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Friday Photo #184 – Ramberg Beach

Friday Photo 184 - Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Ramberg beach from Nubben, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 29, 2016. 18:55

I’m slowly working on my next Lofoten ebook, and the view from Nubben, will be part of it. A small rock outcropping rising above Ramberg, there are fantastic views over Ramberg beach – also if you hike out to the edge of the mountain on the right side of the photo.

I would not label myself a typical landscape photographer, who typically only shoots in dramatic light with the sun low on the horizon. I like to shoot everything! And sometimes, a summer day is just a nice time to be out, it needs a clear blue sky and bright light. I often label these days ‘too good for photos days.’ Days when it’s simply enough to sit outside and enjoy the weather, and maybe get a little sunburn in the 24 hours of daylight.

For this site, I think it’s important to show some ‘normal’ sides of Lofoten. Too often I get shown examples of once-in-a-decade lighting conditions, with the person wondering when they can shoot such photos. It creates a bit of an unrealistic goal for someone to achieve in a week, much less a couple of day, which could very well rain the whole time!

For this image, I really should have been up the mountain a bit earlier – the clouds were slow to burn off.  The sun is just off camera to the left in this scene. It works okay here, however, as I headed out to the edge of the hill, forcing me to shoot more left, any decent compositions became too backlit, with the sun in the corner of the frame. One of two hours earlier would have been better in this particular case

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
35mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/250 second
WB Daylight
4 image panoramic

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Friday Photo #183 – Volandstind

Friday Photo 183 - Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Volandstind winter sunrise, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 16, 2016. 08:05

Last week’s Friday Photo was a view of this same peak, Volandstind, but from summer and taken just out of frame on the left of this image. But it’s an example of how perspective on Lofoten can change so quickly – the mountain becoming a steep pyramid in this photo, whereas, if viewed from the side, it is actually a flat mountain ridge.

This image was taken during my photo workshop in February. We had stopped on the nearby bridge to photograph the distant peaks of Moskenesøy, but I could see the light quickly changing and knew this would be a good image. So I ran back to the van to quickly get to this vantage point. The light lasted about 5 minutes before it moved away from the scene.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 100
f 11
1/13 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #181 – Hestraeva

Hestraeva - Lofoten Islands

Photo: Five minutes till midnight on the summit of Hestræva, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 5, 2016. 23:55

The summer solstice has now passed us and the sun will once again begins its journey south. However, here on Lofoten, we have several more weeks of the midnight sun until it once again sinks below the horizon in mid July. The term Midnight sun, while romantic sounding, isn’t quite accurate. While the sun is above the horizon at midnight, the lowest point isn’t until near 01:00, and it remains well above the horizon even then. Summer on Lofoten is a sun that never sets.

This image is from a few weeks back in early June while spending a still evening on the summit of Hestræva. A light layer of cloud was hovering over the northern horizon, casting a soft, golden sunlight as the sun grew low on the horizon.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
38mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/30 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #178 – Volandstind

Volandstind, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Spring hike on Volandstind, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 31, 2016. 14:03

The midnight sun has arrived in the north with the snow is melting fast while the spread of green creeps higher and higher up the mountains. There have been some fantastic summer days in May thus far, and I’ve already complained of the heat on more than one occasion. Perhaps I didn’t more far enough north! 😉

But with summer just around the corner, it is now my time to head into the mountains over the next months and start gathering the data and photos for the next series of hiking guides and ebooks. And now that I’m getting more settled in to life on the islands, I’m finally beginning to realize that I don’t need to rush. There will be another sunny day and the sun won’t set for 6 more weeks.

Heading up Volandstind the other day the weather was a bit wild. Layers of cloud were spinning across the mountains and fjords – with the actual summit of Volandstind just in the cloud, unfortunately. However, the route up was mostly cloud free, which provided a spectacular overview across the surrounding, surreal looking landscape.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
28mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
1/600 seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #176 – Spring Aurora

April Northern Lights - Lofoten Islands

Photo: Spring Aurora, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 1, 2016. 22:03

This is the final image from my 2016 northern lights season on Lofoten – though there were some displays afterwards, so it wasn’t the last of Lofoten in general.

Overall, having been on Lofoten since early February, I would call in a below average northern lights season for me. There were many clear nights this February and March, but the sky seemed to be quite, something which can be quite frustrating while waiting on top of a mountain in otherwise perfect weather. Perhaps I’m just getting a little more picky in the images I want to create – simply seeing a faint green glow on the horizon no longer excites me – I want to creating dynamic and exciting images of the lights.

With the nights no longer dark, I’ll be eagerly waiting till autumn for my next chances of camping under the dancing sky.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
16mm
ISO 1250
f 4
25 seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #167 – Skagsanden Beach Winter

Small river running through snow on Skagsanden beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: River flowing across Skagsanden beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 17, 2015. 12:09

Skagsanden is one of Lofoten’s most popular beaches among photographers these days.  The nice thing about winter is that a light dusting of snow overnight will cover up the traces of everyone who has been there before you.

