Friday Photo #76 – Utakleiv Beach Winter

Photo: Dusting of snow covers Utakleiv beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  February 9, 2014.  11:41

Walking out of the hostel in the early morning hours it was an unexpected surprise to find a light dusting of snow had fallen overnight; an otherwise rare event during my previous 9 days on Lofoten thus far.  We chased the promise of a nice sunrise to another location, which failed to appear, before making our way towards Haukland and Utakleiv.  Being a Sunday, I was eager to get to the beaches before the snow was filled with footprints from other photographers and locals on their afternoon walks – do you know how much damage a single dog can do to an otherwise pristine beach?  Some might say, ‘just photoshop out the footprints.’  But I don’t agree with that.  Better to come back another day and try again.

With luck, and it being nearly noon, no one had thus far decided to walk along Utakleiv beach, or at least not the majority of it.  So I was pleasantly surprised to come across some untouched sections of beach to photograph.

Had there been no snow on the beach, I probably would not have taken this image.  The light is quite flat and I already have a decent collection of images from Utakleiv that I’ve taken over the years.  But with a little snow, I had the opportunity to produce something somewhat new in the otherwise familiar setting.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 13
13 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom