Friday Photo #229 – Ytresand Midnight Sun

Ytresand Midnight - Friday Photo #229

Photo: Moltind and Stortind reflect on Ytresand beach under the spring midnight sun, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 29, 2016. 23:48

In a few more days the midnight sun will arrive on Lofoten. And by midnight sun, I mean that the sun will not sink below the horizon. Which isn’t really at midnight either, but closer to 01:00, due to daylight savings time. But I guess midnight sun sounds more romantic than one-o’clock-in-the-morning-sun.

I always find spring to be a bit of a strange time of year for the senses. Or more specifically, the days and light are what I associate with summer, but the temperatures, especially this May on Lofoten, are closer to what I think of as winter. So I just need to make sure to brink my big jacket if I plan on sitting around the mountains all night long.

This evening had a layer of light clouds over the northern sky. Something that I normally hate during the day, as it causes a flat, boring light. But with the sun low on the horizon, it was just strong enough to for some nice, warm light to shine across the mountains.

At low tide, Ytresand beach has the potential for some nice reflections, and being just down the road from my house in Skjelfjord at the time, it was an easy location to get to for a quick photo or two. The mountains of Stortind (right) and Moltind (center-ish) form the dramatic ridgeline on central Flakstadøy.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
50mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/15 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #228 – Stornappstind Sunset

Stornappstind Sunset - Friday Photo #228

Photo: Last light over Stornappstind from Slettind, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 13, 2017. 22:24

The midnight sun is little more than a week away now, but I have already begun the transition to ‘night’ hiking. Though on off days, it feels a bit weird to stay up until 03:00 and wake up just before noon or so. Makes me feel like I’ve been out partying all night and then am waisting half the day, but I think I’m adjusting better than last year.

Slettind is now one of my ‘backyard’ mountains. Though there is no trail, a relatively easy grassy slope leads you up to the ridge at around 480 meters. Then some sheep trails and a few rock steps continue the way up to the 569 meter high summit. I have a feeling this will be a place I visit quite frequently, as the views are incredible.

Under the long hours of sunlight the snow is quickly melting out and the islands are beginning to turn green, though this year seems a bit on the late side, as temperatures have remained on the cooler side for much of May. However, in the mountains, it can still be full winter, and if you are planning on hiking anything inland or at elevation during the next few weeks, then you need to be prepared for winter hiking, not casual trail walking.

You can see the coastal side of Stornappstind is mostly melted out, while the high valley on the right side is still carrying a lot of snow. And the remaining snow is likely deeper area, while the shallow stuff covering rocks will be what has melted out first.

And another warning about rockfall. This is a dangerous time of year on Lofoten. Each time I drive the road to Leknes, there are new stones, and some of them quite large, which have fallen from the mountains above.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
15mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/15 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #221 – Skjelfjord Aurora

Skjelfjord Aurora - Friday Photo #221

Photo: Northern Lights over Skjelfjord, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 31, 2017. 22:56

Today is the last day of March, and with that, soon it will be the end of the aurora season here on Lofoten. Though there are still a couple weeks left, so don’t fear, if you just arrived!

Each day, the sun continues its journey to the north, the days growing by around 1 hour per week. And with the clocks having changed last weekend, I found myself driving home at dusk last night, only to look at my watch as see that it was almost 9:00 pm! And I hadn’t had dinner yet…

For photography, the days are getting long if you want sunrise, sunset, and northern lights all in the same day. However for life here in the north, it is perfect! The mountains are covered in snow and there is enough time to get up some pretty decent peaks during the week for those with normal working hours.

Back to the photo. I saw the aurora out my window, which from my house in Skjelfjord, doesn’t happen all that often due to the high mountains surrounding me. I headed out to drive around a little, but the aurora was glowing in a way that it filled almost the entire sky, and almost looked fake really – like I had just turned some clouds green in Photoshop! So I wasn’t really happy with anything I captured, until I drove home and parked in my driveway.

