So without further explanation i give you a small list of superb photographers that i check regularly to keep me constantly inspired. Please note that this is just a short list and i certainly have forgotten a bunch of photographers…

Michael Anderson - a constant inspiration

Patrick Di Fruscia - always a pleasure to follow

Vincent Favre 

Antony Spencer - a dear friend and a fantastic photographer

Seung Kye Lee my favourite norwegian photographer

Jack Brauer master of mountainscapes

Chip Phillips love his work!

Örvar Þorgeirsson great icelandic photographer

Miles Morgan terrific stuff..and one of the funniest guys around.

Like i said, i`ve probably forgotten tons of photographers, but still…these few should provide inspiration for years for anyone…

Take care!

Arild

I`ve decided to start 2012 by looking back at my own favourites from 2011. This year became the year where i became more and more aware of where i stand as a photographer. The result is that that the really good shots..the ones that i immediately know will be really good….they are rarer and rarer these days…

Anyway….here are my favourites from 2011. Hope you enjoy!

A magical display of aurora on one of the first days of the year..

The midnightsun is always a pleasure..and this year was great!

During the midnightsun eclipse early in june, i pulled off some images that i had planned for a long time…

Shooting at midnight..fun stuff!

Another image from deep in the mountains….i truly believe that the effort behind an image matters deeply for the endresult….

Truly a breathtaking scene….

The other direction was pretty good as well…

An image ive planned for years….

Shot on the last day of the year..i love scenes like this!

Shot on the last day of 2011….this is my favourite image….period!

So the few readers of this blog got a preview of two new images. Hope you liked them…

Take care!

Arild

Anyway, i have been getting numerous requests regarding a calendar. I have never been able to release one on my own, but i now have the pleasure to offer a brand new calendar for 2012. Its an A3 calendar printed on quality paper and it will make quite the impression!

Canon 5d – 17-40mmL 17mm, f4, iso 640, 27 sec. Covered the sky for about 20 seconds… (click for full size)

Aurora Borealis…even the name suggests something pretty and magnificent. If i ever have a daughter..i will call her Aurora.

Here in Norway the Aurora Borealis is a rapidly growing industry. Thousands of tourists coming up north to see the lights and it feels like theres a professional aurora-guide in every little fjord up here, armed and ready with 20 reindeers to take any tourist into the cold arctic landscape. And the number of workshops offered directly towards the aurora is increasing rapidly. It seems like anyone who has ever captured the aurora can offer a workshop… And i can totally understand the fascination surrounding this phenomenon. I`ve seen it so many times throughout my life, but it still manages to send shivers down my spine from time to time.

From late autumn to early spring my photographic focus is pretty much locked on the northern lights. Sure, occasionally i`ll do some seascapes and mountainstuff, but i`m constantly on guard…trying to monitor the solar activity, which in the end is what determines if the aurora will appear or not. But even though my focus is fixed on the aurora that doesnt mean it is the kind of photography i enjoy the most. To be honest, shooting the aurora is more pain and torture than pure joy. But the moments when everything falls into place, the carefully planned compositions align perfectly with the lights…those moments are worth all the suffering!

Online tools

So lets start by looking at the online tools i use to predict the activity. There are some wonderful websites that provide valuable information. Information that i cannot live without anymore. www.spaceweather.com is such a site. This well-known site offers constantly updated material on solar activity. They basically give you a few days notice on what to expect. However, it must be said that predicting the auroral activity is a bit of a gamble. They can tell you that the activity will be tremendous, but you still may end up staring at a naked black sky.  Those moments are beyond frustrating…

Then theres the amazing site delivered by Tromsø Geophysical Observatory: http://flux.phys.uit.no/stackplot/ Just check the location you want and click the “custom” button. Voila…you have a graph that show the activity in real-time! So how do you interpret that cryptical graph? As long as it`s staying around the solid line theres not much going on, but the moment it drops drastically…grab your camera and run! Note that the scale changes according to the activity. So when a massive eruption is recorded, the scale expands drastically.

