Friday Photo #369 – Polar Stratospheric Clouds

Photo: Polar Stratospheric clouds in the sky over Lofoten. January 24, 2020. 10:13

Lofoten and Norway have have multiple displays of Polar Strastopheric clouds this January. But until last week, I was never in a situation to photograph them as I was usually just driving somewhere without my camera. But as the winter photo workshop season has begun for me – back home from the first tour of the year with Muench Workshops – I’m out with my camera almost daily now for the next two months.

This was the last morning with our group in the Reine area. We hiked up the hill on Toppøy for the overlook over Sakrisøy on the first day of mostly clear sky of the trip. Most of the group had their cameras pointed towards Olstind and Sakrisøy, but as I’ve shot that scene dozens of times, I pointed in the opposite direction; south, towards the Polar Stratospheric clouds. While conditions weren’t perfect, I finally got a photo of them.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 f/4
155mm
ISO 100
f 5
1/1250 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #368 – First Sun

Photo: Skottind rises over Ballstad in the soft January twilight, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 18, 2020. 13:35

And just like that, after weeks of bad weather, the sun returned to Lofoten both on Saturday and Sunday. Though this didn’t last long and by Sunday night 30 m/s winds were shaking my house again as another low pressure system swept over the islands.

Waking up Saturday I could see blue sky overhead. I wasn’t sure where to go, my original idea had to been to head west and hike something on Flakstadøy, but as soon as I drove around the corner to Napp I could see a fair amount of clouds in that direction. I could also see there was a layer of cloud low on the southern horizon that was blocking the sun.

The weather was still the nicest it had been in weeks, and so with little expectations I headed for an easy hike up Ballstadheia as at least the mountains were covered in a nice layer of snow. Getting higher up the mountain I could see the cloud layer was thiner to the west and there might be a chance that the sun would get out of it before setting. And eventually it did.

The sun is still low on the horizon and the light soft, but I saw my shadow for the first time in 6 weeks! Actually I had to struggle with a few shots as the shadows of my tripod legs interrupted several compositions I was attempting. Nothing too complain too much about though!

I also wanted to show this winder image so you could see that while the mountains have snow, the low ground remains almost completely snow free in west Lofoten. It is such a fine balance of only a few degrees here between a complete white winter wonderland landscape or a brown and soggy one. Just 2-3 degrees cooler and we’d be skiing in epic powder with all the precipitation we’ve had in the last month.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 14-24 f/2.8
14mm
ISO 100
f 13
1/10 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #367 – Are You Visible?

Photo: Are you invisible or visible when standing on the roads? Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 15, 2020. 16:41

The weather continues to be mostly terrible here on Lofoten, but I’ve been out and about the last week attempting to shoot some missing images for the winter ebook update (coming by the end of the month hopefully!). I can already notice the roads getting a little busier with rental cars as and have bumped into a few tour groups as the first photographers of the winter season are beginning to arrive. And especially in this horrible weather and darkness, visibility is an issue!

Photographers like to dress in black. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s merely that the shops only carry winter gear in dark colors, or maybe some nationalities dress different than other. But there are a lot of photography Ninja’s standing on the roads of Lofoten during winter.

If you’ve ever been here, you’ll notice nearly all the locals utilise some variety of reflective clothing when out on their evening walks – and even during the day at this time of year where it’s still quite dark. And trust me, as someone who drives here year round, it really makes a difference! I’m glad I can see the people when they’re walking.

In the last years, some of the rental car companies and rorbuer have begun placing hi-vis vests in the cars and cabins. And hopefully the trend continues. And I’ll admit that I myself am not always so good at this either, especially during tour season when I spend a lot of time near the roads.

For the winter ebook update I’m starting to write a little more about safety, especially on the roads, as I witness a lot of dangerous behaviour during the winter season. One of the sections will be about this, visibility.

The other night during a pause in the rain I went down the road to try shoot a photo to illustrate the difference. I stood on the left dressed in all black and on the right I changed into brighter clothing and a hi-vis vest. The image is lit from my vans headlights. I merged the two photos together to illustrate the difference. And what a difference it is!

