Long exposure arctic light photography by Ole Salomonsen

” Born and living in the city of Tromsø, the gateway to the arctic, and a city of great polar history with likes of Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen both starting many of their expeditions from Tromsø. Tromsø is has the northernmost University in the world, and is known for their reasearch in the field of aurora borealis.

Myself (40 years) educated with a Bachelor in finance, and a Master of Business Administration, has had several other administrative jobs in the past. Where landscape photography has been a major hobby the later years of my life. In particular I am fascinated by the northern lights as a phenomena, and love being out in the cold at nights watching her different shapes and colors, and try to capture to best of my ability and describe what my eyes are seeing.

I consider myself being lucky living in Tromsø which is located just under the auroral oval during even low activity. So you very often can see the auroras in Tromsø.

Last year I produced a video about the northern lights which sort of changed my life: (http://vimeo.com/21419634)

After this I have enjoyed a great deal of success with my work being featured both in IMAX films, National Geographic Documentaries, and national and local tourist industry. I also was a finalist and runner up in the Astronomy Photographer of The Year 2011 contest, category earth and space, which made me really proud! The image I had in the contest was the ‘Divine Presence’ – Two times I have also been featured on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of The Day latest 12monts.

Currently I am working on the sequel to my first video, which I hopefully will be able to release this winter.

I am lucky to have a fantastic girlfriend who helps me take care of my two small children (Victor 1yr, and Oscar 2.5yr). You need that to be able to do this job, since it is so time consuming, being out both at night shooting, and editing during daytime.

What fascinates me about photography is how you can work with light. In other words, in my opinion, light is what photography is all about. And living where I am, with northern lights during the winter, and midnight sun during the summer, and with these awesome transition periods between summer and winter makes a perfect foundation for a landscape photographer. Right now just when the sun is starting to come back up here, we have what is called Arctic Light, which is a very special pink/cyan color appearing in white snow covered mountains. For many, arctic light also is the northern lights. Hence my company is called Arctic Light Photo. www.arcticlightphoto.no

I’ve had so much to do that I have not had time to finish my webpage 100%, but it will be finished soon.

I hope to be able to work in photography for a long time, because it is THE passion in my life. I consider myself being extremely lucky and privileged being able to do so at the moment! ” ~ Ole C. Salomonsen

For more long exposure arctic light photography by Ole C. Salomonsen, please visit his website here or check out his flickr photostream right here.