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Friday Photo #676 – Sea Eagle

Photo: White-Tail Sea Eagle picks up fish from fjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 5, 2025. 13:33

In some of my recent photo workshops we are beginning to introduce more activities than just landscape and northern lights photography. The sea eagle safaris out of Svolvær are one of those activities. And as I still consider myself a beginner wildlife photographer, this is probably as much fun for me as for the clients. And much better than standing around on the Hamnøy bridge at sunrise for the XXth time over the previous two months.

And when I say I’m a beginner, look below at my camera info to see that I made some big mistakes with this image. f/18, ouch!!! I could actually see over the sequence of images where my operate got stopped down. The combination of a small rib boat with relatively tight quarters, stormy weather, thick gloves, etc, probably all lead me to accidentally moving the aperture wheel. And in the excitement, it was sometime until I finally noticed and opened the aperature back up to where it should be for a dark winter day on Lofoten. But I used up the best light while still at f/18. Lesson learned for next year.

Luckily though, the denoise option with Adobe camera raw works wonders these days. So even this ISO 12,800 image turned out pretty decent in the end. Leaving me not too depressed with my mistake…

*For transparency, the boat drivers throw fish to the eagles, so this is not a fully wild image.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6
165mm
ISO 12800
f18
1/2000 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #675 – Hamnøy Dawn

Photo: Glowing winter dawn over Hamnøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 2, 2025. 07:54

This was one of those winter mornings on Lofoten where it feels like the sky is glowing from within itself. Even a photo doesn’t do justice to the light as you really need to be there, surrounded by it all – the same way no photo can ever show the experience of a dancing northern lights. I rarely photograph from the Hamnøy bridge these days, but on this morning I wanted to remember a bit of the atmosphere from the light.

Otherwise… While there are many places across Lofoten in which calm conditions are usually preferred, such as the other nearby location of Reinehalsen. For Hamnøy, I actually prefer a little more stormy and wild conditions, particularly for the sea and the rocks in the foreground. And even more so when it is low tide, such as this image.

The light on this morning was fantastic, and if you only have the option to visit Lofoten for a week, I would consider this a pretty decent image from Hamnøy. But for myself, I know the foreground, with that just overly large rock, not contributing much to the composition, could have been much better. I’m sure I’ll stand in this exact same spot for many hours over the coming months, so I won’t have lack of opportunities for this Lofoten classic…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
16mm
ISO 100
f6.3
15 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #674 – Fullmoon Aurora

Photo: Northern lights – Aurora Borealis illuminate the sky before a full moon, Skreda, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 14, 2025. 21:04

By now Lofoten’s northern lights season is almost half way over for the year: roughly August 20 – April 20. The bulk of my images will be be shot during my winter photo workshop season from late January to late March. On this evening, my group and already had a few hours of somewhat faint, but colourful aurora at Vik beach, just over the hill from our accommodation at Skreda. It was a cold night afternoon an already long day, so it was an early evening to be back to the cabins by 21:00.

Walking out onto the balcony of my cabin, there was still a nice green arch of aurora shining across the southern sky. The sea was calm and I actually liked the addition of the lights shining on the distant shore. And the nearly full moon added a little depth to the scene. Not the usual snowy mountains or beaches of my typical northern lights photos from Lofoten, but I like this image in a bit more of an abstract way – even more so as I was only 10 meter from my bed.

I still read online quite often the misinformation about not being able to see the northern lights with a full moon. This is absolutely false, as you can see here in this image. Yes, a full moon will reduce the visibility of a very faint aurora that you can already barely see with your eyes. But for any aurora worth photographing at least, the moon doesn’t make too much of a difference, and in fact, often aids in the overall image quality by illuminating the landscape and allowing for lower ISO and shutter speeds.

My main dislike of a full moon comes not from its direct interference with the visibility of the northern lights themselves, but more of what to do with it as a compositional element. In this image, I think the mood adds to the overall scene. But sometimes, the moon just doesn’t fit with where the aurora are in the sky and it’s in some awkward part of your preferred composition. Or, with the moon high overhead, it can cast your own shadow onto the foreground of the scene, leaving you struggling to find a foreground to the image. These are mostly critiques about composition, and not the full moon interfering with the visibility of the northern lights themselves.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
16mm
ISO 2000
f4
3 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #673 – Rorbu Sunset

Photo: December Rorbu sunset, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 1, 2023. 13:08

As Lofoten waits for the arrival of winter’s polar night, the little remaining sunlight may often glow bright on the southern horizon. But what looks like a nice colourful sunset in the above image, was only a small portion of the overall scene.

The following image is the overall scene I was presented with the moment I took the above image. It was a nice and calm December afternoon, but already by 13:00 the light of the day was beginning to fade. Standing in the same position and simply zooming in to 120mm provided an entirely different appearance and atmosphere to the moment.

