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Friday Photo #630 – Hamnøy Bridge Crowds

Photo: Photographers stand shoulder to shoulder on Hamnøy bridge during sunrise, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 12, 2024. 08:43

With February arriving tomorrow Lofoten’s winter photography workshop season will be kicking into high gear. Over the next two months thousands of photographers will stand shoulder to shoulder on this bridge, rain or shine, sunrise or sunset, dancing aurora or full blizzard. Sometimes I think to myself that there is probably at least 1 photographer on the bridge 24/7. And no doubt with my first tour of the year having just started, I’ll spend many hours on this bridge myself over the months.

The Lofoten locals themselves will record many videos of the crowds as they pass over the bridge and a few of the more crowded days will get posted to the local facebook groups, gaining a slew of comments about all the crazy things tourists do on Lofoten’s roads. And so far this winter the roads have been a wrecking house for rental cars – worse than I have ever seen with multiple daily crashes becoming a regular occurrence, unfortunately.

And this bridge can be a dangerous location as too many people are disrespectful and ignorant of the fact that they are standing on the side of a road, the E10, Lofoten’s main highway and the route many of the winter fish take from the islands towards the ferry at Moskenes. Many times myself, I find I’m having to play traffic cop for oblivious tourists standing in the middle of the road, hood scrunched over their face as a snow plow, bus, or truck heavy with fish is heading down the icy bridge towards them. And then the honking and yelling from the drivers begin…

So, as with every year, please be respectful when visiting Lofoten this winter. It is in fact, not Disneyland. It is a place where thousands of people live and work, and would like to be able to safely drive the roads to do so.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
23mm
ISO 320
f 2.6
1/80 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #629 – Midday Shadows

Photo: Noon winter sun casts long shadows over icy shoreline at Nappstraumen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 24, 2025. 12:23

Lofoten hasn’t had much sun this year. Well, Lofoten hasn’t have much sun since last August. But today finally arrived to a fully clear sky and bright sun for everyone to enjoy – at least those on the south facing side of Lofoten. For those of us on the north side, it will still be some weeks or months until the sun is high enough in the sky to shine over our houses.

I had originally written a different article for today, mostly about the frequent changing weather so far this year – from deep snow to heavy rain and flooding to freezing and Icy – which is Lofoten’s current state until next week when it warms up and rains again. But with such a wonderful day, I thought a sunny photo would be nicer.

My original plan had been to shoot a photo at 12:00 noon, mostly to illustrate now low in the sky the sun still is right now, 3 weeks after it first rose again after the Polar Night. But heading out my door in what I though was plenty of time for a short drive down the road, I didn’t realize my van was frozen solid like a rock – even the doors had trouble opening. I guess it must have rained after I returned home yesterday and frozen overnight. So what I thought would be a short drive down the road first turned into 10+ minutes of me scraping ice off my windshield so I could drive. (Remember, in Norway you always need to have clean windows, being in a rush is no excuse)

As I arrived at my planned location just 5 km down the road, I could see my delay caused me to miss my originally planned shooting location as the sun was already emerging too far from behind the mountain. This led me to have to climb up a small icy hill to get the sun back in a better position in relation to the mountain. But again, it wasn’t quite perfect – at least for me planning to have a photo taken directly at 12:00. I probably missed the shot my 1-2 minutes.

Not being satisfied, this led me to drive over to the other side of Nappstraumen, where I’d then have a 2nd chance for the sun emerging from the mountain – although by this time, I’d obviously lost my planning for a shot at 12:00 noon.

Luckily the shoreline was well frozen and a number of small icy ponds were around to attempt to use as a foreground. I always find this a slightly difficult location as it’s full of potential but difficult to find a composition that works well.

Once the sun was a little higher into the sky I noticed the nice shadows being cast from the small rocks in the ponds. So instead of using the end of the pond as a foreground, I put my camera almost all the way down on the ice and looked for what I could come up with. I shot a few different variations and think this one probably came out the best – my 3rd attempt for this weeks photo…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
17mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/100 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #628 – Stormy Sea

Photo: Lofoten Sjark – fishing boat heading to sea in stormy winter weather, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 28, 2022. 11:34

A thousand years before the oil was discovered, tørrfisk – air-dried cod from Lofoten was already one of Norway’s most important exports, and that importance continues to this day in keeping the livelihood of Lofoten. But now day, its not men in wool suits and row boats braving the cold winter waters, but modern boats, able to do the work of a hundred men. But the winter weather is still the same and on days like this photo, it is not an easy task to be at sea.

