Luleå & Bad Composition

Brandon Lodge

I was fortunate enough to go on a trip to arctic Europe with Discover the World. It was this time last year that I previously visited Tromsø & Senja, so I was excited to return. My first stop was Luleå in northern Sweden. It was here that I hoped to photograph the northern lights. I stayed at Brandon lodge, which was a truly amazing place to stay with the most incredible, friendly and accommodating hosts. I had access to snowmobiles, fat bikes, snow shoes and even a hovercraft.

Hovercrafting!!

Luleå does not lend itself well to landscape photography when compared with the more mountainous areas of Norway, however what it lacks in topography, it makes up for in pure wilderness. Luleå is an archipelago and during the winter all of the lakes freeze over creating a beautiful winter wonderland. The peace and quiet coupled with the winter activities make for a splendid and unique experience. Unfortunately for me the weather was not great so I did not see the northern lights, but there was still a lot of areas to explore, activities to enjoy and experiences to be had.

White Landscape

The white landscape really helped me focus on my photography. Rather than being distracted by towering mountains or ancient woodland, the winter wilderness forced me in to a zen like state and made me thoroughly appreciate every detail.

The hovercraft was not a let down, it was incredible and made for a truly unique experience. Sadly it wasn’t practical for photography as it was almost impossible to maneuver in to position with any grace or accuracy. The pilot, an Australian?, was so patient as I tried my best to inch us closer to a composition I had seen, but I may have tested his patience when I asked him to reverse back a few inches. For those of you who don’t know, hovercrafts do not reverse. It was time to move on.

Finding the Detail

The real magic happened at the end of my final day in Luleå. I had been out on a snowmobile, riding across the endless white planes when darkness began to set it. Visibility was down to almost zero, which was rather quite beautiful. There’s something to be said for being in a complete whiteout with no sights and no sounds. It’s incredibly calming. In the distance appeared strange sounds and shapes back lit by the headlights of 2 snowmobiles. At first I wasn’t sure what it was, but as we got closer I could see that it was Sami Reindeer herders escorting a group of Deer to a nearby island. This was most unexpected and offered a unique opportunity for a photograph. As accommodating as ever, my host from Brandon Lodge agreed to let me jump on the back of his snowmobile a and shoot as we followed the group across the frozen lake. This was a truly wonderful experience.

Out of the Darkness

The next day I flew to Tromsø in northern Norway. The day was really supposed to be a travel day, but for me, that is a hard pill to swallow… so we took the scenic route to our hotel and stopped at Grøtfjord, which is a beautiful, remote beach surrounded by mountains on either side. The plan was to shoot an image at sunset. Unfortunately the light was gorgeous… wait, what? Yes, unfortunately. The light was great, but it was in the wrong place. I did attempt to make one photograph, but I could not make the composition work.

To make a great photograph you need a combination several components: Subject, Light, Composition, Mood, Action, Detail and more. You don’t need all of these, but certainly a combination of at least 3. The most important being Subject, Light & Composition.

Left and Away

This image only has 2 of those 3 elements; subject (mountains) and light (on the mountains). Unfortunately this image falls down massively on the composition. Take a look at the photo and imagine there is a magnetic force pulling your eyes to the left and out of the frame. That is exactly what is happening, but rather than magnets it is that stream of water leading you in and out of the photo, bypassing all of the goodness at the top of the frame. This makes the photo very hard to look at. In a perfect world the stream would have turned right and continued on to the mountains. Next time you frame a shot, ask yourself if anything is trying to pull you out of the shot and then correct for it. In this case, I was unable to correct.