The aurora was beginning to increase a bit again, and with the fjord perfectly calm, the reflections were nice. So I walked over to a small jetty near my house and shot for a while. The lack of moonlight meant light pollution was something of an issue. But luckily the aurora was strong enough to overpower most of it, keeping the mountains greenish instead of mercury-lamp orange.

And the same as the aurora season is soon ending, so will my view of these mountains. I have exciting news that I will write about late.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 1600
f 3.2
8 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #214 – Skagsanden Winter

Friday Photo 214 - Skagsanden beach

Photo: Dusting of snow on Skagsanden beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 14, 2016. 11:10

In the last years one typically has to arrive first thing in the morning at any of the beaches to find them with a fresh, clean layer of snow before it has been walked across numerous times. Yet, on stormy winter days, with passing waves of snow sweeping across the islands, the beaches often get a nice reset to new conditions.

This particular days was a rather stormy one. The trick is to get to the location you want to shoot while it is still snowing and just wait until the clouds begin to pass. Just as the weather passed I headed down to the beach to look for something interesting.

The snow covering was light, and not interesting enough to me for that dramatic snowy beach look. However, as one approached the sea, the various layers began to form a nice pattern across the beach. I though this would make a nice leading line for the foreground, bringing the eye towards Hustind in the background.

Soon the next wave of clouds arrived and snow was sweeping across the beach again…

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

Friday Photo #212 – Flakstadpollen Winter

Lofoten Islands, Norway: Remaining snow at low tide in Flakstadpollen. Friday Photo #212 - 68 North. Lofoten Islands Photography and Travel

Photo: Snow formations in Flakstadpollen at low tide, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 16, 2016. 15:35

A day that had started with brilliant color (see Friday Photo 183) ended with the typical winter blue of heavy clouds over the snowy winter landscape.

With a heavy amount of snowfall in west Lofoten over the previous days, I had seen the possibly for this scene to form a few days previously. But with other places to go in better light, it had to wait for the right time. And more importantly, the right tide.

So in the fading darkness of late afternoon, I headed east from Ramberg to see if my intuition was correct. And it was. Often this area fills with cool and interesting ice formations, but the snow, which had partially melted away during the incoming tides, gave a slightly different look to the scene and interesting elements to use as a foreground.

The scene was utter chaos though, something which I don’t always work well with. So it took some time to find a composition that I felt wasn’t too busy and had a bit of direction to it. I’m not 100% sure if I succeeded, but I think the final result turned out ok.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/8 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #210 – Nesland Sun

Friday Photo #210 - Nesland Sun

Photo: Return of the sun! Nesland, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 12, 2017. 12:07

I was sitting down writing this text for another photo thursday morning, the sky grey and misty looking north towards Volandstind from my office window. Another indoor day I guessed. However, my empty tea cup took me on a trip to my kitchen, with southern facing windows. Sun! For the first time in more than a month!

I ran to my room, got dressed, grabbed my gear and hit the road. They sky was mostly full of clouds, so I knew I wouldn’t have much time. I first stopped just down the road in Skjelfjord, but there wasn’t enough light for a very interesting composition, so I headed around the corner to Nesland, and a little piece of coastline that has been pretty good to me over the winter.

The wind was blowing out of the south and the sea was nice and rough. I first tried a long exposure with a 6 stop ND filter. But requiring 10+ seconds, it was too long, and the sea lost its drama. Luckily it was still dark enough to get a second+ exposure with no ND filter – especially as I don’t have any for my 14-24 lens.

The dark rocks on the right side of the image feel a bit heavy to me and perhaps I could crop in a bit. But overall, not a bad image for a day I thought I would be tied to the computer…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
16mm
ISO 50
f 16
1.3 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #206 – Skjelfjord Polar Night

Friday Photo #206 - Lofoten Mørketid

Photo: Skjelfjord polar night, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 11, 2012. 12:23

Last weeks photo showed the normal weather Lofoten’s has been having for most of December so far. However, on Sunday, everything changed and the islands were silent and still. I was supposed to have gone to the mountains, and probably should have, but the views from my home were also good enough to keep me satisfied.

