Polar Lights Witch Model Kit
Bigg Gernes
There is no switch to turn on the northern lights. Seeing them primarily depends on a combination of four main elements: darkness, clear skies, extreme northern (southern) latitude, and solar activity. Winter on Lofoten already covers two of these elements: darkness and northern latitude. Clear skies and solar activity are more or less left up to chance. I have experienced some winters where I rarely saw a star over a two week period due to heavy cloud cover, yet elsewhere in the north clear skies brought fantastic aurora displays. Other years I have had multiple clear nights and yet the sky remained silent. Like the weather, there is no way to predict what you will get until you are on the Islands and the twilight is fading into night.
In general, there is a short term level of predictability for the occurrence of auroras, as they usually happen several days after a solar storm. Several websites and apps are available to help forecast the appearance of the northern lights up to about 3-4 days out. Though in my experience, they often appear when they feel like appearing. Some of the best displays I have seen were on forecasted low activity nights, whereas some nights which were predicted to have hight activity were quiet. If I am to give some advice though, I would use the prediction of solar activity level to calculate how much effort you want to put into finding clear skies, should they not exist at your current location.
The coastal areas of Lofoten are often the best locations for shooting the northern lights. That being said, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, most Islanders live near the coastline. This means that you should be aware of light pollution, even on seemingly distant shorelines. Next, pay attention to how open the horizon is from the northwest to the northeast, as this is typically where the aurora will appear. If you have mountains rising too steeply in front of you, then any low level auroras may be blocked from sight.
The beaches of Flakstady and Vestvgy are some of the most popular and photogenic locations for shooting the northern lights. Haukland, Vik and Utakleiv beaches, only separated by a short section of road, all face in slightly different directions, letting you move between them as the northern lights move though the sky. Skagsanden beach provides a wide open northern horizon which works well with aurora appearing from multiple directions. The northern coast of Gimsy also has some small beaches and wide open horizon, but they typically lack any mountains in the background.
Getting away from the coast, there are also multiple inland options for shooting the northern lights. But these typically are more dependent on localized conditions, i.e.. how much snow is on the ground, and often require a bit more planning and exploration to find a scenic composition. Additionally, mountains can also block a majority of the horizon, limiting the viewing angles the aurora may appear in.
Reine: A multitude of views possible, from the tourist viewpoint over the harbor to include the city, to areas down on the fjord to avoid any lights in the foreground. A good variety of shooting angles are possible from northwest into the back of the fjord, to directly east across the open waters of the Vestfjord. Though the mountains rising on the north side of the fjord are some of the most dramatic on Lofoten, they will suffer from severe light pollution with anything less than a quarter moon, taking on an ugly orange color cast.
Skagsanden beach: This beach has grown in popularity recently as it is the first nice beach reached from the Reine area where most of the photo workshops stay. The beach faces northwest, with good open skies continuing to the north. With some nice rocky areas on the side of the beach, a variety of compositions are possible here.
Uttakleiv beach: Another of the more popular beaches, the classic Uttakleiv view with northern lights overhead is a coveted one among photographers. Sky is open from the northwest to north. Any aurora from a more easterly direction will be mostly blocked by the massive Himmeltindan. Light pollution not too bad, but a bit of moonlight helps with the scenic foreground here.
Haukland beach: Facing south west, with mountains directly north and east, Haukland works best in strong aurora displays when the lights are well overhead or have swung around to a more southern or western direction.
Vik beach: Similar to Haukland, but more open to the north, I often start my wait for aurora here as the horizon is fairly visible. With Uttakleiv and Haukland just down the road, Vik also works well with shifting auroras if you need to change locations quickly.
Unstad beach: While Unstad is one of the more scenic beaches on Lofoten, it unfortunately has quite limited angles in which the northern lights need to appear, making Unstad a bit of a gamble. Best to save Unstad until after you have been to several other locations and have some good shots. Minor light pollution, but like Uttakleiv, some moonlight is beneficial for the rocky foreground.
Aurora photography is a much more active experience than typical night photography situations. If you are lucky to experience a solar storm then the sky will be dancing with light that neither words nor photos can properly describe. This can cause photography brain freeze, which combined with the darkness allows simple mistakes to happen which might affect your images.
Always take a test shot to check focus and zoom in on the image to verify sharpness. There is nothing worse than getting back to your rorbu and discovering you have a whole collection of out of focus images.
There is no single correct setting for aurora photography as the conditions on the ground, snow vs. no snow, and the sky, moon vs. no moon and any remaining ambient light on the horizon, are always changing. The exposure needed on a moonless night with only a faint aurora will be several stops of light different than a night with a full moon shining across fresh mountain snow.
When the lights are faint and amorphous, and particularly if there are some clouds swirling over the mountain peaks, it can be useful to lower the ISO and open up the shutter for some long exposures to let the movement of the clouds better balance with the aurora for a more subtle look to the scene.
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Northern Lights (titled The Golden Compass in North America and some other countries) is a young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, published in 1995 by Scholastic UK. Set in a parallel universe, it follows the journey of Lyra Belacqua to the Arctic in search of her missing friend, Roger Parslow, and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel, who has been conducting experiments with a mysterious substance known as "Dust".
Northern Lights is the first book of the trilogy, His Dark Materials (1995 to 2000).[1] Alfred A. Knopf published the first US edition April 1996, under the name The Golden Compass,[1][3] under which title it was adapted as a 2007 feature film and as a companion video game. The book has also been adapted as the first part of the 2019 TV series His Dark Materials.
Pullman won the 1995 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding British children's book.[4] For the 70th anniversary of the Medal, it was named one of the top ten winning works by a panel, composing the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite.[5] Northern Lights won the public vote from that shortlist and was thus named the all-time "Carnegie of Carnegies" on 21 June 2007.
The setting is a world dominated by the Magisterium (commonly called "the Church"), an international theocracy which actively suppresses heresy. In this world, humans' souls naturally exist outside of their bodies in the form of sentient "dmons" in animal form which accompany, aid, and comfort their humans. An important plot device is the alethiometer, a truth-telling symbol reader. By setting the alethiometer's hands to point to symbols around a dial a skilled practitioner can pose questions, which are answered by the movement of a further hand.
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