1/17/16 Levi, Finland

This magical landscape astounds me. Glittering frozen lakes. Trees covered with snow like sugar frosting. The cold squeak of snow under boots. Brutal, brutal minus 35° C cold. Lapland is the northernmost region of Finland and has just about two hours of daylight this time of year. Too cold to cross country ski, so we snowshoe through the forests. Such a harsh yet gorgeous place-I just hope we see the Aurora!

The people I'm meeting are great-very matter of fact about conditions that strike me as life and death all the time. I guess that comes from being raised up here. If it's 40° below, it's 40° below. But the beauty of their world is not lost on them at all. Despite how often they've seen the Aurora Borealis, a really spectacular display will still get them talking. They're very much in touch with the natural world because they have to be. Also very much in touch with nighttime because half the year, it's really dark. I'm shooting by moonlight and can't believe the lowlight capability of this Lumia 950. It's right at the edge of what's technologically possible. I'm stunned that we're pushing so far into that frontier with a smartphone.

1/18/16 Levi, Finland

31° below zero C! The number doesn't mean so much but wow it is cold! Eyelashes-frozen-together-feet-numbing-painful cold. But Levi is also very, very beautiful. The frozen blown snow and ice coating the forest gives it a fairytale feel. Trees dwarf us as we snowshoe between them, and the snow and cold seem to swallow all sound. This morning I put on: Long underwear, thermal tights, a thermal top, insulated over pants, a heavy down jacket, two hats, double boots, glove liners, gloves, and mittens. I wasn't cold but I wasn't warm either!

We went dogsledding and had so much fun. We climbed into the sled and these huskies just exploded through the forest. We took a path through the trees and when it opened out onto a frozen lake they really took off. We were going about 25 miles an hour, dogs barking like crazy. Their whole lives are based around speed, all they want to do is run! We even spotted a friendly arctic fox that lives up there.

1/19/16 Levi, Finland

This time of year up at 67 degrees north latitude, most of the day is night. And that's the time to search for the Aurora. Not much to report so far, but I've identified some places to go should the Aurora appear. Amazing experience early this morning. We visited a local shaman who grew up here in Lapland. After performing a ceremony, we asked if he would go out on the frozen lake with us. He said okay, but cautioned that we couldn't mess around out there because it was just too cold, more than 30° below. We all bundled up and trudged out. The clouds parted, the snow was beautiful and gentle, and with the sun just barely coming up we had absolutely perfect light. One of those times when everything all comes together. Looking at these images I can't believe what my Lumia can do. The way the camera handles information, spatial details, and lowlight is amazing.

This brutal cold is unbelievable. Ice on the road hard as concrete, nothing is slippery. The landscape traveling north is mind-blowingly beautiful. Fir trees coated in snow, sun low on the horizon, blue and orange light fusing. I really appreciate how well the Lumia 950 works in such lowlight. Since the sun never gets more than a few degrees off the horizon this far north in January, everything I'm shooting is lowlight. I really want to avoid using a tripod as much as possible. It not only gets in the way, but also robs heat from my fingertips. The Lumia's optical image stabilizers and a bright f-stop mean I can leave the tripod at home for all but the darkest photos, sparing me frostbitten fingers.

1/20/16 Levi, Finland

Tonight we had the most astounding Aurora display! I'd been checking the University of Alaska and NOAA short term Aurora forecast sites during the day, so I knew things looked promising. The day had been clear and very, very cold.

Driving home from dinner, an incredible shimmering curtain appeared across the sky. It began as a green snake moving west to east. We rushed in to bundle up in the warm clothes you have to wear here at night. The moon was 3/4 full, lighting up the snow like daytime. Rime ice and snow covered the trees. The Aurora was just amazing, blanketing the entire sky with color. It moves so fast, dancing and shimmering. Watching such a strong Aurora for the first time, I understood where legends about dragons came from—this event is very much a living thing—so dramatic. I used a four second exposure and the lights moved a lot during just those four seconds. These displays can last from a few moments to the better part of an hour depending on the electrical energy discharge from the sun and how clear it is.

The whole time I was thinking two things: This is the most incredible thing I've ever seen. And I cannot believe I am shooting it on a smartphone. The Aurora Borealis is one of the hardest things on earth to photograph and the Lumia performed perfectly. Checking the weather later, it looks like the maximum cold was minus 41° C. The tripod head was so cold it felt like touching an open flame. (Days later my fingers still hurt.) Tonight was bone chilling and fantastic and exciting all at the same time—an experience that will stay with me forever.

1/21/16 Levi, Finland to Tromsø, Norway

Today we took the long, lonely E8 road across the Arctic Circle heading to Norway. A desolate drive with almost no traffic, beautiful, cold weather, and our first look at the gorgeous Lyngen Alps. It's hard to believe how big this landscape is. A new part of the world for me, but I navigated the whole drive with no wrong turns using my map app. Even found our way into Tromsø tonight with no problems.

One reason we've come to Norway is to shoot a different kind of scenery as we continue chasing the Aurora Borealis. The fjords here are spectacular. Tromsø is the northernmost city on earth and when it's light, the quality of light is stunning. Like having sunset/sunrise light for three hours. I've shot a lot of assignments in tropical regions where good light is so fleeting. You have to work really hard because you know it's not going to last. But in the arctic I feel like beautiful light lasts forever. It's a joy.

