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Amazing Auroras!

We had a wonderful trip to Norway in late January, 2026. The big goal/hope was to see the Aurora Borealis. And we certainly did! But the entire trip was a truly enjoyable treat.

Itinerary

Tromsø: Jan 18 – 21.
Hurtigruten’s MS Trollfjord: Jan 22 – 29. On a ship, from Tromsø to the North Cape, then south to Oslo, stopping in ports (small towns) along the way for explorations.
Oslo: Jan 30 – Feb 3.

Tromsø: Jan 18 – 21

We booked our “cruise” on Hurtigruten‘s MS Trollfjord, departing from Tromsø on January 22nd. But we wanted a chance to see the auroras from “land,” prior to getting on the ship, from which we also hoped to see auroras — and did! So, four days in Tromsø prior to our departure, which worked out so well.

We booked two “aurora chasing” tours, the first one with Northbound on the 19th — their Northern Lights Adventure. Incredible! We left from Tromsø in a small van — with five other people — driving to where our guide felt the chance of aurora viewing would be the best. He was right! And we totally lucked out with the “show”! Just, wow! And a ton of credit to Northbound to getting us to such a great location and giving us great info on the auroras while we were there.

More aurora photos (and others from our trip) are posted on my photography website, here. Also, I set my camera up (on a tripod) to take 100 multiple back-to-back three-second exposures (which are good for auroras), and processed each sequence into time-lapse videos that are about ten seconds long. (So, they’re much faster than real time!) A few of them are here.

Our aurora photos were taken from the eastern shores of Balsfjorden, the fjord between Tromsø (in the upper center of the map) and the town of Nordkjosbotn at the end of the fjord to the southeast. (Balsfjorden is unlabeled on Google Maps.)

We had booked a second aurora “tour” for the 21st, but because we had such success on the 19th, we canceled. (It’s cold being out all night! And the second tour was with a larger group — 12 or so people. We were completely spoiled by our small-group tour with Northbound and felt no need to head out again.)

Our time in Tromsø was great! We enjoyed exploring the town and had some really nice seafood meals. (Including great sushi — twice! — at Suvi, casual seafood at Dragøy Coastal Mathus, and a refined and delicious meal at Mathallen Tromsø.)

Our hotel, Clarion Hotel The Edge (weird name!), was quiet, comfortable, and had a great buffet breakfast to get us going in the mornings. Here’s an iPhone shot from our room on our first morning in Tromsø, at 9:00 am. Magical light!

More magical light: an iPhone shot looking east across the harbor from Tromsø at 3:15 pm.

One of the main streets in Tromsø is pedestrian only. Here’s an iPhone image — taken at 3:20 in the afternoon on August 20, two days before the sun is first visible in Tromsø since the previous November (!).

Hurtigruten’s MS Trollfjord

We booked Hurtigruten’s North Cape Line – South, which travels from Tromsø north to Honningsvåg (and North Cape, the northern-most point of continental Europe), then south to Oslo. Seven full days total. Here’s the full itinerary And a map from that page, with red dots for our stops:

For all but one of the nine days, the ship traveled at night and spent the day docked at a port, giving us the opportunity to explore. For each of the in-port days, we signed up for an “excursion”; a guided tour — either a trip by bus or a walking tour of the town. The excursions were great! Also, we had some time to explore each of the towns on our own after we returned from our excursions and prior to reboarding the ship in the late afternoons — which we particularly enjoyed.

Day 1: Depart Tromsø.
Day 2: Honningsvåg and an excursion to Nordkapp (the North Cape).

A dramatic view at the North Cape. The “Globe Monument” is at the upper-right of the image.

Day 3: Alta and an excursion to see UNESCO rock art at the Alta Museum and the Northern Lights Cathedral.

Here’s an image from the deck of the Alta Museum.

Day 4: Narvik and a “Sámi cultural encounter” excursion. (The Sámi people are indigenous to northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.)
Day 5: No stop in a port; an all-day journey south. And a chance to see the beautiful Norwegian coastline during daylight hours.

Here are images from the ship, looking east to the Norwegian coast.

Day 6: Åndalsnes and an excursion on the “Golden Train.”
Day 7: Bergen and a guided “city walk.”
Day 8: Kristiansand and a guided “city walk.”
Day 9: Arrive in Oslo and disembark.

