Friday Photo #125 – Offerøykammen Winter View

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Offersoykammen in winter, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter view from summit of Offersøykammen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  January 20, 2015. 12:01

The fine weather of mid January 2015 held on for a few more days after my time guiding for Muench Photography Workshops.  After Picking up my rental car in Stamsund, I didn’t really know what else to do than go for a short hike.

There was lots of fresh snow around and my snowshoes wouldn’t arrive for a few more days, so I had to pick something easy and familiar – Offersøykammen seemed like a good fit. Luckily a couple people had gone up the route before me – it’s a popular peak with the locals – so I didn’t have to do any route finding and thus made pretty good time as I climbed towards the summit.

The winds picked up a bit as I reached the top a little before noon.  The low winter sun, barely rising over Skottind to the south cast a nice orange/pink glow across the wind carved snow of summit.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 200
f 11
1/100 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #124 – Hamnoy Winter View

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Hamnoy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Hamnøy in Winter, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  January 17, 2015.  10:06

A classic view of Hamnøy from the bridge.  This view has become one of the more popular compositions of Lofoten over the last couple years, coinciding with the growing popularity of Lofoten itself as a winter destination and the fact that many photo tours base themselves on Hamnøy, only a few minutes walk away. It seems that every time I drive across the bridge, there is a row of tripods setup.

But it is a composition that suites itself particularly well to the soft light of winter – and the more snow the better, of course.

The final image is a composite of 3 images shifted vertically with the 24mm tilt-shift lens.  I knew I wanted a vertical composition, but I don’t really like 2/3 crop vertical images much these days.  So with the tilt-shift lens, I can shoot multiple images and crop to 8×10, without losing any file size.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 125
f 9.5
25 seconds
WB Daylight
3 images – top, middle, bottom
6 stop neutral density filter

Friday Photo #123 – Olstind Winter Sunrise

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Reine Winter Sunrise, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter Sunrise over Reine, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  January 18, 2015. 12:16

Whoever advised against shooting landscape photos at high-noon had obviously never been near the arctic winter, where in the first weeks of the year, midday will provide some of the most spectacular light there is to photograph anywhere.

This image is from another one of my days guiding for Muench Photography Workshops Lofoten tour.  We had already photographed Olstind on a couple different occasions and locations, but as we were on our way to StatOil for some much needed nourishment after a morning along the coast, this light was too good not to stop.

So we popped out of the vans and spread out across the viewing platform above Reine.  I keep telling myself I have enough images of this view after nearly 20 trips to Lofoten, but then I get light light this and have to take just one more.  Perhaps it’s time I start a website dedicated only to Reine and Olstind.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
44mm
ISO 40
f 13
10 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #122 – Reine Winter Sunrise

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Reine In winter, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter sunrise over Reine, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 19, 2015.  10:33

On the final morning of my time guiding for Muench Photography Workshop’s Lofoten tour I decided to take some of the group on a short hike above Reine to get a slightly different perspective on the beautiful, but well photographed location.  The tour thus far had already experienced some of the most consistently good conditions I’ve had during winter on Lofoten, so it was worth a bit of a gamble on a bit of hiking to a single location. And it paid off.

It was one of those mornings that you didn’t want to leave. The dawn twilight was nice, the first hints of color on the horizon was nicer, and finally, the weak winter sun illuminated Olstind in a soft pink glow.  I think the guys were more than happy!

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
34mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/20 seconds
WB Daylight
3 image pano

Friday Photo #121 – Bunes Beach Winter

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Bunes beach in Winter, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter sunrise at Bunes beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 25, 2015. 07:48

Bunes beach has mostly been good to me over the last few years, and this year was no exception.  Although there is often a bit of payment required, in this case, one rainy night and one super windy night, if you are to be rewarded with some good light.

While access to Bunes is relatively strait forward, even in winter, camping is pretty much required if one wants to shoot the beach at either sunrise or sunset. After a rainy evening and night, the sky finally cleared sometime in the early morning hours.  Of course I knew this had been forecasted, otherwise I would not have been there, but one never really knows on Lofoten.

With low winter sun, the mountains first receive a highlight of pink as the sun rises on the eastern horizon.  The beach was nearly entirely covered in a layer of ice as the temperatures dropped after as the sky cleared, making the journey from camp to the waves a slightly dangerous trip – I almost decided to put on crampons at one point, to walk across a beach!

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt/shift
24mm
ISO 31
f 13
1 second
WB Daylight