Rrrright! I promised a series about driving Pentax KP into a state where it could no longer be operated due to frozen controls and lens. For some reason it took two years before I finally started going through the photos shot over the period of one week in absolutely stunning conditions in Finnish Lapland in 2018. I shall write an article about this later when I am done with all the photos I would like to share.

To demonstrate the qualities of light available at this unique location, I will start with kind of harsh afternoon light which quickly turns into dramatic spectacle which then clears up when light starts to fade.

Rising front of snow and harsh wind from the east at the background:


Still blindingly bright light at 180 degrees


The snowfront rises up and starts covering direct sunlight


Magic mushrooms in the snowstorm lit by sunlight from the west


Blinding light straight into sun. Note the flare on foreground coming from my friend's Nikkor 24-70 front lens!!!


And the snowing is over but remaining clouds create some dramatic vistas, particularly when shot using a polarizer


Frozen lens surface is not very effective against bright light


And the day starts slowly fading towards the night






This is the first collection of photos from total of five which I will be posting.

[7.62lew]

Wow! Great shots and looks other worldly. I've not seen anything like it. Please link your article on the forums once you are done with it.

Thanks for sharing! Have a good one.

[K2 to K50]

Wow!

These images are mind-blowing. The shapes are amazing. In the third image, you can imagine you are seeing a mythical troll, with a very large nose, sitting down in the snow. hands around its knees.

Amazing use of light, and shadow, and a very restricted colour range.

These are images that must evoke extreme satisfaction when looked back on, down the years.

[jmacias]

Those are really great photos!
I'm looking forward to reading the article.

[Nightwatch]

Those are amazing!

[luftfluss]

Fantastic, and fantastical.

[lesmore49]

Great pix...my favourite has to be the 2nd picture in your series. I've spent about 40% of my life in winter, mostly severe, conditions and I've never seen such oddly attractive, snow phenomena as you have photographed. Quite fascinating and you have captured their 'eeriness' quite well.

[Bengan]

I have to add to the wow-qhoir. These are really beautiful and interesting shots. Very well captured

[ukhozi]

Absolutely wonderful series! Goblins, mushrooms and other magical creatures

[edri]

Brilliant.

[WorksAsIntended]

Amazing pictures! I do not say this too often.

[kyricom]

Thanks for letting us see those. I'd love to see it in person.

[RoxnDox]

Amazing and wonderful images, every one of them. Thank you for sharing them with us!

[MJKoski]

Thank you all! I am very glad that you enjoyed them. These are what defines Finland for me. The Blue and The White - The colors of our flag. Now, time for part two of the series which continues directly were we ended up so far. Sunset itself will not last very long but from there we dive into blue hour so deep that sRGB just totally falls apart...



















And a bonus photo, landscape in moonlight while having a campfire nearby after 9 hour photo trekking in deep snow @ -25C



The conditions vary from one year to the next and there has never been exactly similar weather conditions. During this day, there was a slight cover of clouds which created a bit subdued pastel-like color palette after sunset. If the weather just happens to be totally clear, the colors run much deeper just prior and after the sunset.

How did KP survive?



Well, it kind of did and did not. The very first picture in this thread is the only one I got with default KP battery. The rest relied on trusty D-LI90 inside the battery grip. And if I had not used the grip I would have been unable to use the camera after sunset. At that point the primary shutter button just failed and I had to revert to the shutter button on the grip. I did not use a remote release as there are enough problems already traveling the deep snow. Extra cords just get messed up somewhere and break apart.

[luftfluss]

The sculptures and your photos of them are just so special. Thank you for sharing them, it is really a privilege to view.