The Aurora was, of course, the main reason we decided to take that cruise to the far north in January. I posted the first “skylights” entry early on the 23rd of January, the morning after we first saw them. Then, I showed one of my own very subtle images, plus one Gary had taken with his camera which allowed a much longer exposure. From calendar images, or people who can take truly long exposures with an excellent camera on a tripod, you’ll get a much more dramatic view. But the subtle, ghostly green you can dimly see above and below come much closer to what my own eyes experienced on the three nights when we were fortunate enough to spend time appreciatithe aurora. These were both taken around 18:30 on the 23rd of January, the second evening they graced our skies. One’s eyes need time to adapt – at first, you might think it’s mist or a cloud, but the longer you stay and let your eyes adapt, the more you’ll notice how the lights change shape and move around. Our cameras tend to see the colors better than our eyes do, but we found that bundling up well and braving the wind and cold for a longer time in the darkest place we could find really did the trick to experience these best.
The first “source” entry was a photo I took in Ticino, nearly a week after I took these ice-sculpture photos inside the glacier at the top of the “Little Matterhorn” last November 1st – but seeing the glacier, ice, snow, rivers, frost on the grass around Zermatt in the mornings: all of those experiences helped me decide I’d need to try this series out. What else can be both shelter and sculpting material, cushion if you wall into it when it’s still soft, exercise medium when we swim, absolutely necessity for and source of the life-forms we know here on earth…and so many other things? There are more ice sculptures to come, from Nordkapp. But I figure first I’d show you the ones from Zermatt :-).
King Crab catching on the frozen fjord, our early-afternoon (about 1:30pm, these photos) outing before our overnight on the ice beds (still to come, here) at the Snowhotel Kirkenes, in Finnmark County, Norway.
I’ll admit right now, for Sam and anyone else who’s curious: if I had a more legitimate “canal” photo from the “country” I’d post it: must get out to the countryside asap once I’m back in Amsterdam this coming weekend and do so, or indeed I’ll have to let this series sleep for a bit. Still, lovely photo & fiord, eh? 🙂
(so much world, so little time....) 