Friday Photo #638 – Snow and No Snow

, ,

Photo: Snow and no snow at Haukland, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 17, 2025. 09:55. And March 6, 2025. 12:40

In the last days of March it finally feels like spring is in the air and that winter is coming to an end. However, much of the winter so far has already felt this way already. For many visitors to Lofoten this winter season, snow has been a rare element on the islands, and many weeks looked more like May or October than January, February, or March.

That is not to say there hasn’t been a lot of snow this winter as well, as there has been. But more often than not, a nice snowfall has been followed by warm rain and then an extended period of mild weather. Particularly so in February, which ended up being 2.8˚c warmer than normal. For Lofoten’s already fine balance between snow and rain, this tipped the scales heavily in the rain direction this year.

Lofoten was not alone in the mild weather this year. Much of northern Norway experienced the same and rain was no stranger in Tromsø or Senja either. So the difference of winter wonderland or brown dead grass was just a bit of luck this year – more so than most years. Hopefully a little more snow falls in the following weeks, as after two months of back to back photo workshops, now that I have some free time, I’d at least like to be able to pull out my skis for a mountain or two!

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
40mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1/400 Second
WB Daylight

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
41mm
ISO 200
f 8
1/500 Second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #637 – March Aurora

, ,

Photo: Aurora Highway – moonlit northern lights rise into the sky over Gimsøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 24, 2024. 22:17

Eight months after their first appearance in Lofoten’s night sky, the northern lights will soon be making their departure for brief summer break. Out of all the weather, seasons, climates, etc of Lofoten throughout the year, the northern lights are actually the longest lasting of all. They are not there every night, of course, but nothing else in Lofoten’s natural world hangs around for 8 months of the year. So, with as much mystery and awe there is, the northern lights are one of Lofoten’s most frequent events.

I guess what makes them special is they only occur in the north, where few people live. Anywhere else there can be a nice sunset, pretty autumn colours, etc. But the aurora are in the north. Though personally, the longer I’m here, I now probably get more excited about a 20˚c summer day – which is definitely more rare!

But at this time of year, I’m content with my last aurora nights, which are actually my favourite, with the horizon still glowing in the north. Now it’s hopefully time for a bit of skiing in the last of the snow and then waiting for summer green to arrive and all that brings with it. But this year will also be a busy one and hopefully some long term projects I’ve kept a bit quiet about with will find completion.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Sigma 14.. f/1.8
14mm
ISO 1250
f 2.2
2.5 Seconds
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #636 – End Of The Road

, ,

Photo: View across the sea from the cliffs at Å to Værøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 18, 2024. 13:49

I make frequent visits to the end of the road at Å each winter and despite being quite familiar with the location, still find it a bit of difficult place to photograph. I think mainly that the mountains of Lofoten – mostly out of frame on the right of the image – can be so dominant, that it’s often hard to find balance in the scene.

The best conditions are when there’s a moderately stormy sea – which can be safely approached – to use the flowing waves as a foreground while looking a bit more towards that mountains than in this photo.

The 2nd best conditions are probably in this image, when there is a nice fresh layer of snow all the way to the edge of the cliffs. Without the snow the rocks and grass are a bit too messy for my general preference. But I nice layer of snow cleans up the foreground allowing for a little more balance to the location, and in this photo, almost mirroring the sky.

Overall, I’m usually quite happy if I can come away with a decent image from here.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
46mm
ISO 64
f 9
30 Second
WB Daylight
10 Stop Nisi ND Filter

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #635 – Winter Cormorants

, ,

Photo: Cormorants at dawn, Haukland beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 15, 2024. 09:11

As the blue hour light over Haukland beach faded into early dawn I was ready to head off to the next location. But walking back to the van, I thought this row of skarven – cormorants had a nice profile against the distant mountains. And as a beginning wildlife photographer, I thought I might try and get a photo.

