Friday Photo #124 – Hamnoy Winter View

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Hamnoy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Hamnøy in Winter, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  January 17, 2015.  10:06

A classic view of Hamnøy from the bridge.  This view has become one of the more popular compositions of Lofoten over the last couple years, coinciding with the growing popularity of Lofoten itself as a winter destination and the fact that many photo tours base themselves on Hamnøy, only a few minutes walk away. It seems that every time I drive across the bridge, there is a row of tripods setup.

But it is a composition that suites itself particularly well to the soft light of winter – and the more snow the better, of course.

The final image is a composite of 3 images shifted vertically with the 24mm tilt-shift lens.  I knew I wanted a vertical composition, but I don’t really like 2/3 crop vertical images much these days.  So with the tilt-shift lens, I can shoot multiple images and crop to 8×10, without losing any file size.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 125
f 9.5
25 seconds
WB Daylight
3 images – top, middle, bottom
6 stop neutral density filter

Friday Photo #123 – Olstind Winter Sunrise

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Reine Winter Sunrise, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter Sunrise over Reine, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  January 18, 2015. 12:16

Whoever advised against shooting landscape photos at high-noon had obviously never been near the arctic winter, where in the first weeks of the year, midday will provide some of the most spectacular light there is to photograph anywhere.

This image is from another one of my days guiding for Muench Photography Workshops Lofoten tour.  We had already photographed Olstind on a couple different occasions and locations, but as we were on our way to StatOil for some much needed nourishment after a morning along the coast, this light was too good not to stop.

So we popped out of the vans and spread out across the viewing platform above Reine.  I keep telling myself I have enough images of this view after nearly 20 trips to Lofoten, but then I get light light this and have to take just one more.  Perhaps it’s time I start a website dedicated only to Reine and Olstind.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
44mm
ISO 40
f 13
10 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #122 – Reine Winter Sunrise

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Reine In winter, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter sunrise over Reine, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 19, 2015.  10:33

On the final morning of my time guiding for Muench Photography Workshop’s Lofoten tour I decided to take some of the group on a short hike above Reine to get a slightly different perspective on the beautiful, but well photographed location.  The tour thus far had already experienced some of the most consistently good conditions I’ve had during winter on Lofoten, so it was worth a bit of a gamble on a bit of hiking to a single location. And it paid off.

It was one of those mornings that you didn’t want to leave. The dawn twilight was nice, the first hints of color on the horizon was nicer, and finally, the weak winter sun illuminated Olstind in a soft pink glow.  I think the guys were more than happy!

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
34mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/20 seconds
WB Daylight
3 image pano

Friday Photo #121 – Bunes Beach Winter

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Bunes beach in Winter, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter sunrise at Bunes beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 25, 2015. 07:48

Bunes beach has mostly been good to me over the last few years, and this year was no exception.  Although there is often a bit of payment required, in this case, one rainy night and one super windy night, if you are to be rewarded with some good light.

While access to Bunes is relatively strait forward, even in winter, camping is pretty much required if one wants to shoot the beach at either sunrise or sunset. After a rainy evening and night, the sky finally cleared sometime in the early morning hours.  Of course I knew this had been forecasted, otherwise I would not have been there, but one never really knows on Lofoten.

With low winter sun, the mountains first receive a highlight of pink as the sun rises on the eastern horizon.  The beach was nearly entirely covered in a layer of ice as the temperatures dropped after as the sky cleared, making the journey from camp to the waves a slightly dangerous trip – I almost decided to put on crampons at one point, to walk across a beach!

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt/shift
24mm
ISO 31
f 13
1 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #120 – Lofoten Northern Lights

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Northern Lights, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Northern Lights over Haukland beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 31, 2015.  22:16

What had started out as a windy morning had calmed to little more than a light breeze by evening.  In the previous 2 weeks I had photographed some decent aurora displays, but finally on the end at January the moon was bright enough to light up the landscape. Now all I had to do was wait.

I didn’t want to get too comfortable while waiting in the car, but with the cold and the dark, sleep become difficult to avoid.  So I set my alarm to go off every 30 minutes to wake me up for a quick peak outside.  At 21:30, I saw the first hint of green in the sky.

I had parked near Haukland beach, knowing that I can reach a number of good locations within a few minutes to adjust for where the northern lights might appear in the sky.  As luck would have it, they where almost perfectly aligned over Haukland, and so that is where I started a night of shooting.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
15mm
ISO 2000
f 4
8 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #119 – Bunes Beach Winter Sunrise

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Winter sunrise at bunes beach, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Spectacular winter sunrise over Bunes Beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  February 26, 2015.  07:54

My tent was shaking violently in the wind in the early morning hours.  I could sense the lightening sky, but after a late night looking for northern lights, I wasn’t in a hurry to leave my sleeping bag.  But the photographer part of my brain was able to overpower the tired camper part of my brain for just long enough for me to take a peak out the door of my tent.  The sky was on fire!

