Friday Photo #185 – Kvalvika Midnight

Photo: Midnight sun shines over Kvalvika beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. July 4, 2016. 23:28

Having hiked two mountains over the previous days during my Midnight Mountains photo workshop in early July, and with high winds and low clouds over the mountains, conditions lead us to a more relaxing evening at Kvalvika beach.

Arriving around 21:00, we had a couple hours to photograph the golden light shining across the bay before tired legs lead us to a nice place on the grass to rest and soak up the sun’s warmth. However, as time passes, one needs to relocate further west across the beach as the cliffs of Ryten cast the beach in Shadow.

Finally, near midnight, with the sun low on the horizon, the light is just about to leave the main beach as it hangs low over the sea in the northern sky. Wanting to get a little movement out of the sea (and not having any ND filters available for my 14-24mm lens), I stopped down to f18 to get just a bit of blur on the incoming waves.

In dynamic situations like this, I was bracketing between 2 exposures ( – 2/3 for sky), just to make sure I had all the info on my sensor to edit once home. And with the dynamic nature of the waves, it is best to overshoot as it is difficult to know exactly how things will end up – edit and delete once the light is gone. Every minute or so I would have to relocate my position as the sun disappeared behind the mountain until it was finally gone from the beach.

And of course, at a location like this, don’t forget to turn around and shoot what the sun is illuminating. Maybe that will be next weeks photo.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 50
f 18
0.3 second
WB Daylight