Oslo

Five nights in Oslo. A fun city to explore! (More details to come as I have time to write them up…)

Feb 21, 2026 | Categories: landscapes, travels | Tags: aurora, aurora borealis, hurtigruten, ms trollfjord, northern lights, norway, travels, tromso, tromsø | Leave A Comment »

Close to Home

Note (November 2022): this post was in my draft folder for years! It’s from 2015, and I “found” it while repairing broken links in my long-neglected blog. For me, at least, it was nice to read my old thoughts… So here it is!

On a Thursday a few weeks ago, the weather forecast was for cloudy the next day, which offered promise for some Friday morning photography at the nearby-to-home Potomac River. One special spot on the river — not too far from my home in Virginia — is Great Falls National Park, which offers great views of the spectacular falls.

But for this Friday morning, I headed off before dawn to Maryland — to the “Chesapeake & Ohio National Historical Park” (the National Park on the Maryland side of the Potomac). And, in particular, to the Billy Goat Trail, which skirts the river within the park. (A fun trail, too, up and down over the rocks.) The sights along the Billy Goat Trail are a bit more subtle, perhaps, than at the majestic falls upstream. But… they offer a great chance to look for compositions, more than views, which is what I wanted for that Friday morning.

I spent quite a while composing each of the the two images here. The above image was taken from some rocks that protruded out into the river a bit, which meant limited options for placing my tripod. The most obvious spots were to the left of where I (ultimately) ended up, but that meant that the rock in the right foreground was too far to the right, relative to the other elements in the frame. After quite a bit of climbing around on the rocks, I finally found the “final” spot, which meant that the rightmost leg of the tripod was in the water, and I was somewhat awkwardly perched on a pointy rock. It was the right spot for the photo, though. I find this process of being “in nature” and searching for a composition that seems to work well is a slow and intentional process. But it’s also wonderfully meditative, peaceful, and (usually) very satisfying. I (finally) ended up with a composition I was happy with, which, to me, at least, seems to unify a bunch of elements (including the shapes of the waves), in a way that didn’t come to me quickly.

The general process for composing the pothole photo below was similar, although for this one, I found “the best” vantage point by moving around with my camera — not attached to my tripod! — and exploring alternatives. Then it was easy to just put the tripod under the spot I found, and with just a bit of adjustment, to get the shot I wanted. Also, my first images were taken from a slightly higher vantage point, which meant that the sky above the trees reflected in the water just “above” the edge of the rocks to the left. Initially, I liked the resulting parallel lines (with the reflected and upside down edge of the tree tops paralleling the same shape as the rocks). But ultimately, I went for the composition shown here, which seemed simpler and with a nice contrast between the dark reflection of the trees and the lighter rocks.

Again, this was a relaxing and satisfying process.

I really look forward to coming back to this area frequently. One thing I’ve learned — and enjoyed — is that the river looks very different as the water level changes. Which it does a lot!

Edit (November, 2022): I found a more recent “version” of the above photo, taken in 2019 (vs. 2015). I wasn’t specifically trying to recreate the above image; it’s just a nice composition that I was drawn to, once again. I find it quite interesting to see how my approach and “vision” evolved — or at least changed — over those four years.

Nov 19, 2022 | Categories: black & white, landscapes, long exposure, nature, streams & waterfalls | Tags: B&W, black and white, blur, chesapeake & ohio national historical park, flow, great falls national park, long exposure, potomac, potomac river, river, rocks, waves | Leave A Comment »

The Bartlett: Architectural Photography

I’ve always been fascinated with architecture. And for me, photographing architecture is a great way to engage with it – and to enjoy and share it with others as well.

I’ve done some commercial photography previously for Maurice Walters Architect, which was a treat! His firm’s Arts Walk at Brookland Works in Washington D.C. won the AIA|DC’s 2014 Presidential Citation in Urban Design. My photograph of that project is featured on page 26 of the Winter 2014 issue of AIA|DC’s “Architecture DC” magazine. And here is his webpage for the project, which features two additional photos by me: the “Brookland” photo, and the Brookland Works entrance photo that follows it.