I would have liked to shoot a little wider, capturing the whole rock, but unfortunately with the tide level, there was a small rock to the right of the frame which I found too distracting. But in this image I also find the sloping of the rock on the right side a little distracting as well. I think this image has potential, but needs another attempt or two for something better.

The main difficulty though, was waiting for all the birds to have their heads up and in a sideways profile. Had they been sitting in this position the whole time, I probably could have gotten a better composition immediately. But as they were constantly cleaning themselves and moving around, it was really a bit of luck to get them all with their heads up, and not much time to do much else. Next time…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6
360mm
ISO 800
f 6.3
1/800 Second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #634 – Winter Light

, ,

Photo: Soft dawn sunlight shine over Flakstadtind, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 6, 2024. 09:24

Before this moment I had actually been shooting pretty wide in the 14-20mm range with some nice foreground wave action over the rocks along the coastline at Vareid. In that situation, these background mountains are quite far away and small – though there tends to be a lot of ‘creative interpretations’ among many photographers these days. Suddenly, the sky began to glow and a nice light lit the distant mountains.

I would have actually liked to continue shooting wide, but the sky was also beginning to clear from the right side of the scene. Had the clouds continued across the sky, I think it would have been better. But now I was left with a colorful sunset on the left side of the image, and a dull-ish blue sky on the right side of the image. For me, this didn’t feel very balanced. So I changed lenses.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
125mm
ISO 200
f 5.6
1/160 Second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #633 – Unstad Winter

, ,

Photo: Dusting of snow covers rocks at Unstad beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 5, 2024. 12:23

Sometimes one doesn’t need to contribute much more to a photograph than being there. This is one of those times: park the van, walk 50 meters, setup camera and tripod, take a photo.

Lofoten has done all the real work…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
35mm
ISO 64
f 10
30 Seconds
WB Daylight
10 Stop Nisi ND Filter

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #632 – Frozen Reinefjord

, ,

Photo: Olstind mountain peak rises over a frozen Reinefjord, Toppøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 7, 2024. 10:16

It is not so often that Lofoten is still enough or cold enough for a large portion of Reinefjord to begin to freeze over. From a higher view point, I could see that the surface was frozen well across towards Olstind peak, which rises in the distance.

Luckily my group arrived at the location before anyone else this day, so we had a clean, footprint free, foreground to work with, should it be wanted in the composition. Which in this case I’m not 100% sure about, and also shot a number of images looking for interesting patterns in the frozen fjord as a foreground.

Either way, it is always better to be cautious with a nice fresh layer of snow and not rush too quickly towards the most immediately obvious composition, ruining potentially better compositions you might not have immediately seen. The same applies to beaches, where too many times have I seen people immediately walk into the scene without first doing a bit of study, and walking through better compositions. It is good to slow down and look around a bit. Footprints don’t disappear once there…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
22mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/80 Second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #631 – Hamnøy Bridge View

, ,

Photo: The classic view from Hamnøy bridge, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 20, 2024. 07:30

A moody morning at one of Lofoten’s classic views: the red rorbu cabins from Hamnøy bridge.

While the desire for many photography is for a bright and colorful sunrise, I generally tend to prefer a bit more of a moody shot these days – not like I don’t already have folders full of bright sunny sunrises as well. And while I’ll spend dozens of hours standing here this winter, only a few times will I pull out my camera for photo.

On this morning I liked the misty clouds around the summit of Festhæltinden and the stormy sea in the foreground. This is actually one location in the area that I think works better in a bit of stormy weather. You’re not going to be looking for reflections here anyhow, so a bit of wave action around the rocks is better than a calm sea in my opinion. It is also better around high tide, as otherwise the rocks become too much of a dominant part of the foreground.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
18mm
ISO 64
f 11
6 Seconds
WB Daylight
6 stop Nisi ND filter

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #630 – Hamnøy Bridge Crowds

, ,

Photo: Photographers stand shoulder to shoulder on Hamnøy bridge during sunrise, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 12, 2024. 08:43

With February arriving tomorrow Lofoten’s winter photography workshop season will be kicking into high gear. Over the next two months thousands of photographers will stand shoulder to shoulder on this bridge, rain or shine, sunrise or sunset, dancing aurora or full blizzard. Sometimes I think to myself that there is probably at least 1 photographer on the bridge 24/7. And no doubt with my first tour of the year having just started, I’ll spend many hours on this bridge myself over the months.

