Hamish Roots' photostream

Lofoten, Norway. It was a chilly night that myself, Rob Hudson, Adam Clutterbuck and Gary Newman decided to head out in search of aurora having heard they would be very active this particular evening. After driving around for maybe 30mins - unsuccessfully finding a place to pull in and watch on a north-pointing shore - we pulled into a stop beside a fjord and waited to see what would happen. We didn't need to wait long, soon the aurora were dancing all around us, not even the slight cloud layer could prevent the strong display from getting through. After a while things died down and all felt still and quiet, then directly above in a gap in the clouds everything kicked off again. When this corona appeared it was as though a giant electrified finger was scribbling on the sky above, zig-zagging this way and that. Quite a thing to behold...and really rather tricky to photograph as it's so quick...

Norway. I have just returned from another trip to Norway, again in the far north way above the Arctic Circle, which despite it being winter - predominantly dark and cold - there was a significant lack of snow on the ground...not to worry, the aurora borealis put on a show every night throughout the trip to make up for it. And feed the sleep deprivation!

Somerset. I had just finished a bit of shopping in Wells (fighting the hordes through the shops as they picked up gifts - there's a reason they invented on-line shopping you know!) when I looked up to see the clouds building in the evening light, taking on fantastically intense oranges and yellows. I threw what I had in the car and sped off to find the nearest hill, which just turned out to provide an uninterrupted view out over the Somerset Levels and Glastonbury Tor off in the distance (the little spike left of centre). The intensity of colours and light reflecting on, and the shapes of, the clouds that gradually blend to a soft pink on the horizon really make this one. There really was no need to adjust the saturation up or down...
(Press L - worth seeing a little bigger)

High on the plain of...the Mendips...

An on-going little project. As you can imagine it takes a while to create...(that said the snow machine certainly sped things up last week!)