How to : take picture of northern lights

No one will denied the chance to take a picture of northern lights when they could have one. But to take a really nice one could be tricky somehow. Theoritically, you can take one, even if you only have a compact camera with you (of course, there is always a limit for what a compact camera could do ). Anyhow, whatever camera you have, the one that you mustn't forget to have with you is a TRIPOD (preferably a sturdy one).

If you are using a compact camera, then, accesories you will need to worry about are the tripod and extra batteries. However, if you own a D-SLR, then you will start to make a list of things you need or "might want to consider" to have with you during this photo session.
- a lens with a nice aperture (preferably wide angle (max. 28mm) with the biggest aperture possible, around 1.8-2.8)
- remote control (so you don't need to touch your camera with your shaky fingers)
- a "huge" memory card
- a sturdy tripod
- extra batteries (in the cold weather conditions, the battery will be "used up" a lot more faster)

I won't go into the details about what you should wear, but I did wear clothes like if I want to do the exploration in the heart of the antartic (4 layers of clothes, plus a super warm boots, wind stopper gloves and warm hat). But honestly, taking picture when you were on sea is a lot warmer than if you were inland, but one thing for sure, a tight pair of jeans is not recommended for this activity, unless you want to catch cold.

If you were inland, you can put your camera on the AV mode even better if you are comfortable to work manually. The problem with the AV is since your camera works based on the aperture you choose, sometimes it takes away your liberty by giving you a long-pause (30 seconds), unless you want to harm your picture with the very high ISO (above 1600 ISO which I won't recommended to do so considering the noise which will presents on the picture later on). Since the object of our picture is the northern light which is far on the sky, then manual setting will be perfect, well, it will required some works at the beginning, and after that, it's you to choose the aperture and duration, of course ISO too. We don't really need to care about the auto focus, I will say, turn off the AF on your lens, and let it works with MF instead (put it to the infinity). My aperture preferance is 11, and I'll try to keep it on 15 - 20 seconds pause. Well, some people will tell you make it to 30 seconds, but let me say this, the northern lights' dance is depends on when the winds blows, so does the intensity, so when  you put your camera on a too long-pause you might risk to lose some of the movement (if it moves to the other side), or if it disappear all of sudden. No one can guarantee how long it will appear, and how big the size could be. It's part of mother nature, no one could give a fixed order for the appearance of the northern lights.

Above is the case if you try to take picture of the northern lights inland. Most of the challange will be if you are on sea. Imagine, that not only the northern light which will move, but also you, and worse, you can't even control the speed and movement of the boat (unless you are the captain of your own LOL). But this tricky condition could be mitigate with the TV mode on your camera. Depends on the lighting on the sea, but I will say, for the best result, try to keep your ISO between 800-1600, your speed shutter at 4-5 seconds pause, as inland, put your lens to the manual focus to infinity. In land, you might have a chance to use the ISO as low as 200 since you will have snow around you to reflect the light, however, on sea, in the other way around, you could only depends on the moon lit as your light sources.

Other thing I would like to add, since we can't really predict how long the dance would last, I strongly suggest everyone no need to check on pictures they just took on their LCD too much. Why? Because you will certainly wasting your precious time and you will used up your battery life. I took all my northern lights' picture on RAW file, not because JPEG file won't give you a bad result, the problem is, when you encounter lighting problems with your picture, then RAW will serve you the best by the time of editing.

I tried to put as many information as possible on this post. However, I am sure, I missed something on the way. If you have any question, please don't hesitate to write to me - right as comment, or to my email pyongbricole@gmail.com , I am not a genius, but I will certainly try to answer your question on my best.

*_* NOVITA

HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!!!!!

Hunting The Light - Part VI ( The end)

Last day of my trip with Hurtigruten MS Polarlys. I arrived 30 minutes late than scheduled at Kirkenes, which I didn't mind at all, at least I had more time to spend on the boat.

