Friday Photo #598 – Midsummer midnight

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Photo: Midsummer midnight sun over the sea, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 20, 2024. 00:00

Yesterday was the summer solstice and the sun’s highest low point over the northern horizon for the year. From now on the days get shorter – although that won’t really be noticeable until the sun finally sets into the sea in mid July. The transition from the end of winter to the arrival of the summer green is so long up here in the north, by midsummer, the actual start of summer, it already feels like autumn is not too far away.

But while the sun may have begun its journey south, thousands of tourists are speeding north in what is already looking like will be the busiest summer ever on Lofoten. In locations where they measure hiking traffic, like Reinebringen, there has already been over 40,000 hikers on the mountain so far this year. And with the tourism season not even in full swing yet, it will probably well surpass last year’s numbers of 215,000 visits, and 160,000 in 2022. It’s a good thing they finally finished the stairs!

But even among the busy roads and thousands of daily hikers on the popular handful of mountains, there still remains the quiet and hidden peaks. Trail-less mountains where one can sit in silence and enjoy the sun floating over the northern sea as if you are the only person in the world. This is where I will mostly be this summer – or BBQing in my backyard.

You may have noticed that I’ve been posting mostly older photos recently, while in general I try to keep these ‘Friday Photo’ posts more of a running journal of recent happenings or info. Most of the reason for this is that I’ve only actually been in my own house about 3 weeks total this year. After a long winter workshop season, I immediately departed for and overdue visit back to California, which then was immediately followed by a trip to Scotland – mostly chasing puffins on Orkney and Shettland – but more on that later. So, now I’m finally looking forward to a bit more time and home and hopefully I don’t have to go near an airport until sometime in the autumn.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120 f/4
24mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/640 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #597 – Dark Summer Skies

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Photo: Rain heavy clouds fill the midnight sky over mountains of west Lofoten. June 7, 2021. 0042

Last week (Friday Photo #596) I wrote about the endless light of summer’s midnight sun. But that was only part of the story. The endless light is the dream, but not always the reality. And while yes, the sun will be above the horizon the entire month on June, it is not always present in the landscape.

This evening I was looking at a mixed forecast with an eventually passing couple hours of rain. I took a gamble with the forecast and headed up to an isolated mountain ridge to camp for the night. While I got some decent photos, the weather ended up a bit heavier than expected, so I never got much light. If I would have sat the evening in my garden, it probably would have been one of those sky on fire sunsets. The weather forecast for either event basically looks the same, but you never know what will actually happen until it does. In which case, hopefully you have chosen the mountains over a bbq.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
18mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/10 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #596 – Neverending Light

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Photo: Mountains of Vestvågøy rise from a shimmering night sea, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 4, 2021. 01:57

Two weeks into the midnight sun season and Lofoten is bathed in 24 hour sunlight. And the days only get bright over the following two weeks until the summer solstice on June 20th. By now I will be almost completely ‘nocturnal’ as I stay up late into the morning hours with the sun drifting over the sea to the north. This view is from my house on one of those late mornings. How can I ever sleep?

I like the northern lights well enough, but rarely will I stay up past midnight exclusively for them. And the same goes for any other light on Lofoten – except for the midnight sun season. For me, the midnight sun is the highlight of the year living on Lofoten. Without it, I couldn’t live here.

Photographically, the midnight sun is rarely the best light. But it is the best time simply to be here and experience the slowness, if not stopping, of time for a few short, but precious weeks.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-200mm f/4-6.3
200mm
ISO 320
f 6.3
1/640 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #589 – Willow Ptarmigan

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Photo: Willow Ptarmigan – Rype walks across snowy field, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 18, 2022. 17:01

The long days of mid April bring an ever increasing level of activity to Lofoten as the migratory birds arrive and fight over mates and nesting locations. Though the willow ptarmigans – rype in Norwegian – live on Lofoten year round, they also increase in liveliness during the spring and their calls begin the fill the air.

Usually in winter, my only knowledge of their presence is a set of fresh tracks in the snow. But by April I can hear the males calling out as the fly around the neighbourhood. If I hear one near by house, I’ll often times try to sneak out a get a few photos before they fly away. Sometimes they are patient, other times not.

I still have yet to get a nice image of a fully white rype in a full winter landscape. I guess I’m not that dedicated to wildlife photography! Maybe I should try before all the snow melts…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6
500mm
ISO 500
f 5.6
1/1600 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #559 – Vaeroy

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Photo: View over Gjerdheia and Nordlandshagen from Nordlandsnupen, Værøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 18, 2023. 21:04

Despite looking over towards the mountains of Værøy rising across the distant sea on a fairly regular basis, it is now only twice that I’ve been out there, an island that is quickly becoming one of my favorite places for a long weekend getaway form ‘mainland’ Lofoten. Part of the reason for this is that the ferry schedule between Moskenes – Værøy only really works during the summer. In the off season, it is a bit more complicated and problematic to get there from Lofoten, unfortunately. So summer it is, though I’ve scouted some nice locations I’d like to be back to for the northern lights season.