This soft pastel light is a common occurrence in January as the sun is barely able to rise above the horizon. Instead of focusing on the beach itself, I found this stream running through the snow covered sand to be much more interesting.

The one thing that distracts me is the mountain in the background, I wish the river had been flowing a bit more to the left. But this is nature, and I cannot change things – though some might. Though I think this is a philosophy among landscape photographers who see themselves as the most important element of the image, and want to show what ‘they experienced;’ Whether that reflects what was actually in front of them or not.

Perhaps I lack the confidence to add such a strong vision to my images, and I often think of myself as just a simple observer, seeing if there’s anything interesting to photograph.

One of these years I will come back and things will be as I imagined. Patience…

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 100
f 11
13 seconds
WB Daylight
3 images: top, middle, bottom

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Friday Photo #166 – Flakstadøy Coast

Rocky coastline of Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: High tide along the rocky northern coast of Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 12, 2015.  16:46

Having already photographed sunset at Å an hour earlier, I was headed east looking for a place to park the car and sleep for the night. As I passed Ramberg, there was still a nice winter blue hour glow to the sky and so not yet ready for dinner, I headed to this section of rocky coastline near Skagsanden beach.

The tide was high and the waves were big enough that I could get a nice view across to Hustinden, rising in the distance.  The color was gone from the islands, but I think the texture and shape of this scene work better as a B&W (blue and white) image.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 31
f 11
13 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images: top, bottom

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Friday Photo #157 – Flakstadøy Coast

Rocky coastline of Flakstadøy overlooking Nappstraumen, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Crashing waves on Flakstadøy coast, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 18, 2015; 10:19

Beyond the beaches on the east side of Flakstadøy, there are near endless possibilities of other coastal scenes. This section of coast, before reaching Storsandnes, was particularly nice on this day as the bigger waves carried just enough strength to wash over the flat, coastal rocks.

Though I often shoot 2 image with a tilt-shift lens for the square crop, this image a bit rare for me in that I utilized separate exposures for each image. for the waves, I wanted a nice flow of water, but still a bit of detail and not a totally soft and milky look, so I use a 1 second exposure. However, for the sky, I wanted a bit of softening of the clouds, so I exposed at 10 seconds for the upper image. I could have gone longer, but shooting 2 images always takes a bit of extra time, and I usually end up having to run away from a bit wave multiple times while shooting, so I need to work fast…

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24mm f/3.5
24mm
f 13
ISO 31
1 second, 10 seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #154 – Hustind Winter Hike

Winter climber ascending steep snow covered slopes towards summit of Hustind, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter climb of Hustind, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 21, 2015; 13:39

The weather was bad basically everywhere on Lofoten this day, however, with my friend Till having just arrived on the islands from Germany, we were looking to head somewhere into the mountain. Hustind seemed like a good option.

One of Lofoten’s more iconic peaks as the background of the popular Skagsanden beach, the summit is a rather lonely place much of the time, and even more so in winter.  With passing waves of snow and no trail to follow, the route simply takes you up, until reaching the top.

This photo is from about mid way, as the mountain begins to steepen before reaching the summit.  In the background, the next wave of clouds and snow are approaching, which would envelop us shortly after arriving on the summit, leaving us in a white-out until we descended back down the mountain.

You can checkout a summer hiking guide for Hustind HERE.

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 400
f 8
1/400 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #150 – Storsandnes Beach Winter

Winter twilight at Storsandnes beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Winter blue hour reflection at Storsandnes beach, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  January 19, 2015; 15:03

Friday photo #150 – Wow! Little more than a month away from 3 years of this. Not sure how I have managed, but I have. And I hope you guys have been finding these posts a useful look at what might exist behind an image, otherwise I’ve wasted a lot of time! 🙂

I’ve previously written about how I seem to have a regular rotation of locations I go over a series of years. For the past few years I have been visiting Storsandnes quite frequently. This image is from the final evening of a winter photo tour with Muench Workshops which I was guiding in January.  With a light dusting of fresh snow of the beach, we spent several hours from late afternoon until darkness.

I always think the winter blue hour on Lofoten has a special feel to it, especially as the mountains seem to glow so bright agains the sky, it is almost like they have their own light from within.

I have also chosen a beach image this week as I will hopefully announce the release of my 3rd Lofoten ebook in a few more days. Can you guess what it will be about? Did you guess Lofoten’s beaches?

I was intending for it to be a mini guide, but this wouldn’t have done proper justice to the variety of beaches which Lofoten has. And then including images from winter, summer, spring, and autumn, the book is now over 130 photos and over 12,000 words for the first draft. So it’s looking like it might be my biggest book yet!

PS: If you’re on my email list you will get a 25% discount for a limited time… 🙂

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
42mm
f 13
ISO 40
2.5 seconds
WB Daylight

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