Friday Photo #541 – Common Gull

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Photo: Common Gull swoops in for attack, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 31, 2021. 21:53

With summer just around the corner, many of Lofoten’s migratory birds will have chosen their nesting sites and begin laying eggs. In my valley, I can already see dozens of pairs of mostly common gulls spread out across the moorland. Every once in a while when something passes through, they will scatter to the sky in a flurry of noise and commotion.

Most of the migratory bird species on Lofoten are ground nesting: the various gull types, arctic skuas, oystercatchers, curlews, geese, and more. The result is the parents can have various levels of aggression when one passes too closely – particularly the arctic skuas, which might actually physically contact you, while most of the others just do a near flyby.

If you are just passing though an area, then there is not too much to be done, but do keep an eye out of where you are walking to hopefully avoid stepping on a nest full of eggs. The most common nesting areas are in the wild, coastal heather terrain which offers plenty of cover. But not all birds are this smart, and if you’re walking around the villages in late June, its likely you’ll see fresh chicks walking around the sidewalks and harbours at times.

If you are camping however, it is best that you pay attention to any annoyed birds. Camping too close to a nest will cause the parents to keep away, which might cause the eggs never to hatch, or, allow predators like stoats to approach and eat them. I’ve seen a few abandoned nests, still with eggs, in areas where it was obvious people had been frequently camping over the summer.

Just something to keep in mind while out enjoying Lofoten’s nature.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
135mm
ISO 400
f 4.5
1/800 Second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #534 – Clear And Cold

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Photo: Clear blue sky and crisp winter air over partially frozen shoreline of Flakstadpollen at low tide, Kilan, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 28, 2023. 11:20

It is the last day of what as been a wonderfully cold and (mostly) calm March. The best extended period of winter weather that I can remember for several years. If you have been traveling Lofoten during the last weeks, you’ve been lucky – especially compared to the terrible weather during January and February this year.

Last year, March saw an extended warm period for most of the month, ending up with an average temperature 2.5˚c above normal, of 0.1˚c. I won’t see the weather average for this March until tomorrow, but I would not be surprised if the average comes in at 3-4 degrees below average. The average temperature on the day of this photo was -5.2˚c, whereas 0.8˚c should be Normal. And while it’s easy for one day to be an anomaly, so far 13 days this march have had temperatures fall below -10˚c, with the coldest temperature recorded at -15.3˚c. So far, only 3 days this March have had an average temperature above 0˚c. Though it has now warmed substantially since yesterday as the cold weather finally seems to have broken with the arrival of April.

Looking over the weather across the years often brings me back to questions about or suggestions for the ‘best time to visit’ Lofoten. The reality is: it is an unanswerable question. Or at least not answerable if you need to make your travel plans more than a few weeks ahead. March 2022 and March 2023 have almost been completely different seasons; with 2022 feeling like early spring and 2023 being a winter wonderland with deep snow from sea to summit. What will next year bring? Nobody knows. And don’t trust anyone who tries to suggest otherwise. With Lofoten’s weather, you won’t know what you get until you arrive here and see…

With that said. I am looking forward to spring and warm sunny days!

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
15mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/500 Second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #532 – March Cold

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Photo: March sunset over Hornet, Myrland, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 12, 2023. 17:01

After what had been a mostly stormy and rainy January and February, March has brought a long winter cold spell to Lofoten – in other words, perfect winter weather! Since March 5, the temperatures have remained below freezing, with generous amounts of snow over the islands. And the forecast for the coming week looks to see this trend continue.

March traditionally should be the most ‘winter’ month on Lofoten. Though the last years have brought a somewhat mild March, especially last year when it felt like spring had already arrived by now. So it is nice to finally have a proper March again, and once I finish up with my last workshop of the winter season this week, hopefully there is still plenty of snow for my ski season to begin!

Beyond the overall nice weather of the last weeks, the days are also becoming quite long as the sun rises higher and higher in the sky. This is the period I generally refer to as ‘light winter – as opposed to ‘dark winter,’ which would be from December until mid February. By now, the days feel more ‘normal’ for those from lower latitudes and the feeling of the short days is over. Ignoring the snow covered mountains rising from the sea, the days now don’t feel any different than at some ski resort in the Alps, for example.

