Winter | 68 North

Friday Photo #75 – Unstad Beach

June 13, 2014/0 Comments/in Friday Photo, Vestvågøya, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Dark sky over Unstad beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 10, 2014. 10:30

Heavy clouds greeted the arrival of dawn and it was obvious that there would be no colour to chase. Back to bed for a little more sleep, as if more sleep is needed in the long nights of winter. Later, we slowly made our way to Unstad beach to see what we could find.

A lone surfer was out, the head-high turquoise waves all to himself; if only I had had a lens longer than 85mm with me. The beach was otherwise empty as I made my way down among the rocks and to the tide line. What a change of scene from my pervious visit a week prior, where I was hardly able to stand in the gale force winds. This day was how I like it, calm and gentle.

While clouds still filled the sky from horizon to horizon, the light had an eerie clarity to it, something more than the drab grey which can be all to present. There was sharpness and contrast with a softness and depth as the clouds traveled across the sky.

Though I have spent hours on this beach, I contented myself with a few more before moving on the see how the frozen Utdalsvatnet would appear – not that interesting as it turned out.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 11
15 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom
6 stop B+W ND filter

Friday Photo #74 – Myrland Beach

June 6, 2014/0 Comments/in Flakstadøya, Friday Photo, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Winter dawn at Myrland beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 2, 2014. 09:14

I still hadn’t quite gotten my timings quite right, but I was expecting to see a glow beginning to appear on the horizon as I lifted my head from the sleeping bag. Instead, my first morning on Lofoten arrived in the swirling darkness of snow. Snow! I knew the islands were having a lean year thus far, so it was an unexpected, and un-forcasted, surprise after arriving on the islands the previous afternoon. I did not know it at the time, but in 6 weeks on Lofoten this year (2014), this would be one of the rare times I saw snow fall.

I left Utakleiv, where I had spent the night sleeping in my rental car and drove into the morning darkness. I was not sure how big of a storm I was in, but by the direction of the wind, I figured Myrland or Storsandnes beaches would be the best locations to shoot away from the wind if the storm continued past sunrise. Pulling up at Storsandnes I could see nothing but black beyond the glow of my headlights. Time for breakfast I guess.

After an hour the snow began to lighten and I could begin to see something of a horizon, dark and grey, emerging from the distance. I headed to Myrland and negotiated the icy trail down to the beach just as the last snowflakes were beginning to clear.

The beach was covered in a delicate layer of snow, barely cold enough to keep from melting. An incoming tide of gentle waves was washing against the snow line as the world grew brighter while snow covered rocks formed white islands in the blue sea.

I feel there is alway a delicate balance for snow covered beaches: you want an incoming tide at dawn after an overnight coating of snow. If the tide had been high when the snow fell, then it leaves too much of a transition between the snow line and the water line. This morning I was lucky, and found a near perfect balance of conditions.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 160
f 8
30 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom

Friday Photo #73 – Vaeroy Sunset

May 30, 2014/0 Comments/in Moskenesøya, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Winter sunset over Værøy, Å I Lofoten, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 11, 2014. 15:11

The island of Værøy is located some 16km over the sea from the ending of the E10 in Å. With the winter sun setting towards the southwest, just towards the right of the islands, they are often illuminated in the in the days last light as the sun passes low overhead before sinking into the sea.

Sunset images over Værøy are a winter and late autumn event only; the sun rising too high in the sky and setting too far west/north at other times of the year. Often the lower horizon can be cloudy, so some of the best light will occur some 1-2 hours before sunset, particularly if the sky is partly cloudy.

With this image, I borrowed a friend’s 70-200mm lens and shot a series of frames at 200mm for a panoramic image.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8
200mm
ISO 320
f 10
1/320 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right

Friday Photo #72 – Winter Mountain Light

May 23, 2014/0 Comments/in Flakstadøya, Friday Photo, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Winter sunset over mountains, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 9, 2014. 15:35

This week’s image is not something spectacular, but more to illustrate wonderful light that I was in the wrong place for. Other than the light, the image is rather boring as I feel there is no focus or subject to the scene. From the position I was at, and with quickly changing light, It was all I could do at the moment.

