As I mentioned earlier, I only had two nights reserved in Tromso. This was mostly because it would have taken too long to drive directly to Senja, but I also wanted to see Tromso and the landscapes around it. That done, I checked out of the hotel, packed my car and headed toward the first "real" destination, the island of Senja.
This day I also saw the first eagle of the trip; while I was driving out of Tromso, it just landed right next to the road to contest the catch of a few seagulls. It was less than 30 meters from me, and there was nothing I could do. Oh well, that turned out OK in the end, there were some on Lofoten too :)
The drive wasn't that long, but boy, was it pretty. Especially the first third. As you can see above, there's a lot of mountains on the way, and I do like me some mountains :) The issue is the typical; the roads are not built with photographers in mind (I know, right??) and the rest stops are few and far between. I did manage to get some photos along the road though, but not a lot of timelapse footage as I was a doofus and forgot to charge the GoPro during the night and had to do it while driving instead.
The roads get much smaller when you get to the actual island, and the traffic pretty much stopped as well. I was a bit nervous before my trip if I'd manage to drive on the smaller country roads, but there wasn't really any issue. The locals keep the roads in good condition; after all, they need to use them daily themselves.
View from one of the few rest stops along the highway.
Of course I wasn't the only tourist here :)
Look back towards Tromso, the road follows the fjord to the right.
That fox lives in a pretty place.
Mountain detail.
I had plenty of time to drive so I decided to do a quick recon of the sunset location I had chosen. This one was pretty easy; it was a location I got from Thomas Heatons video I talked about earlier. The sunset was going to be at a slightly more awkward angle then when he did his trip, but it would still hit the mountain sides in the fjord. I drove up there, took a look around to make sure everything was good, enjoyed the views, and headed back to the place where I was going to stay. After a quick chat with the host and a shopping trip, I was ready for sunset.
The drive up to the location was ... interesting the first time. Basically, it is a hill climb. It has an 8% rise, with twisty turns, and the surface was partly covered in ice. I was slightly worried my car wouldn't make it, actually. This was the first proper test for my winter driving, and it went completely fine. no problems whatsoever. This second time I took a time lapse of it. I also took a time lapse of me photographing the sunset. They turned out OK:
The location itself is one of the few structures on the trip that seems to be built with photography in mind. It's called Bergsbotn utsiktsplattform (Bergsbotn viewing platform), and it's built on the side of a hill, at a corner of the serpentine road. The views, as you'd expect, are spectacular. Unfortunately it was very cold and windy, so I couldn't enjoy the location fully as I was freezing my butt off. I still got a few nice images, and as a bonus, I met a Finnish pair who happened to stop at the same location on their way. Small world, and all that.
15 minutes to go. This was taken with an 8 stop ND filter; I guess I need to get a 10 stop.
View back towards the pass and tunnel. It's tricky to capture the scale of mountains when you are so close, but these weren't small.
Last rays of the sun, and last photo of the day. Or so I thought.
I was quite cold and hungry at this point, so I headed to my cabin for some food and warmth. Although I was a bit tired, the clock wasn't more than 8 in the evening after I'd finally managed to get some food in me. Also, I couldn't stop thinking about a certain thing. During my chat with the host earlier, he had asked me if I'm interested in auroras. Very much so, I told him. He said that the auroras are visible most nights if it's clear, and which direction they would be visible at. And although the forecast didn't promise any fireworks, I was tense. I've seen auroras before, but never 'properly'; they always been low on the horizon or hidden behind light pollution from cities. Out here, there were no cities, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. And I wasn't sure I'd have the technical skills to capture them even if I saw them.
At around 9pm, as I was trying to look out of the windows, I finally gave up, and started putting on clothes. I decided to take a short walk along the beach the host said offered the best views. It was pitch black, very cold, and very windy, but I just had to. After a few minutes my eyes adjusted to the dark, and I looked up. And there it was. A faint green mist, covering the stars. It didn't have a specific form, it was just.. everywhere. I just stood there and waited, and the aurora grew stronger. Now I could see streaks forming and the color getting more intense. I almost ran back to the cabin to put on even more clothes, and get my gear. When I got back and got my stuff set up, I took this:
Calibration shot for finding the settings. It's slightly off, but not too bad.
When the camera showed me the first picture in the back, I just burst out laughing. All the tenseness just vanished, and I was ecstatic. There would be no issue with the camera, I knew right there and then that this was going to be awesome.
I spent almost two hours out in the cold, watching, shooting and moving. The northern lights are almost never static; they move around and shift in intensity. You need to decide what kind of photo you want, and you might not get the aurora in the correct position even though you wait the whole night. This particular evening, I just shot everything. It was a test run mostly; I tested different settings, compositions, and controlling the camera in the dark. I wanted to be ready for the next time; after all, these auroras were not very strong (the camera actually sees more than the naked eye, the color was less intense for me when I looked at the lights).
After the aurora faded around 11pm, I walked back to the cabin. I had nearly a hundred photos. Some were exposed completely wrong, and many were out of focus. But there was one I was quite happy with. Even though this was only the first night of shooting auroras, I was happy.
If this was a level 2 aurora, what will a level 5 look like?
Turns out, the northern lights had more in store for me.