As instructed on the paper the night before, I had dropped my luggage to the nearest elevator on my level, so I only need to carry my 16-kg camera bag, plus my all-in hobo bag with me (I was over charged with things I carried with me). Tell me I if I am stupid, but I don't care, I skipped the breakfast, which is already included to the price of my room, instead I waited at the cafetaria until the waffle was ready, of course accompanied with the super good hot chocolate, and why I said I was stupid, because I had to pay for them from my own pocket.

Arrived at Kirkenes, I found my luggage outside the port, right next to the bus stop, and no one touch or steal it (hey, I was in Norway per say LOL). I took the bus for the center of Kirkenes, to be exact for the Rica Artic hotel, and this 10-minute trip cost me NOK 25, which is less expensive than either my waffle or my hot chocolate LOL. In between this trip, I saw something that mesmerized me. According to the information I found on the boat, Kirkenes had only about 5000 habitant, which mean, not that much people for a town. But what I saw during this trip was a huge cemetary on the road side, and I bet there hundreds of tombs stone on it. I wonder if it's the victim of the alcohol, because as I heard, people at Finnmark, where Kirkenes was situated, they never drink alcohol during the winter when the sun is up, but the problem, during winter, they never had sun, or the direct translation was, they were kinda "alcoholic" per say.

I actually had another night to pass on at Kirkenes before catching my flight to go back to Zurich the next day. I went to have a walk around Kirkenes, including visited the site of the famous "snow hotel" - they haven't built the hotel yet during that time cause the weather wasn't cold enough to hold the igloo with all it's electrecity supplies, took pictures of reindeers, huskies, and even almost got tailed by some "punk" teens.

Well, that's all the adventure I could share with you from this trip. I hope to travel again sometimes soon to the place where I could experience something totally abnormal so I could share my "bonheure" (hope I spelled it correctly" with you :)

*_* Novita

Hunting The Light - Part V (Journey Up North Part II)

In this part, I will reveal two important things : my encounter with Ms. Boreale, and my favorite parts on Polarlys.

So, let's talk about Ms. Boreale first. I just finished with my dinner, I haven't even touched the dessert (how bad was that...let's my dessert wasted...darn), and we heared the announcement that "there were northern lights appear on the sky", I grabbed my camera and tripod which I carried with me to the restaurant (how freaky I was), but I left the most imporant thing behind...my jacket, but that's the detail, I ran to out to the passage on the 5th floor (the restaurant was on the 4th floor) asked everyone to excuse me if I blocked their view or stepped on their feet, took my place and started to take pictures. After sometimes, I started to shake and that's the time I realized I was taking picture in the artic circle without any jacket on me, duhhhh..............anyhow, I took about 200 pictures of it (how lucky I was, Ms. Boreale was in the good mood so she made the appearance for about 2.5 hours on and off), even though only a fraction of them I really like.

Now, about my favorite parts on Polarlys. I like the cafetaria area, because they have the best hot chocolate and waffle. Prices on the cafetaria were quite descent if you compare with the price at Tromso (don't compare with prices on your home country, then you will let yourself starving in Norway). A cup of hot chocolate for 26 NOK, and about the same for a hot waffle fresh from the maker ;)

I also love the passage on the 5th floor. I could make the tour around the boat without anything obstruct my view. What I experienced with the massive cruise ship is that, I always have to find my way to get to the place where I could take picture without anything that blocked my view, and without the marked of restricted area...ugh.

If there is anyone on the polarlys that will hate me, I think it'll be the lady on the tourist advisory desk. I kept disturb her with the question about "how's the chance for me to see Ms. Boreale tonight?" LOL...I believe she felt relieved when I left the boat.

During our stop at Honningsvag, I went out for the excursion to the Nordkapp with other passangers. It's an hour bus ride from Honningsvag to the Nordkapp, which based on Francesco Negri was the end of the world. We're quite lucky because the weather was "nice" on that day, so I still had about 10 minutes of "sunlight" to take pictures with when we arrived there.

(to be continued...)

Hunting The Lights - Part IV ( Journey Up North part I)

I took me 3 hot chocolates to encourage myself to lift my butt off the hotel's chair. If I have other choice, then I will want to stay forever in Tromso. But well, time to go...I arrived couple minutes before my ride hit the pier, so I had enough time to take some close-up of her.

