{"id":689194,"date":"2026-01-11T15:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689194\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T15:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T15:56:11","slug":"this-photographer-went-for-the-northern-lights-but-he-never-expected-to-meet-a-curious-creature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689194\/","title":{"rendered":"This Photographer Went for the Northern Lights, But He Never Expected to Meet a Curious Creature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dennis Lehtonen<\/strong>, a passionate aurora chaser, had ventured to the remote village of Kilpisj\u00e4rvi, located within the Arctic Circle, to capture the northern lights in their full glory. What he didn\u2019t expect was to find a curious animal under the glowing sky<\/strong>, turning a routine photography session into a surreal experience. This encounter sparked a series of photos that seem to breathe life into the ancient myth that the northern lights are created by a fox racing across the snowy tundra.<\/p>\n

Revontulet: The Fox Fires of Finnish Folklore<\/strong><\/p>\n

The northern lights<\/a>, those mesmerizing light displays in the Arctic skies, have inspired countless legends around the world. In Finland, they are tied to an ancient myth featuring a magical fox.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn Finnish the word for northern lights is \u201crevontulet,\u201d and it directly translates to \u201cfox fires.\u201d According to the old mythology, when it runs along the tundra, the fox\u2019s flaming tail sweeps snowflakes into the sky and the fur scratches the trees, setting the skies on fire. That is how the northern lights are created,\u201d shared the photographer in his Instagram post.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In Lehtonen\u2019s photos<\/a><\/strong>, the myth feels almost tangible as the fox, seen under the brilliant auroras, brings the story of the revontulet <\/strong>to life.<\/p>\n

\"AA curious fox watches as the northern lights dance across the Arctic sky. Credit: @astrodenniina via Instagram<\/p>\n

Dennis Lehtonen\u2019s Aurora Chase in the Arctic<\/strong><\/p>\n

The photographer moved to Kilpisj\u00e4rvi <\/a>for a year to be in the perfect location for aurora photography, drawn to the village\u2019s dark skies and frequent aurora displays. This remote spot in the Arctic Circle<\/a>, known for its stunning natural beauty, gave Lehtonen the ideal conditions to capture the northern lights in all their radiant glory.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy original reason for moving and living in this small village, Kilpisj\u00e4rvi, home to a hundred people, was my aurora hobby. I lived there for a year, but then I continued moving to Greenland,\u201dLehtonen told to Space.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, while Lehtonen set up his camera equipment on one cold night in December 2022<\/strong>, a fox <\/a>appeared and, seemingly unfazed by his presence, swiped his gloves. The animal darted off but returned a week later, only to drop the gloves with a few fingers missing. Lehtonen humorously recounted the fox\u2019s antics, saying:<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhenever I would attempt to approach it, trying to get the gloves back, it would run away, but eventually returned them with fingers missing.\u201d This cheeky interaction added an unexpected twist to his photography session.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Firefox\"A lone fox stands beneath the mesmerizing auroras. Credit: ADOP\/NASA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dennis Lehtonen, a passionate aurora chaser, had ventured to the remote village of Kilpisj\u00e4rvi, located within the Arctic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-689194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115877287433589888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}