I dropped my phone and decided it was time to take up the GoPro HERO 4 and head out in the cold to do some exploring and see the lights in the wild. Presumably it was just my battered phone which was incapable of picking up the lights and not my pitiful camera skills.

Of course, I soon disproved this theory as I struggled around the town of Ruka, snapping away at the sky with my GoPro and producing little more than a couple of captures of some hotels and the occasional blurry green wisp.

This was a startling reminder that by trade I am indeed a journalist and writer rather than a photographer. So how was I going to get the results? To shoot like a nature photographer, I had to think like a nature photographer.

I retreated to my room, restocked on battery life, stuck on my ski jacket, salopettes, gloves and a hat. Then, I proceeded to try and answer my questions in the manner many a wise man would. I Google’d it.

This wasn’t particularly helpful it turned out, as there wasn’t a whole lot of information online, but I did get some good tips that would prove vital when I headed back outside around 10pm. It’s crucial to stay away from artificial light when shooting the lights, for example. You need to take your shutter speed back to 15 or more seconds to capture the lights, and this exposure doesn’t mix well with artificial lights. Stick pro-tune on, then put your ISO on 800, the white balance on 3000k and follow those tips and you’re flying (now don’t say we didn’t give you any actual advice!) – though different conditions demand different set ups.

A Lesson Learned

Armed with more layers, more battery life and that all-important can-do attitude back out I went into the snow. It was nearing -20 and at this point I was looking like some sort of petrol bomb-wielding football hooligan with a scarf over my mouth and a hood covering my beanie-clad head.

I walked to the edge of town, away from the lights of hotels and bars to a spot where only an unlit cabin lay before me, and deep snow surrounded everything. I followed the steps above, setting my shutter speed to 15 seconds, and then set my GoPro to night lapse mode so it would snap away continuously.

I sat back and waited for my camera to turn me into an internationally renowned photographer, which, of course, it didn’t – but it did capture the lights successfully and provide enough of a shot to prove I wasn’t talking bullshit when I went back home.

But this wouldn’t be good enough for Mpora – the snow in the foreground of the photo could’ve blinded our readers (look below at your own risk). It looked like a bit like something from a D-movie sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage and an alien made of play-doh.

It was about 1.30 in the morning at this point, the temperature was creeping down and battery life was drawing low. I didn’t have long.

I headed past the cabin I had previously been shooting at, took a turning and found myself at a T-Bar which seemed perfect in every way; the backdrop of the ski run, the beautiful drooping forests of Finland bursting with colour and the perfect lighting for the shot.

I set the camera up to take a snapshot on night lapse every 15 seconds and lay back in the snow to wait. It was a beautiful night, and without a doubt an experience I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Thankfully though, I’ve now got this beautiful series of snaps of the scene just in case my memory does ever fade. I smiled in surreal astonishment as I checked the monitor on my GoPro HERO 4 Silver, looked back at the Lights and waddled back to my hotel room as the camera died, so that I could finally go to bed and do something similar.