Isn't she is a beauty???

This time, I will ride on Hurtigruten MS Polarlys. In term of size, this is the smallest "passanger boat" I ever took in my life, but have someone already told you about "small is beautiful", so does Polarlys. This is the cutest passanger boat (they called it postal boat in Norway) I've ever seen. It's so cute, it took me about 30 minutes to explore the all levels of this boats LOL.

Polarlys is a descent size of passanger boat. It has a nice size restaurant, bar, panoramic bar and a 24 hours cafetaria. Don't try to compare it with any "leisure cruise ships" because they are just incomparable. I should say, even for me, the size of the bedroom is small, something around 3 meters x 2 meters, with a very standard amenities, and in this case, I am not trying to describe on details about the size of the bathroom in that size of room, you guess it ;) But again, since this is the most challenging part of this journey, put behind all the luxury and try to enjoy yourself with the basic. The restaurant, even it's small, but it served great foods in small portion, but again, it's one of those delicious foods you will find on those 5 stars gourmet restaurants. I will tell you in detail about my favorite parts of the boat next time, for the moment, I will just go through the list of facilities they have. Ok, so, they have a tiny sauna, a limited playing room for children, a 3-computer internet "cafe", a small but packed souvenir shop, and a travel advisory center. There were also 2 mail boxes on the ship, one in front of the souvenir shop, and the other one on the receptionist area. If you drop your mail on the one at the souvenir shop, then your mail will have the post mark of the boat. If you drop it to the one at the receptionist area, then your mail will have the post mark of the next stop of the boat from the local postal office, depends on when you drop your mail. But if you want your mail marked with the post mark of Nordkapp, then you have to carry your mail all by yourself to the Nordkapp, and drop it into one of those famous red mail box at the Nordkapp Hall.

(to be continued...)

Hunting The Light - Part III (I was doomed)

My main reason to go to Northern Norway in the winter was simply to take picture of the northern light a.k.a Aurora Boréale. I had contacted couple of people who could provides me with the "Chasing the Northern Light" tour, bought all equipments I might need during that "chasing" part, and worse, got super excited with what I will see based on the story I read on blogs and internet.

When the day of my "chasing mother nature" activity arrived, I got a bit jumpy, typical highschool student who will got her first-time date LOL. First bad sign, the sky was covered :( Even though it was "dark" all day, I still could tell when it's a clear or cloudy sky in Tromso (for this, I felt I was cool enough LOL), second sign, the guy who should gave me a company, Gorran, he couldn't show up, so he replaced by his friend, Ygor. When we started to drive and stopped in the middle of nowhere, I felt the gust of the wind around me wasn't typical what Ms. Aurora Boréale would like best, it's too gusty. But Ygor told us, no worry, he was contacting his friends, and they found some clearing spots somewhere around the E6. Then we drove again, but I started feel suspicious with what I will achieved that night. Couple hours later, he told us, we almost reached the border with Finland, so he though there were no use for us to continue, and that's the end of the super adventure for "chasing the northern light", FREAK!

(to be continued...)

Hunting The Light - Part II (Felt in Love with Tromso)

Look at that picture, and tell me how not to falling in love with such a beautiful scenery.

Only thing that bothered me on the first day was, I felt either I was sleeping too long, or I didn't sleep at all. When I had my breakfast, I felt like I am ready to go to bed again, the sky was so dark outside LOL. Otherwise, it's all good.

It's not that difficult to not get lost in Tromso since there were only couple of main streets and other road that links you back to the main street. But be careful when you have to take the bus to the Artic Cathedral. I took bus no.24 from the square near the fish market since I wasn't in the mood to cross the bridge on foot. Basically, I should only took the bus to cross the bridge, and got off on the first stop. But the first stop, which is not too far from the Artic Cathedral was not so "touristic", so I was naively thought there must be another "touristic" stop which will be right on the door step of it. Wrong! I dragged myself to the "rural" of Tromso and I started to get panic, got lost on the day wasn't a big deal for me. I was born with a "built-in" GPS on me, which means, unless I got drunk, otherwise I won't get lost that easily. But lost in the "not-so" daylight time, that scared me out. I was lucky, I was in Norway, where the nicest people on earth living. So, the bus driver was so kindly stopped another bus with opposite direction, and let them know where I was heading too.