In my previous trip last year, I hiked Håen, Hornet, and Måhornet. I missed the highest peak on the island though, 450m Nordlandsnupen, and so that was the first hike on my recent trip. While there was a good weather forecast, the summits of all the mountains were in a layer of heavy cloud as I made my way up the mountain. Soon enough though, the clouds cleared and I had a nice view of the surrounding landscape and across to the Lofoten mainland.

While I usually like to wait on the summit of mountains for sunset, it seamed the weather and sun location for my hike of Nordlandsnupen would mean it wasn’t the ideal location for sunset on this day. So after sitting around for an hour or two I made my way back down the mountain towards this view – looking towards the plateau of Gjerdheia. On the way up, the upper half of the mountain had been in the clouds, but I knew it would likely be a nice view, and better than the view I eventually found at the summit.

There was still a fairly thick layer of clouds along the northern horizon, so I headed down from the mountain a bit earlier than I might otherwise have done, knowing that I was looking for a view like this somewhere along the ridge on my descent still with a bit of direct light. The further I descended, the more dramatic the cliffs began to appear, but I think this image is a nice balance and view over the surrounding landscape.

I’m already looking forward to my next trip out to this tiny little islands of so many photographic possibilities…

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

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
25mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
1/30 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #557 – Last Nights Of Summer

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Photo: Mountains of Vestvågøy rise into late summer twilight, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 28, 2023. 00:02

What a summer Lofoten has had this year! Only a few days of rain and dream weather throughout August. One of these days the first autumn storm will arrive, but even with the fading twilight it feels like this summer might never end.

This night was after last week’s aurora photo (Friday Photo #556), another clear evening but no aurora. The day had been warm, over 20˚, but as the evening came the temperature dropped as normal. Until midnight, when a warm summer breeze arrived and the temperature rose to around 16-18˚c in the middle of the night. It almost felt like the Santa Ana winds of California which would warm up the autumn evenings. I thought about going down to the beach to wait for northern lights, but I opted for my backyard instead. I don’t know how many more evenings I’ll be able to sit outside this year, but this night was a nice one to do so!

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

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
30mm
ISO 320
f 4
20 Seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #556 – Twilight Aurora

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Photo: Late August twilight and northern lights – aurora borealis, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 27, 2023. 00:15

After a week of mostly cloudy skies from last weeks first northern lights sighting of the year (Friday Photo #555), they were once again dancing in the sky last Saturday night. I was a warm summer evening, and so after a bbq with some neighbours I headed down to my beach to shoot a few images.

The evening sky is growing noticeably darker with each passing day, yet even in the midnight hours the glow of the sun just below the northern horizon is still quite strong. While I typically like these early/late season auroras with a twilight horizon, it is still a week or so early when shooting these images as the horizon was a little too bright – Especially if looking north towards the open sea as I was. And even with a moderately active aurora, the sky will not be sufficiently dark until around midnight, so this time of year misses all of the evenings early aurora activity.

The tide at the beach was in an awkward location, and I struggled to find a good foreground – with the the bright horizon not helping much either. At one point a small corona began dancing across the sky. I first tried to shoot it with more of a foreground, but as it passed directly to the north, I to a couple of images just pointing towards the sky and the horizon just out of frame. While a bit boring, I kinda like the abstract look of the image and the shift of warm to cool tones. It actually captures what it feels like standing out there, alone by the sea, in these last days of summer.

The image below is from when I first arrived at the beach and was still trying to work with a foreground composition to the scene. The sea was nearly flat and the rocks were perfectly in the middle of the tide line. If the tide had been a little higher, or the waves bigger, it would have been better to have the sea washing past to rock to give a little more balance to the dark sand and foreground.

It is not even September and I’ve already photographed the aurora multiple times. A good start to what will hopefully be a good aurora season!

For a bit of self promotion: there are still a few spots open on some of my winter photography workshops here on Lofoten.

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

Camera Info: Photo 1
Nikon z8
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 640
f 2.2
1.6 Second
WB Daylight

Camera Info: Photo 2
Nikon z8
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 640
f 2
2.5 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #555 – August Aurora

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Photo: Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis shine in twilight sky of late August, Nordland, Værøy, Norway. August 19, 2023. 01:29

My prediction from last week (Friday Photo #554) came true and I saw my first northern lights of the 2023-2024 aurora season while over on Værøy for the weekend. I actually had two nights in a row of aurora, both Friday and Saturday nights. This image is from Friday night 18/19 of August and is both my first aurora of the season and also the earliest I’ve ever seen the northern lights on Lofoten – though I have also seen it on this night while floating off the east coast of Greenland in 2015.

Usually my first aurora sighting depends more on weather than the activity of the sun and I usually begin to keep an eye on the night sky beginning around August 20th. So I got a little lucky this year. And after some grey skies this week, it is looking like the weekend is going to clear up again, so hopefully there is a chance for more!

