Reinebringen Twilight - Friday Photo #469

Friday Photo #469 – Reinebringen Twilight

Photo: Twilight moon over Kirkefjord from the summit of Reinebringen, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 30, 2020. 11:32

I generally don’t pay too much attention to the moon here on Lofoten. On this morning I should have! My first thought upon reaching the summit ridge of Reinebringen and seeing the full moon over the mountains in the twilight sky was that I should have arrived an hour or so earlier!

Lofoten’s northern latitude means that the moon has a somewhat ‘odd’ orbit, to put it simply and without going into technical details. So in general, the moon is not part of my active photography consciousness most of the time. Usually I’ll just randomly see it from time to time, and maybe it happens to be in a good location for a photo, though usually not.

In the summer, I’m quite aware of the sun’s elevation in the sky throughout the weeks around midsummer, where the sun never sets. For me, this is easier to plan for as it doesn’t move as quickly as the moon, so there is a little more of a buffer in regards to weather and other conditions, making the timing not so critical. But with the moon; there is only 1 full moon a month.

On this morning, I wish I had arrived earlier so that the full moon would have been in the centre of the mountain pass over Kirkefjord, instead of somewhat out of place on the right side of the image. In its current location I feel it doesn’t really and much to the scene, and is perhaps even a distraction.

Although had I been on Lofoten earlier, perhaps the moon would have been behind the small layer of clouds lower on the horizon. And, still being a week away from the return of the sun, it perhaps would have been more of a blue hour type light instead of the soft pink twilight. I’ll never know.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
80mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1/15 second
WB Daylight

2 replies
  1. Oleg says:

    Hey, Cody! Thank you for the detailed info about the place. I’m going to visit it in April, so in process of reading all about it. Find your blog very interesting! Thanks again.

    Regarding the photo: you could use PhotoPills app to plan your shoots with any sky objects including moon. For example in 5 minutes I realised that 30 of December 2020 the moon was exactly above the pass at about 10:50. A bit higher(3.54deg) than at 11:32(2.64deg). Precise time highly depends on your desired location.

    Reply
    • Cody says:

      Yes, PhotoPills is quite useful. It’s more that the weather and mountains mean I wont see the moon for long periods of time, so I sometimes forget it exists… 😉

      Reply

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