One of the most exciting & challenging shoot I’ve ever done was during my trip to the Lapland, Arctic (well about 250kms north) in Sweden. The trip came about when I was booked to photograph a wedding at the world famous Ice Hotel in Sweden. This was roughly the same time when the Nikon D3s was launched and was the perfect opportunity to test the camera for its high ISO capabilities in such low light and extreme conditions of as low as -30C.
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The trip involved photographing the a pre-wedding shoot and the wedding, a dog sledding tour on a frozen river and through the wilderness around Jukkasjarvi and a 4-hour Northern Light tour on snow mobiles and staying in the ‘cold accommodation for 1-night at the Ice Hotel. Yes I did sleep in a cold room at The Ice Hotel at -5C and still here to tell the story. In fact, you get a diploma if you wake up alive in the morning!!! A fairly packed schedule within a 4-day trip to say the least.
The wedding took place in the Ice Chapel which was a traditional Swedish ceremony and took about 30 minutes or so. The warmest temperature inside the chapel and the Ice Hotel is no warmer than -5C which is considerably warmer than the temperature outside. The coldest I experienced during this trip was -29C. The wedding party then head off to the Ice bar for some drinks, then the family group shots, after the guests have headed off to the ‘warm bar’ the shots of the couple and then the wedding breakfast. The whole wedding takes no longer than about 2 hours or so. Unlike a traditional wedding of say 8 hours their is even more pressure on being organised and getting the shots which I’ve been paid for.
On a bitterly cold evening, our Northern Lights tour was arranged. But what, exactly, are the Northern Lights ? The Northern Lights, Aurora Borealise, appear in a clear night sky as swirling rivers of greenish-blue light. They move and dance unpredictably; sometimes barely perceptible, then suddenly growing vivid. In simple terms, the auroras can be explained as an interaction of the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field. The phenomenon occurs when the particles collide with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, transforming kinetic energy into visible light. The most intensive auroras occur at a height of about 100km and can be 10 to 30 km high.
Normally the Northern Lights can be seen virtually every clear night at high latitudes. We had to travel about 45kms on the snow mobiles from the hotel to be able to see the lights. The experience of driving a snow mobile through the wilderness was pretty incredible. I was wearing 4 layers of thermals & fleeces, a jacket and then a snow suit, 3 layers of socks with snow boots and I was still freezing!!
Setting up and photographing in complete darkness with gloves on was not ideal. There is no way the autofocus will work on any camera as it is so dark, the focus has to be set on Manual mode and then you set the exposure from experience. I was pretty lucky that I managed to see them first time around.
The dog sledding tour was something I’ll remember for a long long time, a 4 hour tour around the wilderness. Thankfully, it wasn’t too cold that day, I think it was around -15C or so. The coldest I experienced during the trip was -29C and during the tour of the Northern Lights.
I hope this post gives you a little flavour of what I experienced. I’d recommend this place to anyone & everyone, if you do get a chance, do visit.
Oz
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- Claire & James’ Wedding at The Ice Hotel, Sweden
- Trip to The Ice Hotel
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