As the light winter progresses and Lofoten gains around one hour of daylight per week, we’ve now also entered the final countdown for aurora season – with about 4 weeks left until the night sky has brightened into the twilight nights of mid April. And then, another 4 weeks from then, the midnight sun!

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
24mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/20 Second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #527 – Winter Storm

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Photo: Crashing waves at Myrland beach during winter storm, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 8, 2023. 12:56

I powerful storm swept over Lofoten on Wednesday causing damage and road closures across the islands. Included in the damage was a smashed rear window on my van – not sure if caused by wind alone or if something hit it. Either way, it was a shock to walk outside Thursday morning, happing that my road had now opened after several days of closure, only to see my van filled with glass and snow. It then took most of the morning and afternoon to come up with a temporary solution until it can get properly fixed in two weeks.

Some of the highest windspeeds recorded Wednesday were 47.3 m/s at Svolvær airport, 39.2 m/s on Skrova, and 37.5 at Leknes airport. Just for reference, hurricane speed winds are anything over 33 m/s. So it was a windy day on Lofoten! But beyond the wind, the warm southern air also brought torrential rain, with one location on Austvågøy measuring 229.6mm of rain in 24 hours.

For Lofoten and safety, this is considered ‘stay at home’ weather. Ferries, flights, and buses were canceled. And the E10 was closed by rock slides and landslides in several location, isolating parts of Lofoten. Also in such windy conditions, lots of pieces of buildings can be blowing around, making it dangerous for both driving and walking. On my drive to Stamsund this morning to fix my window, I could see a lot of debris near the road which had blown from somewhere.

Even if you can’t speak Norwegian, it can be a good idea to checkout the local newspapers (Lofotposten or Lofot-Tidende) and their facebook groups if you see in your weather forecast that a big storm is approaching. These storms are generally forecast and observed for several days before they hit Lofoten, so the local papers will send out warnings and announcements when necessary. Any road closures with be shown on the traffic information map on Statens Vegvesen’s website.

But, as wild as the storm was in reality, without any visual reference, many the ocean for Lofoten, the storms don’t actually look that stormy in photos. I was on the wrong side of the islands to photograph the biggest of the waves, and I would only consider the waves in the above photo as medium: visually somewhat stormy yes, but not too powerful or high. This image is a complete failure to represent to ferocity of the day.

Additionally, when Lofoten receives such weather, the sky is often just grey. Boring flat grey. And in this case, filled with rain. Had I not included a moderately stormy looking beach in the foreground and just photographed some mountains instead, it would look like it was just taken on a boring rainy day.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
60mm
ISO 1000
f 5.0
1/400 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #524 – Stortind Winter

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Photo: Stortind mountain peak rises over snow covered sand during low tide in inner Flakstadpollen, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 16, 2022. 11:16

By ‘normal’ weather standards, this past December was a good one. Starting out dry and cold, a couple passing storms put down a good layer of snow before quickly clearing to calm and cold weather again. It wasn’t until the holidays when a warm spell arrived, bringing windy rain across the islands.

Looking at the weather data below for 2022, you can see the last two Decembers have been abnormally dry, receiving only about 50% of expected precipitation. However, within the two Decembers themselves, 2021 was largely better during the 2nd half of the month, while 2022 was better during the beginning and middle of the month. This is more or less a small look at what happens throughout the year as well.

If one were to seek advice online about when its best to visit Lofoten, summer often gets the top choice – especially among non-photographers. This is sometimes true and sometimes not. Looking at 2022 you can see several spikes of warm weather, but an overall cool summer. You can also see the June and July had slightly above rainfall. And then August, which turned out to be the second wettest month of the year, with nearly triple the normal rainfall. And following with the normally wet and rainy September, it seems like the year1s quota of rain must have fallen in August, making September one of the driest months of the year.

What’s my point to all this? Nothing really. Or simply to illustrate the difference between what the weather should do, and what the weather actually does. Like everywhere else in the world, sometimes the weather is better than average, and sometimes worse. But you won’t know which until you get here and look out the windows.

