Probably half the families in the region have a variation of those photographs. I didn’t grow up in the vicinity, and even though I was aware of lake Vuoksa, I’ve never been there until 2015.
For some reason, most of its beauty can only be captured in twilight; three out of four of those shots I made between 4 and 5 in the morning, before, during and just after the sunrise.
It is usually very calm in the early hours of the day. Even when we got pinned down by what can only be described as a storm on an island during the day, we were able to escape and made it to the mainland at about half past four in the morning. Paddling on mirror calm water and witnessing the Sun rising felt out of this world. Four hours sleep the night before helped to sustain the feeling.