth the 7/7. Link to comment
julio_segura_carmona1 4 Posted April 15, 2010 Excelente imagen, preciosa luz, color, gran encuadre y extra nitidez, Saludos cordiales Arild. Link to comment
ndj 0 Posted April 16, 2010 Pretty cool Arild! I can't say I've ever seen an aurora like this.All the best,Neil Link to comment
ChristopherSchlaf 0 Posted April 16, 2010 Great title.One Beautiful photo.Congradulations. Chris Link to comment
pfranklin 0 Posted April 17, 2010 Original...love the title and think it is a great night shot!All the best, Pamela Link to comment
nicolaus_wegner 0 Posted April 17, 2010 It's hard to realize these lights are on our own planet sometimes. Very creative shot. Link to comment
rocco1 0 Posted April 18, 2010 Friendly local wolverine coming to ask if you enjoyed the show, and you run off. Not very sociable, are you... ;) Excellent picture! Link to comment
phoenixsh7 0 Posted April 22, 2010 Wow. very interesting work. good color and composition made it outstanding.Regards,Shahram Link to comment
stjepan 0 Posted May 5, 2010 Very nice composition and contrast in colors. I like it a lot. Link to comment
chriss1 2 Posted May 27, 2010 Magnificent. I appreciate huge effort put into taking this photo as well as describing it. Lovely composition and great colours, just feast for my eyes. Link to comment
drorbaldinger 0 Posted October 10, 2010 i am completely taken by this series of images. love the descriptions too. Link to comment
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now