Photo: Winter dawn over Ytresand beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 5, 2016. 07:53

My first morning waking up on Lofoten during my 2016 winter travels. Not a bad way to start a trip! And this was even after northern lights over my tent at 3:00 in the morning.

The forecast was promising, but as we were making the way up to Ytresandheia in the last hours of daylight on the previous afternoon, the weather was still moody and wind driven flurries of passing snow even made us briefly take shelter and contemplate heading back down. It’s a good think we didn’t!

The night brought continual passing waves of snow, but the wind had calmed substantially, and by dawn, the first light of day brought an almost complete silence to the landscape.  This scene is still a couple hours before the sun would rise above the distant mountains of Flakstadøy. And a productive couple of hours it was…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
16mm
ISO 100
f 10
4 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Hammarskaftet rises above Reinefjord, Reine, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 24, 2015. 14:30

The weather forecast was promising enough to make me think 2 nights camping at Bunes beach would be a good idea. Standing around the pier in Reine, while waiting on the ferry departure to Vindstad, the weather looked like it might have other plans in mind.

Standing on the Pier, the harbor and fjord were almost perfectly still. As the Fjordkyss warmed up her engine, I took a couple last images.  I liked how just the peak of Hammarskafted was clear of the clouds, the rest of the ridge hidden in mist. It makes the peak look like a lone tower, rising above the village.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 125
f 10
1/25 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Last light over the end of Lofoten, Å, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 12, 2015. 15:29

I think I have written many times by now about the cliffs past the village of Å being a good sunset location for a few weeks in winter. If you’ve missed the other times, I’m writing it again. From late January to mid February, the sun sets right around the mountains at the ‘end’ of Lofoten. And with this also being a scenic section of coastline, it is one of my favorite winter sunset locations.

Though I have been here plenty of times before, I did find myself having some compositional challenges on this particular day. The sea was just average, not particularly stormy and not particularly calm. There was also a fresh dusting of snow that I wanted to include in the scene.

After trying several other compositions from higher up on the rocks, which, I would have been happy with were this my first visit, I felt they were missing something. Finally getting closer to the sea, I came upon this view. It was the most dramatic part of the scene, but I think the image has a better balance of the elements, still showing all I wanted to show, but in a much simpler form.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 31
f 16
13 seconds
WB Daylight
3 images: top,, middle bottom

Photo: Winter mountain reflection, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 17, 2015. 13:21

The Fredvang bridges are one of my favorite winter locations as they provide a variety of unobstructed views towards the wild mountains of Moskenesøy. In early and mid winter especially, the sun sets behind the mountains, filling the sky with light if the conditions are right.

This particular day, while leading a group for Muench workshops (keep an eye out for another tour in 2017), we had almost perfect conditions.  With sunset arriving in the early afternoon in mid January, I saw that the calm conditions and light layer of clouds might result in some good light.  I think so!

Even looking in the other direction, where a soft pastel filled the sky over Ramberg, there were numerous scenes to be photographed within a few minutes walk from the vans.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
70mm
ISO 100
f 9
1/60 second
WB Daylight