Photo: Flowing river below Stornappstind after a week of rain and mild temperatures, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 26, 2021.16:47

The long period of Cold and settled weather since the beginning of the year ended this week with the arrival of a series of mild and wet weather from the south. Though it is not just us on Lofoten, most of continental Europe has gone through the same shift this week – from ice skating to the first flowers of spring – although flowers are still a few months away for us up here in the north.

As I’ve already written, we’ve been lucky so far this winter on Lofoten. So, as disappointing as it is to see, it is quite common for shifts in the weather and a week of snow-melting rain to arrive. There are still more or less two months of winter lefter here, so hopefully March fills the mountains with snow and there is still planting of skiing left this season!

The river here just down the road from my house, and which I pass daily on my way to/from Leknes had been frozen solid for most of the last month. But this weeks rain and warm temperatures, up to 8˚C on Wednesday, has turned the river into a flowing torrent. Well, maybe that’s an overstatement! But even during the spring thaw, this is about as big as this small little creek ever flows. So at the moment it is both a combination of a lot of rain combined with the snowmelt.

I had actually planned for myself to take a road trip to Senja this past week. But already looking at the weather forecast last weekend, I knew it would have been a mostly pointless and unproductive trip – and it’s no fun to spend a week in my van when it’s 3-5˚C and raining all day long. There’s only so much reading I can do per day while hurried in my sleeping bag to keep warm!

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 31
f 14
0.6 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Waves flowing over frozen sand at Myrland beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 1, 2021. 14:15

I was driving home Monday afternoon as some cool looking snow clouds were passing by just out to sea to the north and catching the low afternoon sunlight. I took a few shots from up on the road, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for – though this was also partially because my 14-24mm lens has been broken for almost a year now, and the scene probably needed something in the 18-22mm range. 24mm was not quite wide enough, and 14mm was way too wide. It’s a bit frustrating when you don’t have the tools you need, but with a full year of workshops canceled thanks to Corona, and least I’m still around to complain at the moment…

Lofoten, and most of northern Norway has had a cold but dry start to 2021. But finally, on Monday, Jan 25th, the middle parts of Lofoten received about 20-30cm of snow, including my valley. Ordinarily in most years, one day of snowfall would have quickly been tracked up by all the winter photography workshops that should be here right now. So it’s always a race to get to a beach with fresh snow and enjoy it while you can.

This year, with Lofoten completely empty, I was the first person to walk down to the beach this past Monday, a full week after the snow fell! Crazy! Even Storsandnes beach down the road has remained largely footprint free as well for a week and a half now. It’s like the old days when I was sleeping in a rental car and pretty much the only photographer around in winter.

The cold of the last weeks in addition to the snow fall means the sand on the beaches can often freeze, basically turning to ice. Then when the tide come in and waves wash against it, it can form cool patterns and structures that wouldn’t otherwise exist. And then when larger waves come and crash against this frozen line, cool stuff can happen.

I spent about an hour of the beach until the light faded to blue. Myrland beach can sometimes be difficult to shoot, as the large boulders in the tide line, one of the nice things about the beach, can sometimes become distracting as well, and require careful placement within the frame – making some compositions not really ideal, compared to if the boulders were gone – and more so on days like this when the water itself is already quite dynamic.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 31
f 16
1/100 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Northern lights fill the sky over Skagsanden beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 11, 2021. 19:06

It was not even dark yet on Monday afternoon when I thought I noticed faint hints of northern lights dancing in the twilight sky. at 16:15 I took a test photo from my backyard just to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not. Nope, it was aurora! By 16:30 I was taking my first photos at Storsandnes beach. What followed was an aurora that lasted the entire night over Lofoten and probably the best show of the last two winters.

Around 18:00 the northern lights calmed down for a little while – which is normal, the northern lights often fluctuates in levels of activity/brightness throughout the night. The beach I was at wasn’t the best, as the aurora were too far overhead and towards the south, so I took the chance to relocate, this time to Skagsanden beach.

Covid has kept the tourists away, but even so, I’m always somewhat hesitant about Skagsanden these days, as it can get crowded with tripods! To my surprise, I arrived to an empty parking lot! I got down to the beach and was focusing my camera just as the sky exploded with light. I didn’t even have time to adjust my shutter speed before I was taking the first shot just to make sure my camera was in focus. Then I took a couple seconds to actually find a better composition.

