Vampires, Werewolves And Witches

Hymn Of The Fallen

Gathering Of The Birches

Delicate birches in morning fog.

The Majesty Of The Night Sky

Northern Lights can have all kind of shapes. The one on the right looks like a number. Unfortunately, I didn't see any red Auroras. They're quite rare.

For To End Yet Again

The Green Wave

A huge Aurora borealis photographed in Swedish Lapland.

Night Masquerade

At night I went out and about to photograph the stars. To my big surprise there were Northern Lights. Seeing them for the very first time was a special moment for me. They looked like ghosts swirling in the night sky. It was beautiful. I fell in a photograph frenzy and took a lot of images.

Flesh Wound

A tree that got struck by lightning. Even though the tree was dead, there was a kind of wound that got my interest. The wound was red, as if the tree bled. I think the tree made a great image with all those wonderful textures. I really like the bark.

Night Of The Vampire

It was ten o'clock in the evening when I headed down the mountain. I came upon this scene and stopped immediately, old British Hammer horror movies came to my mind. Vampires on the hunt for prey, lurking in the shadows. Evildoers roaming through the mist at night searching for clueless wanderers. Bloodthirsty beasts hidden in the fog, waiting... Okay, I should stopp now ;-). To make a long story short, I had to take a picture. Even though it was quite dark, I had to use a ND filter to darken the sky. Without the filter the sky would have been blown out. The blotch of pink is alpenglow, I guess.

Lapland Blue

Blue hour in the wilderness of Finnish Lapland.

The Coming Of The Moon

I was about to leave when I spotted the moon rising above Inarijärvi. I quickly unpacked my gear, set up my tripod, mounted my camera on it, composed the picture and shot. There was no time to lose. If I would have waited any longer the moon would have been too far up and colourless. Being the moon so low, it had a lovely reddish colour.

Apocalypse Now

The differences between north and south were quite remarkable. To the north the sky was an icy blue and to the south it was a dark grey. Although there was a gap in the sky showing some light. The mood was quite spectacular, as if something sinister could happen at any moment.

Kaamos

From beginning of December to beginning of January the sun north of the Arctic Circle doesn't rise at all. That time of year is called polar night or Kaamos, how the finnish people call it. Many might think that it's completely dark during that time of year, but that's not true. Yes, the sun is below the horizon and you'll never see it, but you can see its light reflecting in the sky. Which sometime results, if the weather is nice and you get lucky, in spectacular colours you won't see anywhere else. It is not for nothing that Lapland is known as the province of light and colours. Lapland is a province not a country, expanding over three, actually four countries. Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. This photo was taken at noon (!). Usually, the sunlight is far too harsh to take pictures at that time of the day, not so in Lapland. The only concern was finding a nice spot to capture this magical light and colour. I couldn't find any interesting foreground to use as a point of interest, the forest was too dense and ”chaotic”. And moving through metre high snow was an other hurdle I had to take. Nevertheless, I came upon this clearing and composed the picture around it.

Five Green Ones

Composing this picture wasn't so easy as it was taken with 400 mm. I'm quite happy how it turned out. The point of interest are the five fir trees.

Haunted Woods

The Blood Is The Life

A beautiful beech in morning mist.

Hidden In The Fog

A foggy morning.

Fog And Forest

Wasserflue (844 m/2'769 ft) is a well known vantage point. I wanted to capture first light there but the fog was so thick there was no sun to be seen. The weather just didn't play ball. Instead, I ended up taking pictures of trees.

Frozen In The Moonlight

Groups of fir trees on a very cold night.

Within The Presence Of Absence

I presume the extreme cold was the reason why the evening sky looked like that. Not sure what the purple glow on the horizon is. Maybe from a nearby village? My camera had no problem taking pictures at almost -20°C (-4°F). The real problem was the lack of gloves. My fingers were hard like icicles and hurt like mad. Whenever I touched my camera or my tripod my fingers stuck to it. Which was extremely painful. The tripod I used back then is made of aluminium which made things even worse. Over the next couple of days my finger joints hurt and I couldn't move them properly anymore.