Here is the graph from february 14th & february 16th. Note the massive drop in the graph on the 14th. And also notice the difference in scale between the two nights. (click image to see full size)

Combine those two sites with the regular weathersites and you have all you need to stay updated with the latest aurora-gossip.

The chase

Now you have all the information you need. Whats next? Well…the next part is the hard part. First step is to jump on a plane to Norway, Iceland or some other place way up north. And when you find yourself up north the next step is to find a great location. This may sound stupid, since you have seen so many amazing aurorashots! They can be taken anywhere! Well, here is my take on the subject… I rarely see good aurorashots. Sure, i see lots of good photographs documenting the phenomenon, but thats not what i`m talking about. I`m talking about REALLY good shots! With a great composition, where the aurora is a small, but vital, part of a bigger image. Those shots are rare.  I visit tons of online communities on a daily basis and months can pass before i stumble across a really good aurorashot… Lots of randomly composed shots, some even with artificial lights in the scene. There is nothing i hate more than aurorashots with streetlights and stuff in it. Hate it! Thats why i probably spend too much time and go through a lot of pain getting to places that have no lightpollution.

My strategy is to place myself in the same mindset i`m in when shooting regular landscapes. The spots that works for normal landscapes, they work for auroras as well. I almost always spend most of my time on finding good foregrounds. It may be a river, some rocks or something else that can attract a kind of  immediate attention both with me and the potential viewers. Lines or curves…bring em to me!

So what do you do when youre standing in a place you`ve never been to before? You do your homework! It`s as important in photography as in every other situation in life. You research the area before you arrive… You investigate maps looking for rivers, mountains and everything else that might be interesting and of importance to the amazing shot you are about to take. I am fortunate enough to live in an area filled with opportunities and i`ve spent a lifetime getting to know the locations. Not as a photographer, but the countless days spent out in the wild fishing, playing and god knows what, have given me a deep knowledge of a pretty large area. But for those of you that come flying in…do your homework!

Then it`s off into the woods and the mountains! This is the part that i hate… Walking or skiing for hours in deep snow, constantly fighting the blistering cold. And on top of that…it`s freakin dark! There has been times when i`ve only been able to see a couple of meters illuminated by my headlamp. Being tremendously scared of the dark doesnt exactly help. Ever since i started chasing the aurora i have regretted watching so many horrormovies when i was a kid. Those movies has left some deep scars in the back of my head. Too many times have i been skiing in the dark convinced that i was being chased by a serial killer with a chainsaw. Freaks me out!

So these nightly adventures are both physically and mentally exhausting for me. It`s just not very comfortable. Comfort and serious auroraphotography dont go hand in hand, thats for sure. Give me a sunset or a sunrise any day! A couple of days ago i spent two hours in complete darkness to get to a good location. When i got there i was treated with nothing but a clear sky. This has happened so many times that i`ve completely lost count.

Since october i have probably had 20-30 adventures…how many satisfying shots have i taken? Two or three shots…

Pressing the shutter

When you have everything set up the way you want. You are standing in a remote place. You have survived any serialkillers chasing you in the woods. You have fought your way through thick snow and you can still feel your fingers in the biting cold. How do i expose my northern lights shots? I wont go too deep into this, but i`ll just share my most used settings.

Manual mode 100% of the time. Auto whitebalance, since i always adjust that when i get home. Although its somewhat satisfying to get the whitebalance right in camera and to see a kick ass shot on your lcd. So actually…just for fun, try setting the whitebalance in camera. I seem to end up around 3000K on my shots. Aperture wide open, 2.8 on my 16-35mm. ISO 400-1600 on my good old 5d. Occasionally 3600, but if youre a filthy rich dude owning cameras that i only can dream about, go ahead and shoot even higher iso. Then adjust the shutterspeed until you get the results you are after. Mostly anything between 1 sec and 30 sec.  So the ideal equipment for shooting the aurora is a really fast wideangle and a camera that can handle high iso. All shots in this article have the exif written underneath. That should give you an idea of camerasettings…

Focusing in the dark is tricky. I get asked about this a lot. I focus manually on most of my nightshots. Mostly i set focus to infinity. So far it has worked fine for me. If you dont know how to set infinity focus manually, you can use the autofocus and focus on something bright in the distance…the moon for example. Then switch to manual. Now youre focusing on infinity.

