Friday Photo #425 – February Rain

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

Friday Photo #424 – Skagsanden Aurora

Photo: February northern lights – aurora borealis fill the sky over Skagsanden beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 15, 2021. 22:12

After a weekend of clouds over Lofoten and a high aurora activity that wasn’t visible, Monday night brought a cloudless sky and a low aurora forecast. Looking at one of the space weather websites, it was stated that the solar wind had now passed earth. And yes, at 19:00 I could already see the first glow of green in the fading twilight. This turned into an all night show, still visible at 06:00 Tuesday morning. KP 2 they said…

I began the night shooting just down the road from home at one of the my local beaches. The sky produced a couple good outbreaks during that time. But finally during a calm period, I took the chance to make the 20 minute drive to Skagsanden. The temperatures where mild and the roads slippery. I passed and slowed to check on one person crashed into the ditch on the side of the road, which were fine, but unfortunately the Nappstaumen tunnel was closed for hour long periods, so the tow truck would take a while.

Most years it can be a little risky to move from a location you have to yourself to somewhere else, which might be overly crowded and impossible to shoot from. Corona has made this year different. There are only a handful of photographers actually living on Lofoten (or even overall in Norway as a whole), so as I pulled into the parking lot at Skagsanden, there was only 1 other car there.

Lucky again, the tide was cooperating, with low tide around 22:00 or so, which is perfect condition for Skagsanden – with about 100 meters from the high tide line to the low tide area across the flat sandy beach – perfect for reflections! The upper section of the beach was actually somewhat frozen, resulting in somewhat ‘dull’ reflections, so I walked down to the tide line, gentle waves crashing over my boots and the aurora shining bright in the wet sand.

Soon after my arrival the aurora increased in activity, dancing across the sky from east to west, with lots of pink highlights among the green. Despite the moonless night, the aurora was bright enough at times for me to have a shadow. Shooting in manual in the camera, one has to take care to pay attention to exposure. When I arrived at the beach, I was shooting around 4 second exposures, but when the aurora got bright, I was even down to 0.6 second for some periods of time! KP 2 they said…

I’m probably a slightly broken record with how many times I’ve said the aurora forecast doesn’t really matter. Even with all the technology and aurora apps, etc, there is still always an aura of mystery in which you never quite know what will happen. Like Monday night, which the fantastic show was the result of the earth’s magnetic sphere allowing the slow solar wind to enter. So no need for a forecast for a X-class flare and a geomagnetic storm for an amazing night of northern lights! Sometimes it just happens…

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten – and of nights like this when it happens: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 1600
f 2
1.3 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #423 – Winter

Photo: Winter clouds hang low over mountains of Vestvågøy from Nappstraumen, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 11, 2021. 14:30

After an unusually calm and snow-less start to 2021 the weather seems to have finally shifted to more normal storminess (is that a word?) over the last week – bringing some days of wind and new snow across Lofoten. Enough so that my road was closed from an avalanche for the first time this winter – though I suspect this was more to do with the wind, as there still isn’t that much snow in the mountains.

Yesterday afternoon a wave of snow was concealing the mountains in the image. I headed outside to shoot a time lapse, as I could see that the low clouds would soon pass and the mountains would emerge again. Though I shoot this scene a lot, once I went back to collect my camera I took a few more photos, as it seemed to be looking extra-moody. Though by this time, Himmeltind had already disappeared behind the clouds again. Yet I still like the mostly empty and abstract nature of the scene.

If you head over to my Instagram account: @distant.north – you will also see what the time-lapse looked like.

Camera Info
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
48mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/40 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #422 – Beach Day

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