Ersfjordbotn, Kvaloya

Yesterday was a long and busy day and for the first time in my +10 year blip journal I posted an iPhone shot, as I never had time to get my camera out all day, and when we did go out after dinner last night and used our 'serious' cameras the aurora was not very significant. Thank you for your kind comments and hearts on my iPhone aurora, it just shows that the best camera you have is the one you have got with you!

We are a group of 11 photographers (plus 2 spouses) with two photo leaders, Lee Frost and Mark McColl. Our group is an interesting mix of people, a few from Scotland and two from New Zealand. We have an interesting mix of people in our group, amongst others a scientist and four specialist doctors - including Sir Bruce Ponder who is famous for having achieved ground breaking pioneering work with genetics and the link to certain cancers. As you can imagine he is very interesting to talk to. All a lovely group of people!

This morning we met at 6.20am to go out to shoot the early morning light, at a location about a minute from the hotel. It was clear skies, and although cold at -6C we had no wind so it did not feel bad at all. The ground is icy so we have to wear proper spikes over our shoes to avoid slipping. The first extra was taken in the soft morning light. Then we went back to the hotel for breakfast, where I took the second extra off the deck of the hotel. Breakfast was very good with much choice for dietary intolerances and vegans.

After breakfast we drove back towards Tromso, stopping off to photograph the little coloured fishing huts (rorbu). As by now it was so bright and sunny it was too contrasty to get great photos, so we stopped off whenever we saw interesting huts and did some close up photos of doorways, windows etc and bigger landscape shots. Although we had the sunshine to warm us it was cold and you could not take your hands out of your gloves for very long before they felt frozen. It was a busy day as we only stopped for lunch at about 3pm - just something from the supermarket - and we thankfully found a toilet there too! We had planned to photograph the sunset but as was forecast the weather changed, and the clouds came in. This image was taken as the clouds descended and we lost the light. By the time we left this final location to drive back to the hotel it was snowing heavily.

We quickly freshened up for supper, and all enjoyed a delicious meal - the food here is very good. As it is still snowing and will be tomorrow morning, we are not going out early for sunrise so we have been granted a bit of a sleep in...yay!

I quickly looked at my photos and randomly chose a few to edit and upload. I am now very tired and must get some sleep.