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Two weeks ago when TimeOut Dubai approached me for using one of my foggy Dubai images in this article, they also needed a portrait version of the foggy image and I ended up going again through my images from that morning looking for a portrait version. Although I did find one, in the end they decided to just crop the landscape version for the cover.

So, not wanting to waste a good image I wanted to share it with you and ask which one do you prefer, the portrait or the landscape version. I’m probably gonna go with the landscape one, but some of you might think differently.

To view the original shot (straight from the camera) visit the blog entry here: www.momentaryawe.com/blog/?p=3341

I’ve probably mentioned everything that I could describe in words in the first northern lights post about this spectacular nature show so instead of focusing on that in this post I will tell you a funny story about me photographing the northern lights two weeks ago.

I’ve been wanting to capture this on camera for quite a while now and I’ve done a fair amount of research into the appropriate exposure times asking how intense does the light get and so on. About a month before the trip I also decided to invest in a new tripod going for a really nice Gitzo carbon tripod and magnesium head with which I’m very happy. The northern lights would be a perfect test for the tripod so I happily packed it in my checked-in bags thinking I’ll get some killer, stable shots!

We arrive to Oslo, from Dubai, via Doha and after hanging around the baggage belt for an hour or so we get told that our luggage never made it. To complement this great news we also get told that the luggage cannot be found in the system and that Qatar Airways, the airline we flew there does not have flights to Oslo until only 2 days later. We head to the hotel in Oslo, trying to make alternate plans for the next 3 days of snowboarding (as all our snow gear was also checked-in), when later in the evening we get a call from the airport telling us that the luggage was found and further to that, Qatar Airways was clever enough to send it with a flight to Copenhagen and then from there get it transferred to a short flight to Oslo. It should be with us by the time we get to the hotel in the ski resort. Great! Problem solved! But wait, the story doesn’t finish here…

Three days later we get to Tromsø and I start carrying the tripod attached to my bag in the event that we stay late in town and the northern lights start showing up. This doesn’t happen in the first night and for the second day, we’re about to leave for the overnight camp to wait for the lights when I suddenly look at my tripod, look at my camera and realize that I have left the tripod plate in Dubai attached to my back-up camera! It’s very difficult to describe my feelings at that particular moment, but I’m sure you can guess.

As a result, all my northern lights images were taken by carefully balancing the camera on bags, snow or any rocks that I could find. I guess the moral of this story is, make the best of what you have with you and if everything else fails, just enjoy the show. :)

To view the original shot (straight from the camera) visit the blog entry here: www.momentaryawe.com/blog/?p=3335

The yearly GPP photography event here in Dubai is about to start tomorrow and just like the last couple of times, David and I managed to go out shooting trying a new location. Our aim was to shoot the Abu Dhabi skyline, but as we were driving towards the capital city through a strong sandstorm we realized the chances of doing that were very slim, since we couldn’t really see 100 meters in front of us, let alone the Abu Dhabi skyline.

A quick change in plans took us to the Abu Dhabi harbour where all the fishing dhows leave from. It’s a strange place with a lot boats, fishermen and some strange shisha cafes. The light was not that good, the wind was blowing and I personally only got one maybe two usable shots, but overall it was an interesting place. The image below is of one of the fisherman hanging around his dhow and I quite like his expression in this one.

To view the original shot (straight from the camera) visit the blog entry here: www.momentaryawe.com/blog/?p=3329

While in Tromsø, in the North of Norway, we managed to arrange for a night of camping in a traditional Sami tent. Sami are the Arctic indigenous people inhabiting parts of the far North of Norway, Sweden and Finland. As you can imagine, they have lived there for a very long time so their way of life has adapted to the snow and cold found at this latitude. More on the camping on a later post, so on with today’s story…

Transport can obviously be a bit of challenge when everything is covered in a thick layer of snow and the two traditional ways of overcoming this are the snowshoes and the dog pulled sleds. I haven’t tried the snowshoes, but I did get on a sled for a nice 10km ride. The dogs that pull these sleds in Norway are especially bred for endurance and speed and they are a mix between huskies and other breeds. They are incredibly cute and always ready to go pull a sled. Whenever the dogs are picked for the next trip, the place descends into a barking and howling madness as every single dog wants to be picked. It literally sounds like they all say “Pick me! Pick me!”.

To view the original shot (straight from the camera) visit the blog entry here: www.momentaryawe.com/blog/?p=3325

I would really appreciate if you don't invite me to all the groups or post comments with huge images that take half a page.

As you might have noticed the updates on the site over the last 10 days where non-existent as I’ve spent last week traveling through Norway… A few days in Hemsedal snowboarding and a few days 400km above the Artic Circle in Tromsø looking for the northern lights. I have always wanted to see the northern lights and Tromsø is one of the best places in the world for this, because it’s right in the middle of the Aurora belt, a belt that circles the globe where the probability of seeing the northern lights is the highest.

I’ve imagined many times how would the lights look, but to be honest nothing prepares you for the actual show. It’s very hard to describe how cool it all looks. It’s like someone has got dimmer switches for the entire sky, playing with the light, moving it from place to place, casting a green glow over everything. We saw the lights two nights in a row, but the last night, while in the middle of this forest the show was at its best. The whole sky was lit up, while the few clouds passing by (visible on the right side of the image) where lit up by the village lights below.

To view the original shot (straight from the camera) visit the blog entry here: www.momentaryawe.com/blog/?p=3320