Finnish Lapland Winter Photo Tour

January 20-26, 2025

Location: Finnish Lapland Winter Photo Tour
Dates: January 20-26, 2025
Price: (Shared Room) - USD $ 3,999 (*See note below)
Price (Single Room) - USD $4,499
Instructors:  Josh Merrill and Dusty Doddridge

Join us on an exciting new adventure to the heart of Winter, in Finnish Lapland. A surreal landscape of impossibly snow-drenched trees will make you feel as though you’ve landed in snow globe. Perpetual frost and snow sculptures await us in this unique boreal forest. January is when the low-angled sub-arctic sunlight is at its most magical. Sunrise and sunset can last last for hours as the sun glides along the horizon, and makes the hilltop forests glow. Lapland is also well positioned to experience the Aurora Borealis. If skies are clear, and there is aurora activity occurring, we’ll be out to photograph it.

We’ll keep the itinerary flexible to ensure that we’re able to react to conditions and get ourselves in the very best locations for success. Highlights will include the frozen hill-top forest of Riisitunturi National Park, with its trees that take on otherwordly forms. We’ll explore along the Kitka River within Oulanka National Park, where its black waters flow freely through snow-laden gorges all Winter. And, we’ll take a snowmobile ride to the very edge of eastern lapland, and spend a day atop the Kuntivaara fell.

Dusty Doddridge and I will be leading a group of photographers to explore Finland’s best. If you haven't experienced and photographed Finnish Lapland during the Winter, this is your opportunity for a once in a lifetime photo adventure!

ITINERARY 

Day 1, January 20th, 2025 (Arrival in Kuusamo, Finland) - For this adventure, we will be based in Kuusamo, Finland, more specifically, we’ll be staying the the Scandic Rukahovi Ski Resort, part of the Ruka Ski Villiage.. We will meet you upon your arrival at the Kuusamo airport (airport code KAO) and bring you straight to the hotel. This evening, we will meet in our hotel around 7pm for a dinner and to talk about the upcoming tour. Although the plan is to get a good night's rest this evening, we will keep a close eye on the Aurora Borealis forecast and sky conditions, as we will be doing throughout the tour. If things look good for the Aurora this evening, we'll head out to capture it!

Days 2-6, January 21-25, 2025 - Short days, and low-angled, sub-arctic sunlight, mean that we’ll have action packed days full of Winter photography. Good light in Winter can last a long time... sometimes for the entire day. We’ll often get in position well before sunrise, and in most cases, we’ll stay out until after sunset. Favorable lighting conditions, are common, even at mid-day in Winter. If the Aurora appears, we will be out photographing. Our shooting locations throughout Lapland are relatively close by and do not require any long hiking. We’ll spend days wandering through forests of unbelievably snow-covered trees. In the evenings, we’ll have time to warm up and cover a variety of basic and advanced landscape post-processing techniques.

 Days 7, January 26, 2025 - Our time together will conclude on January 26th. We’ll return participants to the Kuusamo Airport, in time to catch your flights (Likely connecting through HEL). For those participants with flights departing later in the evening, we can provide one last opportunity to get out and photograph, if conditions are good.

SKILL LEVEL AND CAMERA EQUIPMENT

This photo tour is open to photographers of all skill levels. The low instructor-to-participant ratio allows us to spend more time with each participant. At minimum, however, you should be familiar with your camera's controls and understand the basics of composition. There is no need to worry if you do not have experience with night photography, as we will be teaching these techniques early in the tour.

For night photography (if northern lights conditions allow), you will get better results with a camera that can handle ISO's in the 1600-3200 range with relatively little noise. A wide-angle lens with an aperture of f/2.8 or wider is desirable. Contact me if you have any questions on this. You should bring lenses in the wide-angle through telephoto range to capture the myriad of photographic opportunities in this region. We will be teaching post-processing techniques in Photoshop and Lightroom, so bring your laptop. Bring enough memory cards, extra camera batteries and, as always, a sturdy tripod.

WEATHER AND CLOTHING

Average daily high temperatures in Kuusamo, Finland in January are around 15* F, with overnight lows around 5* F. However, colder weather can occur, and photographers should be prepared to spend several hours outdoors at temperatures as low as -25* F. Bottom line – you will want to be prepared for cold weather. When outside, in most location we will be within reasonable walking distance of our vehicles, and several locations even have warming huts available.

TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS

Making your air arrangements - 

Book your incoming flight to arrive in Kuusamo, Finland (Airport Code: KAO) on January 20th. We will pick you up from the Kuusamo airport, and transport you to our hotel. You do no need to arrive until later in the day on the 20th, as our first meeting with the group will take place in the evening, over dinner.

For your return travel, book your travel back from KAO on January 26th. We can provide airport transfers throughout the day. Depending on conditions, we may be able to bring out participants with later flight times for one last photo outing on the 26th.

Upon your arrival in Kuusamo, Finland, we will meet you at the airport on January 20th and bring you to the hotel. The group will meet together for dinner at our hotel (The Sacandic Rukahovi), to get to know each other, and to discuss plans for our adventure together.

As for local transportation, we will comfortably travel in vans and be doing relatively short drives, usually about 30-40 minutes, with a maximum of about one hour. The roads are generally well-kept.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

There will be no long hikes on this trip. Generally, we will be walking moderately short distances on snow and ice covered paths which are sometimes at an incline. The longest hikes will be 1.5-2.5 miles each way. So, having good balance and the ability to walk up and down an incline in snowy and icy conditions is important. Some locations will require the use of snowshoes(which will be provided).

TRAVEL INSURANCE

We strongly suggest you purchase emergency medical treatment and medical evacuation insurance for this trip.

DETAILS

Location: Finnish Lapland Winter Photo Tour
Dates: January 20-26, 2025
Price: (Shared Room) - USD $ 3,999 (*See note below)
Price (Single Room) - USD $4,499

Group Size: 8
Instructors:  Josh Merrill and Dusty Doddridge

*Booking a shared room is only possible if you are booking the tour with someone that you will be sharing a room with, or if we’ve received a request for a shared room from another participant..

Deposit - A deposit of 30% of the tour price, and a completed registration form reserves your spot. Important - See "Tour Policies" (link below) for information on payments and refund policy.

Price Includes - Accommodations (sharing or single as noted above), excellent breakfasts at our hotel , all local transportation including airport transfer from Kuusamo airport, photo instruction, guidance & critiques.

Price Does Not Include - Everything not noted as included, such as airfare, passport and visa costs, meals(other than breakfast), travel insurance.

After reviewing the tour info and policies, please fill out the online tour registration form by clicking on the “Register for Workshop” button below, or at the top of the page..

We reserve the right to cancel the photo tour for any reason including low enrollment in the tour. We also reserve the right to operate the workshop with only one instructor if enrollment is lower than 6 participants