Skjelfjord runs almost perfectly north to south. In the height of summer, the midnight sun will pop into view for a few minutes around 01:00 am, shining through the low point in the mountains near the center of the image. Now in December, with the sun just below the southern horizon, the mountains receive a bit of glow around midday – assuming the horizon is clear.

I walked to this location, several times throughout the mid morning to mid afternoon as the light was constantly changing. I’m not sure if this is my favorite image of the day, but it illustrates what I want to show this week. That there is still light here, even with the winter solstice little more than a week away. After that, the days get longer again and we can greet the sun once again in early January…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
19mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/6 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #205 – Lofoten Mørketid

Friday Photo #20 - Lofoten Mørketid

Photo: Nesland coast, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 9, 2016. 12:01

This week was the begging of the winter mørketid, literally dark time, but otherwise known as the polar night. On Lofoten it occurs during the weeks around the winter solstice when the sun no longer rises above the horizon. And while there is no proper daylight, there are some hours of twilight around noon. And even now at the time of my writing, there is still some glow in the southern sky at 15:00.

The Islands have had pretty bad weather for the start of December, which is actually quite normal. Think 1-4˚C with lots of wind and rain. The heavy cloud cover of the last days makes it feel much dark than it really is, and even getting up at 10:00 feels like an early start to the day! I feel myself slowly going into a hibernation mode, quite of opposite of the insomnia during the midnight sun period of summer.

It was a strong north wind blowing down the fjord today, but I figured I would have a little shelter down the road in Nesland, so I headed there. I was trying to shoot an image that showed what the sky looked like, but the only expanses of clear sky were over the open water to the south, and thus not very interesting compositionally. Luckily there were some holes in the clouds as they swept in from the north, so I did my best to show a bit of sky in the best composition I could find.

Hopefully I’ll come up with something better for next week…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 50
f 14
25 seconds
WB Daylight
6 stop B+W ND filter
2 images – top, bottom

Friday Photo #202 – Skagsanden Aurora

Friday Photo #202 - Skagsanden Aurora

Photo: Northern lights over Skagsanden beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 16, 2016. 20:33

With a full moon rising into the October night, the clear evening sky erupted into a brilliant aurora. I had just finished dinner and looked out the window; seeing a hit of green in the sky, I knew it was time to go!

By the time I arrived at Skagsanden beach, only a five minute drive from my house, the aurora was beginning to pickup. A few minutes later, they sky exploded with color.

The combination of full moon and bright aurora meant I could keep a relatively fast shutter speed and low ISO, yet still maintain enough detail in both the sky and foreground.

In the coming winter months, this will be one of the most photographed beaches for northern lights, with lines of tripods setup across the beach. So it is a bit peaceful to have the place to myself during the late days of autumn, when the islands are still and quiet.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 1600
f 3.2
3 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #196 – Tønsåsheia Sunrise

Friday Photo 196 - Tønsåsheia

Photo: Autumn sunrise from Tønsåsheia, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 23, 2016. 07:13

My tent was shaking in the wind as dawn approached. Having stayed up past midnight in an unsuccessful attempt at northern lights, my 05:30 alarm hit me like a wall; part of me secretly hoping for no light and an excuse to stay in my sleeping bag. But as I unzipped the tent and saw the orange glow on the easter horizon, I knew I couldn’t be lazy. I closed my eyes for another few minutes, then began to get dressed.

It was a cold and windy morning. As the sun neared the horizon I could see clouds begin to form over Stjerntind to the north, the highest peak on Flakstadøy. I went about wandering and shooting across the broad flat plateau of Tønsåshei, trying my best to take shelter from the cold east wind. Soon I noticed the clouds beginning to move lower and lower.

What I thought would be a relatively nice, but somewhat boring sunrise quickly turned into a fantastic show of swirling clouds all around me in the golden light of dawn. Every second different from the previous or the following. It was one of those times where you have to keep shooting the same scene over and over again, afraid to put down the camera.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
130mm
ISO 125
f 8
1/200 second
WB Daylight