Friday Photo #414 – Polar Night

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Photo: Blue hour over Nappstraumen during December’s polar night, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 7, 2020. 14:05

The sun has left Lofoten for the year and will remain below the horizon until early January. Though, the reality of this year’s weather has meant the sun has been a rare visitor since the beginning of November – with almost constant overcast skies for over a month now.

Monday was a rare moment of somewhat clear skies, though a layer of cloud along the southern horizon blocked most of the light from coming through. But for the next weeks, twilight will be as light as it gets, with no direct sunlight reaching Lofoten. And while fantastic colors are still possible given the right cloud conditions, for the most part the islands are left in shades of blue and grey.

The polar night does not mean complete darkness, and as you can see, even at 14:00 there is still some glow to the sky – though with an exposure of 20 seconds without a Neutral Density filter – it is definitely far from daylight! Though the level of brightness is highly affected by weather, and on dreary, overcast days even noon can feel quite dark. And beyond weather, the level of snow also affects the feeling of brightness – and unfortunately rain over the last days has melted away what was only a light dusting of snow seen in this image.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
29mm
ISO 32
f 13
20 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #413 – December Rain

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Photo: Rainy view across Nappstraumen to cloud covered peaks of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 3, 2020. 10:35

The wet and soggy weather has carried into the first days of December, and judging by the forecast, carry on throughout next week. I’ve already given up hope on seeing the sun again this year, so it will just be the slow fade into the Polar Night which begins on Monday.

Last week (Friday Photo #412) I wrote that I was expecting this November to come in several degrees above the normal average. And I was close, it ended up being 4.2˚C warmer than normal for the month. And in fact, Norway as a whole had the warmest November (but also tied with 2011) since record keeping began in 1900. And I also wasn’t crazy to complain about all the rain either, as this ended up as the 9th wettest November since 1900 as well, with Lofoten at about 150% above normal rainfall.

I’ve slowly been working away on what I’m referring to as my ‘Lofoten 365’ project. Yesterday was one of the days I needed to shoot on. Unfortunately the weather was far less than cooperative. To by benefit, the wind was blowing the rain mostly sideways, so I was able to use my van as a wind/rain block while I took photos. There is already little light or contrast at this time of year, but with low, flat clouds covering the islands, the scene seemed almost empty.

The sea was rough, but not interestingly so. So I threw on a 6 stop ND filter to get me to a 30 second exposure (I probably should have gone up to 1 minute for a smoother sea – but I was lazy) to turn the scene into soft shades of blue.

I shot another version with a large rock in the foreground, and while it adds a nice piece of contrast to the scene, I feel its almost more of a distraction than anything.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
70mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
30 seconds
WB Daylight
Breakthrough Photography 6-stop ND filter

Friday Photo #412 – Reflection

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Photo: Mountain reflection in Farstadvatnet, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 24, 2020. 10:53

After last week’s brief cold spell, the mild and wet weather of this November has continued, with daily rain and overcast skies. With the sun disappearing below the horizon in 10 days, I’ve probably already seen my last sunlight of the year – unless I happen to get lucky and randomly be in the right place at the right time for a sudden hole in the clouds. I think by the time this month is over, the temperature will end up being 3-4 degrees above average for November.

Now of course this is Lofoten, and who knows what will happen over the next months and into winter. Last year November had the coldest day of the entire winter, which then turned into a rainy and warm January, and overall mild temperatures into the spring. While I wish for snow photographically, daily life is much easier without having to deal with constantly icy roads – there will be plenty of time for that later.

In the middle of the week, the wind dropped off sufficiently for some nice reflections of many of the lakes of Vestvågøy, as they are somewhat sheltered from the surrounding mountains. I was actually heading out to Unstad on Tuesday to shoot something when I passed the perfectly calm Farstadvatn. Normally I don’t stop here, but this day I think I had to, so I pulled over on one of the pullouts and walked down to the shoreline. I actually like that the lower ground is snow-free, adding a bit of separation from the mountains.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
45mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/10 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #411 – First Beach Snow

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Photo: First beach snow of 2020/2021 winter at Haukland beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 19, 2020. 11:54

After some unusually mild November temperatures over the last weeks – and no shortage of rain! – the winds finally shifted to the north and brought a cold blast of winter snow across Lofoten. Although this looks to be fairly short lived for snow, as the winds will shift to the south again by Saturday, bringing more mild temperates and rain.

I had been at Haukland beach just a few days ago, working on one of my ongoing projects. Yet with Thursdays snow, and basically full blizzard conditions much of the day, I headed back to the area again, as it would at least offer me a fairly large choice of subjects depending on what the weather decided to do at any given moment. Though I could see on the weather radar that I would have a small 20-30 mininute gap between the super heavy stuff, I figured the beach would likely be possible.