The Lofoten locals themselves will record many videos of the crowds as they pass over the bridge and a few of the more crowded days will get posted to the local facebook groups, gaining a slew of comments about all the crazy things tourists do on Lofoten’s roads. And so far this winter the roads have been a wrecking house for rental cars – worse than I have ever seen with multiple daily crashes becoming a regular occurrence, unfortunately.

And this bridge can be a dangerous location as too many people are disrespectful and ignorant of the fact that they are standing on the side of a road, the E10, Lofoten’s main highway and the route many of the winter fish take from the islands towards the ferry at Moskenes. Many times myself, I find I’m having to play traffic cop for oblivious tourists standing in the middle of the road, hood scrunched over their face as a snow plow, bus, or truck heavy with fish is heading down the icy bridge towards them. And then the honking and yelling from the drivers begin…

So, as with every year, please be respectful when visiting Lofoten this winter. It is in fact, not Disneyland. It is a place where thousands of people live and work, and would like to be able to safely drive the roads to do so.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
23mm
ISO 320
f 2.6
1/80 Second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by

Friday Photo #629 – Midday Shadows

, ,

Photo: Noon winter sun casts long shadows over icy shoreline at Nappstraumen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 24, 2025. 12:23

Lofoten hasn’t had much sun this year. Well, Lofoten hasn’t have much sun since last August. But today finally arrived to a fully clear sky and bright sun for everyone to enjoy – at least those on the south facing side of Lofoten. For those of us on the north side, it will still be some weeks or months until the sun is high enough in the sky to shine over our houses.

I had originally written a different article for today, mostly about the frequent changing weather so far this year – from deep snow to heavy rain and flooding to freezing and Icy – which is Lofoten’s current state until next week when it warms up and rains again. But with such a wonderful day, I thought a sunny photo would be nicer.

My original plan had been to shoot a photo at 12:00 noon, mostly to illustrate now low in the sky the sun still is right now, 3 weeks after it first rose again after the Polar Night. But heading out my door in what I though was plenty of time for a short drive down the road, I didn’t realize my van was frozen solid like a rock – even the doors had trouble opening. I guess it must have rained after I returned home yesterday and frozen overnight. So what I thought would be a short drive down the road first turned into 10+ minutes of me scraping ice off my windshield so I could drive. (Remember, in Norway you always need to have clean windows, being in a rush is no excuse)

As I arrived at my planned location just 5 km down the road, I could see my delay caused me to miss my originally planned shooting location as the sun was already emerging too far from behind the mountain. This led me to have to climb up a small icy hill to get the sun back in a better position in relation to the mountain. But again, it wasn’t quite perfect – at least for me planning to have a photo taken directly at 12:00. I probably missed the shot my 1-2 minutes.

Not being satisfied, this led me to drive over to the other side of Nappstraumen, where I’d then have a 2nd chance for the sun emerging from the mountain – although by this time, I’d obviously lost my planning for a shot at 12:00 noon.

Luckily the shoreline was well frozen and a number of small icy ponds were around to attempt to use as a foreground. I always find this a slightly difficult location as it’s full of potential but difficult to find a composition that works well.

Once the sun was a little higher into the sky I noticed the nice shadows being cast from the small rocks in the ponds. So instead of using the end of the pond as a foreground, I put my camera almost all the way down on the ice and looked for what I could come up with. I shot a few different variations and think this one probably came out the best – my 3rd attempt for this weeks photo…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
17mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/100 Second
WB Daylight

/0 Comments/by