The Land of Northern Lights

Ok folks, this is it. Here is my first video project.

It is a timelapse video of the Northern Lights. All sequences are shot in or close to Tromsø in Northern Norway.

I have spent over 6months collecting footage for this, I have shot approx 50.000 stills to choose from in making this video. A goal for me has been to try to preserve the real-time speed of the northern lights, or come as close as possible, and present it the way I experienced it, instead of the northern lights just flashing over the sky in the blink of an eye. It may work on other time-lapse videos with fast moving clouds and sunsets etc, but with the northern lights in focus, it should be presented in it's true speed to reflect her beauty, imo. In the video I have put together a collection of slow moving auroras in the woods, over the mounatins, in the city, in the foreshore, reflected in the sea, with some of the most spectacular and strongest auroral outbreaks seen in many years. Included here is a coronal outbreak, in which I am particularly happy to present, since it is very difficult to get on stills, even worse on "film".

I got a fantastic soundtrack made for the video by local musical talent in Tromsø; Per Wollen. A Huge thanks goes to you Per obviously! The audio track "Aurora in the sky" can be found on iTunes.

Also, with two small children at home under 2 years, it goes without saying I could never have done this without the fantastic understanding and help from my girlfriend. This has been an insanely time-consuming project. Both hours after hours out in the cold, but also all the hours in post-processing during late nights has led to a severe lack of sleep. And although you always feel like there is something you could have improved, even slightly, before releasing, you come to a point when you just have to finish. And that time is now.


I hope you have a large HD monitor to really enjoy this.

In The Land Of The Northern Lights from Ole Christian Salomonsen on Vimeo.