Though a tip, mostly for those on road trips with a planned stop to Lofoten. Keep an eye on the weather before your planned visit, and this applies to the rest of Norway as well. If you can seen just a constant flow of rain and storms sweeping across Lofoten, try to adjust your plans if possible, or potentially skip Lofoten overall for a destination with improved weather. And the reverse can also be true, with southern Norway having the bad weather and then you should race north to Lofoten’s sun.

I myself use this tactic when planning short road trips around (northern) Norway or longer hiking trips over in Sweden. I generally try to give myself a rough timeframe of when I was to visit a place, and then keep an eye on the weather until the time seems right. In the last years I’ve tried to spend a bit more time down along the Helgeland coast south of Bodø. But the summer’s have left me checking the weather forecasts daily, hoping for a week of good weather. In the last years, I’ve had to settle for maybe 2-3 days of hopefully not terrible weather, between otherwise seemingly endless weeks of rain. Hopefully summer 2023 turn out better!

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
14mm
ISO 100
f 10
0.4 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #521 – Calm Between Storms

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Photo: Winter blues of the polar night on Christmas day, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 25, 2022. 12:56

The peaks of Himmeltindan rise into the pastel blues of twilight on Christmas afternoon in a rare moment of calm weather in the last week. Lofoten has been in full winter mode for several weeks now, and with that has been near daily storms and the usual flight and ferry cancelations. Even all the local buses were canceled this morning.

Although I miss the calm weather of the first half of December, the current storms are actually much more normal at this time of year. The holidays have seen Lofoten briefly filled with tourists and I see many of them walking the streets of Leknes in the noon twilight and blowing snow wondering what they have gotten themselves into. Although there has also been brief moments of dancing northern lights if one looked out the window at th right time.

The weather systems look like they will continue blowing across Lofoten over the weekend and into the new year. A friend and I had discussed plans for a midnight hike on new year’s eve to watch to fireworks from the mountains, but looking at the current forecast, a warm fire and whisky will probably be a better idea!

Now over a week past the winter solstice, I can slowly sense the days lasting longer – still not that long though! But soon it will be time to wait for the correct weather and head out for my fist glimpse of sunlight of the year. Although as I’ve previously written (Friday Photo #519), my last sighting of the sun this year was December 11th, so it not that long ago, and better than many years.

With the storms also usually come slightly warmer temperatures, and that is how the current forecast looks for the next week. Though with the existing snow base currently on Lofoten, it will take a prolonged period of heavy rain before most of the sea level snow even melts. So I’m cautiously optimistic that 2023 will be a good winter on Lofoten – both visually for my photo workshops and physically for lots of skiing. But of course like all things weather related in northern Norway, only time will tell…

Happy New Year from Lofoten! See you in 2023 and year 10(!!) of Friday Photo weekly ramblings.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
53mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/5 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #520 – Moonlight Aurora

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Photo: Moonlight and aurora over Nappstraumen, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 11, 2022. 16:31

While the sun remains below the horizon during the polar night of December, the opposite effect can happen with the moon, which may remain completely above the horizon through its orbit. Often times I can forget about the moon during winter due to the cloudy weather, but this year the weather has been abnormally nice thus far, so in early December a bright moon was shining in the sky over Lofoten.

In very simplified terms, a full moon occurs when the moon is 180˚ opposite the sun. In sub arctic locations, a full moon typically rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. North of the arctic circle, the orbit of the sun and moon is flattened out. And with the sun below the horizon in for most of December, the moon’s orbit may allow it to remain slightly above the horizon at its lowest point. On the day of this image, the lowest position of the moon was 3.15˚ above the northern horizon at 11:45. At the time this image was taken at 16:31, the moon had risen to 4.8˚ degrees.

I generally quite like moonlight in my aurora images. Though this year, the full moon seemed somewhat intent on disturbing me during several northern lights shoots as it was high in the southern sky, which resulted in my shadow being cast northwards onto the foreground of a couple locations I tried to shoot from. Not a big deal, but it sometimes happens and I can’t move the aurora to another part of the sky!

On this day though, the aurora already started quite early in the afternoon. And instead of the moon being behind me, it was directly in the aurora itself. With the bright reflection shining across the dark water of Nappstraumen, I thought this was actually a somewhat interesting image that I’ve never taken before.

