Finnish Nights: Chasing the Northern Lights

Finland in winter is a land of magic, and I set out to capture its most ethereal spectacle: the northern lights. I traveled to Lapland, where the nights are long and the skies are clear, hoping to photograph the aurora borealis in all its glory. As the green and purple lights danced across the sky, I set up my tripod on a frozen lake, the snow crunching beneath my boots. The silence of the Finnish wilderness was profound, broken only by the faint hum of the aurora. I captured the lights reflecting on the ice, the snowy landscape under the stars, and a distant cabin glowing warmly against the cold. This trip was a reminder of nature’s ability to create moments of pure wonder.

The challenge of photographing the northern lights pushed my skills to the limit. I used a wide-angle lens to capture the vastness of the sky, setting my camera to a long exposure of about 15 seconds to let the aurora’s colors come alive without overexposing the stars. The cold was intense, with temperatures at -20°C, so I had to work quickly to keep my equipment from freezing. I experimented with different compositions, focusing on the reflection of the lights on the frozen lake, which added a mirror-like quality to the shots. One of my favorite images was of a small cabin I spotted in the distance, its warm light contrasting with the cool tones of the aurora. This shoot taught me how to balance technical precision with creative vision, capturing a natural phenomenon that feels almost otherworldly.