Friday Photo #443 – Sun Is Back

Photo: Mountain peaks of Flakstadøy reflect in small tidal pool, Vareid, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 30, 2021. 23:13

The midnight sun returned to Lofoten last night after an absence of several weeks. Not that the sun has set below the horizon, that is still a few weeks away, rather, Lofoten has been almost constantly covered with a lay of low, grey clouds for almost all of the 2nd half of June. Not unusual in any way, but also not ideal.

But finally, the sun is on the forecast and the temperatures will return to more summer-like levels (at least for us up here) for the better part of next week. For me, that means returning to the mountains again after a several week absence – I just can’t find the motivation at the moment to go hike out in the clouds. I haven’t done much camping yet this summer, so perhaps it’s time to pull out the tent before a bit before the July crowds arrive.

Wednesday I found myself driving around in circles, going all the way to Reine to chase what looked like interesting clouds, though I never found a decent composition. I almost thought about just hiking up Reinebringen, but was a little on the lazy side for that, and the parking lot was already more or less full anyhow. So I began my slow drive back home.

As I passed Ramberg, the sun first emerged from behind a layer of clouds. The first sunlight I’d seen in a while. The beach quickly filled with people, probably also wondering where the sun had been thus far on their summer holiday. Continuing east on my way home, I could see more and more sunlight shining across the landscape. I headed out towards Vikten, but then stopped when I saw the tidal pools near Vareid, knowing I could at least get a decent shot for the day.

I’ve shot this composition several times, and it’s nothing too special. I probably should have setup my tripod and focus-stacked the image so that the foreground rocks would be in focus. Instead I just held the camera low over the water for the fullest reflection and just focused on the mountains. It sometimes seems in landscape photography these days that everything needs to be sharp, but I don’t mind non-essential parts of a composition to be out of focus.

Or maybe I’m just lazy. Which I wish I knew of ahead of time so I didn’t have to drive all the way to Reine, when the day’s photo was just 10 minutes from my house.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-200 f/4-6.3
49mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1/100 second
WB Daylight