It is mostly coincidence that cod migrate from the far north to spawn in the waters around Lofoten during winter, which happens to be the best conditions for air-drying the fish in the cold and windy Lofoten climate. Too cold and the fish will freeze before drying. Too warm or not enough wind and the fish will spoil. Lofoten is the balance of all the elements.

January is still early in the fishing season most years, so many of the wooden drying racks – hjell – you will see around are probably still empty. And many of the racks, particularly around rorbuer cabins are no longer in use today: partly due to the smell annoying tourists staying in the cabins, but mostly do to moving to larger, more industrial sized areas where tractors can be driven underneath to hoist up the buckets of fish – which are then still hung by hand.

Weather can also have a big effect on each year’s catch. Many days like this photo and it will probably be a long and difficult winter for many fishermen. On clear and calm nights, you can see the lights of the boats filling the horizon as they pull in their catch below the dancing northern lights. I hope this winter brings good fishing for those at sea and good aurora to my guests over the next two months.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6
500mm
ISO 1250
f 5.6
1/640 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #627 – Northern Lights

Photo: Northern lights and moonlit mountains over Vik beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 24, 2019. 00:13

The media hype around this year’s solar maximum and, ‘OMG!!! Best time in 10 years to see northern lights!’ No doubt means Lofoten will be busier than ever this coming winter season. But I’ll tell you a little secret – there are always northern lights on Lofoten, and most anywhere in the aurora oval. Some periods may be more quiet that other, such as January 2024, which otherwise should have been very active, but that has as much to do with the earth’s magnetic field, as it does with the activity from the sun. And of course the biggest factor for Lofoten, the weather!

If you had been to Lofoten during the previous months, then you’ll mostly have been disappointed with your northern lights chasing, as there has been a near continuous cloudy sky and stormy weather over most of northern Norway. No matter how active the sun is, if you can’t see the sky, then you cant see the northern lights. On my own, I usually only go out under ideal conditions the days, as so far that has only been a handful of nights this season.

But the good news is! There is no on-off switch for the northern lights. They will be here next year, the year after, and many years to come.

Here is an old photo from January 2019, during the solar minimum when the sun was supposed to relatively inactive. And yet here is an aurora filled sky over moonlit mountain peaks. And I have dozens of similar nights each year for the last decade. So don’t worry, the northern lights aren’t going to be ‘over’ if you don’t visit the north this year. Next year will be fine as well, and all the years into the future…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2000
f 1.8
1.3 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #626 – Twilight Moon

Photo: Moon in twilight sky over Skolmen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 3, 2023. 11:19

Welcome to 2025! When I first registered 68north.com in 2010 as a small portfolio for my growing collection of travel images from Lofoten, I never imagined what the journey over the next 15 years would have been. Nor did I image when I first started writing these Friday Photo posts over 10 years ago that I would still be here writing one every week. The world is a lot different today than it was then, especially the world of travel, photography, and information.

In some ways I still have one foot in that old world. I still don’t use a gps when hiking, I’m not that into video and social media, I’ve never put any advertising or sponsored content (other than my own products) on this website, and I’m still writing blog posts. With the growing presence of AI in both imagery and words, perhaps a hand written site like this is more important than ever. Even if no one reads blogs anymore amongst the increasing supply of fantasy depicted as reality. At least the information is here should anyone come searching for it.

And a new year means the days are getting brighter as the Polar Night is quickly coming to an end. Weather permitting, it might be possible to see the first half of the sun tomorrow as it floats across the southern horizon. That said, these first days are the year as still quite short. Here, a waxing gibbous moon is just about to pass over Skolmen mountain in the distance.

Opposite of the midnight sun, there is the midday moon during winter here in Lofoten. Whereas in ’normal’ latitudes, a full moon will rise opposite of sunset. When sunset doesn’t occur, and the sun is below the horizon in the south, the moon can be above the horizon at noon towards the north – 180˚ opposite the sun.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
330mm
ISO 200
f 5.3
1/40 Second
WB Daylight

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