Friday Photo #716 – Autumn Reflection

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Photo: Autumn colors reflect in small pond, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 19, 2026. 16:38

The autumn color feels like it arrived a bit early this year. Luckily most of the leaves seemed to hold during the first høststorm of the season on September 13, while the moderate winds of this past week seem to be taking their toll as peak color seems to have arrived already.

This photo from last weekend was already pretty colourful. And wandering around Hagskaret the follow day, many trees were already past their prime. I won’t have much of an autumn portfolio this year as weather and work have largely kept me indoors, and any 24+ hour period of sunshine was needed for house painting – there hasn’t been much of these!

But I did manage to get away a couple times. This photo is from along Nusfjordveien, which is always a favourite autumn color location of mine in the western half of Lofoten. Even on this day though, low clouds were concealing the mountain tops, leaving me looking for a more subtle type image. Luckily the wind was calm and this small roadside pond offered a decent reflection of the colourful landscape.

The most hazardous part of the journey was navigating the unfortunately high amount of human poops just beyond the small forest along the parking area. The parking area which is a 7 minute drive from the nearest free / open 24 hour toilet at Skagsanden beach.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
101mm
ISO 100
f8
1/25 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #715 – First Storm

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Photo: Wind and waves at Unstad beach during the year’s first autumn storm, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 13, 2026. 15:07

Sunday saw the arrival of the year’s first Autumn storm – høststorm on Lofoten as a low pressure system swept across the islands bringing wind gusts near 30 m/s – 100+ kph and no shortage of sideways rain. I saw a comment from one hiker that their tent was broken during the night, and with still a lot of backers around, I’m sure a few more tents ended up in the trash bin as well.

While a little on the early side, the storm itself was not unusual for Lofoten. And there will be plenty more to follow in the coming months until the weather begins to calm again in the spring of next year.

Luckily, the wind didn’t seem to do too much damage to the autumn foliage, which is beginning to turn quite yellow by now; a little earlier than average I would say. Most likely the result of the cold and grey summer – or as my neighbour mentioned the other day, ‘What summer? It’s been autumn since June…’

Though the swell forecast wasn’t particularly high, at about 4-4.5 meters, I decided to head out to Unstad beach to take a loot around. Unstad is usually one of the better locations for storm watching in Lofoten as the west-southwest swells arrive right into the bay. The wind was blowing strong and I had to hide behind my van to take a few photos while hopelessly attempting to keep my lens dry in the blowing rain.

The light was pretty flat and boring as often is the case. Storms in Lofoten typically don’t look ’stormy.’ Just sideways rain and a flat grey sky. I didn’t stay long.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
71mm
ISO 200
f6.3
1/200 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #714 – Rocket Lauch

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Photo: Isar space agency rocket launched from Andøya glows in the sky over Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 9, 2026. 22:18

As darkness approached the low clouds which had been filling the sky over my neighbourhood cleared. I had the livestream of the launch playing on my phone as I headed a little ways down the road to what I thought would be a good vantage point. With the launch time scheduled for 22:00 in the still fading twilight, I was hoping the rocket would get a bit of upper atmospheric illumination as the booster separated. And it did!

Growing up in southern California, I’m not a stranger to rocket launches, which occurred on occasion from the airforce base a little ways north. And now, they occur with even more frequency, as it’s used as a launch site for Space X rockets, but that has only occurred in recent years.

Back in the day, I only had a few chances to shoot twilight launches, the last of which being 2002 – the photo below. Probably shot of Fuji Provia 100, I remember heading up into the mountains above town after class to photograph the sunset timed launch. Back then, everything was a bit of guesswork, but I ended up with a couple nice images. Though now of relatively poor quality by today’s standards.

So for last weekend’s launch, I more or less knew what to expect, or at least what I was hoping to see. I thought I put myself in a good location for the rocket itself to launch from behind the mountains. But I should have gone another kilometer down the road to better place the rocket’s upper atmospheric glow closer to the moon, as in this image, it feels like it’s already heading out of frame. I like the addition of the moon in the image, but it was also hard to place in the scene without also feeling too out of balance.

While not perfect, it sounds like there will be some more chances in the future, as this launch went perfectly.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 400
f4
4 Seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Twilight rocket launch from Vandenberg afb over Santa Ynez mountains, California. 2002

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Friday Photo #713 – Olstind Aurora

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Photo: September Northern Lights rise into the sky over Olstinden mountain peak, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 29, 2025. 00:43

Lofoten’s aurora season has already started for the year, though the weather has so far often been less than cooperative, offering only a few short glimpses so far. But this year, something far beyond the weather is threatening the northern lights below Olstinded in Reinefjord; plans for a new fish farm in Vorfjorden, at the base of the mountain.

One of the more difficult aspects of northern lights photography is finding a location without too much light pollution. Lofoten overall is pretty good for this, compared to Tromsø or Senja, for example, and many of Lofoten’s beaches make for ideal aurora shooting locations. In the western half of Lofoten, Reinefjord is also one of Lofoten’s better aurora locations, with little light pollution in the back of the fjord, where Olstinden rises high into the sky, making it an ideal composition.

Unfortunately though, this image may soon be a thing of the past as Moskenes municipality and Mattilsynet (food safety authority) have already given approval for a planned cod farm in Vorfjord below Olstind. Now the fish farm is waiting for the response from Nordland county.

Should it be approved, it interfere with some of the nicest views in Lofoten. And not just beside the fjord for northern lights, but also the view from Reinebringen – northern Norway’s most popular hike.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 1600
f2
6 Seconds
WB Daylight

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