Sven Začek - Kuusamo, Finnish Lapland, Finland II
March 16th, 2009 Posted in Northern Europe, UncategorizedOther Languages:
Day 4-6.
In the evening of the third day there were some signs of the weather improving, which lead to completely clear skies by the time we were back in our cottage having dinner in the dark. Before coming to Kuusamo I had always wanted to photograph the famous Riisitunturi fjell under starlight. So after dinner we set off.
It always amazes me that when you get away from the city glow, how many stars you can actually see. Stars and completely clear skies were not the only treat for the night. I also got to see a display of northern lights and then out of nowhere came the fog. That was a complete surprise to me to see fog high up on a fjell at -15-20 degrees. Lassi said that it was common though because all of the big lakes that surrond the Riisitunturi area.
Well, it suited me to get some foggy night pictures. The only hinderance was that the camera lens started to fog up and in such low tempeatures, it froze instantly. It was a bizarre sight to witness, but definitely a great spectacle of nature.
These days with clear weather, my main goal was to get intimate with the hills and the fairytale winter landscape of Riisitunturi. During the daytime I was concentrating on reshooting the birds in nice winter light. It is amazing how good the light can be up in the northern latitudes even during midday. I caught myself several times stopping my work in amazement of the light. Then I looked at my watch and it was displaying 10.30 and I just could not believe it. Those photographer guys up here have it really sweet, I am telling you.
Lots of snow and splendid light virtually the whole day in the wintertime and many dark hours in the evening which gives them time to go through their pictures. And don´t even get me started about the summertime, when they have the sweet light for several hours, that we mere mortals living further south wait for the whole day only to see it for ten minutes. It is hard to find the excuses not to move here…
Please note that blogs reflect our photographers' opinions and not necessarily those of the directors of Wild Wonders of Europe.
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4 Responses to “Sven Začek - Kuusamo, Finnish Lapland, Finland II”
By Gergo Dioszegi on Mar 16, 2009
Woodpeckers photo is amazingly beautiful!!!
The place is just a scene -as you wrote- from a fairytale!
..and you are the magician;-)
By Danny Sweeney on Mar 16, 2009
These images are just spectacular! And here I am complaining about the cold in Scotland! The woodpeckers looks like a studio scene, simply awesome.
By João Pinto on Mar 31, 2009
I agree. The Woodpeckers and the landscape colours are amazing.
By Heather at Ruka & Kuusamo on Jul 24, 2010
wow, these are wonderful pictures! You’re right, the light here is amazing, the blue of the short winter days here in Ruka and Kuusamo is amazing. Have you been back during the summer? The light at midsummer around 2 or 3am is amazing - so bright and otherworldly.