If your not out in bright moonlight you will soon experience that the landscape appears really dark. I`m not a fan of black landscapes with the aurora above. There are a couple of ways to help you with this issue. You can do a separate longer exposure to get the foreground nicely exposed and then blend in that exposure when you get home. Or you can do it by doing a really long exposure and cover the sky for the majority of the exposure, letting the sky through for just a portion of the exposure. You can use anything to cover up the sky; your hand, a cloth, or placing a piece of paper in your filterholder (if you have one). I use the last one… The results using this technique can be truly amazing.

Postprocessing

This is the fun part. You are sitting at home looking at your hopefully amazing shots and you`re just itching to start processing. I`ll share roughly my adjustments… Whitebalance is crucial! You can change the entire look and feel of a picture just by adjusting the whitebalance slightly. My shots are mostly a little bit too warm so i tend to cool them down a little. Remove dustspots and the usual basic adjustments before i take them into Photoshop. The first thing i do here is to run some noisereduction. Just enough to clean up the file before i continue.

Then i do a levelsadjustment. I do it on separate layer and then adjust the effect locally by using a layermask. This brings the image to life! I can also do some dodging & burning to further enhance areas i feel need it. After this i save as TIFF. Downsize to web and sharpen with smartsharpen. Done and ready to share….

Some examples (click on each image to see them bigger and better)

April 5th 2010

Canon 5d – 17-40mmL, f4, iso 800,  4 seconds

The aurora forecast was promising and i decided to do my best at capturing this phenomenon. As darkness was approaching i put on my climbing skins and started the long climb towards one of the many mountains in the area. First i had to walk through the mountainforest, with crooked creepy trees. I distracted myself by constantly looking up to the sky instead of looking around for ghosts. Once i got over the treeline i was forced to forget my fears for about an hour…it`s impossible to be afraid when your climbing up a ridiculously steep mountain… I`d rather be exhausted than scared to death…

Eventually i reached the area just under the peak Toviktinden. My original plan was to climb all the way up to the top, but i was too exhausted to even consider such a thing.

My eyes wander across the beautiful mountainscape. The sky was getting darker, but my eyes had adjusted enough to get a good view of the scenario. Suddenly i see a creature about 100 meters ahead of me. A characteristic shape quickly moving across the white mountain. The illusive wolverine… Not the most common creature to see. I`ve spent a day or two in the mountains over the years, but this was only the second time i`ve come across this cute predator. What a nice start to the evening….

There was no sign of the aurora yet. I looked up at the clear blue sky, and when i say blue i really mean blue… I saw a white cloud and started to worry that clouds would come rolling in. I stared at this weak cloud when it suddenly started moving. Not moving like you would expect from a regular cloud, it started dancing…up and down and from side to side. When i realized it was the aurora idanced around in pure excitement.

I then started the search for compositional spots. Really not that difficult in such a place. I fired away frame after frame, constantly moving around. Then the action really exploded. The aurora was more intense than i`ve ever seen before, and i`ve lived up here my entire life. It only lasted for a few minutes, but i`ll remember it for quite some time…

At one point the light would come straight up from the peak, like there was someone doing nuclear testing just behind it. I shot at iso 800 at f/4 and shutterspeeds down to 2 secs. The landscape became significantly brighter and i just smiled for myself… This is 4 seconds of concentrated northern lights beaming up from the highest peak.

A couple of hours later i was standing at a nice spot when i heard footsteps in the snow. The snow was windswept and crunchy so i could hear everything quite clearly. I froze when i saw the silhouette of the wolverine just about 50 meters in front of me. It just stood there watching me for a while before it disappeared. 10 minutes later the same thing happened…this time it appeared closer. My heart was pounding… I`ve never heard of a wolverine attacking humans, but in the dark, bent over my camera i could pretty easily be mistaken for a big fat reindeer.

