Arctic Adventure

We have been camping in Scandinavia quite a few times during the summer and fall. This time we wanted to do something different and we called few of our friends to join us for this Arctic camping trip to Lofoten. The idea came when we wanted to see the mountains of Lofoten covered in the snow.

It was obvious that sleeping in a tent during the winter is totally different compared to nice and warm summer nights. We got equipped for this trip and our friends over at Bayerncar Oy offered us a nice BMW X5 that fit all of our gear for the drive to Norway. 

We headed up towards Kilpisjärvi for the first night. On the way we stopped by at our friends grocery store Jounin Kauppa in Ylläs. He was kind enough to offer us the food for the trip! We didn't quite make it all the way to Kilpisjärvi for the first night, but near Kaaresuvanto we found this awesome Laavu to sleep in.

The actual adventure started the next day and we didn't have to worry about the time any longer. We stopped once in a while for photos and cooked some nice meals with our camping cookers. We almost made it to the Lofoten Islands on the second day, but we decided to stop in Målselva for a dinner and enjoy the Northern lights. The day had been so long, that we decided to pull our tents out and stay there for the night.

On our third travel day we made our way finally to Lofoten and everyone got super excited. The weather changed drastically every fifteen minutes and we stopped the car almost as often, since everyone went crazy with their cameras. We made it to near Leknes, where we were based pretty much for the rest of the trip.

We drove around every day to different photo locations including Reine, Haukland and Uttakleiv. Even though the weather wasn't the best possible, we were able to capture some nice images.

Our best part of the trip for sure was our hike to Kvalvika beach. We went there with our tents and rest of the equipment as we wanted to spend the night there. The weather was crazy again, as it changed from huge snowstorm to sunshine and partial blue skies. We lit up a bonfire and kept it going as the sun went down. We enjoyed our time in this quiet and beautiful beach and it definitely gave us a nice ending for the whole adventure.

Here are some photos from the trip!
 

1 hour in the streets of Prague

I was invited to Prague for the release of the new Olympus OMD EM5 Mk II. Olympus had built an awesome "Action Factory" -test facility to an old water purification plant with a labyrinth of underground tunnels and photogenic scenes. The camera was great and the quality of the photos surprised me. The most attracting feature is the 5-axis Image Stabilization. This thing is a beast!

We spent the first day in the Action Factory and had no time to go anywhere else. Many of us had never been to Prague before, so we wanted to go and get even a glimpse of the city. We woke up early the next day before we had to take the airport bus from our hotel. We just started walking from the hotel with no specific destination. We had been walking for a while, too long actually as we had to take a taxi to get back to the hotel, so that we wouldn't miss the airport shuttle. Even though it was only and hour, It was totally worth it. I really need to make it back there with more time.

 Here are few shots I was able to capture on our walk.

Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1, Lens: 12mm 1:2.0

-Daniel

#Kaamos2015 - Ylläs

We did a cool cooperation with Visit Ylläs and Visit Finland to promote Ylläs and Finnish Lapland. We were able to invite six of our favorite Instagrammers from around the world for an unforgettable stay in Ylläs ski resort.

Visit Ylläs and the local companies surpassed all of our expectations as they had organized four awesome days filled with fun activities.

After talking on instagram for a long time, we were finally able to pick up the crew from the airport and meet face to face. Everyone was super excited about the trip. We took the guys to our beautiful villa, Eriklinna, to drop of their luggage. We didn’t spend too much time settling in as we were so eager to explore and take some photos in the nice weather we had. Snow Fun Safaris provided us with snowshoes for the whole stay in Ylläs, which was awesome as snowshoes are a must to get around in the deep snow. 

Jounin Kauppa provided us with the breakfast in the villa. We started hiking up from the scenic route of Ylläs. Unfortunately we didn't make it all the way to the top of the hill, but it was a lot of fun and besides, we got to see a beautiful sunset. After hiking it was time to show our guests some Finnish traditions back at the villa. We heated up the sauna and made sure that everyone jumped into the snow as well. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see how the first timers handled it.

Next day we woke up to a windy and snowy weather, which was a nice change to the day before. We started the day with a presentation about Ylläs ski resort and the national park at the Visitor Center Kellokas. After the presentation, with new knowledge about the area, we headed out to the woods to explore and take some photos. The guys were excited about the new snow that was slowly falling down from the sky. In the evening we went to a sauna again, this time by the lake, where we also were able to try ice swimming. This was a fun experience for the guys!

Tuesday started of with a tour around the Snow Village close to Ylläs. It was crazy to see this big complex totally built out of snow! There were many hotel rooms for rent and an ice bar inside. Make sure to check it out if you are heading to Ylläs! In the afternoon we had a fun snowmobile safari with our awesome guide Pekka from Kylmämaa Tours. It was something different to ride deep in to the woods where we were all overwhelmed by the beauty of the nature that we got to ride through. At the end of the safari, Pekka took us to their kota (goahti) to warm up and have some coffee and cinnamon buns. This was one of the most memorable moments of the trip as we sat down and enjoyed the treats by the fire in the dark goahti. For the dinner we headed to Pihvikeisari to enjoy delicious Finnish treats.

On our last scheduled action day we all went for a husky safari with Rami’s huskies. It was once again such a memorable moment for all of us, and we were also able to capture some amazing pictures. After all that we headed up to the ski resort and took the gondola up to the top. There was a VIP-sauna with an outdoor jacuzzi waiting for us. That in itself was an amazing experience and we really enjoyed it, but that wasn’t all. They had heated up the world's only gondola-sauna for us! We took turns and went up and down the ski hill in the gondola-sauna! To finish this perfect adventure we were treated a nice dinner on top of the fell in a restaurant called Ylläskammi 718 with the whole Ylläs crew.

The whole trip was a successful collaboration with Ylläs Ski Resort's marketing team and all the great local service providers in the area.

You will find more amazing photos of the trip under the hashtag #kaamos2015.

The Insta Crew: @markclinton, @hirozzzz, @hannes_becker, @kpunkka, @jordanherschel, @kdkuiper and @scottborrero