Friday Photo #664 – First Snow

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Photo: A dusting of autumn snow on the distant Himmeltindan in evening twilight, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 23, 2025. 18:30

Monday’s autumnal equinox brought the official start of autumn in the the northern hemisphere and already by Tuesday morning a dusting of snow had arrived to the higher mountains of Lofoten. a brief moment of cold in what has otherwise been a rather mild, if not hot, September on Lofoten this year, with multiple days over 20˚c. And even the forecast for the weekend is showing 15˚c and sunny skies. Winter is not here yet!

On Tuesday I waited until it looked like the rain had mostly cleared up before wandering down to my beach just for a photo or two. The weather radar over Lofoten had been down, so unfortunately, weather forecasting at the moment is not as easy as normal, and the passing rain showers are just a guessing game. This is probably going to lead to some wet clients in next week’s photo workshop here on Lofoten.

Despite a fair amount of winder of the last week, I was pleasantly surprised to find the beach seaweed-free. The waves were crashing nicely around the rocks and normally I shoot here with a wider angle. But since I was hoping to be able to see the snow on the mountain summits, as little as there was remaining by the early evening, I shot a little longer to give a little more emphasis on the distant mountains. I also wanted to take away emphasis on the water itself, so I decided a long exposure would be better than trying to capture any movement of the waves, which didn’t look particularly interesting at this focal length anyhow. So a 30 second exposure to smooth the water seemed best, which also helped blur the moving clouds as well. I probably could have gone with an even long exposure, but I was simply too lazy to do so…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
54mm
ISO 100
f7.1
30 Seconds
WB Daylight
10 Stop Neutral Density Filter

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Friday Photo #663 – Reinebringen Aurora

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Photo: Northern lights over Reine from Reinebringen, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 27, 2020. 22:32

The Midnight sun season on Lofoten often gets the recognition for insomnia and sleepless nights among visitors. But once the sun sets in the north, the sleepless nights continue, but for a different reason: Northern Lights. If I actually think about it, being a photographer in Lofoten means pretty terrible sleep patterns throughout the year – and mostly just staying up quite late, regardless of if it’s winter or summer.

On this particular evening, all the date was looking promising for a decent aurora and so I decided to head to Reine and hike up Reinebringen. I’ve made several unsuccessful attempts over the years, but at least with the Sherpa stairs having been mostly completed by this point in 2020, the mountain was much easier to ascend/descend in the darkness – and now that the stairs are fully completed, its even easier.

As evening progressed and I could see the first aurora, I could also see a lay of clouds approaching. And while I was able to get some ok compositions, the clouds eventually came in and blocked out the best of the evening’s aurora.

Compositionally, it is also quite a difficult location for northern lights, especially when they are in the more easter and southern part of the sky. I would have perhaps been better with a slightly less active aurora closer to the horizon so I could look more north. In the case of this image though, it is two images, a lower and an upper, both at 14mm, to get both the city and the northern lights in the image. A single image alone would not have worked under these conditions and I would have missed too much of the sky or foreground.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2000
f2
2 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #662 – Solbjørnvatn

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Photo: Autumn rain showers passing over Solbjørnvatnet, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 3, 2021. 16:44

This afternoon didn’t start out as rainy as this as I was wandering round the hilly landscape on the southern side of Solbjørnvatnet on Moskenesøy. I was semi-planning to hike Narvtiden on this afternoon but as I gained a little more elevation, it became quite clear that the weather was going to shift, not the best time to be on the steep and exposed trail to the summit. And so I hid in a small cave I found and waited out the worst of the rain.

Eventually the heaviest of the showers began to break up and beams of sunlight shined through the clouds. While often wish there would be a little less rain during Lofoten’s autumn – mainly for better northern lights – the autumn rain does make for much more dramatic landscapes and light than what typically occurs in summer.

And so I returned to my van quite soggy after this afternoon.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-200-f/4-6.3
37mm
ISO 100
f/8
1/1000 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #661 – Mountain Light

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Photo: Beam of light shines from behind Breiflogtind, Lofotodden National Park, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 9, 2020. 21:51

There are many days in which I wish I could instantly teleport to several different mountain tops at once. This sunset was one of those moments. I wouldn’t even have needed to go far, just to one of the mountains you can see here, or perhaps the summit of Smeden, which is out of frame on the right, but would have a fantastic view towards the twin-peaked mountain, Breiflogtinden.

But I was on the other side of Kirkefjord, in steep and trail-less terrain, and camp already setup for the night. So I wasn’t going to get far on this evening. There were also some nice compositions in my vicinity, but had I known the rainy day was going to turn into this sunset, I would have chosen to go elsewhere…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
70mm
ISO 100
f6.3
1/60 Second
WB Daylight

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