A nicely feathered aurora.

It's harder to take photos here than I expected.

Camping under the stars.

At -80F, the LCD displays on cameras stop working after about two minutes.

Accidental escape from the camera.

Within three minutes, the eyepiece is so fogged over that focus become impossible, no matter how hard you try not to breath toward the camera.

Below stairs.

By then, the camera shell is well below freezing, so placing your face against it is a delicate business anyway.

D A D A 2

By starlight, auto-focus is useless, even before the lens drive starts chattering and complaining about the cold.

The well.

The camera itself usually works for about ten minutes.

Home.

After that, it takes all-black images for another couple minutes before the battery gives out.

And then we saw the Eiffel Tower.

But that's not such a bad thing. That's about how long human hands can last in any gloves that will allow you to press camera buttons.

Same building, same evening, very slightly different photo.

By the time the camera has died, you've no feeling in your fingers, and your non-camera eye is iced shut with breath frost.

I really like this one.

If you're lucky, the eyelid isn't also frozen to your balaclava.

Self portrait, with goofy hanging gauntlets.

Taking photos here is lot closer to blind-photography than anything I've done except blind-photography.

Telescopes.

The best strategy seems to be to focus on the most distant, lit building during the crucial minute when you can still see, then spend ten minutes trying to frame vague, dusky shapes and hoping to land a decent shot.

Another really simple one that pleases me.

While there's no photo here which I wouldn't love to re-take with slight changes, on the whole I'm pretty happy with these.

Yet another, much like the other.

I do regret not having invested in a fast, wide angle lens, a remote shutter timer, and a study tripod before coming here.

Cheesy? Perhaps.

But, there's something to be said for making do with what's available.

Even cheesier in dramatic black and white.

Besides, I've already taken two perfect photographs this year, which is way ahead of my usual room-temperature average.

Desperately casting about for a foreground.

And, frankly, it's hard to take photos that aren't at least a little bit interesting in a place this unusual.

An afternoon light show.

If the sky isn't filled with aurora, then there's a shockingly bright moon, or else countless stars. (Well, except for the 50% of the time when blowing snow makes it impossible to see more than 20 feet.)

It's full of stars.

When you live in a city, it's easy to forget you live in a galaxy.