Journey 03 · Finland
Eight Hours of Daylight
Finnish Lapland in February
Published 24 Apr 2026 · Travelled 5–14 Feb 2026
- 8 moments
- 10 days
- 250 km
- Winter
- Finland
- 28mm · f/8 · 1/500
- 66.4933° N, 25.7822° E
- Ounasvaara, Rovaniemi
- 11:30
- -19°C, ice fog burning off
It rose at half nine, cleared the treeline by a hand's width, and started down again. The whole day is golden hour with a deadline. You plan around it like a tide.
- 28mm · f/5.6 · 1/320
- 66.4980° N, 25.7248° E
- Kemijoki river ice, Rovaniemi
- 13:15
- -14°C, flat grey
Rovaniemi was burned flat in the war and rebuilt on a plan shaped, they say, like a reindeer's head. From the river ice you just see a modest skyline doing its best at minus twenty. I liked it more than I expected to.
- 28mm · f/2.8 · 1/400
- 66.6167° N, 25.4833° E
- Reindeer farm, Sinettä
- 12:20
- -16°C, light snow
At a herder's place north of town, a reindeer walked out of the birches, considered me at length, and went back to digging lichen from under the snow. The herder said they know exactly how long a tourist's interest lasts. Mine lasted an hour; the reindeer had somewhere to be for none of it.
- Moving image
- Husky trail, Vikajärvi
- 14:00
- -21°C, clear, hard cold
the team, mid-run
Chaos until the anchor came up, then total silence and twenty kilometres an hour of it. From the sled the trail pours toward you and the dogs' breath streams back like exhaust. I shot from the handlebar with the strap doubled around my wrist. Some frames are worth the risk assessment.
05 · What -25°C does to a camera bag
- 28mm · f/4 · 1/125
- 66.2708° N, 27.8770° E
- Riisitunturi National Park
- 15:50
- -23°C, blue hour, still
Day trip east to Riisitunturi, where the frost builds on the spruces until they become hooded figures — tykkylumi, crown snow-load, a phenomenon with its own engineering literature. At dusk they stand around on the fell like a stopped procession. The strangest landscape I have photographed on any continent.
the finn next to me said 'good year for it' and nothing else in two hours
- 28mm · f/2.8 · 1/200
- 66.5100° N, 25.7000° E
- Lake sauna, Rovaniemi
- 17:30
- -18°C, steam and dark
Sauna to ice hole, ice hole to sauna, repeat until proud. The man before me did his lengths of the hole like it was a municipal pool. I lasted eleven seconds and have rarely felt better about a number.
- Norvajärvi
- 23:05
- -24°C, clear window, -24
- Last frame
The forecast said maybe. At eleven the sky opened a green seam over the trees and spent it slowly, like someone counting out change. Twenty minutes, then cloud. I took four frames and watched the rest with the camera hanging off my shoulder.
- 28mm · f/1.7 · 4s · ISO 1600
- 66.6167° N, 25.8333° E
The route
8 stops
Journey completed
Ten days, eight stories
- Distance walked
- 52 km
- Frames exposed
- 480
- Coldest morning
- -27°C
- Batteries per day, inside pocket rotation
- 3
- Auroras, forecast vs seen
- 6 vs 2
- Favourite moment
- The dogs going silent the instant the sled started to move
- Best food
- Salmon soup in a lakeside hut, eaten with gloves half on