By late afternoon, it had become evident that there might be some nice light for sunset. But how nice it became was truly unexpected by me, as it appeared there would be some clouds on the horizon, blocking out the final moments of light as is generally quite common on Lofoten. But instead of fading, the light just kept growing and growing in intensity, lighting the cloudy sky in bright orange and pink while casting a brilliant light across the mountain peaks.

In mid to late winter, the sun sets over the ‘end’ of the islands in a southwestwardly direction. This makes getting a direct view of the light with a scenic composition a sometimes challenging task. It is already too west for anything around Reine, yet not high enough for any of the beaches on Vestvågøy.

Ideally, I would have positioned myself on top of Ryten or perhaps Offersøykammen, but it would have been impossible to know this at the time.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 50
f 8
1/25 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right

Friday Photo #71 – Horseid Beach Camping

May 16, 2014/0 Comments/in Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Tent and mountains at Horseid beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 3, 2014. 16:40

With each visit I make to Horseid beach, I’m more and more convinced that it is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and perhaps my favourite (non-mountain) place on Lofoten. Even though you are not that far from civilisation, there is something so wild and rugged about the place and you could as well be on some lonely island on the edge of the world.

It was a snow-less winter this year, which made access to the beaches quite easy, relatively speaking on general winter conditions. With a good weather forecast, I decided to take an overnight trip to Horseid. My favourite camping location is on the grassy hill at the far end of the beach, right above the water. The view from here is one of the best as you look back towards the mountains now in the far distance.

In this image I tried to capture a sense of the scale of the mountains and my tent. I would have shot with a longer lens to give more compression to the image, but 85mm is as long as I typically carry these days, so I had to make due with that.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 200
f 4
1/250 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right

Friday Photo #70 – Winter Cod Racks

May 9, 2014/0 Comments/in Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Empty cod drying racks at dawn, Toppøya, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 15, 2014. 08:41

During my first two weeks on Lofoten I had wandered around Toppøya on numerous occasions; with the southerly winter sunrise, it is often a good location for views across the Vestfjord if the sky looks like it might do something interesting. On my final sunrise before heading off to Sweden I found myself wandering around the small rocky island once more.

Heavy clouds filled the sky, but, as often occurs in winter, there was a narrow break in the clouds along the horizon. Just enough for a few moments of light before the sun is swallowed up by the sky for the days and the light turns flat and gray. The light was too week to cast much colour, or light up Olstind behind me, so as I was walking back to the car I noticed the sun lined up quite nicely with these cod drying racks.

The lines caught my interest, but without the hanging stockfish, the scene felt a bit empty. So I decided to go for the full ‘tilt’ effect with my 85mm tilt-shift lens and throw most of the scene out of focus to give the scene a more abstract effect.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 100
f 4
1/100 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right
Full lens tilt

Friday Photo #69 – Winter Tree

May 2, 2014/0 Comments/in Flakstadøya, Friday Photo, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Tree silhouette, near Fredvang, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 4, 2014. 14:27

For the month of May I be focusing on panoramic images for each week’s Friday Photo. I don’t shoot as many panos as I used to, I tend to go square more often than not these days, but they still make up a sizeable portion of my work.

Heavy rain had soaked the islands during the previous 24 hours. But as the storm cleared and morning passed into afternoon the islands grew still and quiet. A light layer of cloud filled the sky, giving a warm glow to the low winter sun. The mood felt almost tropical, as low, misty clouds hugged mountains and filled valleys. The silhouettes of the distant mountains looked more like something out of China – the place where you see all those images of the cormorant fishermen guys.

The shoreline wasn’t as scenic as I was hoping, but the light was interesting enough that I thought it would be a waste not to take any photos. While I would have preferred snow, I found the silhouette of this tree to be somewhat interesting to create an image that isn’t stereotypically ‘Lofoten’ looking.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/250 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right

Friday Photo #68 – Northern Lights Over Vik

April 25, 2014/0 Comments/in Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Northern Lights over Vik beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 1, 2014. 22:45

The journeys from California to Lofoten are always long, and I always arrive thinking of the soonest possibility I can lie down flat on a bed, or in this case, the back of my rental car. I also made the mistake of arriving on the islands on a Saturday, which is never a good idea, as it meant a long wait in Leknes for my bus to Stamsund, where I would pick up my car.