Luckily I was also the first one of the day, having the fresh dusting of snow for myself, so I headed towards the river for the classic shot towards Veggen. The river and beach were nice and clean today – there had been quite some seaweed a few days prior – all blown away overnight I imagine. I Initially shot a few images at the river, but I’ve gotten better conditions before with pretty similar lighting and mood.

I liked the subtle cure and tone of this layer of sand on the right side of the image, created by the higher water flow overnight before the temperatures dropped. I couldn’t quite get the angle I wanted, otherwise Mannen, the mountain leading up to the right becomes too overpowering in the composition. But I still like the overall feel here – and finally some snow!

You can also see how dark it is getting on Lofoten now. Taken basically at noon, there is not much light on cloudy days like this. One month to the winter solstice and the beginning longer days again!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 100
f 11
13 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom
Breakthrough Photography 6 stop ND filter

Friday Photo #410 – Friday Sun

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Photo: Friday Sun low in the sky over Rorbu cabins, Nusfjord, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Island, Norway. November 13, 2020. 11:01

After a rainy, grey, and windy start to November the sun finally reappeared today! Even better the temperature was also quite mild for this time of year, reaching over 9˚C in Leknes – Normally a clear day such as this would be cold and chilly. A photo project I’m working on with a friend took me to Nusfjord, on the south side of Lofoten in search of today’s light.

Even with a fully clear sky, the sun is only around for a few hours now that it is mid November and the Polar night is a little over 3 weeks away. You can see in this photo, taken at 11:00, that the sun is low on the southern horizon. So at this time of year, even with the sun shining as brightly as it can, much of Lofoten remains in the shadow of mountains. For sun over the next weeks, you have to travel to the southern side of the islands, or up a mountain…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/80 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #409 – November Storms

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Photo: Storm wave crashes over rocks (and me) at Storsandnes beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 5, 2020. 14:17

I walked returned to my house with completely wet shoes today. Not from the normal hiking through bog or photographing down on the beach. Today the ocean came to me, fairly high up on the rocks. This was after I’d already been completely blasted with sea spray at another location a little earlier – after which when I bumped into a friend in the supermarket, they commented that I was dripping water.

November has been off to a mild but soggy start. But last night the first big winds arrived or a series of storms which will pass over the next few days. My weather station recorded over 33 m/s wind gusts this morning, and at times, if I closed my eyes, I could have imagined I was back home in a California earthquake, my house was shaking so much.

It was tough conditions to shoot today for sure. And it wasn’t just the sea spray to content with, but frequently passing hail and heavy downpours. I really should have gone out in full waterproof gear, but the mild temperatures lulled me into a state of complacency. But more that myself, the main struggle was often keeping the camera lens clear, as every crashing wave send up clouds of mist which blew across any downwind objects – me.

With all the chaos, I still managed several decent images. This one here isn’t what I would consider the best, but it the beginning of the last wave to hit, and completely soak me (if you follow me on Instagram: @distant.north, I posted the full time lapse sequence from the location yesterday). Luckily I saw it coming and made sure to shelter my camera as best as possible. After that I was done, my feet slopping away in my soggy shoes as I walked back to my van, assisted by the wind blowing me forward…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
24mm
ISO 200
f 8
1/20 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #378 – Uttakleiv Aurora

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Photo: Northern lights reflect in the Eye of Uttakleiv, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 1, 2020. 23:40

I wasn’t planning to post another northern lights image today, but this was the only time I’ve been out shooting since last weeks image, so here you go. While it seems like the constant wind has continued, I also just don’t have much motivation to go out at the moment. I’ve look at the mountain out my window and tell myself, ‘Tomorrow I’ll go up there for sunset.’ That tomorrow has not come for two weeks so far…

In a small attempt to find a silver lining in our current situation, it feels live Ive been in a time machine and transported back 10 years in time to the Lofoten I remember from the old days: Empty and quiet. When winter was the season of fishermen and little more.

And so with this in mind and a rare clear sky Wednesday night, I headed to Uttakleiv and found myself pulling into a completely empty parking lot. Maybe only on a night in November or December is this possible these days while in February or March I won’t even go near the place anymore – too much chaos for me to enjoy. But in these strange corona times, I found myself alone for hours, like the Lofoten I first met decades ago…

In other fronts, I haven’t been completely idle. The 3rd edition of West Lofoten Hikes eBook should be published in a couple week. With 8 new mountain hikes added, as well as the beaches that I hadn’t previously included, it will now have 40 mountain hiking destinations in west Lofoten. So if you’re able to get here in summer, there’ll be plenty of mountains to keep you busy for a while!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 1600
f 2.5
8 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #377 – Equinox Aurora

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Photo: Equinox Aurora over Storsandnes beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 20, 2020. 21:35

Last friday was a stormy and windy day with passing snow showers and storm force wind gusts throughout the day. Sometime in the early evening I randomly looked out the window and saw a faint green band of aurora high in the sky. Hmm, wasn’t expecting that.