This photo is from about 20 minutes later, after the aurora had calmed slightly, but still filling much of the sky. This is generally slightly easier to photograph anyhow, as the highly active aurora can be moving so fast through the sky, that it can be difficult to compose into a shot. What can also occur on active nights is that the aurora moves ‘beyond’ the location your at. I.e. If the best composition is is facing northwest to north, but the aurora moves to the west or southwest, often times then becoming obscured by mountains as well. This can often happen at several of Lofoten’s beaches – sometime the aurora is just too high in the sky to work with the location.

But luckily, this wasn’t the case on Monday and Skagsanden works well as a location for active northern lights. A car or two would occasionally pull into the parking lot, but despite my fears of seeing 20 vans show up and a line of headlamps marching across the beach in front of me, only two other photographers eventually showed up in the hour or so I was there.

Winter tourism on Lofoten has been steadily increasing since 2015 or so, to the point where it has felt busy and crowded at times in recent years – especially in the popular destinations. But this winter will be quiet – I’ve had to cancel all my winter photo tours, and I image most others have as well – Norway currently requires 10 day quarantine + a covid test on entry. So this winter will likely feel like the old days, where I could wander around and hardly ever see another tripod. If the idea of the winter crowds has been putting you off of visiting Lofoten, then this year might be the one chance you have to experience the winters as they used to be and to find yourself alone at Skagsanden beach while the northern lights dance in the sky overhead…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2000
f 2
3 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Rainy view across Nappstraumen to cloud covered peaks of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 3, 2020. 10:35

The wet and soggy weather has carried into the first days of December, and judging by the forecast, carry on throughout next week. I’ve already given up hope on seeing the sun again this year, so it will just be the slow fade into the Polar Night which begins on Monday.

Last week (Friday Photo #412) I wrote that I was expecting this November to come in several degrees above the normal average. And I was close, it ended up being 4.2˚C warmer than normal for the month. And in fact, Norway as a whole had the warmest November (but also tied with 2011) since record keeping began in 1900. And I also wasn’t crazy to complain about all the rain either, as this ended up as the 9th wettest November since 1900 as well, with Lofoten at about 150% above normal rainfall.

I’ve slowly been working away on what I’m referring to as my ‘Lofoten 365’ project. Yesterday was one of the days I needed to shoot on. Unfortunately the weather was far less than cooperative. To by benefit, the wind was blowing the rain mostly sideways, so I was able to use my van as a wind/rain block while I took photos. There is already little light or contrast at this time of year, but with low, flat clouds covering the islands, the scene seemed almost empty.

The sea was rough, but not interestingly so. So I threw on a 6 stop ND filter to get me to a 30 second exposure (I probably should have gone up to 1 minute for a smoother sea – but I was lazy) to turn the scene into soft shades of blue.

I shot another version with a large rock in the foreground, and while it adds a nice piece of contrast to the scene, I feel its almost more of a distraction than anything.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
70mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
30 seconds
WB Daylight
Breakthrough Photography 6-stop ND filter

Photo: Storm wave crashes over rocks (and me) at Storsandnes beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 5, 2020. 14:17

I walked returned to my house with completely wet shoes today. Not from the normal hiking through bog or photographing down on the beach. Today the ocean came to me, fairly high up on the rocks. This was after I’d already been completely blasted with sea spray at another location a little earlier – after which when I bumped into a friend in the supermarket, they commented that I was dripping water.

November has been off to a mild but soggy start. But last night the first big winds arrived or a series of storms which will pass over the next few days. My weather station recorded over 33 m/s wind gusts this morning, and at times, if I closed my eyes, I could have imagined I was back home in a California earthquake, my house was shaking so much.

It was tough conditions to shoot today for sure. And it wasn’t just the sea spray to content with, but frequently passing hail and heavy downpours. I really should have gone out in full waterproof gear, but the mild temperatures lulled me into a state of complacency. But more that myself, the main struggle was often keeping the camera lens clear, as every crashing wave send up clouds of mist which blew across any downwind objects – me.

With all the chaos, I still managed several decent images. This one here isn’t what I would consider the best, but it the beginning of the last wave to hit, and completely soak me (if you follow me on Instagram: @distant.north, I posted the full time lapse sequence from the location yesterday). Luckily I saw it coming and made sure to shelter my camera as best as possible. After that I was done, my feet slopping away in my soggy shoes as I walked back to my van, assisted by the wind blowing me forward…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
24mm
ISO 200
f 8
1/20 second
WB Daylight