Photo: River flowing through a snow covered Haukland beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 3, 2015; 08:38

The day arrived flat and grey, with textureless waves of snow passing over the islands like a curtain swept across the land.  Despite the lack of any interesting light, it is always worth taking advantage of a fresh layer of snow on one of Lofoten’s many beaches – something that is becoming more and more difficult as the islands fill with photographers and the beaches quickly become full of footprints.

With a blank canvas of white covering the land and filling the sky, I needed to find some area of contrast for the scene.  Luckily, part of the small river flowing across Haukland was still uncovered, leading nicely to the mountain in the background, making a diagonal line across the photo. Nothing dramatic, but a nice scene none-the-less.

I should also add a note of caution for days like this. Haukland often has a small pond that forms on the back of the beach.  When covered in a blank layer of snow, it can be really easy to miss the fact that you are leaving sand and beginning to walk across ice, which probably won’t support you for more than a few steps.  If you are unfamiliar with the area and have not recently seen where the pond is, proceed cautiously, otherwise you might end up to your waste in freezing water…

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 100
f 11
5 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images: top, bottom

Photo: Low winter sun from Offersøykammen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 20, 2015; 12:31

Happy 2016! I’m not quite sure where 2015 went, probably because I spent most of my time behind the computer writing 3 ebooks on Lofoten, but the new year is here. I have some big plans for the year, which if I can manage, should result in some pretty cool stuff happening on this site and beyond.

Next, this image marks 3 years of Friday Photos! I’m not quite sure how I have done it, and on a few occasions it was sometime late in the night before I thought, ‘Oh crap! it’s Friday!” And then quickly tried to write something. Lately, it has been a bit of a struggle as I put most of my focus on ebooks; I’m not a natural writer, and some weeks I only have so many words in my head, which once used up, I struggle to produce anything more. But I’ll still continue along as best as I can.

For anyone who has purchased one of my ebooks in the last year, thank you! Without your support, I’m not sure what the future of this site might be. I must admit, there are times when I wonder if keeping this site going is still worth it, especially as there are so many new places in the world to discover. It really is hard work to provide so much information…

Now to the photo. A rare, sunny and calm winter day in early 2015. One of the last good days before the weather more or less turned into one endless storm for pretty much the whole of February. Having been dropped off in Leknes and then hitchhiking to Stamsund to pickup my rental car, I had something of a late start to the day. Offersøykammen seemed like the easiest destination to get some decent images without too much effort.

I think it can be written, that the sun barely rises above the horizon in January, but sometimes that is hard to translate visually. A big reason of these Friday Photo posts is to show you what it really looks like. So this is just about as high as the sun reached on January 20, with pink light shining across the snow covered landscape. The day is one long sunrise – sunset. Absolutely fantastic!

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
20mm
f 16
ISO 200
1/60 second
WB Daylight

PS: There are still a few places available on my winter photo workshop in February, if you’re interested in trying to get to places like this… 🙂