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.