Friday Photo #205 – Lofoten Mørketid

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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

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Friday Photo #202 – Skagsanden Aurora

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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

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Friday Photo #196 – Tønsåsheia Sunrise

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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

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Friday Photo #192 – September Aurora

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Friday Photo 192 - Northern Lights

Photo: Autumn northern lights, Flakstadøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 2, 2016. 23:22

Last Friday was the beginning of the northern lights season for me here on Lofoten. There had been a few displays during the last days of August, but I was always too busy to go out shooting. But as Friday rolled around, with a forecast for calm and clear weather – something a bit rare these last weeks, I knew it would by my chance for the first aurora of the season.

I first started the night at Skagensanden beach, near Ramberg. But as the first aurora began to appear in the sky, I immediately knew I was in the wrong position, with the lights forming behind the beach, in a location that wasn’t very photogenic.

I immediately headed to Ytresand beach, which basically points towards Skagsenden, and the location of the aurora. I missed the first large outburst as I was driving, but I caught some nice lights and shot a time-lapse for about 30 minutes before deciding to move to another location during a dim period.

I had seen the water was calm near the Fredvang bridges as I was initially driving out, and so I headed there to see if I could find anything interesting. Shortly after I arrived and setup my camera, the sky exploded with light! So bright that I over exposed my first shot, not having changed setting from my previous exposures. While I wasn’t completely happy with the foreground, and the small bit of power lines off the the left of the frame (most people would just edit this out probably), the aurora was good enough that I stayed until they calmed down again.

Truthfully, I don’t know anything about KP levels or any of the technical stuff. It seems to be a fascination among some photographers to label their shots KP 6, or whatever. I don’t know or care too much. I just compare what is immediately in front of my eyes to what I’ve stored in my memory. Friday night was a good one. I’m glad I was there to photograph it.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 800
f 4
8 seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #184 – Ramberg Beach

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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