I packed my gear and rushed towards the steep mountainside where i had planned to ski down. In complete darkness with a wolverine circling me in… I somehow managed to get home safely without breaking any bones or becoming the nightly meal for the wolverine….another nightly adventure survived.

April 6th 2010

Canon 5d – 17-40mmL, f4, iso 800, 20 sec

This one is shot deep in the mountains. I`ve spent so many days fishing in this area so i know this area as my own pockets. The aurora appeared exactly how i wanted it, right over the highest peak in the region, Skittendalstinden. I had already composed this shot a million times in my head so i just had to place the tripod, press the cable release and observe the dance of the aurora. A truly remarkeable evening and one that i will remember forever. This was my dreamshot for years…

November 14th 2010

Canon 5d, 17-40mmL, 17mm, f4, iso 800, 126 secs

I came down to a river running out of a small frozen lake. My headlamp was living it`s own life, turning on and off every other second.
I must have looked like a walking disco…

I managed to get out in the middle of the river to these wonderful rocks.
I knew immediately what i wanted. The rocks were frosted so brilliantly. I knew that if i could pull this off, i would have a shot that could be hard to top.
The aurora was dancing vividly across the sky in the exact right direction. Time for the “magic cloth”! I pulled out the yellow kitchencloth from my pack and after i had done some serious compositional thinking,
i held the cloth over the sky and opened the shutter. I was whistling  while i watched the aurora put on her show for me. I was tempted to remove the cloth in fear of it disappearing. But i knew that if i completed this one, the reflections would look insane. After a little over 100 seconds i removed the cloth and let the sky expose for another 20 seconds.
When i looked at the display i was no longer whistling, i was doing the YMCA dance! It looked amazing…even on the small 5d screen….

The only downside was that there was a single powerline running across the sky. It was more or less right in front of me, so i had calculated with that problem.

When i got home i started the processing. The rawfile looked great. Noise was almost unnoticeable. I could see that the nearest stones were slightly out of focus, but i couldnt avoid that shooting wide open at infinity focus. Then followed the obligatory and crucial whitebalance adjustment. Finetuning the horizon slightly. A little levels and then some dodging and burning.

That was done in a few minutes. Thats just part of the story. Prior to those adjustments i had to remove the powerline. Whats so hard about removing a single powerline, you say? well…actually  a lot!
The line started just under the aurora on the left side, then cutting across the aurora and out up on the right side. The colournuances are so fragile in these auroras. Even the slightest colourchange screams at you. The guys making the advertisement for CS5 content aware fill should have tried this. I can guarantee that advertise would have been fun to watch.
I had to do a mix of healing brush and clonestamp. My arm was hurting after clicking around 2000 times doing microscopical adjustments until everything was completely gone. The worst processingjob i have ever done.

But it was worth it. I have a 22×16 print of this one mounted at home. It looks freaking awesome and screams at me everytime i pass it…smiling and on the inside i`m still doing the YMCA dance….

January 8th 2011

Canon 5d, 17-40mmL, f4, iso 1600, 32 sec

A truly magical evening when everything fell into perfect place. I had struggled around in the woods for hours in really deep snow. I found this amazing spot and decided to test my patience. I balanced my way out in the middle of the river and decided on a composition centered around a piece of ice. I stood there for 30 long and cold minutes and was about to give up when suddenly the sky exploded. The dark landscape turned into a green wonderland. During a couple of minutes i had some shots worth waiting for. I covered the sky with a piece of cardboard and revealed it during the last seconds of the exposure. The reflected light in the river and the ice took my breath away…

February 14th 2011

Canon 5d, 16-35mmL II, 20mm, f2.8, iso 1600, 3.2 secs

If you look at the graph i`ve used as an example earlier, you`ll see the date is february 14th. This is shot when the graph is at its most extreme. The activity was overwhelming, but i didnt get anything i was happy with. This shot feels like a documentation of the event. I broke my tripod minutes before the sky exploded, and i was so stressed that i couldnt find any decent composition…

january 8th 2011

Last shot is shot about 2 hours before “Emerald River”. Here the aurora was steady and only moving marginally. That means you can do a really long exposure to catch up some really strong reflections.  This is a composite of 2 images. One shorter for the sky and a really long one for the landscape. The long one revealed all the small details in the otherwise dark landscape. And it brought out some great reflections.