(to be continued...)

Hunting the Light (Part I - Arrival in Tromso)

Some people think, still until now, I am a bit strange, while people try to avoid the cold, I was looking for one, with my idea to travel to the northern most part of the europe. But I am kind of "snow" girl type, I love cold, especially snow, and I am not a big fans of sunlight, so this trip should be perfect for me.

Begun with "late" train to Geneva airport, thanks to the so-called "accident" in Geneva city, my train was 20 minutes late, and I was already tight for my check-in time. The line in front of the SAS was so long, I was afraid if I will be the one who delayed my flight LOL. But I made it, the lady gave me all the documents I need, checked my luggage (half hearted) - my camera bag was about 15 kgs (about 33 lbs), she wasn't very happy to let me carried it with me but she couldn't bear the consequences either if I let her checked my camera's bag.

So, it was a super long trip for me, I started with my flight from Geneva at 11.55 am, and finished at Tromso at 7.30 pm. The exact route is Geneva - Copenhagen - Oslo - Tromso, and all with Scandinavian Airlines (darn...I forgot to give my star alliances FQTV number!! Will do later).

The stop at Copenhagen was quite fast, just had enough time to got my Coffee Mocha from Starback at the transit. Then, I hurried to the gate to caught my flight for Oslo, while during this flight I said good bye to the sunlight for the next week.

"I said good bye to the sunlight on my way to Oslo"

As ruled, all international passangers had to carry out our own checked luggages and drop it back on the check-in area. So basically I had to pass the custom area (with no one care what I did) and drop my bag on the check-in area, and did all the creepy security check all over again.

I should say, Oslo airport wasn't as what I had expected. It's quite small and "empty" per say for the international airport of one of the richest country in the world, thanks to their oil deposit. Finally, I decided to change more of the Norwegian Krones and hurried to my gate which is only 20 meters away from the money changer LOL.

I was quite lucky, in all my flights (except from Geneva - Copenhagen), I had a very nice neighbour who like to share some stories with me. The nicest one I got was for my flight to Tromso, the final flight. I forgot her name, but she was a Kenyan now living and working in Norway. She explained lots of things for me about Tromso, including where to go, what to do, etc. She even shown me the beauty of Oslo from our window just before the flight landed.

I should say, the first time I saw Tromso from the sky, that's the time when I fell in love with it. It's beautiful, one of the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life. Seriously, I even thought it's prettier than Swiss Alps LOL.

So we arrived at the airport, I hurried to one of the luggage belt (there were only two, so it wasn't give me too much trouble to find mine LOL), grabbed my luggage and got to the Flybuss which will took me to the city center (Sentrum) in 10 minutes and cost me NOK 55 - best of all ,the bus stop is right in front of my hotel - Rica Ishavhotel.


(To be continued...)

Things to bring with to Cap Nord.

Surprise.......I will be leaving to Cap Nord (North Cape) tomorrow morning!!!!!!

First I will take a long flight to arrive at Tromso where my journey to the end of the world will begin, but today, we will only talking about what I will packed for this "once in lifetime" trip.

Check list for clothings : all necessary thermal clothes, 100% wool socks, thermal gloves, wind-proof gloves (to put over the thermal gloves), water-proof and wind proof ski pants and jackets (I bring my Eider's), 100% wool winter hat and Colombia's Bugga's boots which is waterproof which can stands up to -32°C.

As for my camera bag, I will carry my Canon 5D Mark II, Power Shot S60 (it's like a joke hahahaha), my Giotto's with 360° angle head, and all "bright" lenses such as, EF 28mm 1.8 USM, EF 70-200mm 2.8 IS USM L, EF 16-35mm 2.8 USM L, and EF 24-70mm 2.8 USM L. This time, I will also carry along my Sony Handycam.

