Photo: Soft winter twilight the mountain peaks of Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 19, 2020. 16:46

This image is a prologue to last week’s post: Friday Photo #372.

There is always a bit of a balance of how much waiting around one wants to do if heading out to the mountains for northern lights without camping. Do you go up early, shoot sunset, and then wait around some undetermined amount of time in the cold and dark for the aurora to show up later in the evening. Or do you just head up sometime after dark – assuming you know the route, and give yourself a shorter wait.

On this day I did a bit of both. It was the first clear and calm day I can remember so far this winter. I hadn’t quite decided where I was going when I left my house in the late afternoon, only that it would be something around the Fredvang area. As I crossed the twin bridges, the mountains of Flakstad were glowing in the warm afternoon light. As I continued into Selfjord there were multiple places I would have liked to stop, as the reflections were perfect! But I had no time, unfortunately.

As I pulled into the parking area for my hike, I kicked myself for not leaving even 30 minutes earlier. And I had actually planned to leave a little later, but finished my projects for the day ahead of schedule. As I put on my crampons I headed up the flat ridgeline through the snow, racing the last sunlight quickly disappearing from the distant mountain peaks. I was too late.

Soon though, a cold winter twilight began to take over the landscape. I knew I would have a decent viewpoint a little higher up the ridge, so now it became another race. Would the twilight last long enough for me to arrive? Luckily it did! And the result is that I did not come away from the evening completely empty handed – waiting for northern lights that never appeared…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
48mm
ISO 100
f 10
.3 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Forecast: Clear sky and KP5 northern lights. Reality… Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 19, 2020. 19:15

Finally, after endless weeks (months really) of near constant clouds over Lofoten there was a forecast for clear sky on Wednesday night which also happened to coincide with KP5 aurora. Those that have read these posts for a while know that I’m skeptical of both. However, as Tuesday nights aurora was quite good – that of which I could see between the waves of clouds – I decided to be optimistic and take a hike, literally.

As late afternoon passed I hit the road for my destination, half way up Kitind with a view over the west side of Kvalvika beach. The light was fantastic and the sky perfectly clear. I kicked myself for not heading up earlier in the day and not being able to catch sunset, but at least I got some fantastic twilight glow half way up to my destination.

I slightly misjudged where I wanted to shoot from, which was past one final steep 100 meters of ridgeline. But in the fading light, I decided just to stay at a place that was good enough. A smart decision it would later turnout. And so around 17:00 in the fading light I pulled out my sleeping pad and had a cold dinner of Bunnpris pasta salad while waiting for that KP5 aurora to show up.

It never did. What did arrive was clouds. And then more clouds. I could see some clear spots in the sky at times, but the area north, which I needed to be clear, remained almost constantly cloudy. So I waited and waited a bit more. Some test shots showed a hit of green, but nothing more.

A little after 19:00 I used the last batter power on my phone to check the radar, a big wave of snow was due my way in around 30 minutes. Ikke bra!

Normally, under such circumstances I would have camped and weather would have been less of an issue. But as I had to drive to Svolvær relatively early Thursday morning, camping wasn’t an option. I might have already used this as an excuse to not even hike at all, but at the moment Lofoten is completely crowded with photographers, so the only way to be alone is to go up.

Not wanting to hike down with zero visibility and not have my tracks to follow, I made a quick descent off the mountain – much easier than the way up though the deep snow! The sky was fully overcast and a light snow falling when I finally reached my van. Driving home I could see most of the pull out spots filled with cars, patiently waiting for that clear sky and KP5.

It never came. Sometime after midnight, long after I had gone to bed, I could see on one of the webcams that there was some aurora activity into the late morning hours, but nothing worth (for me) waiting up that late for, but I’m sure many did – the benefit of being on holiday…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2500
f 2
8 seconds
WB Daylight

I’m finally happy to announce that the 4th edition of Seasons on Lofoten – Winter is now available!

Seasons on Lofoten – Winter

I originally started on the update shortly after Christmas and was hoping to have finished before my first photo workshop of the year began in mid January. However what I thought was just going to be a minor update with some new information and a couple more articles turned into a massive project taking me several months to complete.

The result is a 287 page ebook guide all about photographing Lofoten in winter. A new 33 location detailed destination guide now include clickable gps coordinates linked to google maps so you can navigate directly to the locations with ease.

The new price for the ebook is $21. For those of you that have purchased any of the previous editions, keep on eye on your email account as you will receive a free update to this 4th edition.

Photo: Rocks and ocean, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 13, 2020. 12:49

It has been a grey winter this year. So far, half way into February, I’ve seen the sun four times. Ikke bra! (as one would say in Norwegian). I’ve maybe missed it a couple other times as when not guiding I’m almost entirely stuck behind the computer trying to get the 4th edition of Seasons On Lofoten – Winter ebook finally published. But anything I missed would have only been short moments of light between the seemingly ever preset clouds of 2020.

This week will be a short post. All my brain power is on book editing and design. Frankly, I’m exhausted. What was just meant to be a small updated to some info turned into an additional 130+ pages and images for a new detailed destination guide section in what is basically an entirely new ebook. And, since I’m not the best businessperson in the world, all this work will be a free update for anyone who’s bought the previous editions, even going back to first edition for $5 in 2015 – The new version will be $18, just FYI. This project has been a burden on me since Christmas, so I’m looking for it to be finished soon! Hopefully by this weekend – something I’ve said since mid January…

And yet, as much as I want to be finished, I want it to be good. So even yesterday and today I’ve been out photographing a couple locations to be included in the destination guide, having had to wait for the right conditions – which this year means, ‘not rain.’

This image is one of the new photos from yesterday, taken on a quiet section of Flakstadøy. To find out more, you’ll have to get the 4th edition of the ebook. 🙂

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
40mm
ISO 100
f 10
8 seconds
WB Daylight
6 Stop ND filter

Photo: Heavy grey sky over Flakstadøy, Vareid, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 24, 2020. 14:15

I only saw the sun twice in January this year – Once on Lofoten and once on Senja. The rest of the time the sky has mostly been filled with heavy clouds so far this year. Though last Friday there was a fantastic pink sunrise, I just couldn’t get anywhere before the light was gone. But overall, it has been a wet and grey start to the year – almost complete opposite to least year which had fantastic light much of the time.

A few days before this photo I was driving by and saw a photographer get completely soaked by a huge wave and the on shore north wind. I decided against stopping there with my group, as an ocean shower didn’t seem like the best welcome to Lofoten on their first day. But later in the week the weather calmed slightly and it was ok to shoot without killing cameras or getting washed to sea. The light was flat with heavy snow approaching in the distance – but at least it was snow! As the forecast had called for rain much of the week.

Initially I had been shooting a shorter exposure to capture the crashing waves. But as the sea was a bit too stormy, the image felt too busy to me – too much white of the water in the foreground, just chaos. So I stuck on a 6 stop ND filter and tried something longer. It lost the energy of the sea, but produced a slightly more abstract look to the foreground which seemed to work better with the flat grey light of the day.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
24mm
ISO 64
f 11
30 seconds
WB Daylight
6 stop ND filter