So to wrap this up in a few words; shooting the aurora borealis is a weird mix of torture and pleasure. You can go through so much crap, but when you stand out there knowing you`ve just took a wonderful shot….it`s all worth it!

In the meantime, heres a little shot from friday night. I was on a fishing trip deep in the mountains. The fishing wasnt any good, but the view down the valley was fantastic. I waded out in the river and found a nice spot to set up the shot i wanted. Heres the result…

The River

Click to see full size….

This one i shot right before the sun went under the horizon. The warmth of the sun against the cool blues in the shadows really caught my eye…

This one i shot a couple of hours earlier when the sun was much higher and a lot cooler.

Any feedback is highly appreciated…

Take care!

-Arild-

Check out www.arildheitmann.com

Since october i have been chasing these damn lights like a rabbit running after a carrot. I have a love/hate relationship to the aurora… I hate chasing it in dark and freezing cold nights. I hate chasing it night after night with no result. But i love it when it appears and i can go home with amazing moments that i can enjoy forever.

It started in october with some ridiculously poor attempts. Basically just a total waste of time, but it marked the start of the season at least…I had a forgettable session one night when i had emptied a bottle of wine and a few beers before going out on the porch for a breath of fresh air. From the porch i could see a blazing display of aurora so i freaked out and jumped on the bicycle. Almost got killed during a wasted ride down to the sea. The aurora was amazing, but my shots from that night was as blurry and shaky as i was. What a waste(d) of time…

Then came november…a month filled with expeditions and a few good shots. “Night to Remember” certainly stands as a fond memory…My most popular shot to date and one that i will struggle to do better in the future.

“Moonlight Shadow” was shot under a sparkling full moon. Not a huge fan of full moons when i`m shooting the aurora, but at least it`s fun to play with shadows…

“Tennevik Aurora” was captured by the side of the road. Not a standard procedure for me at all. I look down at everyone capturing the lights from the side of the road But this night the action was so intense i just couldnt risk losing it by spending another hour on skiis in the woods. A smart choice since the action faded shortly after i shot it…

The tree in “Front Row Seat” was something i worked with for quite some time. I wanted a shot with the tree leaning into the frame and the aurora dancing behind it. On a very nice night in november i could call this mission a success.

“Looking Up” basically shows what i like to call “the green carpet”. The entire sky looked like this, with a green pulsating aurora. Crazy stuff, but oh so fascinating. I stood there staring right up at this huge green thing moving slowly in every direction.

“Milky Way & Nova” was part of a great plan i had that involved shooting the lights dancing over the majestic mountain “Novatinden”. Me and Håkon went out on a promising night that turned out to be utterly shite. However i`ve never seen the milky way so clearly before so it was kinda cool to document that.

“Sparkling Midnight” and “What a Mess” were captured on a night where the aurora showed a lot more purple and reddish colours than usual. Along with some clouds it all became a mess and although the colours are interesting i was never completely satisfied with these.  It was an enjoyable evening though, and it was great to get all the colours…

Early into the new year i was treated with a fantastic display in some amazing locations. I was able to complete a composition i had planned for a very long time and it still feels like it was worth it. “Powderdream” is one of my own favourites even though the aurora isnt particularly vivid. It just feels right in some strange way…

“Emerald River” and “Riverdance” were shot during a couple intense minutes where the aurora turned everything into a dreamscape. One of the most surreal experiences and something i think i will struggle to top in the future. The way the piece of ice reflected the green aurora…oh man i will never forget that moment!