Of course things I can't life without, my Ipod Shuffle filled with all my Michael Bublé's songs.

Trip to Tozeur (Part V, Finale)

Salt Lake and Douz

Venturing our way out from Tozeur to Douz, we made a quick stop at the giant salt lake of Chott el Jerid. We begun passing the villages, and things started to turn from green palm tree to white arid landscape, and here where I really understood the real meaning of word "FATA MORGANA" I saw it myself, and it's quite stunning how my eyes manipulated my senses. While we had our time to take pictures of the breathtaking landscape, some people risked their shoes by walking on the salt lake, well, I did too, but I was safe, not not everyone was so lucky. I knew a couple of people who had to deal with the disaster of the dirts all over their shoes and feet (details).

Then we arrived at Douz, a dusty village which claims itself as the gate to the desert of Tunisia. It's quite remarkable to see about 300 camels waiting to give us ride for our lunch. At the beginning, no one knew about special lunch transfer arranged by the Tunisian government, so I was one of those who refused to climb up on the back of those camel. I tried to argue with them that I prefered to walk around since my only interest was to take pictures, but then they gotten pushy by saying that's the only mean of transport to my lunch, unless I prefered to do my fasting :(

I had a very "nice" camel, which named Mustafa. He loved to take a short cut in front of other's, by climbing on the dune and went down in a sprint style. I quite freaked out by him, so...only way to reduced my fear was by shouting..."...arghhhhhhhhh". After 30 minutes ride, I think Mustafa now became a "deaf-camel" thanks to me hahahahahaha

-Mustafa-

Lunch is quite cool, we're eating, again, in the middle of the desert with not so great weather. But at least we got companied by the traditional dances and musics, and even more special, the menu of that day was "meat cooked in the sand" and salad with the "horse's cheese". Trust me, I wasn't so brave to stick my fork on them :(

But then, the end of the day approached us faster than we expected. That's the last day of our "fun" trip to Tozeur. We closed that day by having a gala-diner at one of the Chic-place at the center of Tozeur - great dinner (with lots of lamb's menu) with belly dancer and fashion shows.

It's quite a remarkable trips, even though there were sometimes things getting hard to digest (like camel meats, lambs everywhere while I am allergic to it). I wasn't sure if I would ever want to return to Tozeur, but at least, I have BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

See you at my next trip to....SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!

Trip to Tozeur (Part IV)

Sahara Lounge and Ong El Jamel

Visited one of the newest adventure park in the heart of Tozeur at the back of the horse-cart. They built the parcour using the existing palm tree to entertain the tourist and rich-local people, why I said so ? Because, a cup of espresso cost almost double than the price in Switzerland. 7 Dinars for a cup of not fresh brew espresso, I think it's a "SCAM".

I didn't really enjoy this place, honestly, but seems like otehr friends did.

At night, we've got special entertainment. Dinner at the middle of the desert on the shooting spot of the STAR WARS.

It's a bumpy ride to arrive at Ong el Jamel. First, we entered the town of Nefta, then took turn in to the sandy bumpy path, and there were all the adrenaline ride begun (for me, plus we drove at night). After about an-hour ride, we arrived at a luminated spot in the middle of nowhere, and there was Yoda's house hahaha

We've been welcomed with the traditional dance, and thousand candles been spread out all along the path to lighten up our way. It's kind of cool, especially when we found out that our welcome drink for that night was Champagne...hmmmm

We've visited the "Star Wars" village, took pictures, hoovering around with our newly given cape (it's cool, we felt like vampires ourselves LOL), it's just a new experiences for me, got lost in the middle of the dessert but still feel super cool :)

The dinner was served in the tent, accompanied by traditional musics and singers. And all of sudden, it turned to Louis Armstrong's channel. At least, that what was I thinking at the beginning, no, it's a super cool Tunisian singers. He sangs those jazz songs just the way Armstrong sang it.

(to be continued...)