In January of this year, I traveled for two weeks to northern Finland, to Lapland, to photograph the impressive winter landscapes and the Northern Lights.
The scenery is shaped by deep snow-covered forests and conifer trees. Sometimes, native animals such as reindeer, squirrels, swans, ptarmigans, or other birds can also be spotted.

I spent one week together with other photographers near Muonio on the border with Sweden, and a second week visiting Riisitunturi National Park near Ruka.

In January, the chances are good to photograph completely snow-covered trees – though that’s not always the case. With a bit of luck, the trees are entirely buried in snow, making them look like towers of ice or trolls of snow. This only happens when heavy snowfall is followed by long periods without wind and very cold temperatures. Then the snow freezes onto the trees, and the branches bend under its weight. The spruces appear like massive icy spears pointing into the sky.

But if it’s too windy, the snow is blown off the branches. In northern Finland, temperatures in January range between about –10 °C and –35 °C.

In February, temperatures are often already milder, and the chances of seeing fully snow-covered trees decrease. In December, on the other hand, there usually isn’t enough snow yet. Of course, these are only rough observations. Depending on the weather, it’s also possible to encounter perfect conditions in December or February.

At the beginning of January, the sun still remains below the horizon. From mid to late January, it rises only 1 to 2 degrees above it. That’s why January offers the perfect light for photography!
The first light, during the blue hour, appears around 9:00 a.m. The last light in the evening lasts until about 4:00 p.m. In between, the sky reveals an incredible play of colors!
The light shifts from blue and violet in the morning to pink and orange at midday, and back to violet and blue in the evening. The kind of light we experience for maybe 15 minutes at our latitudes lasts the entire day up north! A true paradise for nature photographers.

The long nights also offer excellent opportunities to photograph the Northern Lights! They occur about 300 km above the Earth, caused by solar wind. These charged particles (electrons and protons) need about 18 hours to travel from the sun to Earth. When they hit Earth’s magnetic field, they react with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere, ionizing them. Since the magnetic field lines converge at the poles, auroras form there. The gases in the atmosphere begin to glow.

So much for the theory. In practice, the weather has to cooperate, and the skies must be clear. On top of that, the solar wind must actually reach the Earth. And when all of that comes together, you can witness spectacular auroras. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that lucky.

On the first night, the sky was crystal clear with a full moon, absolutely calm, and the temperature was a brisk –36.5 °C! Perfect conditions for auroras. Disappointingly, the forecast was very poor. That night, I saw a faint green glow at the horizon for about three minutes – and that was it.

The following days, the weather turned bad and only got worse. It was completely overcast. Everything was gray upon gray, with no structure in the clouds and, of course, no light. On top of that, it became much too warm for the season. Every day it warmed by 5 to 10 degrees. Three days later, the thermometer showed only –1 °C – that’s 35 degrees warmer than on the first day! You wouldn’t exactly call it a heatwave, but it felt like something close.

Unfortunately, the weather stayed this bad for six straight days. Only on the seventh day did the clouds clear away, and by the afternoon conditions were excellent for photography. But just one day later, the skies were overcast again. During the second week, I had only one more truly good day for photography.

Conclusion after two weeks: I had two good days of photography and three minutes of aurora! But I’m still content. It was absolutely worth it. On those two days, I captured many wonderful images, which I’m sharing in the Finland Gallery. For me, this means: next year I’ll be traveling back again – because the North is simply magical!