Most of january and february was terrible..lots of clouds and shitty weather. I missed a great outburst when i was in England shooting in horrible weather…just my luck! But i was treated with a couple of decent nights late in february. “Blue Mountain Spectacle” shows one of the most active aurora of the season. Needles and colours all over the sky for a moment. Too bad i broke my tripod 5 mins prior to this and i came away with nothing but crap compositions… If only i`d been at a better location..

“Cosmic Explosion” is just a corona from the same night…

Then in march we finally had a couple of clear nights just as a big sunstorm hit our atmosphere. I ventured deep into the wild once again. I found a freakin amazing location and spent the whole evening acting like a skiier on speed…rushing from one comp to another..rushing back again shooting it all over again. It was a mess, but i came home with some nice ones.

“Blåfjellelva” (Blue Mountain River) is my first vertorama put together by two horizontal shots at 16mm. Worked out ok..though not a wowser.

“Blue Mountain River” is one that i`m pretty damn excited about. I`ve always enjoyed capturing the moon at night and i just loved how the aurora added to the scene. Normally the combination of moon and aurora is something i dont like, but this night (and the following) everything worked out nicely…

“Night Magic” is basically the same composition shot an hour earlier when the activity was more powerful. A different feel to those two…dont know which i like the most.

“Follow the River” is a little bit unusual for me. Brighter exposure than i normally do and the tall crop is not something i do too often. It worked out pretty well on this one though. The river mirrors the shape of the aurora in a nice way. Definately one that i enjoy…

The following night Tony (aka Epic Tony) texted me asking if i was out. I wasnt…but when i got his message i jumped in the car and did some high-end cross-country skiing to a nice opening in the woods where i knew the small sprucetrees would create a postcard-like feeling. And thats exactly what i came home with…a postcard. I`ve had a shot like this on my mind for a long time now so it felt good to finally have done it…

Normally early april is a wonderful time for auroras, but this year the weather is completely rubbish. So it looks like the season is definately over for me now. Been a great ride… Lots of unsuccessfull trips, but a few where things worked out pretty good… The solar activity is growing and i cant wait to see what the next season has to offer…

Edit: The night after i finished the post, there was a small window in the constant cloudcover. I was out in an instant and was treated with a nice display at my favourite location. I decided to focus mainly on reflections. To get the most out of the reflections i covered the sky with my hand during most of the exposures.  “Dancing Reflections” was shot from mid-river. Standing in my waders being so cold i was like a human statue. The benefit of my static appearance was that no ripples were created

“Mono Magic” is just a rare b&w aurorashot from me.

Cheers!

-Arild-

This is just a quick post to show that i`m still alive and still taking pictures. This winter has been strange for me photographically… My mind has been set on the aurora the entire winter, so i`ve ignored the more traditional scenes. Thats not a good thing, since winter is my favourite time of year with so many interesting scenes and amazing light every now and then. However i still have time to do something in the upcoming weeks… I got some pretty amazing plans for the mountains, but only time will tell if i`m able to pull those plans off..

Last wednesday i had a quick session down by the sea, for the first time in forever. I didnt get anything remotely portfolioworthy, but it was nice to be out there again. The three images i will show you are interesting however. They are all completely different scenes, but they are shot within a 5 meter radius. To me they show how a photographer can get different results from a scene. It all depends on the way we see and interpret the scene in front of us…

Anyway..here they are..

The next one is about 2 meters to the left:

And finally, a horizontal view a few meters back…

Until next time….take care!

-Arild-

The wonderful town of Swanage…

Later on we hooked up with Antony Spencer, Landscape Photographer of the Year 2010, or Mr.Epic as i like to call him. It`s actually a quite fitting name since his landscape shots are nothing less than…epic. And the fact that he uses the word “epic” in every other sentence kinda makes the picture complete.  Such a great guy!

