Friday Photo #660 – A Glimpse Of Light

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Photo: A faint midnight aurora over glowing horizon of late August, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 29, 2025. 00:10

After weeks of clouds, rain, and wind this August, last finally showed a weather forecast for a cloudless sky. The aurora season has already started here on Lofoten and so I was optimistic for my first shots of the season. while the northern horizon still glows bright at this time of year, the hours around midnight to two am are sufficiently dark for any moderate aurora activity to be visible, especially if it heads in a more southernly direction. And so I kept a close watch out the window has the evening hours progressed.

Around 23:30 I saw a first faint glow of green over the mountains of Himmeltindan and so I grabbed my camera and headed down to the beach. I actually drove down instead of the 2 minute walk, because I was hoping I’d eventually drive elsewhere as the night progressed. But it didn’t

The faint soon disappeared. Though that is being generous, as it was barely visible anyhow. From time to time, a little green would brighten here and there, mostly keeping low to the glowing northern horizon. I stayed on the beach until well after midnight until I decided it wasn’t going to be my night and went home – though still keeping an eye out the window for a little while longer.

Had this been April, I wouldn’t have even bothered going out. But for my first aurora of the season, I guess I need to put in a little bit of effort, even if that effort is just standing on an empty beach for an hour.

The weather still looks good for the next days, so maybe tonight or tomorrow I’ll have a little more luck, and a better picture to post for next week.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 640
f2.2
2.5 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #659 – Aurora Season

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Photo: September northern lights – aurora borealis rise into sky over Myrland beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 2, 2024. 00:41

I had been hoping this week’s photo would be of my first northern lights of the season. After weeks of rain and cloudy skies, some clear skies were finally in the forecast last night and so I was optimistic for an early season aurora photo. But as the sky darkened near midnight, it was aided by a giant cloud that seemed to sit over my valley until after 01:00. I could see elsewhere on Lofoten some northern lights were spotted, but it wouldn’t be so for me. And with rain returning this afternoon and throughout the weekend, it will probably be some days before I spot my first green in the sky.

And so, this week’s image is my first aurora from last year, taken on the early morning hours of September 2. This is actually somewhat late for my first aurora of the season, but last year was a rainy autumn as well, which this year seems on track to repeat, unfortunately.

And realistically, while the northern lights become visible from Lofoten starting around August 16/17 at the earliest, the sky is still too bright for much photography and the aurora will mostly only be visible higher in the sky. By the first days of September though, the northern horizon has faded into a deep amber glow with sufficient darkness for the aurora to be visible from the horizon.

It might not be something people think about, but early season auroras actually become visible further south at first – assuming sufficient solar activity, and work their way north. This is because, at the moment, the sky is simply darker at 65˚N than 68˚N. The further north sky won’t pass the darkness of the southern sky until the autumnal equinox, at which point the high north becomes darker, eventually reaching the polar night north of the Arctic Circle.

For example, The Lofoten Islands, at 68˚N have a slightly longer aurora season than Tromsø which is at 69˚N. Tromsø’s sky stays brighter longer in the late summer, and gets brighter earlier in the early spring.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2000
f2
6 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #658 – The Wind Trees

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Photo: Mountain birch tree on Haugheia overlooking Nappstraumen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 14, 2025. 14:38

The weather has shifted and it feels like autumn is in the air. Last week I was down along the Helgeland coastline for a bit of a road trip and while the weather started off nice – too hot even – for a hike up Rødøyløva, it quickly deteriorated to wind and rain for much of the remained of the trip. I had planned to go to some mountain areas closer to the Swedish border as well, but it was evident that I would just get wet without much reward for photography. And so I headed back to Lofoten, where it is still rainy and windy, and looks to be so for the foreseeable future. I hope this year is not a repeat of last year.

With autumn around the corner and after a fairly lazy summer without much hiking, long overdue house projects had priority on any sunny days, it is time to get my legs moving again in preparation for planned autumn hiking season over in Sweden. Though this year I must say I don’t have too much motivation as I don’t currently have any ebook hiking projects underway. So I probably just go somewhere easy and hike for a week or so, and hopefully not the entire time in the rain.