In the blink of an eye I was dressed and running/slipping across the frozen beach and down to the shore.  On the way I nervously watched the sky, hoping the color would remain until I arrived at the water’s edge.  Luckily it did.

I did’t really worry about the waves washing over my boots as I stood a little close to the tide line to try and get a nice reflection.  The wind was still racing across the beach, lifting up clouds of sand every few moments and requiring me to keep a close eye on my tripod (I had already broken my Fuji XT -1 to wind on this trip).

After a bit of time on the beach, I figured my camera had taken enough abuse for one morning and headed back to camp to pack up and head back to the ferry.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 160
f 9
1/40 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #118 – Ryten Winter Hike

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Ryten Winter Hiking, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Nearing the summit of Ryten in winter, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  January 31, 2015.  12:33

Having made multiple summer – autumn trips up Ryten over the years, I finally thought it was time to visit the peak in winter.  While mid January had some fantastically calm days which made my job easy as I was guiding a photo tour for Muench Workshops, the month ended with wind.  Lots of wind.

As I pulled the car into the parking area I checked the forecast.  Hmm, not too bad.  But then I turned my head towards the clouds racing across the peaks.  Hmm, not too good.  But I decided to be optimistic and plan for a night camping on the mountain.

Midway up the route, it became evident that it wouldn’t be a fun night in the tent – if it survived!  Climbing up the final long ascent on the route the winds increased even more with almost every step.  Finally, reaching the summit ridge, walking straight became a difficult task and the straps from my camera back whipped me in the face.  I didn’t even bother going to the overlook to Kvalvika beach, as these were not conditions for photography.  And so I headed back to the car…

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 200
f 9
1/200 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #78 – Ice Puzzle

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Frozen sea ice along winter coastline, near Nedredal, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo:  Ice puzzle, Nedredal, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  February 7, 2014.  15:23

Despite the cold temperatures and traces of snow on the higher mountain peaks, Winter in the low grounds was particularly difficult to find this year (2014).  With barely any snow to speak of, I was left looking for other ways to show that it was February and not May on Lofoten.

The southern road, 815, on the Vestfjord side of Vestvågøy is a seldom photographed area of the islands, but a location that often provides a variety of compositions in changeable light.  Or in the case of Winter, the low, boggy sections of coastline where fresh and salt water meet tend to freeze and break apart after a sufficient period of cold.

The result can be a scenic coastal landscape covered in puzzle-like sheets of ice.  Exposed to the southwardly setting sun, what looked like a promising sunset unfortunately faded away into Winter’s usual combination of a deep blue-gray color as the last light faded from the sky.  But I still like the abstract and complex, yet simple, composition of the image.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 100
f 13
.3 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom

Friday Photo #77 – Coastal Twilight

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Rocky coastline of Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter coastal twilight, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  February 5, 2014.  15:48

A weird series of clouds had hung over the islands the entire day.  While some interesting texture formed from time to time, I spent most of the day doing my best to fight of boredom.  In this effort I took to wandering around the rocks on the inner coast of Moskenesøy; sometimes taking photos and sometimes just jumping around and climbing up stuff.

With the arrival of late afternoon a bit of color finally began to appear in the sky.  I had wandered down to this part of the coast earlier in the day and so returned once again as the light began to fade and I could open up the shutter for a couple minutes to smooth out the otherwise choppy water of the Vestfjord.

While I like the image well enough, it lacks a sense of place for me.  There is nothing here that says ‘Lofoten,’ or even ‘Winter’ for that matter.  I would generally like to give a better sense of place to an individual image.  But when I view it with the whole of my work from February, it helps tell a little more of the story about the islands.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 16
151 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom
6 stop B+W ND filter

Friday Photo #76 – Utakleiv Beach Winter

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Dusting of snow covers sand at Uttakleiv beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Dusting of snow covers Utakleiv beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  February 9, 2014.  11:41

Walking out of the hostel in the early morning hours it was an unexpected surprise to find a light dusting of snow had fallen overnight; an otherwise rare event during my previous 9 days on Lofoten thus far.  We chased the promise of a nice sunrise to another location, which failed to appear, before making our way towards Haukland and Utakleiv.  Being a Sunday, I was eager to get to the beaches before the snow was filled with footprints from other photographers and locals on their afternoon walks – do you know how much damage a single dog can do to an otherwise pristine beach?  Some might say, ‘just photoshop out the footprints.’  But I don’t agree with that.  Better to come back another day and try again.

With luck, and it being nearly noon, no one had thus far decided to walk along Utakleiv beach, or at least not the majority of it.  So I was pleasantly surprised to come across some untouched sections of beach to photograph.

Had there been no snow on the beach, I probably would not have taken this image.  The light is quite flat and I already have a decent collection of images from Utakleiv that I’ve taken over the years.  But with a little snow, I had the opportunity to produce something somewhat new in the otherwise familiar setting.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 13
13 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom