Riverdance

This one is from a few days back. The last month i`ve been out

countless times and i`ve returned with nothing. Nada...not a damn shit.

But that`s part of the game, so i just keep going. Last saturday i

headed out once again. Parked my car on a remote road in the forest

and put on my skiis.

My headlamp was dead once again, so i only had a small flashlight to

help me in the dark. There was about 50cm (20 inches) of snow out

there. All pure powder...so i was struggling like crazy, but i tried

to think positive. Good training and so on...

The aurora was present all the time. Not blazing, just a green bright

band in the sky above me. I made my way down to a section of a river

that had partly open water. Took some nice shots and kept going

further into the woods.

The next hour i spent struggling in the deep snow. What a waste of

time...didnt find a single decent place to set up. But i had a feeling

things would explode in the sky so i headed back to the river. I was

half dead when i reached it again...

I kept going further downstream, found a spot that looked promising in

the dark and balanced my way out in the river.

I jumped from rock to rock until i was midstream, set up my

composition and then i was ready...

Half an hour later theres still not any activity worth shooting. A few

minutes later i see a tiny, bright & green band start moving really

fast across the sky. All of the sudden the entire sky explodes.

The dark landscape is transformed into a green wonderland. My heart

beats like crazy as i look at the aurora move insanely fast across the

sky. It moved from the left of the frame to the right within a second.

It was crazy...

Is it really this green, you may ask...it sure as hell is. It was a

lot greener than the picture shows. I could literally see the river

turn into a nuclear green fluid...it was so damn fascinating.

I threw away my gloves, pushed the remote and after exposing i could

see that this one looked pretty good. A minute later the activity was

back to normal.

Sometimes it pays off to be patient and spend 45 mins midstream in -20

degrees. When i looked again for my gloves i realized i had thrown

them in the river...5 minutes later they were 2 solid iceblocks :-)

Cheers!

-Arild-

The photo is amazing. I is definitely worth all the effort. Light is perfects. I love the shiny ice in the foreground.

Great shot - and great story behind the shot - excellent

Arild,first I read the story and I like it a lot,I try to imagine that moments and what you feel.Here the low point of view you chosen is excellent and we can see water with green reflection so as you told,ice in the midle looks like a cherry on the cake,the sky is the complete show here,this is a moment for the soul,compliments from me and seven.

Wow !

I know this spectacle is amazing and there are plenty of similar shots here on PN, but this is nothing but excellent.

Beautiful capture and very good exposure handling.

Everything just works here.

Piotr

PS. Hope you had some spare gloves :)

Really great image. Love green. Regards.

It is the green glowing ice island and the shape of the aurora engulfing a virtual dark column that make the shot for me. The story behind it shows you are a really keen and resistant photographer, I cannot imagine loosing my gloves at -20 C... Did you stand in the water or was there a small island to shoot from ?

I really love the passion and adventure you show in getting your shot!  And they are amazing shots.  Great persistence, great skill, great story and great moment.

Great story which makes me appreciate this painful & worthy photo even more! There are many of this type image on PN and so many of them are better than good however this one is fantastic! Nice job on exposure and color, the white is white! I wish I had been there...too cold for me though! Thank you for sharing...must view larger!

Best regards, Pamela

The patch of green ice really makes the image, colours are superb.

Thanks for taking the effort and sharing this.

Incredibili colori! Eccellente aurora nella fantastica Norvegbia.