Freezing my ... off.

10 days before the years shortest day, I passed a dark and snowy landscape on my way to the north. Sunrise and sunset seem to coincide, giving the smallest window of light to photograph. For 3 hours I photographed blurred bluish images of farm lights and out of focus mountain tops. The snow finally turned white, and the outside world appeared, frozen. The streets of Akureyri were covererd with snow and the cold felt bitter. Inhaling felt like freezing the insides of the lungs, and the short walk to the grocery felt refreshing. 

Morning after I took the bus to the town of Egilsstaðir. The darkness that wouldnt lift for the first 2 hours was not the only issue, as the -25c temperatures froze the heat from my hand as I leaned against the window to photograph. Every 15 seconds I had to wipe the inside of the window of the quick forming ice, or forget and sense the blurry effect take over the viewfinder. 

The few hours of sunlight did make the trip worthwhile, with mountaintops bathed in a pink light of the setting sun, with the foreground going into the shadow. Stories were told of the solitary characters who in earlier times were the only ones to venture into this landscape in winter, searching for lost sheep as the threat of winter meant some else and more then a chilly bus ride.