1/22/16 Tromsø, Norway

The shockingly painful cold is a huge challenge on this assignment. It's dangerous cold. Lose-your-fingers-and-toes cold. By the time I put it all my layers to go outside, I feel like a spaceman. At 40° below zero C, the only way to protect my extremities is to over-insulate my core, so when I take off my mittens and gloves to shoot pictures, I've stored as much excess heat as possible. If I were using a large camera in this extreme cold, all that metal and weight would quickly suck a tremendous amount of heat from my body. But since the Lumia is small, it doesn't draw energy and steal heat from my fingertips. That means I can shoot longer. Initially I worried that the battery wouldn't last in such a small device in such severe cold. But I had absolutely no problem.

Weather was bad today, so my videographer John Burcham and I drove around in the rain and snow doing what photographers usually do in bad weather—we scouted locations. So much preparation goes into making a good image. True, sometimes I just roll up on something good, but more likely than not, a good image results from lots of careful prep.

1/23/16 Tromsø, Norway

Wonderful weather today with a clear, cloudless sky. We headed back to locations we scouted yesterday and one valley was so beautiful we came up with the great idea of climbing a peak by moonlight. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon and the moon was just rising as we crossed the valley. The going was harder than we'd hoped. Ice-crusted knee-deep snow. Sometimes we'd break through, sometimes not. We made our way up the slope, taking turns breaking trail. As the slope increased, the snow deepened. In the trees it was up to waist deep. Very tough climbing. We'd go through icebreaker style—throwing our bodies on top of the ice crust, then stepping onto the compacted snow.

After more than an hour I was just starting up an expanse of clear snow when the whole field settled with a distinct and loud, "Whoomph!" Not a good sound in the mountains. John and I hurried across the field and had a quick powwow. Since conditions were worse than we'd anticipated and likely to grow much more hazardous as we went higher, we decided to call off the climb and retreat as fast as we could. We were back in the valley 15 minutes later. Properly chastised by the mountain, tails between our legs, we headed across a frozen lake toward the car.

Suddenly, the sky behind where we'd been climbing began to glow green and we were treated to the most amazing Aurora display. If we'd kept climbing, we would have been facing the wrong direction and missed it entirely. Sometimes the best laid plans go wrong—and sometimes having them go wrong is for the best!

1/24/16 Tromsø, Norway

One challenge for anyone who's on the road is staying in decent shape. Even on assignments like this that are relatively active, I'll often come home and just feel physically terrible. Hotel living and odd schedules don't always agree with me. I've found that running helps. I'm mostly a cyclist, but packing a bicycle on assignment isn't realistic, so I bring a pair of running shoes. Wearing the Band fitness tracker has also become a big part of my life. It wakes me up in the morning, shows how well I slept, and tracks my runs and other activity. Microsoft health connects to my STRAVA account so my fitness friends can see what I'm up to. I get all my phone and email notifications on it too, so for me, it's become much more than a fitness tracker. It's all integrated. After a long day in the car chasing the Aurora, a three-mile run helps take the edge off.

1/25/16 Near the Lyngen Alps, Norway

One thing about 69 degrees north latitude in January: there's not much light. We headed up to a frozen waterfall with our guide Mikal just after lunch. By the time we'd hiked in and scouted locations, the sun was long gone. It was cold and snowing as I eased over the waterfall, my crampons biting into the ice, and the rope I was descending on snaking 100 feet below me. It grew so dark by the time Mikal climbed up to where I was he had to turn on his headlamp to see his ice axe placements clearly. But it was a beautiful climb in the early extended blue twilight of the far north. Through this whole assignment I've been astounded by how well the 950 handles these lighting conditions. Super dim light that would make other smartphones impossible to use are no problem for the 950. And the dynamic range! The camera easily held all the details from the white highlights in Mikal's headlamp to the shadows behind him. Most importantly, the camera recorded the scene just like my eye saw it. Of course I guess that's what I should expect from smartphone that can capture the Aurora Borealis!

1/26/16 Tromsø, Norway

It's a weird contrast to be in such remote locations, yet totally connected to the world through technology. The Microsoft devices that power these assignments are such a part of my life, I don't even think about it anymore. On this trip I have the Lumia 950, the 950 XL, and the Surface Book. I can use it as a laptop or take the screen off and write on it just the way I do on my Surface Pro tablet. The processing power is incredible. I upload images to OneDrive immediately so everything is backed up. Having all my plans, journal entries, notes, images, and maps available on every device all the time is really helpful.

2/1/16 Tromsø, Norway to Levi, Finland

A week ago, our drive from Levi to Tromsø was a clear beautiful road trip. Very different going back today. It had warmed considerably, but started to snow. In fact during the entire six-hour drive, snow kept coming harder and harder. I was driving by myself, and after leaving the fjords in Norway there were very few other cars. No contrast, just a world of total white and silence. A good way to end the trip.

Final Reflections

It's amazing to realize that not only this trip, but my entire assignment to cover the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, has come to an end. It's taken me all over the world, for almost three years, with Lumia technology evolving along the way. At first we just set out to prove that a smartphone could make great images. That's no longer a point of contention, now everyone takes it for granted. These assignments have really helped redefine what a smartphone can do. A device that sits in the palm of my hand has captured the epic Grand Canyon, Harbor of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, Victoria Falls, Paricutin Volcano, the Great Barrier Reef, and now even the Aurora Borealis. And we ended it all very much the way we began—in a car, driving across a great wide open road, chasing the next image. It's been a spectacular journey!