So is one image more realistic than the other, both taken from the same location only 30 seconds apart. Was it a bright colourful sunset over snow covered cabins? Or was it just a glowing horizon surrounded by a world of blues and greys? Or perhaps both at the same time?

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
120mm
ISO 100
f10
1/30 Second
WB Daylight

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
24mm
ISO 100
f10
1/30 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #672 – Moose Crossing

Photo: Car quickly breaks as moose crosses E10 at Storeide west of Leknes, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 17, 2025. 9:21

With the whole of Lofoten covered in a nice layer of winter snow, while I myself am stuck at home fighting off a cold instead of perhaps my first ski trip of the season, its time for my annual winter driving post.

Winter Driving on Lofoten

Already, the local newspaper, Lofotposten, has been full of ‘bil i grofta,’ ‘car in a ditch’ articles since the roads got icy last week. And with moderate to heavy snowfall over the last days, the pace of the articles has increased to multiple incidents per day. Yesterday, there was even a headline out of a Tromsø newspaper: (tow truck driver) Pulled the same Chinese couple out of the ditch 7 times in one week. If you are renting a car on Lofoten this winter, I highly suggest getting the full insurance packages, as it is getting very dangerous on the roads these days with drivers who should be nowhere near a car in winter.

The main winter driving hazards on Lofoten these days will be:

Your own driving abilities – Especially if you are new to driving in snow.

Other tourists – Anything from inexperienced drivers driving in the middle/left side of the road (very common), turning the completely wrong way on roads/roundabouts, randomly stopping in the middle of the road, driving on sidewalks, and basically anything else you can imagine. Learn how to recognise other rental cars, as they will be one of your biggest hazards while driving on Lofoten.

Weather – There will be days where you NEED to stay in your rorbu or hotel. Do not put yourself or others at risk, not to see anything but blowing snow anyhow.

Wildlife – Moose are common in the mid and eastern areas of Lofoten, and even more so into Vesterålen and Ofoten. numerous moose vs. car crashes happen every winter. Avoid driving at night when possible.

In this week’s photo I was on my way to drop-off clients at the airport in Leknes when I spotted a family of moose on the side of the road up ahead. Luckily I was right next to the large pullout at Storeide and so I had a safe place to stop – Never stop in the middle of the road! I rushed to put on my telephoto lens as fast as I could before hopefully trying to walk somewhere for a better angle. But before I even got the door to my van shut I could see the large bull moose heading up towards the road, right into traffic. And so I shot a series of images the best I could from my distance. The best composition was unfortunately blocked by a passing car heading towards me. At least this was a decent image to talk about winter driving on Lofoten in this week’s article.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6
400mm
ISO 1250
f5.6
1/1600 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #671 – Eggum Waves

Photo: Misty waves crash along the Eggum coastline, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 2, 2025. 12:06

This was one of those days where the weather isn’t quite as bad as the forecast predicts. After a late night shooting aurora the previous evening, the forecast of a rainy day wasn’t too unwelcome as a bit of rest was needed. But, despite the dreary, grey sky, the rain was mostly staying further out to sea, and so we headed to the sea.

I don’t often take groups to Eggum, as it can be a tricky place to photograph and is highly dependent on what weather and light you arrive to. But with a moderate size swell still hitting Lofoten and the dark sky, I thought it could be a good place for some atmospheric seascapes along the rocky coastline.

I initially started out on the rocky part of the pay just out of frame on the right side of the image, and shooting towards my position here and the mountains behind me. But it wasn’t quite working for me. I wanted to be up higher, and shoot across the breaking waves. And so I walked some distance down the old pathway to the opposite end of the shallow bay.

Here, I had a higher vantage point, and also a better background – the dark mountains of Vesterålen, some 50km away.

Like with most seascape photography, I sat and watched the breaking waves, hoping for the elements to line up across the frame. I was also trying the hide the rocky shoreline before me, as the white-wash was too distracting from the rest of the scene. I stayed for a while, until the misty rain turned into proper rain drops and it was time to head back to the van.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6
350mm
ISO 500
f7.1
1/640 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #670 – Autumn Tree

Photo: Autumn tree and old stone wall, Slydalen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 3, 2025. 15:50

By now the autumn storms have blown the last leaves from Lofoten’s trees and the islands wait for the long dark night of winter to settle in. But only a month ago the landscape was full of autumn color – a short lived, but perhaps Lofoten’s most colourful time of the year – including the nights as well. Of all the season’s on Lofoten, autumn probably passes the quickest, with maybe 3 week of color from Sept 15-20-ish to October 5-10-ish. This year felt a little on the late side, as the temperatures remained quite mild throughout September and into early October. But while the cooling air gets the autumn season started, it is the winds of the first høststorm – autumn storm which bring it to an end as the leaves fly into the sea.

