Friday Photo #625 – Dark Mornings

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Photo: Dark morning on Hamnøy bridge, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 31, 2020. 09:21

The darkest day of the year has now passed and the sun once gain begins its journey north and in only 5 months the midnight sun will shine all day long over Lofoten. But before that happens there is still 4 more months of northern lights filling the evening sky and hopefully many days of good skiing in March and April – once my photo workshop season finishes.

For a short while longer though, night will remain a strong presence over Lofoten. Here at 09:21 in the morning in late December it is darker than it will ever be in May. But once that first sun arrives a week into the new year, it feels like the days accelerate at an amazing speed. It is a swift transition from lazy mornings to having to set the alarm quite early to head out for sunrise – and sunsets changing from late afternoon to dinner time. Each week I wake up 30 minutes earlier to match the pace of the northward moving sun. Which by late March the decision then becomes: Get up incredibly early, or just simply stay up until sunrise and then sleep. Needless to say, though of us working as photo guides here in the far north have terrible sleep patterns!

On this New Year’s eve morning I was actually hoping to photography the full moon between the mountains in the background. But what was forecast for clear sky over Reine – looking directly up, ended up with a cloudy horizon, and thus no moon to see on this morning. I spend dozens of hours each winter standing on this bridge, but not often when it’s empty. And even though the iconic shot is too my right, I liked the contrast of the yellow lights and street against the deep blue morning sky of the Polar Night.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 100
f 9
8 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #624 – The Longest Night

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Photo: Himmeltindan rising over Storsandnes beach during the polar night, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 20, 2019. 11:38

The brightest hour on the darkest day, or there about. With a clear sky it is only a soft twilight which shines over Lofoten during the winter solstice. Tomorrow, the sun will reach its lowest point in the sky before the circle north begins again in the never ending ebb and flow of days and nights north of the arctic circle.

I don’t do well during the Polar Night – I am much more a summer person! The endless darkness feels like a smothering blanket at times. And this year’s consistently bad weather hasn’t helped – there is nothing fun about doing mechanical work on your vehicle in gale force winds and sideways rain. Fingers frozen, plastic brittle, and working by headlamp even at noon. In summer, I could work at any time of day whenever the weather improved, in winter, the moments are short and fleeting, and can be weeks in between. I actually had to drive to a friend’s house in Leknes to do some mechanical work the other week because the weather at my house and been endlessly stormy.

But when the sky does finally clear and the wind stops blowing the world can feel quite silent, almost like it is asleep. These soft, muted blue tones are all the fill the world on the northern side of the islands, with snow covered mountains rising towards the sky. These mountains that will be the first ones to greet the sun on its return to Lofoten next month. The seaside elevations will have to wait a few days longer, but eventually shadows will fall across the beaches again as well.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
32mm
ISO 64
f 11
30 Seconds
WB Daylight
6 stop ND filter

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Friday Photo #623 – Almost Night

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Photo: Clouds blow across the twilight sky from Vareid’s rocky coastline, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 14, 2021. 13:04

Lofoten is now a week into the Polar Night. But this year it might as well have started in mid November, such as the stormy weather has been. Again this week rain and wind have been shaking my house a majority of the time and many parking lots around Leknes would be better used as ice hockey rinks than something to try and walk across. And although the weather feels quite bad this year, it is still within normal – normally unpredictable and stormy.

Clouds and snow cover are the biggest determining factor for how bright the few hours of midday twilight will be. Heavy clouds and even noon will feel quite dark. Fresh snow and a clear sky and it might feel like you are in a candy coloured dream world as the land around you glows. So it is hard to describe in words what the polar night is, and perhaps it really isn’t anything beyond a time to slow down for a while. To not feel lazy that I’m not on top of a mountain at midnight waiting for sunset. A time to be content to sit in front of the computer and not constantly look what is happening in the world outside.

On this afternoon I ventured around the corner to the coastline at Vareid. In the full winter season this is a popular stretch of road and rental vans will fill every pullout each sunrise and sunset. But in December, the road is empty. I usually shoot closer to the sea, but it was a bit rough this day, so I stayed up along the road. The clouds were moving swiftly across the sky, so only a minute exposure was needed to give them a nice soft look, and to contrast with the distant mountains – and the soft sea with the rocks.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
20mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
61 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #622 – The Night Is Coming

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Photo: Early afternoon darkness as Mørketiden – The Polar Night begins, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 8, 2020. 14:20

This weekend Lofoten will see its last sunlight of the year as the Mørketid – Polar Night begins. For me, it has already been many days since I last saw the sun, as this years grey and dreary weather has maintained a strong presence over the islands: stably unstable is the current forecast for the weekend.

Stably unstable. It kind of has a nice sound to it, despite meaning that you’ll probably don’t want to spent too much time outside. This autumn and start of winter has perhaps been the longest period of consistently poor weather since I moved to Lofoten in 2016. I guess this is the payback for nice summer. I’ve been needing to do some housework which requires me to be outside in relatively calm conditions – so stuff doesn’t go flying all over my yard, and lately it is only one afternoon every couple weeks where this is possible. And despite all the hype over the coming solar maximum, I have read many reports of frustrated northern lights chasers, even up in Tromsø, which is largely suffering the same weather as Lofoten.

I’ve only photographed on 1 day in the last 3 weeks, so this photo is from a couple years back. Only 14:20 in the afternoon, you can already feel the last moments of twilight before the darkness of night arrives.

Despite the overwhelming presence of darkness in the polar night, there are some brighter moments as well. I’ve put together a new article and gallery with images from Mørketiden.

POLAR NIGHT GALLERY

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 f/4
119mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1.6 Second
WB Daylight

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