Photo: Northern lights – aurora borealis shine in sky over red cabins of Eliassen Rorbuer, Hamnøy, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 19, 2023. 23:30

The arrival of mid April means the end of aurora season on Lofoten. By next weekend the sky will no longer be dark enough for the northern lights to be visible as the sun continues its journey towards the northern horizon.

Overall, this year has been a pretty good year for northern lights. My season started on August 27th while just outside of Kvikkjokk in Sweden before heading out to hike sections of the Padjelantaleden and Kungsleden trails (eBooks available here). Once back in Norway, the aurora continued on a fairly regular basis throughout the autumn and into early winter. Some heavy weather arrived with the beginning of photo workshop season in mid January, but every group managed to get at least one night of northern lights during their workshops, and many groups got lucky with multiple nights.

I was over on the mainland with perfectly clear skies March 23 when a G4 solar storm hit, in one of the best and most colourful northern lights displays I’ve ever seen. This was the biggest solar storm in 6 years, and was visible throughout Europe and down to the southern US. Crazy! Not sure if I’ll ever post any of the pictures here, but maybe they’ll eventually show up over on distantnorth.com.

By now, only the brightest displays are visible in the hours around midnight. Have I seen my last aurora for the season yet? I’m not sure, but probably. The chances grow lower with each passing day. And by the 20th, I’ll be pretty confident the aurora will be over.

This image was the last stop of what had been 4 hours of dancing aurora this night with a workshop group. Usually I don’t like to put too many signs of civilisation or light pollution in my images, but as it had already been a good night for the group with multiple other locations visited, we decided on one last stop just around the corner from our cabins at Eliassen rorbuer – so we were actually shooting out cabins from this location.

On a lower activity night, this would normally be a somewhat risky location, if the aurora only remained in the north. But luckily, the activity pickup up after 23:00 and the aurora moved to the southern part of the sky. The exposure was quite tricky, and I was bracketing with 0, -1 stop exposures just to be on the safe side with the bright lights of the cabins. Though this photo is from a single image. A bit of moonlight would have definitely helped with this scene to balance out the light. Overall, still a nice shot I think, and one that I’ve not previously taken, despite the amount of time I spend in the area each winter.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 1600
f 2
3 Seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Arctic Gold – Skrei hang to dry in the cold winter air to become dried stockfish – tørrfisk by early summer, Reine, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 18, 2023. 09:46

The winter fishing season is well under way in Lofoten. After a windy and stormy January and February, the March seas have calmed and the drying racks are beginning to fill up with skrei. Here the fish will hang to dry in the cold and windy Lofoten air until they are collected in sometime in June to be sent overseas as one of Norway’s oldest commercial exports, dating back hundreds of years.

Having spent a lot of time eating in local restaurants during a busy winter of photo workshops, the various types of cod, skrei, and stockfish – tørrfisk are often on the menus, which often then requires further explanation on my behalf as to what the differences are – as essentially, it is all cod.

Cod – This is ‘normal’ Atlantic cod, genus Gadus. Cod live year round along the Lofoten and Norwegian coastline.

Skrei – Skrei is also Atlantic cod, genus Gadus. But more specifically, it refers to mature cod migrating from the Barents sea to spawn in the Vestfjord and waters around Lofoten from January to April. The life in cold water and long migration make skrei a more delicate and fine tasting fish as compared to the normal year round cod. If you see skrei written anywhere, then it is specifically in reference to the winter migratory cod.

Stockfish – Tørrfisk – Dried stockfish is the end result of the skrei that is caught and hung to dry in the cold and windy winter climate of Lofoten. While much of the skrei caught each winter is exported as fresh/frozen fish, the tradition of drying stockfish still continues to this day, and is also a popular menu item around Lofoten.

All stockfish is hung by hand, after two fish have been tied together in the factory. The winter climate of Lofoten, with temperates averaging around 0˚c and a near constant wind, provide perfect conditions for air drying the skrei. Too cold and with outside of the fish freezes before it can dry and too warm and it become rotten and mouldy. Though like any crop, so years are better than others for stockfish production and quality.