We went down to Kimmeridge. A place with basically a long rocky tongue sticking way out in the sea. And damn those rocks are slippery. If you ever go there, be really careful. Anyway, light was crap…and my shots were even more crappy.  Friday night was spent over at Tony`s place. Curry and printing….a great combination. I also had the pleasure of taking a dive into Mr.Epics rawfiles, an event that forever has ruined my confidence in photography…

Saturday

Woke up way to early for my likings…again. Time to meet another great photographer, Hamish Roots. A great lad and always a pleasure to hang out with. We went out to Peveril Point in Swanage, or at least thats what i think it`s called. We actually had hints of warmer light this morning, but miles away from something decent. I went down to some rocks and once again i was soaked within a minute. I got nothing….again. This is all i got. Some painterly qualities in the sea…

Peveril Point

We did the obligatory shot of Swanage Pier, but the best one i got from there was with my mobile…pretty much sums it up..

Having fun at the pier…

I just realized that this blogentry will be quite boring. Basically just a step-by-step story…ah well, i might as well wrap it up.

Later that day me, Håkon and Andy drove for 3 hours down to Cornwall. We were meeting up with two of the greatest guys i`ve ever met. Joe Rainbow and Tony Armstrong.

We went out to a fantastic place called Botallock.  Huge cliffs and some really old mines. Just an amazing spot! But the weather was horrible. Pouring rain and strong winds…didnt even bother taking out the cameras.

So we just went back to our basecamp in Cornwall, a charming little house in the picturesque town of Penzance. Ive never seen a place like this. Everything was really old and so nice. There was something about the atmosphere that just seemed really appealing to me. I loved that place! And they serve the best fucking beer in the world! Spingo! This beer was alone worth the 3 hour drive… We ordered some take-away chinese. When i looked at the menu i almost ended up ordering something with “salty rainbow sauce”. Perhaps Joe has some sort of part time job…delivering sauce to this chinese place. I dont know, but i didnt have the guts to order it…

This evening was so much fun. The stories were somewhat strange…some stranger than others. Håkon had a couple of Spingos and decided to do the spiderman ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spiderman ) God…i swear i`m still laughing!

Late at night we were browsing through the channels. And there was some pretty interesting stuff in there…

Joe and Andy was studying maps trying to put together some plan for the following morning.

Strange look on Joes face..

Next day we headed out to Prussia Cove.  On our way down we passed a sign saying “welcome to Chris & Adams wedding” Were we about to witness a gay wedding down on the beach? Now that would have been epic…After watching Gay Rabbit the whole evening i was kinda in that mode ya know..

When we came down, Chris & Adam were nowhere to be seen. And Prussia Cove was pretty unepic actually.

We then decided, after another english breakfast, to head down to Godrevy. Now that place was cool! We spend hours watching huge waves pounding the rocks. I`m not used to waves bigger than a foot or two, so this was something else…

After some dangerous moves up and down the cliffs we were located right in front of the action. The highlight of this trip for me… I pulled out the 50mm and shot a few tight frames of the waves with the lighthouse in the back. Andy won the lottery when he caught a flying fish in one of his shots. Lucky bastard!

Godrevy Lighthouse (click the pics for larger views)

While the others kept shooting the action with longer lenses, i pulled back a little and did a few shots @ 16mm. Turned out pretty damn cool…the waves pounding in along the whole shoreline! I loved that place!

Godrevy Waves

The only thing left now was the sunset. Settling for a location was quite challenging. Everything had to be right in terms of wind, spray and sundirection. After going through all the options we decided on Botallock. I was excited to see this place in decent conditions…

We spent quite some time shooting the mines and the waves coming in. The waves were amazing.

Botallock Mines

And we also were treated with hints of a decent sunset

It`s hard to get the scale of this place and the waves. The wave coming in on the sunset shot is insanely big…

Thats it…end of the english adventure. Despite having shitty conditions 95% of the time, i had a freakin amazing time! Thanks again to the best guys in the world: Andy Farrer, Tony SPencer, Joe Rainbow, Tony Armstrong & Hamish Roots. And of course my wingman..Håkon.

Take care!

-Arild-