So I was pleased and excited when Maurice asked me to photograph the new brick “The Bartlett” apartment building in Arlington, Virginia. His firm did the exterior design work in 2011/2012, and now it’s up! Here is his webpage for the project, which currently features renderings, but which will soon feature some of my images as well.

It’s also a treat to use my two “tilt-shift” lenses, which make it possible to get images with parallel verticals (by getting the camera parallel to the ground, and then shifting the lens up or down to capture the composition I’m aiming for). I’ve had the Canon 24mm TS-E for some time. (It’s by far my sharpest lens – really amazing!) And just recently purchased the Canon 17mm TS-E – used, but in perfect condition – from Simos Xenakis (a wonderful and talented photographer, who is moving from digital to film). The “whole building” shots are with the 17mm lens. (Actually, several of the 17mm images are via several landscape-orientation images stitched together in Photoshop to make a vertical panorama.) A great lens to have for this work!

I hope you enjoy my photos!

Mar 26, 2017 | Categories: the built environment | Tags: architecture, built environment, virginia | Leave A Comment »

McGregor Bay

I’m very lucky to have access to a wonderful family vacation spot on McGregor Bay, Ontario, which I’ve visited on and off for many years — starting when I was nine years old. A long time ago! Elizabeth and I hadn’t been in several years, but were back this year, meeting up with my sister and her family for a special week-long vacation.

It was a treat! It was rather hot and cloudless for the first few days, but then it cooled of and we had some nice weather. It was such a treat to watch the light change through the day. (Particularly after around 8:00 pm, for an hour before the 9:00 pm sunsets.) And from day to day.

The above photo was taken at about 8 pm, as the colors really picked up, prior to sunset. (I actually desaturated this image a bit, as the colors were “too strong” out of the camera for my taste.) It’s 132-second “long exposure,” taken with my Lee “Big Stopper” 10-stop neutral density filter.

The beautiful smooth shapes were carved by glaciers 20,000 to 10,000 years ago or so. (Quite recent in geologic time.)

And speaking of weather, here’s a dramatic storm that moved through quite quickly. What a treat to really be able to “see” and photograph the (sometimes rapidly) changing weather! Unfortunately, I suppose, that requires spending at least a few days in the same place, which is a rare luxury.

It was so cool to see the light for the shot below. Dark stormy clouds in the distance, but with the sun shining through from above, lighting up the rocks and glinting off the water. This was a 20-second exposure. A small detail, but I particularly liked seeing the swaying (and thus blurred) reeds in the foreground.

And here’s another image of some reeds among the rocks. (The one in the foreground submerged a bit.) Another 10-second exposure.

And here’s McGregor Bay (although not labeled). It’s a “little” bay to the north of Georgian Bay, which is a “big” bay to the northeast of Lake Huron.

Thanks for having a look!

Aug 07, 2015 | Categories: landscapes, long exposure, travels | Tags: blue, canada, glacial, golden hour, long exposure, mcgregor bay, ontario, rocks, twilight, water | Leave A Comment »

More Small Spring Colors

So many beautiful spring flowers in our yard! Elizabeth is a wonderful gardener and nurturer of beauty! Previously I posted some images of flowers from our yard. Here are a few more.

Above are the tiny blossoms of a Jacob’s ladder — so named because of the ladder-like pattern of its leaves, which you don’t see here. The little dusty-blue blossoms, sitting in their green “cups,” are just beautiful, I’d say!

Below are some star of Bethlehem blossoms. Simple, but spectacular flowers.

And finally, a view into one of our bunches of ferns. I love hunting for pleasing patterns within the chaos, and am happy with the pattern here. The search is a relaxing and rewarding “Zen” experience (and contemplating such beauty!).

Thank you for taking a look at our flowers (and ferns); I hope you enjoy them.

May 14, 2015 | Categories: details, flowers, nature | Tags: blossoms, details, ferns, flowers, jacob's ladder, macro, our yard, plants, star of bethlehem | Leave A Comment »

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Amazing Auroras!

Itinerary

Tromsø: Jan 18 – 21

Hurtigruten’s MS Trollfjord

Oslo

Close to Home

The Bartlett: Architectural Photography

McGregor Bay

More Small Spring Colors

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Amazing Auroras!

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Amazing Auroras!

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