Friday Photo #503 – Aurora Season

, ,

Photo: August northern lights spiral into the sky over Storsandnes beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 31, 2020. 00:50

This week it is my yearly reminder that the northern lights are not just a winter phenomenon and can already become visible in the last week of August in the sky over Lofoten.

Lofoten’s aurora season runs roughly from August 20 – April 20; so they are visible from Lofoten for 8 months of the year! For the very early and late auroras to be visible, it will typically have to be from a moderate solar storm, pushing the northern lights fully overhead or even into the southern part of the sky. Low to moderate activity needs a little longer to be visible, as the northern horizon still glows quite bring into the first weeks of September and from the first week of April.

Happy aurora season for all those coming north in the next months. The sun’s activity is still increasing over the next years, so the northern lights will be more common than previous years – it just requires the weather to cooperate!

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

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 2000
f 2
2.5 seconds
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #502 – Summer Wind

, ,

Photo: Clouds of beach sand blow across Horseid beach, Lofotodden national park, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 8, 2021. 10:02

While the weather forecast looked decent for a couple nights camping at Horseid beach, already during the early morning hours of the first night I could sense the wind picking up do to the increased shaking of my tent. By the time I emerged from my sleeping bag, it was a proper wind storm blowing across the beach. I had planned for a 2nd night, but with conditions as they were, I decided to pack up and catch the ferry home – better to return later than a potentially broken tent.

August is typically my favourite month for camping on Lofoten, as the nights are finally long enough that carrying a tent makes sense. Otherwise, in June and July when I will typically be shooting the late night hours anyhow, I can just head home when I’m finished and enjoy the comfort of my bed – as well as a lighter backpack! But in August, the headlamp and tent begin to be carried more often.

Still technically summer and having checked the weather forecast, one still always needs to be observant of conditions and adjust plans accordingly. For this scene, it wasn’t just the wind that led me call my trip a day short, but also that the large clouds of sand that you can see in the center of the image were blowing right across the camping areas of Horseid, leaving everything covered in a fine dusting of sand. Walking back into the wind was also a struggle, and I kept to the right side of the beach to avoid as much blowing stand as possible, but it was still there, stinging eyes and skin for the 1km walk across the beach.

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

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-200mm f/4-6.3
24mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/640 second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #501 – Rainbow Season

, ,

Photo: Partial rainbow over distant mountains of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 5, 2022. 16:22

Like last year, this year has also been a cool and wet July and beginning of August on Lofoten, with July receiving almost 2x the normal amount of rainfall. Though this isn’t too bad, considering areas along the Helgeland coast have had the wettest summer since 1900! I’ve been attempting to make a few trips over to Helgeland throughout the summer, but the long term forecasts simply show near endless rain most of the time.

The wet weather has also led to a significant number of mountain rescues so far this summer, including the death of a young hiker on Reinebringen in June (the second death on Reinebringen in a 6 month period, the previous being in December 2021). The trails of Lofoten, especially the popular ones which are over-eroded and generally unmaintained are in pretty terrible condition due to all the mud. Even whin the sun briefly shines, I’ve mostly been sticking to quiet, untraveled areas that are mostly off-trail, as its far safer than muddy, slippery trails where it is easy to have a quick slip and end up with a sprained ankle or worse.

Fortunately, with the rain comes rainbows. This day last week was full of them and I was quite distracted from work while always looking out the window. It would have been a nice day for mountains views and a good soaking, but a strong south wind was blowing across the islands, so better to keep to low ground. Luckily, my office window still has a decent enough view!

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

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-200mm f/4-6.3
48mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/320 second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

New eBook – Lofoten Islands Northern Light

Northern Light - Lofoten Islands

I’m happy to announce the publication of my 8th eBook: Lofoten Islands | Northern Light

This ebook is my first portfolio only publication – a collection of 365 images taken on each calendar day of the year. With images from July 2001 to July 2022, it is a journey back over the past 20 years of my travels, and then life, between Lofoten’s mountains and sea.

I’ve always had an interest in the relationship between time and place in my photography, preferring to return to a few set of locations over and over vs. constantly looking for new destinations to visit. The initial idea for some sort of ́year on Lofoten project goes back to the mid 2000’s as I began to travel to Lofoten more frequently and I had the idea of some sort of book following the seasons over the year. Perhaps it is no coincidence that my first photo guide about Lofoten published in 2015 is titled: Seasons On Lofoten – Winter. Yet, slowly the idea of a grand work covering the entire year was lost.

It wasn’t until the year of Corona that some sort of year long project entered my mind again. Now having lived four years on Lofoten, I thought I must be close to having photographed on every calendar day of the year. So in late summer 2020 I reviewed my Lofoten portfolio to find out how close I actually was.

Available now as a PDF eBook, 384 pages, 380 images, 135mb download, $10

Lofoten Islands | Northern Light

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #500 – Sunset Season

, ,

Photo: August sunset over Myrland beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 3, 2020. 22:41

While the midnight sun of June and early July is simply a nice time for life on Lofoten, the real photography season of summer begins once the sun starts to fall below the northern horizon in the second half of July. The days are still endlessly long and the first visible stars are some weeks away, but now with the sun just barely below the horizon, the sunset – sunrise nights begin.

The most important factor though, is for the weather to cooperate. The best condition are for the northern horizon to be clear with moderate cloud cover over Lofoten. If the opposite occurs, a marine layer along the northern horizon and clear sky over Lofoten, the light simply fades out into a dull twilight. Luckily, I live facing directly north over the open sea, so even if all of Lofoten looks otherwise grey and gloomy, I can see what might occur once the sun hits the horizon.

Unfortunately, its not always that easy to plan in the ever changing weather and often times I head up into the mountains on nights which the light simply fades out. While other days, I think the weather looks terrible and then suddenly the sky catches on fire. At least I have a small beach I can quickly run down to to at least capture something. Though I think I probably have too many sunsets (and northern lights) from here now, so sometimes I’m even more lazy these days and just watch from my window. I guess I’m spoiled!

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

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 31
f 11
1/4 second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by