dj.tigersprout's photoblog
Polar Twilight, Tromso, Norway (Panorama)
Posted by dj.tigersprout (New York City, United States) on 15 December 2008 in Landscape & Rural and Portfolio.
i can't really explain the light at the northern pole; the strange and beautiful way it makes me feel... -- it simply eludes description! it is at once timeless and magical; it is mysterious -- ephemeral... and the colors are just phenomenal!!! upon the surrounding world of smooth, icy white -- nature's pristine canvas, plays a finely refracted light show of unparalleled beauty... winter 'morning' hues of blue and violet, grey and white, warmer tones of reds, oranges, magentas... yellows even! and in the sky -- hints of green!!! feeling as if i were emerging through a portal into a wintery Narnia, or the icy and precarious worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, the whole time i was in the great icy north, i felt at the same time i was happily dreaming... a fantastical character in a fantastical world of adventure and marvel... the sublime crunch of snow under my boots, the ubiquitous frozen white, and the long, thin, and delicate icicles hanging from trees, crags and rooftops... wow! the subtle but quick waning and waxing of the light... the pure sense of cleanliness... the quiet and isolation... everything pointed my restless spirit to inwardness, discovery and thought.
and then shortly after the faint sunlight slips from the horizon and permanent darkness ensues, the long lazy green bands of the aurora entertain and delight the eyes for hours!! like giant green eels, these band quiver in intensity, changing color, form and orientation... wriggling overhead, and pulling exasperated sighs of amazement out of the lungs every few moments...!!! i walked at night, face to the sky -- sliding and slipping gently around the wide empty streets, my eyes and heart following every movement of the ghostly figures hanging above me. like deep underwater planktonic sea creatures, aglow with unexplainable phosphorescence, each limb would resonate in turn with sensitive light vibration...
but enough -- i could dwell on the subject of peculiar polar light qualities until the end of my days!! here is a water's edge shot looking due south. the sunlight appears at first light south eastern (left) -- moving in a westerly fashion, setting just before 2pm in the south western part of the horizon (right) in the far away middle latitudes. for this poetic and elongated moment the world was awash in violet, moving subtly into a spectrum of mid-day blues... at half past 10AM. welcome to winter in the Norwegian Arctic.
**for those that didn't receive a 1600 by 600 pixel version of the above and want to see it in a much bigger format -- just ask! :D
all work protected by Creative Commons
Canon EOS REBEL XT
1/30 second
F/6.3
ISO 400
43 mm