Photo: Seaweed covered beach after a week of stormy May weather, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 11, 2022. 22:33

Today’s photo is an intentionally ‘ugly’ one. It has been a fairly stormy, cold and rainy May this year with a seemingly near constant north wind blowing across the islands and rough seas. In these types of conditions, seaweed is ripped from the coastline and deposited on the beaches across Lofoten, leaving them in a somewhat ugly and messy state. It is not a good time for beach photography at the moment.

Some areas are affected more than others, and there’s also the affect of wind, tides, waves, and more. Here, at Myrland beach, there’s actually not too much. Down the road at Storsandnes is much worse, or over at Unstad, where the seaweed can often pile 1-2 meters high, forming ‘seaweed mountains’ along the beach.

It will take some time now, and some bigger waves to clean up the beaches so they are in better photographic form. But it looks like the grey May weather will continue for a while longer, so not quite beach weather at the moment anyhow. Though it is somewhat frustrating, as the twilight nights of this time of year can bring some of the best light, but for weeks now, the northern horizon has had a constant layer of clouds blocking out the sun well before sunset, even if other parts of the sky remain somewhat clear. Hopefully better conditions arrive soon…

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 14-30 f/4
14mm
ISO 31
f 11
10 seconds
WB Daylight
6 stop ND filter

Photo: Late April beach snow, Myrland, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 28, 2022. 23:25

Winter has returned to Lofoten! After a period of mild weather that saw most of the low level and a fair amount of high level snow melted away with the promise of an early spring, a cold north wind has brought snow showers across the Islands in the last days April.

By last weekend, I had finally managed to clear the last of the winter snow drifts out of my yard and even some of the trees were beginning to bud. And I spent the evenings on two separate hikes in mild weather, though Sunday was a bit on the rainy side, on snow free trails. However, the weather has now shifted and winter has returned. Lofoten’s landscape is once again while from sea to summit.

Last night I wandered down to the beach a little before midnight. The sun is only about 7˚ below the horizon at the moment, so as the clouds clear, the night is brighter and brighter with each passing week. I’m not sure where I put my headlamp last, but I won’t need it again until late August.

There has been enough snow that even some of the beaches are covered in white, which isn’t even a regular occurrence in winter these days anymore. I wasn’t looking to shoot much, more to just record the conditions for future memory. The tide was incoming and one large wave swept across the beach – ruining the snow in the composition I was shooing, but forming this interesting pattern across the now revealed sand. I actually found the clouds somewhat distracting, and competing against the rocks and other elements of the foreground, and the sky was clearer overhead, but in an awkward position for where I should put the horizon. I would have liked to have the melt pattern a bit more centered, but it ended in a rock that didn’t work for the composition, so this diagonal was kinda the best I could do, though it leaves quite a bit of blank space on the left side of the image. I suppose I could always crop in tighter…

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 14-30mm f/4
14mm
ISO 100
f 9
8 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Male Ptarmigan in mix of winter and summer moulting sitting on fence post, Myrland, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 11, 2022. 15:11

With the long and (hopefully) sunny days of April comes the ever increasing activity among Lofoten’s birdlife. With the oystercatchers some of the first arrivals in mid March, many of the other migratory bird species have arrived over the last few weeks. Bridging with them a near round the clock flurry of activity in the skies over Lofoten as they fight for mates and territory for the summer breeding season.

The Ptarmigans, while year round residents of Lofoten, also join in with the activity and become much more active an visible than during the winter as their mating calls ring out through the air. One benefit of living in a rural setting such as mine, is that much of the area surrounding my house is filled with frequent activity, making for somewhat easy photography from my yard. Although in a few more weeks, the noise level on some nights will reach an irritatingly high volume, that I have to wear earplugs some nights to get a full sleep!

The Ptarmigan are also some of the easiest of the birds to photograph, and usually allow one to slowly approach without flying off – though a 500mm lens also helps in this process! If I’m lucky, I can catch them in my backyard and sneak around my house before they notice me. Maybe I should build a hide one of these days, but truthfully, I’m not that into bird photography. Only when an easy opportunity presents itself, such as these April days around the neighbourhood.

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 200-500 F/5.6
500mm
ISO 1000
f 6.3
1/2000 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Oystercatcher pair on coastal rock with snowy Justadtind in the background on the first day of spring, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 20, 2022. 17:25

Last Sunday was the vernal/spring equinox, marking the astronomical start of Spring here in the north. Though even after an unusually mild March, snow is once again falling today – so ‘green spring’ is still a ways a way up here. Yet there’s always one sign every year that winter will be ending eventually and that is the arrival of the Oystercatchers along Lofoten’s coastline.

This year, my first sighting was on Sunday the 13th, as I was driving towards Reine. I tried to get near some at Yttesand beach, but as I was slowly approaching, someone flew a drone overhead and scared them off… Though I’m not overly interested in bird photography, its more so that I have a record of when certain events occur each year. But I’d still like a nice photo is possible.

For this image, was on my second attempt I just took a walk down to the coastline from my house, from where I can hear them chirping away all day. At this time of year, before they have nested and laid eggs in the coastal grasses and fields, they are quite skittish and move off quickly. So giving up on the plan of getting very close, I tried to use a bit more of the landscape in the scene. In this case, the distant (and stilly snowy) mountain of Justadtind.

These two were well placed on the top of the rock, allowing me to slowly move around and change up the background a bit. Soon though, a 3rd oystercatcher arrived, to the annoyance of these two, and sent them off to defend their rock from the newcomer.

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

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6
500mm
ISO 640
f 5.6
1/1600 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Midnight sunset over Myrland beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 18, 2021. 00:06

The arrival of the midnight sun is just a few days away here on Lofoten, but already for the last week, we’ve had incredible all ‘night’ light shows. May’s weather can often be hit or miss, its either all good or all bad. This year we seem to have been on the good side, with pretty calm and mild conditions for most of the month. But more important for the photographer, the northern horizon has remained clear on many nights. Which, combined with a layer of clouds over Lofoten itself results in crazy, hours long sunset-into-sunrise during the midnight hours. It’s basically impossible to sleep before 03:00 these days.

This photo is from the evening/following morning of 17th of May, Norway’s national day. The whole day was warm and sunny and perfect for a backyard bbq. While I have little to no view of the sunset conditions during winter, as high mountains block all my views towards to south, I have perfect views of the conditions during summer – especially for what is happening on the horizon. And then even better, I can be lazy and just walk a few minutes to my favourite beach for decent photos. Which sometimes makes it hard to find the motivation to head up into the mountains and wait around for light which may or may not happen, when I can otherwise be completely lazy.

But with summer just around the corner now, last night was my first midnight mountain of the season, with hopefully many more in the coming months!

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

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 31
f 14
0.6 second
WB Daylight