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| Kilpisjärvi, Finland - Pauline Woolley 2014 |
The dark days from the end of October to the end of March have always been hard work. Over the past few years the use of a light-box has helped to elevate the winter symptoms that is brought on with the lack of day light during these months.
Regardless of this, I have still always been intrigued by what the polar night would feel like within the arctic circle. Polar night is where the sun sits between 3º and 6º below the horizon and the only light available is a twilight that hangs around only for a few hours before midday. By 2.30pm it is dark. My trip to Norway would be a reversal of 'Chasing Suns'. It would become more of a 'Chasing Auroras'.
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| 30/12/14 09:48 - From SunSuveyorLite App |
Leaving -4º temperatures in the UK and arriving to 4º above in Tromso was weird in itself. The city was experiencing very mild weather and the snow that welcomed us on arrival faded away with the heavy rain that battered us for the next few days. The rain made days even darker, and with cloud covered skies, a chance of seeing the aurora began to fade.
Pre-booked on an aurora chasing tour the following night, we set off from Tromso 5.45pm whilst being told that we may have to drive to Finland to experience any clear skies. Our tour guides were passionate and determined and not afraid of driving in severe snow blizzards and on ice roads where lorries had jacked knifed through the non-use of snow chains. We passed the Finnish border just before 10pm and pulled up at Kilpisjärvi. With extreme wind chill we trudged onto the frozen lake to set up our photographic gear. Within minutes the aurora appeared. A long green line stretched and filled the sky and we stood and watched it twist a roll for some time. A truly awe inspiring moment that I will not forget.
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| Kilpisjärvi, Finland - Pauline Woolley 2014 |
It is now 2pm and I am now sat in my studio in the UK with my light-box on. The sun is 11º above the horizon and is shining on a hard frost that arrived over night. At this precise moment in Tromso the twilight will be fading and darkness will begin to descend again and visitors will be hoping to see the aurora. It's these comparisons that I hold in my head that continually fuel my passion for the natural earth. It fuels my need to know more about the ball of rock that we live and travel through space on and it fuels my desire to make work connected to it.
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| 2pm Mount Storsteinen, Tromso - Pauline Woolley 2014 |
