Photo: Sailboat anchorage in summer twilight at Buvågen bay at Helle on the westernmost tip of Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  August 31, 2014.  21:48

Helle it the westernmost tip of Moskenesøy (and more of less Lofoten itself).  I’ve been wanting to get here for a few years and have tried to research any hiking routes, which would likely take several days over the steep mountains.  So when I learned visiting the location would probably be part of the summer sailing trip with Vertical Shot Expeditions I was a part of, I was quite excited.

We were racing an incoming storm to get here before bad weather arrived – the sea outside the bay is some of the roughest waters in Norway, with strong and turbulent currents.  The weather cooperated and we arrived on a brilliantly calm afternoon, with enough time to get out the following morning.

As evening came, we built a campfire on the shore and cooked up a big meal.  With the sky getting dark, I walked up a small hill to get one last view over the scene.  A little while later, northern lights were filling the sky as we rode the dinghy back to the boat.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
14mm
ISO 640
f 6.3
1/6 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Moonrise over Vestfjord from summit of Hermannsdalstind, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  August 23, 2013.  21:15

It was early evening by the time I arrived on the summit of Hermannsdalstind, the sun hanging low on the western horizon.  I didn’t really have much of a plan, other than I would sleep on the summit if possible, which I didn’t really know before arriving.  I had heard there was some place to put a tent, but if so, I didn’t find it.  Luckily for me though, the weather was calm, for Lofoten standards.  I found a mostly flat rock just below the summit, which didn’t look too easy to fall off of, and decided that is where I would sleep for the night.

With the sun setting into the Norwegian sea to the west, a near full moon was rising across the Vestfjord to the east.  The sky was becoming a little hazy, and the light wasn’t as brilliant as could be, but it was one of those ‘wow’ moments.

I go up into the mountain and suffer discomfort in an attempt to capture beautiful images of scenes that not many people will ever see.  Sometimes conditions work photographically and I come away with something nice.  But more often the moment of just being there is the reward for all the sweat of carrying a heavy backpack up a steep mountain.

It was only me up there, alone on the top of Lofoten, the surrounding world in perfect calm.  I only had a little water and a little food, but even without, the views for my eyes would have been enough to sustain me for the night.  Had the rain soon come, I would have been thankful for my few hours up there.  Some (many) moments are better in reality than photographs.

In our over saturated, super dynamic, focus stacked, and micro contrasted world which is the current state of online landscape photography, it is good to remember why we began our journeys to these places in the first part.  For the experience, for the adventure, for the being…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt+shift
85mm
ISO 200
f 8
1/25 second
WB Daylight
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