With flat light from a layer of high cloud on this day, I was looking to capture a little autumn color, as I had otherwise not done too much this year. I headed up the old mountain road to Slydalen, now a mostly empty place of long abandoned farms mostly used for summer holiday homes. Some of the trees higher up the mountain were already past their prime, while the main valley remained bright and vibrant.

This old birch tree growing from an old stone wall running through a fallowed field caught my eye. There aren’t many stone walls on Lofoten and to me this scene looks more like an image I might have taken in Scotland. I took some wider compositions as well, with the mountain Blåtind rising in the distance over the valley. But the sky and light weren’t quite right and the scene felt out of balance. In the end, I preferred this simpler shot of just the tree and the wall, together in their surroundings as they probably have been for a hundred years or more.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
220mm
ISO 200
f6.3
1/100 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #669 – Cormorant Sunset

Photo: Cormorant spreads wings in front of setting sun, Haukland beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 1, 2025. 18:05

I must admit that a clear sky sunset at Haukland beach is no longer the most interesting thing in the world for me and so I had actually left my camera gear in the van as I walked down to the beach with my group. But when I saw a few cormorants sitting on the rock just off the beach, with the sun soon to be heading into the background, I thought there might be an image for me yet. So I ran back to the van, put a 1.4x teleconverter on my 100-400 lens and headed back to the beach – hoping the rest of my group hadn’t scared the birds away yet!

I’ve been drifting a little more towards wildlife photography over the last couple years, but most of that occurs outside of Lofoten, and so doesn’t get posted here. So while most people were focused on the beach, I was happy to see what I could achieve with the cormorants sitting on the rock. There were several compositions I worked with, including a bird directly in the sun itself. But overall, I kinda like the balance of this image the best, although overall, I’m happy with 5-6 different compositions I took.

Luckily, the birds were coming and going on a semi-regular basis. The spread-winged cormorant is a popular symbol on Lofoten and coastal Norway in general. So, keeping an eye on the returning bird, I knew they would eventually spread their wings to dry off in the setting sun. There was also a sitting seagull just out of frame to the right, on the highest point of the rock, which I found somewhat distracting, as it just looked like a blob with a head compared to the standing cormorants. Though this left me not quite happy with where I had crop the sloping rock. The cormorants will be there the rest of the winter, so maybe I’ll try again in March once the sun is high enough in the sky again.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 + 1.4x Teleconverter
560mm
ISO 32
f9
1/3200 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #668 – Unstad Storm

Photo: Flowing waves at Unstad beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 10, 2025. 14:19

Another image from Unstad beach, but this time on a much stormier day than last week’s (Friday Photo #667) image taken a few days earlier. This winds on this day were too strong for any surfers to be out and we were on the edge of heavy rain showers.

This is a pretty similar composition to last week’s photo as I was trying to capture a similar scene or the overall setting of the bay. I wanted to capture the flow of the waves, so I set my tripod next to my van for shelter from the wind, and used a 6-stop neutral density filter to get a longer exposure of 1/2 second.

The idea was good, but I didn’t quite capture the exact image I had in my mind. I wish I could have been 5-6 meters higher in elevation for a better look across the bay and the lines of incoming waves. The right side of the image is a bit boring as well, without much happening. I have a few images from the continuing of the wave, but I think it just wasn’t the best wave overall and perhaps the swell should have been 1/2 a meter higher.

What this image does show is how different the same location can be just a few days apart in the always changing weather of Lofoten.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120 f/4
92mm
ISO 100
f9
1/2 Second
WB Daylight
6 Stop ND filter

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Friday Photo #667 – Sunset Wave

Photo: Breaking wave at sunset, Unstad beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 28, 2025. 18:19

The first afternoon of this year’s autumn photography workshop left us with a few hours between the arrival of the first half of the group and the second half, so we couldn’t go too far from Leknes before picking everyone up for the drive to our accommodation at Sakrisøy. Lucky for us, a nice swell was rolling into Unstad bay. And for me, there’s just about no place better on Lofoten than Unstad beach with nice waves. So it was an easy decision to pick our sunset location.

There was a layer of high clouds filling most of the sky, and so I spent the first half of the afternoon/early evening shooting surfers. As time passed by the sun eventually dropped below the cloud layer, casting a golden light across the bay. This light, combined with a strong off-shore wind created a golden spray on the breaking waves.

I should also add that I didn’t have access to my tripod, as one of the clients’ luggage never made it from Germany, so I lent them mine for the evening. This left me slightly limited on what I could do, but I eventually found a scene I was pretty happy with, where I tripod wasn’t needed anyhow. Then it was just waiting for the right wave to break in the right location, with the right amount of wind and hope everything came together. Which I think it did pretty well. Though maybe another partially breaking wave somewhere in the mid ground would have added a bit more depth. Overall, not a bad start to the week…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120 f/4
76mm
ISO 100
f7.1
1/160 Second
WB Daylight

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