Traditionally, the stockfish was often hung on wooden racks on small rocky outcroppings such as in the above photo. As things have become more mechanised, newer drying racks are built in flatter areas where tractors can drive directly underneath, hoisting buckets of fresh fish for the workers to hang. Such as in the photo below. Even with the help of modern tools, the hanging (and removal) process is still done by hand.

I personally enjoy photographing the more traditional stockfish racks which still remain. They can often have interesting abstract shapes and are a unique part of Lofoten’s history. If you’re out photographing, be careful and observe the freshness of the fish before walking below! Or you might have every cat in the neighborhood trying to break into your cabin in the evening.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
20mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/200 Second
WB Daylight

Photo: Northern Lights from the Hamnøy bridge, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 19, 2023. 23:23

After an extended period of grey skies over Lofoten, the weather finally cleared and the aurora once again danced in the sky over the islands. I wrote last week (friday photo #529) about the winter crowds on Lofoten this February. And while the Hamøy bridge has always been one of the most popular sunrise locations, it now seems to have become one of the more popular aurora locations as well, as crowds lined the bridge every night with even a small potential for aurora.

While I understand why it is one of the more iconic sunrise location of Lofoten, I’m not quite sure why it has become so popular for northern lights. It is technically a quite difficult image for aurora, as there are multiple light sources of various intensity which makes most images requiring somewhat complicated post-processing – at least more than I like to do, though I’m perhaps in the minority here. And it also requires the northern lights be be in quite a specific area of the sky, much more so than other locations. So in a rare clear sky in the 2nd half of February this year, ‘the bridge’ would definitely not have been my first choice of aurora locations. And this photo was only taken after I had visited multiple other areas previously this evening – and my workshop group was staying the foreground cabins, so it was a short walk from ‘home.’

Below, you can see the behind the scenes of the image. Not anywhere near an enjoyable nature experience, but more like the hustle and bustle of a big city. And the bridge lights (the yellow cast of the foreground rocks) are so bright, that you can barely see the northern lights with your own eyes. So everyone was taking pictures of something they didnt even get to enjoy themselves! It’s one thing for me, living on Lofoten with 8 months of aurora per year, but if this was your only chance, and you spent your time on the bridge. Ehh, I don’t know… Perhaps photos are more important than actual experience these days.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 20mm f/1.8
20mm
ISO 1000
f 2.0
5 seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Olstind mountain peak rises into misty winter light over Reine harbor, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 29, 2023. 12:11

It is the middle of February and the winter photography season on Lofoten is well under way as individuals and tour groups chase the best arctic light across the islands. I myself will barely sleep for the next month as I show my own groups around Lofoten and Senja. February is high season for photography on Lofoten – where as I’ve written numerous time before, there is hardly a tripod to be seen in summer. Which I personally find strange, as summer is beautiful on Lofoten!

Much of my time this winter will be spent surrounded by the iconic views of Moskenesøy and west Lofoten, helping my clients get the best possible conditions at the classic photo locations and exploring new locations as the clouds and light shift across the islands; Looking for perfect light and perfect conditions. And, when lucky, both at the same time!

Though it winter, this can sometimes be a rare phenomenon – dramatic light and perfect weather conditions for a location. Take the two images here, taken just two days apart on my first workshop of the year in January. The image above is a classic shot from the Reinehalsen viewpoint with Olstind perfectly reflecting in the harbor. But the light is boring and flat. The second image, taken the day before, was a brief moment of dramatic light as the sun emerged from the clouds between snow showers. But it was windy and the waters of the bay unsettled. Without the reflection, I always think this scene fills a little empty and unbalanced – too much blank water filling the scene.

Ideally, I would have liked the light of the 2nd image with the reflection of the first. But, that can sometimes be a rare thing on Lofoten. So you try bother versions and see which one you like best. In this case I prefer the first image – relatively boring light, but better overall conditions for the scene.

Head over to my Instagram account for (almost) daily postings of the local conditions here on Lofoten: @distant.north

Camera Info image 1:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
41mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/30 second
WB Daylight

Camera Info image 2:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
38mm
ISO 64
f 9
1/40 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Olstind mountain peak rises into sunlit passing snow showers over Reine harbor, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 28, 2023. 11:42