A few weeks ago, Jillian and I went on a little road trip and our first stop was Norway's national mountain, Stetind. This is only a 5-hour drive from home which made it the perfect place to spend the night.
Jillian has been wanting to photograph this peak for a while so I was beyond thrilled that we got some beautiful conditions upon our arrival. Normally I would introduce this place to a handful of photography workshops during the autumn and winter months but thanks to the pandemic that wasn’t quite the case this year. Even though I've got a love/hate relationship with this spot, there's no doubt that it's one of Norway's most beautiful mountains.
It felt good to be back for a brief visit.
We arrived Stetind late at night and not long after pitching our tent, the Northern Lights started dancing above us. The past few days had a lot of Aurora activity and this night was no exception. It was one of the strongest displays I’ve seen all year. However, I ended up using a much more subtle display for this photo.
I love watching the Northern Lights go wild on the sky but I’ve always preferred the slightly more subtle ones in my photos. This is because I don’t want the Aurora to take all the attention but rather blend in and cooperate with the other elements.
After a few hours of shooting we crawled back into the tent to get a few hours sleep before catching a ferry in the early morning hours the next day. I didn’t get too much sleep and quickly realised that this year's first night with temperatures below freezing was also a good reminder that my faithful sleeping bag is getting old and needs to be replaced!
Northern Lights above Stetind, Norway’s National Mountain
This was a great night to kick of the Northern Lights season and I’m looking forward to spending more nights in the mountains photographing this beautiful phenomena, even though I might not be able to share the excitement with workshop participants this year.
I have written a comprehensive article on How to Photograph the Northern Lights over on CaptureLandscapes. Make sure to give it a read if you’re planning on photographing them in the future!
