Fifty Shades of Light

Fifty Shades of Light
Arctic Winter in Iceland and Ice Hotel, Jukkasjarva, Sweden
By Metty Pellicer

At nine AM it is pitch dark as the night. Imperceptibly the contours of the landscape begin to develop like the slow appearance of images on photographic paper. The ghostly faint light takes on a fluorescent luminescence as it is intensified by its reflection on the bright white snow. At ten AM the diffuse light concentrates in the southeast horizon and outlines with backlighting effect the spilled milk splatter clouds, and reveals the blue sky behind. The sun slowly peeks out of the horizon, and throws off low-lying rays that fail to burst in exuberant energy. But the rays are caught in the sky in soft shades of pink, lavender, peach, lemon yellow, and muted reds and oranges, appearing in swatches between the spilled milk splatter clouds and when it met the blue sky, magentas and eggplant shades and deep blues cool the rays further. At eleven AM the sun is just above the horizon and its rays shine on the landscape, rendered featureless by snow covering in all white, frozen lakes and rivers and mountains. There are no forests to break the white spread. The land long denuded by glacial thaw and volcanic ash and man, had given up growing trees. Briefly the oblique slant of sunlight strike against the obstacle of mountains and the rolling slope of the terrain, and it breaks into pigments, draping the landscape with a coat of many colors. Before the sun could rise any higher it began to set, and dusk entered stealthily at three PM and illuminated the scene as if by moonlight. At four PM night falls. Most days the spilled milk splatter clouds converge and block the sun completely. Light manifests as a frosted dome over the white landscape, white on white, landmarks are indistinguishable, perspective obliterated, time disorienting. It is dusk all day, but there is no mistaking the night.  
The aurora borealis will remain hidden. The magical transformation of energy, from the collision of protons and electrons with the earth's magnetosphere, into light requires a cloudless sky to make visible its spectacular display, of dancing waterfalls and undulating curtains of green, purple, red , blues and all the rainbow in between.