The Golden eagle. Beautiful, strong, majestic, iconic. A dream for many nature photographers. One of my dreams as well.
We leave from Malpensa early in the morning, Sabrina, Valerio and myself, to start our adventure in the search of the eagle. Our destination, Kalvträsk, Sweden. There we'll spend three full days with Conny who will guide us in this endeavour.
After three flights and 8 hours, after begging Lufthansa crew to let us bring the heavy camera equipment on-board, after missing our luggage that remained in Frankfurt, we finally arrive in Skelleftea, the closest airport to the little village that will be our home-base. 
There is Conny's wife, Catarina, who is so nice to have come to the airport to pick us up; we drive two hours into the forest – apart a little stop to get some supplies in Burträsk – until we get to Kalvträsk.
Not all the time will be dedicated to the eagles, because the sun sets very early and is already dark at 3:30pm, so one other goal of this trip is to photograph the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. So, despite the long journey out here, after a very good pasta dinner we are already ready to go out for some night photography. Before going, we do not know if we'll see the the Northern Lights, the activity is expected moderate, but the sky is clear and the stars are bright against the dark celestial sphere, so we are sure we will not regret this.
Two other photographers from England are here and almost ready to leave, but tonight they join the group for one last shooting session and all the 5 of us, plus Conny behind the wheel, get onto his 4-wheel drive truck, and head outside the village. Along the road it looks like we were in a Christmas winter land fairy tale: everything is frosted and sparkling in front of the car's lights. Once we get to the place, we unload our tripods and set to take pictures of the Milky Way. It's cold but bearable.
EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF17-40mm f/4L USM@22mm f/4.0 25sec ISO3200 - tripod
We start shooting at the stars but soon the sensors of our cameras start picking some green reflections over the horizon, so we concentrate our attention there. The phenomenon keeps changing, sometimes with red flashes, sometimes with vertical or horizontal light designs. The naked eye can't really see all the colors, because the activity is low, 2-3 on a scale of 9, but the powerful sensors of the cameras can record this wonderful expression of Nature.
I wish Denise could be here with me, but she could have never "survived" the cold temperature we will go through in the next few days and nights.
When the activity slows down, we decide to get back, since tomorrow we'll have to leave before dawn. Even though its intensity was not high, experiencing the Norther Lights for the first time it's been very exciting.
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