Photo: November light over Himmeltindan, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 19, 2023. 12:35

The weather has changed since last weeks post (Friday Photo #567) and a nice layer of snow fell over Lofoten, like in this photo, followed by a rainy storm a few days later. So now everything is frozen in a solid layer of ice or hard compact snow, such as my driveway, so I now have to park at my neighbours barn.

I was a little too lazy on Sunday and the light caught me by surprise. I first headed down towards my beach, but a photo workshop was just leaving, so all the fresh snow was trampled with footprints. But the better light was on the distant mountains anyhow, so I walked back home and hopped in my van to head down the road, hoping the light would keep shining for a little while longer.

Luckily, I only have to go a few km down the road before I have this view across to the mountain peaks of Himmeltindan. It would have probably been a nice view from up there, and I can see some tracks if I zoom in on the hi-res version of the image. But for standing on the side of the road, this image isn’t too bad either. And having photographed this scene multiple times before, this might be some of the nicer light I have captured here.

Even though I drive this road daily, I always carry my camera with me, even if I’m just going to the supermarket, as I never quite know what might happen. And usually the rare time when I forget my camera is when I see a moose standing in the middle of the road at Tussan or Storeidet. The nice thing about this time of year, and Lofoten in general, is that the light can change so quickly. And its more of an issue during winter from my location on the northern side of the islands, where I can’t really see what the sun and light is doing on the southern side of the islands until I’ve driven down the road. And a scenic road it is to drive down!

The tricky thing with this image is that the first hill in the foreground, Verberget (233M), is much closer than the background mountains of Mannen and Himmeltindan. With fresh snowfall like here, they all look quite uniform and if a single set of mountains. But was is more common is nice light on the higher Himmeltan, while Verberget looks out of place and sort of blocks the background, especially when Himmeltind is covered in snow while Verberget is just brown. But in this image, everything is pretty well balanced as much as it can be.

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

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Nikon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6
140mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/80 Second
WB Daylight

Photo: November twilight over Himmeltindan, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 12, 2023. 15:03

Like last year, it has been a clear cold November so far – though a big storm is coming next week. I was actually thinking of posting several of the same photos this week, as I took this nearly exact same image 3 days in a row of the afternoon twilight after a cold and crisp November day.

The sun is already low on the horizon and many areas of Lofoten no longer receive direct sunlight. In this calm weather, Leknes actually sinks into a deep freeze as the cold air settles in the valley around the town, making it colder than Svolvær. Returning home from my Isle of Skye photo workshop last Friday, I had the fun task of installing the winter tires on my new tour van in quite cold temperatures for this time of year. Though that also meant my driveway was frozen solid and not the usually muddy mess when I change tires earlier in the autumn.

Despite these clear nights, and despite the forecast of an incoming solar storm, they northern lights played tricky and generally did not arrive until well after midnight, when I myself was sleeping after long days of work catchup on the computer. With both the weather and aurora forecast, I had thought about hiking out to Kvalvika beach on this night, but I’m glad I didn’t, as I would have either frozen to death or returned home, or fallen asleep had I decided to camp, well before any northern lights occurred. Even with everything looking favourable, the northern lights can still require a bit of effort and luck! More so than I was willing to contribute this past week.

Luckily for me, I’ve yet to grow tired of this view out my window. It’s actually a bit distracting at times when I need to concentrate on work – I’m currently busy working on the next update of my Seasons on Lofoten – Winter ebook, which I hope to get out in the next couple weeks, ready for next years winter season. So in these short days, it is nice to be able just to walk into my backyard, take a couple photos, and then get back to the computer work and at least feel like I’ve also done a bit of photography without having had to climb a mountain.

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

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
120mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/4 Second
WB Daylight

Photo: Deep freeze – clear, dry, and cold November weather leaving Storeidvatnet with a layer of hoarfrost, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 21, 2022. 13:52

On average, November is a cloudy, rainy, and windy month. Some years I only see a few short hours of sunlight the whole month it what can seem like an endless cloud of rain. In general, I consider November the worst month of the year on Lofoten. However, every few years the weather seems to shift dramatically and it can turn into one of the colder and drier months of winter. 2022 was one of those years, in which there was only 60mm of precipitation compared to a normal yearly average of 187mm. Actually, looking back over the last 12 month, November 2022 was the second driest month overall, after July 2023, and just squeezing ahead of April 2023 by 0.1mm.

I first noticed the November cold when I arrived at Hardstad-Evenes airport after a few weeks in Scotland. It had been a rainy October morning when I departed and now I returned to my van completely frozen in ice and -10˚c or so. It took me several minutes just to get the doors open – having to climb in from the back and then push open the doors from the inside. In my hasty departure a few weeks earlier I had also forgotten one important item – my snow/ice scraper. Even with the van running, it took me the better part of an hour before I was able to scrape the hard layer of ice off my windshield using various cards I had in my wallet, breaking several of them in the process. And so I began my drive home on the dark and icy roads.

The weather remained the same once home, cold and clear. The Leknes area, which sits in somewhat of a low valley, was particularly cold in the still air. While there was no snow on the mountain peaks, everything in the lower elevations was frozen in a thick layer of frost. I had driven past Storeidvatnet a few times to and from Leknes and thought it would make a nice foreground. Usually I like this location with a longer focal length, as it is a nice view of Himmeltindan and Ristind mountains. I think in this image, even at 25mm, the mountains get slightly lost. But I guess the image is more about the foreground any, and the mountains are just the setting. Still, I think I could have spent a little more time and probably found a stronger composition.

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

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
25mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/5 Second
WB Daylight

Photo: A November sun low on the southern horizon shine through the clouds over Nappstraumen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 9, 2020. 12:37

With the last sunset of the year and the polar night is still just over a month away, the midday sun is already perilously low over the southern horizon. And while the sun of early November is equivalent to late January and early February, the months almost feel like complete opposites. In November, I never know when I might have seen my last sun of the year before a month of twilight and darkness. While in January, there is only more light to come as the days quickly grow longer. The same but different.

As November arrives, my house, and many locations on the northern side of Lofoten will have already been in the shadows of the ‘Lofoten Wall’ for several weeks or more, where they will remain until mid February or later. The light along the southern horizon comes and goes, while the north remains in the cold shadows of mountains. Even on warmer days, the ice remains in the shadows, cold and bitter in northern winds. Only a warm spell of southern rain might thaw things out, until the next snows arrive. The weather is more chaotic now than in the old days, so who knows what will happen in the future, but the sun will remain the same – low on the southern sky.

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

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
25mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
1/30 Second
WB Daylight