Friday Photo #181 – Hestraeva

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Hestraeva - Lofoten Islands

Photo: Five minutes till midnight on the summit of Hestræva, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 5, 2016. 23:55

The summer solstice has now passed us and the sun will once again begins its journey south. However, here on Lofoten, we have several more weeks of the midnight sun until it once again sinks below the horizon in mid July. The term Midnight sun, while romantic sounding, isn’t quite accurate. While the sun is above the horizon at midnight, the lowest point isn’t until near 01:00, and it remains well above the horizon even then. Summer on Lofoten is a sun that never sets.

This image is from a few weeks back in early June while spending a still evening on the summit of Hestræva. A light layer of cloud was hovering over the northern horizon, casting a soft, golden sunlight as the sun grew low on the horizon.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
38mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/30 second
WB Daylight

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New Photo Gallery – Winter 2016

Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Ytresand beach winter sunrise, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February, 2016.

Just in time for midsummer, I have added my winter 2016 image gallery to the site.

– VIEW THE GALLERY HERE –

If you like what you see, and want to join me next year, take a look at my Lofoten Photo Tours page.

For stock image licensing, you can view the full winter 2016 photo gallery in my Photoshelter Archive – 100 images from February and March, 2016.

I occasionally get requests for prints, unfortunately though, I am not offering prints at the moment for any of my images.

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Friday Photo #180 – Munken

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Friday Photo 180 - Munken

Photo: View over Fjerddalsvatnet towards Munken, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 10, 2016. 23:31

Friday saw me joining some others on an exploration hike to Støvla on Moskenesøy. We reached a high point around 750 but being off route and with substantial amounts of snow covering the high country, we turned around late in the evening – no worries about darkness in June though!

Descending towards a good spot to camp we found the correct route towards the mountain. However, snow conditions above made the route overly dangerous, so we didn’t continue on.

Spring and early summer is one of the most dangerous periods on Lofoten as the mountains begins to thaw out and substantial amounts of snow and rockfall can suddenly occur – often unseen from somewhere above.

In this image, you can see the large chunks of snow and ice on the slabby rocks in the foreground, which had fallen off the mountain in recent days/weeks. And on the popular peak of Munken, rising on the opposite side of lake Fjerddalsvatnet, you can still see a large amount of snow covering portions of the hiking route.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 200
f 13
1/60 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #179 – Ytresand Midnight

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Midnight Sun, Ytresand, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Midnight sky, Ytresand beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 30, 2016. 24:02

Since moving to Lofoten in March I have been receiving a lot of emails about what the current conditions on the Islands are and is so and so mountain okay to hike. Unfortunately, living on Lofoten still means I have to work, which mostly involves me sitting at the computer 14-16 hours a day. However, when the weather is nice, I do my best to make some time to get out and explore.

I think for the summer I will experiment with a bit of a change in the Friday Photo series. Instead of being a more or less ‘best of,’ I will try and keep the photos as recent as possible, so that you can see how the islands are looking over the last few weeks. Of course, being Lofoten, this can only be so accurate; I was in a t-shirt last week, while there is cold temperatures and fresh snow over the last couple days. But as summer progresses, I should hopefully show the general trend of what the Islands are looking like.

So, first up is midnight at Ytresand for a week ago. The midnight sun arrives on Lofoten in late May, and now the Islands are under 24 hour sunlight until mid July. I was surprised to come across 2 vans of a photo workshop at the beach – something which is rare outside of winter. But luckily, they seemed to be wandering mostly aimlessly across the beach, leaving me with this composition to myself. A layer of clouds was low on the horizon, softening the sun as it hung low on the horizon, yet the sky still had a nice glow and with no wind and low tide at Ytresand, this reflection worked out nicely.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
35mm
ISO 100
f 13
1/16 second
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom

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Lofoten Ultra-Trail 2016

Lofoten Ultra-Trail 2016

Photo: Lofoten Ultra-Trail race leaders passing Selfjord, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 3, 2016

Today was the first Lofoten Ultra-Trail race running 100 miles (160 km) from Kirkefjord in the west to Svolvær in the east – crossing some of Lofoten’s most wild and isolated terrain. Organized by Arctic Triple, it is the first of a series of races occuring on Lofoten in the coming year.

I had originally planned to head up into the mountains above Horseid beach to catch the action there, but after a week + of calm, sunny weather, the forecast had deteriorated for the start of the race. My backup plan was for a shorter hike to the trail above Kvalvika beach. But as hale and sleet battered my window in the morning, I finally relented to the easy option of catching the runners as they passed Selfjord, and then again as the lead groups passed the Fredvang bridges. Bad timing with the weather unfortunately, as today is the worst day in weeks. So it goes here in the north.

Lofoten Ultra-Trail 2016

Photo: Lofoten Ultra-Trail race runner passing Selfjord, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 3, 2016

 

Lofoten Ultra-Trail 2016

Photo: Lofoten Ultra-Trail race female leader passing Selfjord, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 3, 2016

 

Lofoten Ultra-Trail 2016

Photo: Lofoten Ultra-Trail race runners passing Selfjord, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 3, 2016

 

Lofoten Ultra-Trail 2016

Photo: Lofoten Ultra-Trail race leaders passing Fredvang bridges, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 3, 2016

 

Lofoten Ultra-Trail 2016

Photo: Lofoten Ultra-Trail race runner heading into Skjelfjord, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 3, 2016

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Friday Photo #178 – Volandstind

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Volandstind, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Spring hike on Volandstind, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 31, 2016. 14:03

The midnight sun has arrived in the north with the snow is melting fast while the spread of green creeps higher and higher up the mountains. There have been some fantastic summer days in May thus far, and I’ve already complained of the heat on more than one occasion. Perhaps I didn’t more far enough north! 😉

But with summer just around the corner, it is now my time to head into the mountains over the next months and start gathering the data and photos for the next series of hiking guides and ebooks. And now that I’m getting more settled in to life on the islands, I’m finally beginning to realize that I don’t need to rush. There will be another sunny day and the sun won’t set for 6 more weeks.

Heading up Volandstind the other day the weather was a bit wild. Layers of cloud were spinning across the mountains and fjords – with the actual summit of Volandstind just in the cloud, unfortunately. However, the route up was mostly cloud free, which provided a spectacular overview across the surrounding, surreal looking landscape.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
28mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
1/600 seconds
WB Daylight

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