Skagsanden Reflection | Friday Photo #720

Photo: Mountain reflections on Skagsanden beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 9, 2026. 17:38

Low tide at Skagsanden beach is more or less a guarantee of reflections. High tide, on the other hand, often sees the beach looking quite dirty, with clumps of washed up seaweed, footprints, and just an unkempt look in general. So the same beach can be quite different in appearance over the course of a few hours between tides.

The original plan for this evening was to be at the beach for a hopefully good night of aurora. That aurora was a little late, showing up the following evening (Friday Photo #719). But as I was headed there anyhow I thought I might as well include a sunset as well. Especially since I was optimistically hoping that the northern lights would show up just after dark anyhow – they didn’t.

The partially cloudy sky cast shadows over the mountains as the sun fell closer to the horizon. There were some small clouds over the mountains, so I tried out a bit of a long exposure to see if there would be much effect on them. There wasn’t too much, but the 90 seconds did soften up the cloud on the right side of the image, which otherwise felt a bit heavy so close to the edge of the frame.

Overall, this is just a simple, classic image from Skagsanden – if you go at low tide!

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
26mm
ISO 32
f8
90 Seconds
WB Daylight
10 Stop ND Filter