It was early afternoon when I pulled up to the parking area at Utakleiv beach, folded down the backs seats to the car and crawled into my sleeping bag. I was soon asleep.

Some hours later the slamming of a car door followed by some somewhat loud voices woke me from my slumber. It was dark. I wiped a clear spot from the fogged up windows to see if I could see if the stars were out. Shit, even better, Auroras! A faint green arch hanging over the beach and mountains. I quickly dressed, prepared myself for the cold, then hopped out of the car and went down to the beach, the lights now getting brighter.

I shot for a while at the beach, but I noticed the stronger parts seemed to be coming from behind the mountains to the left, so I quickly headed back to the car and drove a few km to the beach at Vik, more of less just around the corner from Utakleiv, and giving a much more open view to the western part of the sky.

Barely have put my camera back on the tripod the sky lit up, from the horizon, fully overhead, and then behind me. Even at 15mm, this image only captures part of the overall scene. Not a bad way to arrive on the islands!

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
15mm
ISO 1250
f 4
30 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #67 – Winter Sunrise

April 18, 2014/0 Comments/in Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Winter sunrise and empty cod racks, Toppøy, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 3, 2014. 09:20

My second morning on Lofoten and the wind was screaming in from the south, cold and bitter; I had not quite gotten used to the north yet, having been in t-shirt and shorts just a few days earlier in California.

There was a clear spot on the horizon where the sun should rise, but it was racing a huge rain cloud blowing in across the fjord. In near perfect unison, they met in a 2 minute flash of light, sky glowing bright orange and pink as heavy drops of rain began falling from the sky.

I was beginning to run for shelter but turned around for one last image, before my camera and lens became completely soaked (it was that super heavy, big drops type of rain). Not an ideal composition, but about all I could manage given the conditions. And something different from what I usually seem to photograph.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 250
f 5.6
1/30 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #66 – Lake Agvatnet Winter

April 11, 2014/0 Comments/in Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter/by Cody

Photo: Patterns of snow on lake Ågvatnet, Å I Lofoten, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 2, 2014. 15:27

I had been following the on Lofoten for the months before my travels at the beginning of February and knew the islands where having a ‘dry’ winter. This first was evident as I walked the cold, windy streets of Bodø from the airport to a friends house. Usually it is a perilous and slippery journey along icy sidewalks and streets, yet now I found only blowing circles of dust on the midnight roads.

So it was a surprise for me when I woke up expecting to see the first glow of dawn on the horizon, only to find my car enveloped by swirling snow and the world beyond the reach of my headlamp a deep black. I drove the winter roads, parked at some beach and waited in darkness until the storm began to pass and black turned to grey before turning to deep blue.

As afternoon arrived I made my way to the end of the road at Å, Normally a good location for winter sunsets. Waiting for the light to improve I hesitantly wandered out onto the frozen lake Ågvatnet. A few locals were out and about on their afternoon walks, so I figured it should be fine, and the ice was quite thick. Still, it makes some interesting noises while you stand out there.

The morning’s snow had blown into some interesting looking patterns, giving a nice contrast to the nearly black ice of the lake. And in somewhat flat, fading light of late afternoon in February, I searched for some interesting elements.

As much as I like this image, I do feel it a bit imbalanced. I would have liked to go with a square crop, but that caused me to loose too much of the cloud in the sky, which I think is important to the image. So I decided on a 4×4 crop, to give a little more space in the sky. But this leaves the image a bit centred I think, my eye not quite sure where to go first and not as drawn into the scene as I would like.

One of the difficulties of using multiple exposures with a tilt-shift lens to achieve square or panoramic images is that you never can see the overall composition as you are shooting. I do my best to estimate where the horizon will land one I combine the images and I often shoot a bit extra to give myself room to crop down, either from the top or bottom, but there are times like this where keeping the full image seems to work better.

Do you see an animal in the cloud?

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 16
45 seconds
WB Daylight
3 images – top, middle, bottom
6 stop B+W neutral density filter

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