In autumn 2015 NRK photographer Harald Albrigtsen was out on Kvaløya, the big island west of Tromsø in northern Norway, testing a new low-light camera under the northern lights. Then humpback whales surfaced in the water in front of him. He went back the next evening, and after a few hours of waiting, the whales returned beneath the aurora.
Harald Albrigtsen's whales under the northern lights
Albrigtsen lives in Tromsø and spends much of his free time photographing the aurora. He filmed the scene with a Sony A7, a full-frame camera that handles very low light well, which is what lets the footage show both the green curtains overhead and the dark backs and blows of the whales at the surface. The story ran in Norway in early October 2015, NRK, Norway's public broadcaster, posted the video on YouTube on 9 October, and within days it had been picked up by media around the world.
"They showed up again," he told The Local about the second evening, when he returned to see whether he could get closer.
Why whales come to the fjords around Tromsø
The whales follow the herring. Every winter, huge shoals of Norwegian spring-spawning herring move into the fjords of northern Norway, and humpbacks and orcas follow them to feed. According to Visit Tromsø, the main whale season usually runs from early November to the end of January. Because the herring shift from year to year, so do the whales; since 2017 they have gathered mainly in the Kvænangen area, around Skjervøy, north of Tromsø.
Whale-watching boats leave from Tromsø for full-day trips, or you can travel to Skjervøy and join a tour there. Sightings are never guaranteed, and responsible operators keep their distance. Dress for real cold: winter boots, a woollen hat and mittens.
Northern lights in Tromsø: when and why
Tromsø sits at about 69.6°N, more than 300 km north of the Arctic Circle, right under the auroral zone, the ring of most frequent aurora centred near 67° latitude. The light comes from particles of the solar wind colliding with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere, mostly around 100 km up. The common green glow is atomic oxygen emitting at 557.7 nanometres; the rarer red, at 630 nm, comes from oxygen higher still and usually shows only during strong solar activity.
- Aurora season: roughly mid-August to late April. From late April to mid-August the sky stays too light.
- Polar night: the sun stays below the horizon from about 26 November to 15 January, though midday brings a few hours of blue twilight.
- Best overlap with whales: November to January, when the long nights and the herring season coincide.
Tips for filming the aurora over water
- Use a camera with good high-ISO performance and a fast wide lens, on a sturdy tripod.
- Get away from Tromsø's city lights; Kvaløya's coast is a short drive from the centre.
- Watch the whole frame, not just the sky. Reflections, a shoreline or, if you are very lucky, a whale give the picture a sense of place.
- Coastal cloud often hides the aurora, so check forecasts and be ready to move.
Related reading
- a first aurora experience in Yellowknife
- An Aurora Film from 2015: Colour, Motion and the Superstorm Claim
- The Mountain: Seven Days of Sky Photography at Teide
- Sun Halos over Finland: Understanding Pauli Hänninen’s Photographs
- Mike Taylor’s Maine Aurora Photography and a Change of Direction
- Ten Northern-Lights Regions: Geography, Darkness and Realistic Expectations
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