Every year with my first and last aurora sighting posts I comment a little about the still pervasive misinformation of the northern lights being solely a winter phenomenon. They are not! In fact, the northern lights are visible 8 of 12 months, or 2/3rds of the year here on Lofoten. Roughly: August 20 – April 20 – so about a month before/after the equinoxes.

While it was only a brief show that appears in the darkest hour of the night at this time of year, the quickly darkening sky will soon allow the northern lights to appear earlier in the evening with each passing week. And while there were a dozen or so other motorhomes/vans parked on the old airport runway on Værøy this night, I was the only one out enjoying the show…

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

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
14mm
ISO 1250
f 4
1.6 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #554 – Vaeroy

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Photo: Misty clouds swirls around the steep mountain peaks of Værøy. June 24, 2022. 22:13

Unlike this photo, the weather forecast for this weekend is looking quite nice so I’ll be catching the ferry over to Værøy to finish up a few more hikes which I never managed on last year’s trip – such as the mountain ridge in the background of this image. I’ve already added a few of the hikes to the website: Håen, Hornet, Måhornet. But as I get a couple missing routes in, then I’ll add everything to the West Lofoten Hikes ebook sometime later in the year when I updated things.

I wrote last week’s post a few days in advance as I was traveling down along the Helgeland coast. But the temperature broke 29˚c in Leknes – Hot! The hottest day for the last couple years, if I remember correctly. I was lucky with mostly good weather down on the Helgeland coast as well, and was able to visit some new areas for a bit more research. But good weather was to be expected, as checking the weather forecasts and looking for a decent weather window are a primary deciding factor in when and where I might travel when I’m on a short road trip out of Lofoten.

Standing in a t-shirt in the bright morning sun while waiting for a ferry to cross the lake to the east side of the Svartisen glacier a British couple and German couple were having a conversation about their travels. The British had been mostly in northern Norway the last weeks and were complimenting on how nice the weather had been, hot even for them. While the Germans had recently driven up from the south and were complaining that this was the first day without rain since their trip started a week ago. They sounded skeptical about ever coming back to Norway again, as they experienced so much bad weather.

While there is always some luck involved, looking at the weather forecasts and maybe altering your plans a bit, especially if you are in a motorhome/camper van and don’t need to rely on pre-booked accommodation, can be the difference between a sunny or soggy trip to Norway. To put it another way – travel to where the nice weather is! There is also somewhat of a north – south divide to the weather in Norway. Rarely does the whole country experience the same conditions for any continuous amount of time. The last couple years Lofoten has experienced rainy summers while the south has been warm and dry. This year was the opposite, with northern Norway having endless amounts of sunshine while there have been torrential rains and floods in southern/central Norway.

So off to Værøy I go. The sky looks perfectly clear on Sunday, and I have already heard that the first aurora of the year were seen Wednesday night, so maybe I get lucky and will have my first sighting of the year!

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 24-200mm f/4-6.3
70mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/20 Second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #553 – Last Days Of Summer

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Photo: Evening light shines over the mountains of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August, 6, 2023. 21:52

It is that time of year when I begin to remind myself to put a headlamp in my backpack – which of course will take me several weeks and multiple evenings wandering dawn from mountains in an ever darkening sky to actually do so. And despite a late summer heat wave this week, the signs are already here that the best of summer is over for this year. I’m looking forward to autumn, and have some big hiking plans, but I still wish summer would last a little longer here in the north. Despite the return of the northern lights in a couple weeks, I’m not ready for the long, cold nights yet.

Lofoten had a fantastic summer this year. Warm, dry, and calm, it was the best summer for a while. Even so, I found myself lacking motivation for much hiking and generally only visited my local ‘exercise’ mountains of Haugheia or Smordalskammen just to keep up a bit of fitness. This was also the first summer where I’ve felt a bit overcrowded. It was as busy with tourism as ever. But more so, local changes like new, expensive parking fees, and the closing of previously existing parking areas, have made it more difficult to visit my favorite areas. For example, it is cheaper for me to take my van to Værøy for a weekend than it now is to camp at Bunes or Horseid beach due the near extortion level of the parking cost in Reine – which is even more expensive than parking at the airport or in Tromsø or Bodø. If one enjoys hiking, it is getting expensive to visit many areas of Lofoten these days.

I also find myself looking beyond Lofoten much more these days, to other areas of Norway and beyond. I’m 3/4th through my biggest ebook project yet – more info once things come closer to completion early next year hopefully, as well as a new 200km hike which I’ll hopefully complete this autumn. So I’ve actually been taking a lot of photos, just not that much of Lofoten, and even less so of Lofoten’s mountains. Maybe once these two big projects (hopefully) are completed next year, I’ll feel a bit less pressure and will be out and about around Lofoten again. There are still plenty of new mountains for me to hike, even on nearby Vestvågøy, such as this image from Blåtind from last Sunday.

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

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
125mm
ISO 200
f 7.1
1/500 Second
WB Daylight

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