In Lapland, reindeer add a twist to the usual fall colors

THE Traveler: Jim Heidelberg of Golden Valley.

The scene: Reindeer roam on a farm near Ivalo, Lapland.

The trip: "My wife and I were on an organized tour which took us in mid-September to Lapland and a couple nights in Ivalo, Finland, well north of the Arctic Circle. Northern Finland looks much like places in northern Minnesota with lakes, birch trees and wonderful autumn color — but it adds reindeer," Heidelberg wrote in an e-mail. His trip included a six-day cruise on the Norwegian Hurtigruten line followed by a few days in Lapland. There, he learned from locals "how they enjoy foraging for berries and mushrooms in the short summer, hunting moose, snowmobiling and living through two months of no sun in the winter." He added that a visit to the Siida Museum is a treat. "It offers well-done displays of natural habitat showing monthly daylight amounts, temperatures, animal behaviors and plant life through the year."

Getting the shot: Heidelberg used a Canon EOS Rebel T7i with a Tamron 18-400mm zoom lens, though he was close to the animals and didn't need to zoom far. "I waited for several of them to walk among the trees with the fall colors behind them," he wrote.

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