So now imagine someone is photographing the northern lights in the middle of the road – which happens a lot! There’s a car coming, the passenger is pointing at the sky and telling the driver to hurry up as the lights are amazing. The driver is looking at the gps trying to see how far away the beach is. The photographer is focused on the northern lights and doesn’t really notice the car coming. Which person is the driver hopefully going to see standing in the middle of the road?

Visibility is safety for everyone here in winter…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
45mm
ISO 800
f 7.1
.4 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #366 – Stortind Sunrise

Photo: Winter dawn over Stortind, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 21, 2019. 08:06

It is something from the archives today. Lofoten has had a stormy start to 2020, and not in a good way. I went to Uttakleiv today to try and shoot something, but was bombarded by hail within a few minutes of my arrival. I bought myself one of those home weather stations for Christmas – the other night it recorded over 35 meter/second wind casts – that’s over hurricane speed winds! No wonder I didn’t sleep much as my house was making sounds I’ve never heard before.

My head is also a bit short of words this week. Originally I had planned to release a new hiking eBook for the 140km Padjelanta trail in north Sweden. But as hiking season is still months away, an no one, even in Sweden, has heard of the Padjelantaleden anyhow, I put it on pause. Instead I’ve been focusing on a new update for the Seasons on Lofoten – Winter Ebook.

But I’m afraid I got a little ambitious! The update will add somewhere around 130 pages, 100 images, and 15,000 words. I’ve spent about 100 hours so far in front of the computer since the new year, with plenty more to go, to try and get it out before my winter tour season kicks in – I should have a tour now, but no one booked it – one cheapest winter photo tours offered on Lofoten, you could have had it for yourself… 🙂

So at least I have another week to work on the eBook, but it will be tight. And as the update is free, even if you bought the original eBook for $5 in 2015, I don’t want to kill myself for what is basically volunteer work on my behalf – especially since the current edition is already fine, and probably the best photo guide to Lofoten anyhow. But it will soon be better!

In the process of the the new eBook update I’ve had to dig through my archives a bit to find some locations that I photograph on occasion but never seem to publish images from – something of a problem when you live in a place that you photograph so often. I have so many images that I’ve shot, yet don’t have the time to edit, so they just sit there. But in the new update I’ve needed some images from specific locations, so it’s good to look through the archives from the past couple winters.

This image was one of those ‘5 minutes of light’ sunrises. It went from grey, to pink on the mountain, back to grey within a few short minutes. There was no time to move to a new location, I just had to shoot what I could see. Luckily I was on the frozen ice at Flakstadpollen when the first pink on the summit of Stortind appeared. It wasn’t the best composition ever, but at least it was something.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
56mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/10 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #365 – January Storm

Photo: New year, new storms – Lofoten enters 2020 with a blast of wind over Nappstraumen, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 2, 2020. 13:38

What was a somewhat calm New Year’s eve on Lofoten has turned into a series of passing storms in the first few days of the new decade with local ferries canceled and even the Hurtigruten coastal ship holding fast and port and skipping Lofoten. And the winds will still continue tonight and into Saturday, so hold fast.

It was eerily warm yesterday in much of Norway, and down south in one of the fjords it was 19˚C or so, a new heat record for winter. Up here it was a little cooler, but still a mild 9˚C with a heavy sideways rain and house shaking wind casts. I could see the wild ocean outside my kitchen window, so once the heaviest of the rain passed, I headed out to the coast to see if I could manage anything.

Not trusting the weather, I actually drove about 400 meters down the road to a pullout. The wind was even more brutal there and shook my van like it was a boat at sea as I attempted to park, then wait for a calm moment to open the door. The wind and rain came in waves and I did my best to scramble down onto some rocks and find a place to sit, which was difficult enough – standing was impossible.

With the polar night ending this weekend, it was still quite dark in mid afternoon with the sky dark and grey. I did my best to steady myself and my camera, but it was more or less impossible – and this image if of questionable sharpness. It is hard to capture the real fury of the wind in a still image. Especially since the best time to shoot is when the cast winds hit and rise the sea into a tempest. Then it’s a fight between steadying yourself, keeping the tripod from falling over, and shooting an image – which basically means pressing the shutter button with a rough idea of what might come out.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
56mm
ISO 1000
f 3.2
1/200 second
WB Daylight