Photographer: Nander Palma Sevilla
Model: Nala
Camera: Canon 6D Mark II - 85mm
Place: Hönkanenjärvi (Övertorneå, Sweden)
Year: December 2022

Nala is a female dog with 20% of wolf.

The picture was taken during the coldest New Years event of my life. That New Years event marked a before and after. 

I was studying a course in Swedish Lapland when I decided I wanted to stay in Lapland for Christmas since it was too pricy to go anywhere else. So I contacted few friends and out of nowhere we had a group of 5 people ready for adventure.

The idea was not to stay at our student accommodation but to challenge the real nordic winter so we decided to hire a cottage 18 away from the town. The idea did not sound too bad in the beginning and we could drive the car up to 8 km away from the cabin in the woods. The idea soon crashed as soon as we realized that we had 8 km ahead of us fully equipped with our luggages and food for 4 days.

5 people, 2 dogs and 2 sledges. It still did not sound too much until we started walking, the path we used to walk in summer and autumn was now fully covered by 40 cm of snow. 

At the beginning we attached the sledges to the dogs and try to make them pull, but only Balú was patient enough to keep pulling. Nala got easily frustrated and complained by pulling in different directions and even trying to release the leash and straps around her. We realized that even she was a lot stronger than Balú we would never be able to dominate her, she was raised free and she would not accept any slavery work, there was no group feeling, she could easily survive at those altitudes without food or water for the time we would be there. So why pulling a sledge full of useless things?

So we started to pull and push the sledge, something that really broke us from the inside and the outside, we were having spasms in the muscles, I had some knee problem that I soon noticed coming to me, after 5-6 km I barely could even walk with my own backpack.

It took us to cover around 6 hours to walk 8 km, we needed constantly pauses to have some rest and breathe, the landscape was peaceful but there were never-ending hills everywhere. I still have pain remembering this adventure.

After arriving exhausted to the cottage I must say that we had the best experiences ever, spent New Years isolated in a cottage with no water, no electricity and a wood powered sauna in front of the lake.

Nothing was automatic, no machines, everything needed to be done by hand power, since making the paths to the sauna to opening a hole in the frozen lake, the ice-layer was no thiner than 30-40 centimeters, it took us about 2 hours to open a hole big enough to fit 2-3 people. 

That trip made me realized many things, how many facilities we have in life, how easy is to get food, water, shelter, how easy to move around, to communicate, and how disconnected we truly are from real world. A real world where death is part of life.

Thanks to all the fantastic people who came with me along this journey, I think it really changed many of their mentalities too.

Thanks to David, Inka, Clara, Jennika, Nala and Balú. 

Frozen Wolf from Frozen Winter Collection


The canvas structure enhances the natural look and feel of the image. - The canvas frames are made of FSC®-certified wood. If not available, PEFC or equivalent is used. 

- Thin canvas has a 2-3 cm (0.8-1.2 inch) thick frame - Heavy canvas has a 4 cm (1.6 inch) thick frame 
- Comes in protective packaging and sturdy boxes so no damage occurs during the transport. Mounting kit included.