The next wave of clouds and wind and snow shook my house. But after I looked out again and the aurora was beginning to dance a little. Hmm, better get moving!

So I headed down the road to Storsandnes beach, arriving just as the sky began to explode in light. Somehow I knocked my camera out of focus after a couple shots – Which I didn’t catch for another minute, and had to run back up to the road to focus on the lights of a distant house.

I often sound like a broken record on photo workshops, reminding people to zoom in and check focus on images every few minutes, and it’s good I follow my own advice as well! It’s easy in the dark with gloves on to accidentally hit a button or the lens when recomposing or adjusting settings. I missed a first good display because of this, even though I was only out of focus for a minute before I caught it. But no worries, there was plenty more to come this night!

Without any moonlight, you can see the effect of the light pollution from Leknes and Gravdal on the clouds on the right side of the image. Usually with would disturb me, but on this image I kinda like it. It ads a bit of a surreal look to the image. Luckily I caught this light flash of pink as the aurora picked up in speed and danced across the sky. Even at a relatively fast shutter speed of 2 seconds for northern lights, you can see they are still quite blurry.

There was no high KP forecast and the weather was mostly terrible as well. This was just one of those nights where you just have to be here and maybe you get lucky.

This year as been a tough year for northern lights here on Lofoten. I was lucky that each of my 5 winter workshops I guided this season had at least one night of northern lights, but on a couple occasions it wasn’t until the final night of the trip – the 2nd time was due to the trip with my Swiss group being cut short due to the sudden quarantine regulations here in Norway due to covid-19 and having to get them on the soonest possible flight out of Tromsø and back home before everything shut down.

The main difficulty this year was the weathe. It’s been endlessly windy and cloudy this year. It wasn’t even until March that I had seen the sun on 10 separate occasions. I’d say this was my least productive aurora season since moving here in February 2016. There’s still a few weeks left, so who knows what might happen…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2500
f 1.8
2 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #376 – Storm

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Photo: Hold fast, all storms pass. Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 20, 2020. 11:05

We bring in the spring equinox with the passing of another polar low pressure and gale force winds sweeping across Lofoten. But a bigger storm has already hit Norway and the rest of the world, something that will not pass so easily.

It was last Thursday evening that I walked into the restaurant in Hamn on Senja with my workshop group. The hotel manager immediately walked up to us and said we were all on quarantine (Well, I technically wasn’t since I haven’t been outside of Norway since last year), and the message was clear. The world had changed.

Information was difficult to find. Were they allowed to leave? Would they get fined for leaving? Did they have to sit for 14 days alone in their cabins? With every hour the situation changed. Soon Denmark closed its borders entirely, in which Norway soon followed, then the rest of Europe and the world.

With the workshop already ending on Sunday, the hotel situation in Tromsø was uncertain, we decided that they should rebook flights back to Switzerland for Saturday morning. And thus in the 5:00 morning darkness and blowing snow showers we began a silent journey towards the airport and everyone got on the flight out of Norway.

I had to remain in Tromsø another night. And after the initial panic of the first days, things seemed to have calmed a bit and other than Tromsø feeling like a ghost town and new regulations for entering stores and disinfecting hands, one might not have noticed that anything was happening.

But getting home was just one step of the journey. The real struggle will be surviving the next weeks and months. The travel industry has been completely decimated across Europe (and I’m sure the rest of the world). Within a week, Norway now has the highest unemployment since the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the Kroner’s value has fallen off a cliff. What the future will be or how long this will last, no one can say.

Best of luck to everyone out there. Hold fast!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
24mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/60 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #375 – Stortind Waterfall

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Photo: Mølnelva waterfall below Stortind, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 13, 2020. 15:24

It has been a strange winter photo season this year on Lofoten. The commonly popular places in former years – Uttakleiv, Haukland, Unstad, Reinehalsen overlook – seemed almost deserted at times, while more random and isolated places seem to have grown in popularity. Case in point, Mølnelva.

This small cascading river flowing across some slabby rocky just next to the E10 never seemed to popular in previous years. This year however, while I was out trying to take a couple last images for the update of Seasons on Lofoten: Winter ebook, it seemed to always have a crowd of photographers each time I drove by. It wasn’t until late on some stormy afternoon that I finally found the location deserted.

Perhaps it is a bit of confirmation bias – I was specifically looking at the river, so always noticed it was busy, while I’ve driven by it 1000’s of times before without paying much attention. But this wouldn’t be the only ‘lesser known’ location I’ve seen quite busy on Lofoten this winter photo season.

Maybe people are getting a little tired of the classic views and looking for something new. Maybe there’s some social media popularity about a certain location that I haven’t known about – though this mostly seems isolated to the Instagrammer drone flyers, who love to copy a shot once its been ‘found.’ As though it is some new discovery and hasn’t been there forever.

I don’t know…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 14-24 f/2.8
14mm
ISO 31
f 16
0.6 second
WB Daylight