GUIDE TO A DREAMY WINTER ESCAPE IN TROMSØ
Annie Pritchett-Brown
The allure of Norway has tempted me for years and last December, I finally booked my flights to visit Tromsø. One of my personal reasons for wanting to visit Tromsø was the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights. We were incredibly lucky to see them on our first evening, making our full day’s travel to get there entirely worthwhile. The blue/green lights glimmered through the sky, surrounded by snowy mountain peaks and the rippling sea below.
In truth, the Northern Lights can be fleeting and faint to the naked eye, and I was glad to have my phone to hand, set to long exposure and held steady against a car bonnet! If you have time, set your camera to long exposure, high ISO and definitely use a tripod to avoid blur. For the best views of the Northern Lights, take a trip up the Fjellheisen Cable Car. Here, there is less light pollution, with only the twinkling city lights far below.
The next most significant thing on our to do-list was the reindeer feeding and sledding experience. It is not often you are able to feed wild reindeer, have a Santa-esque sledding experience through the most beautiful snowy landscape, and then finish the day with a traditional Sami cultural experience including reindeer stew. I have to admit, it is not easy to feed a reindeer with antlers longer than your arms, never mind whilst trying to photograph them at the same time! I would recommend using a prime lens with a good depth of field, set at a fast shutter speed to capture these beautiful animals as they move around, sometimes fighting over food and other times simply standing majestically.
This article first appeared in PRISMA, Issue 3.