Picture of the day - July 18, 2007

"Downtown" Ny Alesund

Photo courtesy of Lee Brown. Today's picture features the "downtown" section of Ny Alesund, a tiny community where the summers are cold and the winters are downright frigid. Although it was founded in 1916 as a coal mining town, Ny Alesund found new life in the late 1960's as an arctic research base. The following is photographer Lee Brown's story behind the image: "Ny Alesund is a VERY small town on Spitzbergen in the Norwegian Svalbard peninsular... At just shy of Latitude 79N it's about as close as you can get to the North Pole (just over 600 miles) without mounting your own expedition! It is the world's northernmost permanent settlement, boasting a population of about 200 in the summer and about 60 in the winter, most of whom are dedicated to the research that's carried out there; mainly weather based... (Global warming & all that) This shot was taken on June 14, 2007 on an exceedingly rare, and very lucky for us, glorious day. The camera equipment and settings used were: Canon EOS400D / ISO200 / 1/400s / f/8 / 35mm bare : 56mm equiv. Post-processing work was slight adjustment to Shadows/Highlights, with a tad of Saturation and Unsharp Mask applied." Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!            Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"