Mark Simms Photography

Strange Light

Below are three images from our recent trip to Inari in northern Finland, where the atmospheric conditions, near darkness and 30 to 60s long-exposures have resulted in some strange light effects and colour casts.

I did think about not sharing these images on the grounds that the white balance is clearly a bit off. But the more I looked at them, and worked on them in post processing, the more I came to quite like the results…..I think they have an interesting other-worldly quality to them.

Incidentally the red light trails in the second image are from a line of snowmobiles crossing frozen Lake Inari during the long-exposure:

Lake Inari, Lapland, Finland

© Mark Simms Photography (2020)

Winter Wonderland

The shots below are of the Juutuanjoki river which flows between Lake Paatari and Lake Inari in Finnish Lapland. As you can see, although largely frozen over and covered in snow, the river still flows rapidly in a number of places along it’s 10km length:

Juutuanjoki River, Inari, Finland

© Mark Simms Photography (2020)

Reindeer Farm Visit

Over Christmas we spent a week in Inari, a small town in Lapland, northern Finland, about 250km north of the arctic circle. The Finnish capital of the Sami (the indigenous Reindeer herders of nothern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia) Inari is a perfect place to try out a few winter activities and marvel at the amazing landscapes.

Given the location (Lapland has more Reindeer than people) it seems appropriate that the photos for my first post come from our visit to a local Reindeer Farm where we learnt all about these wonderful animals and the culture of the Sami people:

Reindeer Farm, Inari, Finland

© Mark Simms Photography (2020)

Lichfield 15

For my final post from Lichfield, here is a rare shot of my darling (and long suffering camera-widow) wife with the Minster Pool in the background:

Lichfield, Staffordshire, England

© Mark Simms Photography (2020)

Lichfield 14

A view from the house of Erasmus Darwin in Lichfield, an 18th century physician and grandfather to the famous naturalist Charles Darwin. It was Erasmus, a man way ahead of his time, who laid the ground-work for his grandson’s radical theories about evolution and the origin of species:

Lichfield, Staffordshire, England