Photo: Mountains of the ‘Lofoten Wall’ rise from the sea while traveling on the Bodø – Moskenes ferry, April 24, 2025. 19:52

20 hours after I should have originally been home from a short trip to Scotland, Lofoten’s mountain wall was finally growing larger as the ferry approached Moskenes harbor. The pervious day I had not planned to be on the ferry as I flew into Evenes airport where my van was parked. Unfortunately though, I large rockfall across the E10 just west of the intersection to Henningsvær meant I could not make the 4 hour drive from the airport and would instead need to make a long detour via Bodø.

I generally don’t like to fly from Evenes during winter and the weather is too unreliable and the driving conditions often difficult. Last year after dropping off clients I made it past a stuck semi-truck only minutes before what resulted in an 6 hour road closure in blizzard like conditions. Long winter journeys in northern Norway always bring a bit of uncertainty if they will go as planned. And this week, despite the weather almost being spring-like, things did not go to plan.

Rock slides of such, while rare, do happen every couple years here on Lofoten. As I was sitting in Oslo I still wasn’t sure what my plan would be. Normally I would have had some camping gear in my van and could just wait things out for a day or two by making a short road trip to Vesterålen or somewhere else. But unfortunately for me, I had been lazy after a long winter guiding season, and had not converted my van back to road-trip mode. Stupid mistake.

As they were uncertain with the actual opening dates for the road, but said it would likely be today at the earliest, I decided the best plan of action would be to stay at the airport hotel in Evenes and then make the 6 hour journey to Bodø in the morning. Snow showers were in the weather forecast, though the roads remained mostly snow free for the long and winding drive and so I made pretty good time to Bodø – with enough spare time for a quick stop at Bilthema. Once on the ferry I could tell I was not the only one making the long detour around the road closure – and the waiting line in Moskenes at arrival also looked overly full for a random day in late April.

Once on the ferry it was announced that the road would open at 21:30 that evening, so I could have driven back directly and just sat some hours in Svolvær had I know this. But I didn’t. And for people leaving Lofoten, there is only one ferry per day while on the winter schedule, so you had to commit to the ferry already before the info got out about the opening of the road.

And my 4 hour drive turned into a 21 hour detour through northern Nordland and a calm sailing across the Vestfjorden – which I seem to be doing a lot in recent years as I spend more time down along the Helgeland coast and Islands.

Snow showers were passing intermittently and I was hoping that the ferry’s arrival on Lofoten would be timed with some backlit snow from the evening sun. But the snow showers were too far to the east or had already passed before arrival, so I was presented with the south faces of the mountains in shadows and the sun shining from overhead. I should have switched to longer telephoto lens and focused in a bit more on the backlit blowing snow on the ridges. And even this image is somewhat cropped to remove the sun out of the top of the frame, but I still feel there is too much water in the foreground which doesn’t add much to the scene.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
120mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/3200 Second
WB Daylight

Photo: Olstind mountain peak rises over a frozen Reinefjord, Toppøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 7, 2024. 10:16

It is not so often that Lofoten is still enough or cold enough for a large portion of Reinefjord to begin to freeze over. From a higher view point, I could see that the surface was frozen well across towards Olstind peak, which rises in the distance.

Luckily my group arrived at the location before anyone else this day, so we had a clean, footprint free, foreground to work with, should it be wanted in the composition. Which in this case I’m not 100% sure about, and also shot a number of images looking for interesting patterns in the frozen fjord as a foreground.

Either way, it is always better to be cautious with a nice fresh layer of snow and not rush too quickly towards the most immediately obvious composition, ruining potentially better compositions you might not have immediately seen. The same applies to beaches, where too many times have I seen people immediately walk into the scene without first doing a bit of study, and walking through better compositions. It is good to slow down and look around a bit. Footprints don’t disappear once there…

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
22mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/80 Second
WB Daylight

Photo: Photographers stand shoulder to shoulder on Hamnøy bridge during sunrise, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 12, 2024. 08:43

With February arriving tomorrow Lofoten’s winter photography workshop season will be kicking into high gear. Over the next two months thousands of photographers will stand shoulder to shoulder on this bridge, rain or shine, sunrise or sunset, dancing aurora or full blizzard. Sometimes I think to myself that there is probably at least 1 photographer on the bridge 24/7. And no doubt with my first tour of the year having just started, I’ll spend many hours on this bridge myself over the months.

The Lofoten locals themselves will record many videos of the crowds as they pass over the bridge and a few of the more crowded days will get posted to the local facebook groups, gaining a slew of comments about all the crazy things tourists do on Lofoten’s roads. And so far this winter the roads have been a wrecking house for rental cars – worse than I have ever seen with multiple daily crashes becoming a regular occurrence, unfortunately.

And this bridge can be a dangerous location as too many people are disrespectful and ignorant of the fact that they are standing on the side of a road, the E10, Lofoten’s main highway and the route many of the winter fish take from the islands towards the ferry at Moskenes. Many times myself, I find I’m having to play traffic cop for oblivious tourists standing in the middle of the road, hood scrunched over their face as a snow plow, bus, or truck heavy with fish is heading down the icy bridge towards them. And then the honking and yelling from the drivers begin…

So, as with every year, please be respectful when visiting Lofoten this winter. It is in fact, not Disneyland. It is a place where thousands of people live and work, and would like to be able to safely drive the roads to do so.

Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
23mm
ISO 320
f 2.6
1/80 Second
WB Daylight