Haugheia (hiking guide here), which I pass on the way to Leknes is my usual stop when I need to go for an hour walk just to get some movement in for the day. While most of the views are nothing too interesting, especially if I’m up there in grey-ish weather, the small grove of wind-twisted mountain birch trees on the western side is always an area I like to photograph. So even if just for a bit of exercise, I still always carry my camera just in case.

This tree here used to be part of one of my favourite compositions in the area – see Friday Photo #408. Unfortunately, the tree you see lying in the foreground also used to be part of the composition, but has since fallen in one of Lofoten’s many winter storms. It is a windy place up there along the ridgeline, which is what makes the trees what they are.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120 f/4
48mm
ISO 100
f5.6
1/320 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #657 – The Flow of Fog

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Photo: Summer sea fog flows around the summit of Olstinden as seen from Reinebringen, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. July 19, 2019. 20:32

This summer, like most summers had some foggy days on the Yttersia of Lofoten once the sun finally came out in July and the temperature rose over 20˚c. On several occasions I was taken by surprise on an otherwise sunny start to the day as the fog rolled in and interfered with bbq and beach day plans – its not really fun to sit outside in a cold, grey mist. One should always be weary of a north wind on a warm summer day.

Since I can’t move my house, I’m generally stuck on the foggy side of Lofoten. But on many occasions I saw camper vans and motorhomes camped along my road on these grey, dreary days. I wonder if they knew that just driving a few kilometres to the south side of Lofoten, they’s have full sunshine and a nice summer day. That it where I would go at least.

In this photo, taken on an August evening from Reinebringen, you can see the fog flowing in from the left and swirling around Olstinden. This was quite a strong layer of fog, as you can see it flowing over 600-700 meter mountains in the background. But even then, Reine village – out of frame to the bottom right, remained fog free. So being in the right or wrong location on these days can make a big difference.

If you are hiking, being in the mountains is usually the right location, as being above the fog in the evening light is one of the coolest experiences in my opinion, especially photographically. And I think using long-ish exposures to capture the flow of the fog works better than shorter shutter speeds, at least in situations like this where the sun is out of frame. In the 30 seconds of this exposure, you can see the flow of the fog as it attempts to reach Reine.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
62mm
ISO 100
f10
30 Seconds
WB Daylight
10 stop Neutral Density filter

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Friday Photo #656 – Curlew Twilight

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Photo: Curlew in July midnight twilight, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. July, 21, 2025. 23:53

I haven’t had much luck with the Arctic Skuas in my neighbourhood this year. I have seen them flying directly over my house on several occasions in the last weeks, but anytime I head out to the moorlands to take a look, just silence… Silence from the Arctic Skuas at least, but the neighbourhood is still alive with life for the next few weeks as various types of young fledgling chicks gain strength for their long migrations south.

The curlew parents fly around in an attempt to distract you from their chicks, which sit absolutely still in the bushy heather attempting to remain unseen. The young chick from the curlew in this image happened to be just along the side of the trail as I was passing by. Had I been a hungry fox, it would have been an easy meal. But I was more interested in getting a nice shot of the parent, as it was obvious I wasn’t having any luck with the Skuas on this evening.

With the sun soon setting combined with a layer of fog out to sea, it was getting dark-ish for wildlife photography at midnight. The curlew was often in front of mountains and other vegetation most of the time as it flew around and landed on various small outcroppings. This was too dark and pushed my ISO up to 25600 at times. It wasn’t until it finally landed in an area overlooking the sea where I could get more light from the brighter open background and distant mountains. I could also drop my shutter speed a little as well as the bird luckily remained still for long enough to get a few shots.

The following morning as I was walking to the shower, two of the Arctic Skuas flew right outside my bathroom window… Perhaps I should just sit on the toilet for my future wildlife photography attempts.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 180-600mm f/536-6.3
300mm
ISO 2800
f6.3
1/640 Second
WB Daylight

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