With solar activity predicted to intensify over the next few years, it's a good time to head north in search of the northern lights. I traveled to northern Lapland in mid month to lead a small group of photographers for Aurora Hunters and walked into a deep freeze with temperatures plummeting below minus 30 degrees Centigrade - the coldest Ive ever had to endure. Wrapped up with eight layers and almost every bit of flesh covered I ventured out of the vehicle into the frigid air on spotting a faint glow of green in the night sky. I started taking a few shots on one side of the road but then noticed more interesting patterns forming opposite me. The Aurora was quite faint, and to the naked eye only green light was clearly visible. But the long exposure of 30 seconds revealed the much more unusual red coloured light formed when charged particles from the sun enter our atmosphere and collide with nitrogen (the green colours are emitted from collisions with oxygen). Half an hour of shooting and my extremities were freezing up and making it difficult to operate the camera. In the short time the camera had been exposed to these low temperatures it had become very cold and bringing it back into the warm air caused a layer of frost to form on all its surfaces almost instantly turning it completely white!