The exposure was slightly tricky, to balance out the reflection of the moon, northern lights, and the almost black sea. Luckily the moon was still fairly low on the horizon and dimmed a bit from some distant haze so the image was still possible with a single exposure. A little later I went to one of my nearby beaches, but by then the moon had moved to a somewhat awkward position compositionally, and was now far too bright, blowing out the reflections on the waves and wet beach.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 1000
f 2.2
2 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #516 – November Twilight

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Photo: Gentle waves flow over Myrland beach in soft pastel twilight light of afternoon in November, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 16, 2022. 14:41

Now with over 500 Friday photo posts going back nearly 10 years, I’m sure I’m repeating myself again when I say the current year often seems to have opposite weather from the previous. Often this involves worse weather (this July/August), but sometimes we do get lucky, and so far for November this year, that is holding out. It seems it rained so much up north this summer that the sky finally ran out.

I’ve actually only been back on Lofoten about a week now after a trip over to Scotland for the last few weeks. But in these few, and short, days, I’ve already seen more sun than the previous two Novembers combined! Lofoten has been lucky with clear and calm days this week, which if the forecast is correct, will (mostly) carry on for at least a little while longer.

With the sun low on the southern horizon, much of the day is filled with pastel twilight colors, especially so on the northern side of Lofoten where the sun doesn’t quite reach anymore. In a couple more weeks, as Lofoten enters the Polar Night, twilight is all we will have – similar to this image, taken about a half hour after sunset.

I unfortunately haven’t had much time for hiking as I’m busy catching up with work after what has been a busy autumn with me mostly out of the house since the middle of August. Normally I spend most of this time of year working on writing projects and hiking guide updates on the website. And normally the sideways November rain and wind is an aid to that process. But at the moment looking out the window is quite distracting! At least I can manage to wander down to the beach for a couple images between emails and Excel spreadsheets and image keywording…

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
14mm
ISO 31
f 10
1 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #513 – Sea Eagle

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Photo: Sea Eagle sitting on rock, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 3, 2021. 13:56

I think with any wildlife image I post I state that I have little to no skill as a wildlife photographer – I’m far too lazy to ever get far with that type of photography and basically just look like a dude with a point-and-shoot camera compared to work I see many people putting out on a regular basis. With that being said, I will take the opportunity to try with it presents itself.

In this case, I’m typically in the habit of driving around with my old D850 + telephoto lens attached when going about on my normal daily tasks on Lofoten. And then, every once in the while on my way to or from home I might catch one of the neighbourhood sea eagles sitting on one off the coastal rocks.

I learned in my few early attempts that if it even looked like I was slowing my van down for a closer look that they would quickly fly away. So now if I spot an eagle on a rock I know to drive around the corner and park out of sight, quickly grab my camera, then do my best to sneak up on the far side of the road. This typically works with moderate success, and I’ll get a shot of an eagle, such as this one, from time to time.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6
500mm
ISO 250
f 5.6
1/1600 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #512 – Autumn Mountains

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Photo: Mountain peaks rise into misty clouds, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 5, 2022. 16:47

I was in the Flakstad ‘swamp’ on a rainy October afternoon looking to capture the last of this years autumn color, which after a few passing storms, had quickly faded from the landscape. The wind was mostly calm, but the frequent passing rain showers kept breaking up the reflections on the small ponds I was attempting to use as foregrounds.

The higher peaks were mostly in the clouds, but as the showers passed, they would become visible from time to time. Mostly having given up on reflections, I looked for something else to use as the foreground, and so I looked for a bit of colourful autumn foliage. As the peaks of Bjørntind emerged from the clouds, I thought I would give this composition a try.

Since moving to the mirrorless Nikon Z7 II last year, I’ve only had the 24-200 f/4-6.3 as my ‘normal’ focal length lens. While I love it for for its light weight for hiking and backpacking, I do wish it was a bit faster for a shallower depth of field. In this image for example, I wish I could have shot at f/2.8, for example, to have the foreground properly out of focus and just a blur of color. Here, I think there is still too much detail in the various leaves, and not abstract enough in my opinion.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-200mm f/4-63.3
46mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1/50 second
WB Daylight