Lapland photography course

Nigel Hicks Images Photography Courses

Photography in Swedish Lapland, September 2007

A week of landscape and travel photography in the far north of Sweden, led by Nigel Hicks, in and around the Laponia World Heritage Area, a spectacular natural landscape of mountains, rivers, waterfalls, lakes and marshes, a cultural landscape inhabited by the Sami people and their herds of reindeer.

Dates: 16th-23rd September 2007.

Organised in collaboration with Lapland-based travel agency Position Jokkmokk, this tour is timed to coincide with the peak of the autumn colours, a time when the forests are one huge golden blaze, the mountaintops have received their first dustings of snow, and the weather is usually at its most stable, ensuring a superb spectacle of colour and light across the stunning Laponian landscape. This tour will be for a maximum of just seven photographers, ensuring that everyone will receive close photographic tuition from Nigel. Travelling around the region by a combination of bus, boat, helicopter and hiking, we will aim to photograph some of Laponia's most stunning landscapes, such as the Rapa and Kvikkjokk deltas (the latter reached by boat, the former by helicopter across the heart of the park), the old growth birch and conifer forests near Vietas, and the all-round views from the summit of Mt Nammasj. If the opportunity arises, we will also aim to photograph the autumn round-up of the reindeer herds, most probably the corralling of the herds prior to migration to lower winter pastures (timing of this is always unpredictable and is often not confirmed until a couple of days before it happens). If good weather gives us clear nights it might also be possible to photograph the Northern Lights, which start to become prominent at this time of year.

This is a unique opportunity to experience and photograph the beauty of Swedish Lapland at its best, in the company of one of Britain's leading landscape and travel photographers.

About Laponia

The heart of Swedish Lapland, located inside the Arctic Circle, Laponia is a network of four national parks (Padjelanta, Sarek, Stora Sjöfallet and Muddus) and two nature reserves (Sjaunja and Stubba) that together were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996, the Laponia World Heritage Area. At 9400 square kilometres, this is the largest protected area in the European Union, often billed as Europe's last great wilderness. Whilst the Sami people (or the Lapps as they used to be called) would dispute that Laponia is a wilderness since they have herded their reindeer here for hundreds of years, for those coming from crowded Europe this is about as pristine a wilderness as you could hope to find. The western section consists of rugged, glaciated mountains running along the Norwegian border, cut by deep valleys and rivers, including the inland Rapa and Kvikkjokk deltas, while to the east lie lower hills, lakes, marshes, rivers and birch and coniferous forests. Wildlife both inside the protected area and in the surrounding countryside includes brown bears, wolves, wolverines, elks, lynxes, Arctic foxes, red foxes, cranes, golden eagles, ptarmigan and capercaillie, though it has to be said that the chances of seeing many of these during a short trip, especially in the autumn, are slim.

Throughout the region, about 250 Sami herders look after 35,000 reindeer, grazing them on Laponia's mountains in summer, and bringing them down to lower forest pastures near the towns of Jokkmokk and Gallivare in winter, a cycle that has gone on in this region for several hundred years.

To see more photos of Laponia on this website, click here.

To learn more about Laponia go to www.laponia.nu.

The itinerary

Since much of the heart of the Laponia World Heritage Area is extremely inaccessible, this photographic tour will concentrate on the fringes, though vehicles will allow us to get into Stora Sjöfallet and Muddus National Parks, and it is hoped that a helicopter will be able to take us to the Rapa Delta, on in Sarek National Park. Some hiking will be necessary, but this itinerary has been deliberately designed to keep it to a minimum, with the longest hike estimated at about two hours one-way.

Whilst it is still early days to have a schedule completely fixed, a provisional itinerary has been worked out, as follows:

Sunday 16th Sept:	Fly from London Heathrow to Stockholm and then onwards to Luleå. Minibus from there to Porjus, on the edge of the Laponia World Heritage Area. Accommodation will be at the Porjus Hotel.
Monday 17th Sept:	Photography in Stubba Nature Reserve, and along the nearby Jelka River, led by a local Sami guide and reindeer herder. Minibus to Vietas, inside Stora Sjöfallet National Park. Accommodation in Vietas.
Tuesday 18th Sept:	Photography in Stora Sjöfallet National Park, led by a Sami guide and reindeer herder; subjects depending on the weather. Accommodation in Vietas.
Wednesday 19th Sept:	Helicopter from Vietas to the Rapa Valley, and then hiking to the summit of Mt Skierffe (a dramatic peak on the side of the valley), with views across the Rapa Delta. Onward by helicopter to Årrenjarka on the southern fringe of Laponia. Accommodation in Årrenjarka.
Thursday 20th Sept:	Travelling by boat around the Kvikkjokk Delta, followed by a hike up Mt Nammasj for photography in its old growth forest and the stunning all-round views from its summit. Accommodation in Årrenjarka.
Friday 21st Sept:	By minibus to roadside lake and river views, such as along the Pearl River, in the Jokkmokk area, and (if time allows) a hike up Mt Jarre. A visit to the Ajtte Museum of Sami culture in Jokkmokk. Accommodation in Purkijaur, near Jokkmokk.
Saturday 22nd Sept:	This is presently a spare day, included in order to allow the itinerary to be re-arranged to allow time on any day during the trip to get to see reindeer herding, as and when the day becomes known. Accommodation in Purkijaur, near Jokkmokk.
Sunday 23rd Sept:	Return by minibus to Luleå and then flights to Stockholm and London.