Moskenesøya | 68 North

Friday Photo #81 – Ryten And Kvalvika

Photo: Evening light over Kvalvika beach from Ryten, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Noway. August 30, 2013. 19:53

I think the view from Ryten down to Kvalvika beach is perhaps one of the most spectacular scenes on Lofoten. I know Reinebringen gets a little more press, mainly because it’s easier to get to, thus climbed more often, but the view from Ryten definitely holds its own in my opinion.

Having been up the mountain a few times now, I’m always left with the dilemma of how early to begin hiking. I like to catch the afternoon/evening (depending on time of year) sun shining into Kvalvika bay (whale bay bay for you Norwegians 😉 ), yet I also like to try and remain on the summit for sunset. Unfortunately, these events can be rather far apart, and usually involve a long, cold wait between the two.

This afternoon was one of those cold, windy days. While the photo and light might look somewhat peaceful, a harsh, bitter wind was raking across the summit. My partner is sitting down because it was quite possible for her to safely stand! I could barely focus the image as my eyes were watering up so much every time I looked through the view finder. And it’s a near miracle I managed any sharp images.

Despite the wind, the light was so nice. I wanted to remain until sunset, but it was obvious I wouldn’t get any sharp images once I needed longer shutter speeds as my tripod blew over a few times (without my camera) which is never a good sign…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2,8
26mm
ISO 250
f 7.1
1/200 second
WB Daylight

July 25, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Summer

Friday Photo #80 – Bunes Beach From Helvetestinden

Photo: Bunes beach from Helvetestind, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. August 15, 2013. 11:54

Helvetestind is one of those mountains I got to know from the ground before the summit. A massive, solid piece of granite, it rises nearly vertical from the vast sands of Bunes beach to a narrow summit some 600 meters above. From sea of summit, the mountain is something to look at, or from. But now having stood on top, the view from up here is much better!

My journey to the summit was a long one, have been traveling non-stop since I walk out my door in California some 38-40 hours before. In my usual style for heading to Lofoten, I like to leave my schedule as open as possible once I arrive on the islands as you never know what the weather will do. Rain usually means I go and hide in Stamsund, while sun means sleep might still be some hours away as I journey strait into the mountains.

For some strange reason, the islands greeted me with sun. And not just normal sun, but a day with some fantastic puffy white clouds gently floating against a background of blue. I shot a few time-lapse sequences this day, which may or may not ever be put to use (I need a new computer first).

I set up camp lower down on the ridge, thinking the summit would be a bit too exposed if the weather turned, though maybe I will try it out next time. Though I did hike back towards the summit at dusk, it was somewhat dull and uneventful, so I didn’t miss too much being lower down.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 16-35mm f/4
16mm
ISO 250
f 9
1/800 second
WB Daylight

July 18, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Summer

Friday Photo #79 – Hermannsdalstind Storm

Photo: Darkening sky over Hermannsdalstind, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Aug 24, 2013. 08:46

After having spent the night out in the open on the summit of Hermannsdalstind, the highest mountain in the western half of Lofoten, I was unsure of how my day would continue. Since I had arrived rather late in the afternoon on the previous day, I figured the best plan would be to wait around on the summit for a few hours and see what the light would do.

Within a couple hour of sunrise, still quite early in the morning, being summer and all, I noticed an ominous cloud beginning to form over one of the nearby peaks. One of those clouds that in the mountains means ‘something is coming.’ The winds had slowing been increasing over the course of the morning as well, so I took these as signs that I shouldn’t wait around too long.

As I began to descend a thin wisp of clouds began to swirl over the summit. Further down the mountain the sky became ominously dark and I was wondering if I’d be able to get to Munkebu hut, where I was planning to camp for the night, before rain began to fall.

With the sun nearly concealed behind the clouds I stopped to take a few last photos of the mountain before the day’s light was gone. Soon after the summit was hidden and the already cool day grew colder. I passed a few groups making their way up the mountain, bad timing. I was glad to be going down!

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 320
f 10
1/320 seconds
WB Daylight

July 11, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter

Friday Photo #77 – Coastal Twilight

Photo: Winter coastal twilight, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 5, 2014. 15:48

A weird series of clouds had hung over the islands the entire day. While some interesting texture formed from time to time, I spent most of the day doing my best to fight of boredom. In this effort I took to wandering around the rocks on the inner coast of Moskenesøy; sometimes taking photos and sometimes just jumping around and climbing up stuff.

With the arrival of late afternoon a bit of color finally began to appear in the sky. I had wandered down to this part of the coast earlier in the day and so returned once again as the light began to fade and I could open up the shutter for a couple minutes to smooth out the otherwise choppy water of the Vestfjord.

While I like the image well enough, it lacks a sense of place for me. There is nothing here that says ‘Lofoten,’ or even ‘Winter’ for that matter. I would generally like to give a better sense of place to an individual image. But when I view it with the whole of my work from February, it helps tell a little more of the story about the islands.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 16
151 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom
6 stop B+W ND filter

June 27, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Moskenesøya, Winter

Friday Photo #73 – Vaeroy Sunset

Photo: Winter sunset over Værøy, Å I Lofoten, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 11, 2014. 15:11

The island of Værøy is located some 16km over the sea from the ending of the E10 in Å. With the winter sun setting towards the southwest, just towards the right of the islands, they are often illuminated in the in the days last light as the sun passes low overhead before sinking into the sea.

Sunset images over Værøy are a winter and late autumn event only; the sun rising too high in the sky and setting too far west/north at other times of the year. Often the lower horizon can be cloudy, so some of the best light will occur some 1-2 hours before sunset, particularly if the sky is partly cloudy.

With this image, I borrowed a friend’s 70-200mm lens and shot a series of frames at 200mm for a panoramic image.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8
200mm
ISO 320
f 10
1/320 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right

May 30, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter

Friday Photo #71 – Horseid Beach Camping

Photo: Tent and mountains at Horseid beach, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 3, 2014. 16:40

With each visit I make to Horseid beach, I’m more and more convinced that it is one of the most beautiful places in the world, and perhaps my favourite (non-mountain) place on Lofoten. Even though you are not that far from civilisation, there is something so wild and rugged about the place and you could as well be on some lonely island on the edge of the world.

It was a snow-less winter this year, which made access to the beaches quite easy, relatively speaking on general winter conditions. With a good weather forecast, I decided to take an overnight trip to Horseid. My favourite camping location is on the grassy hill at the far end of the beach, right above the water. The view from here is one of the best as you look back towards the mountains now in the far distance.

In this image I tried to capture a sense of the scale of the mountains and my tent. I would have shot with a longer lens to give more compression to the image, but 85mm is as long as I typically carry these days, so I had to make due with that.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 200
f 4
1/250 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right

May 16, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter

Friday Photo #70 – Winter Cod Racks

Photo: Empty cod drying racks at dawn, Toppøya, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 15, 2014. 08:41

During my first two weeks on Lofoten I had wandered around Toppøya on numerous occasions; with the southerly winter sunrise, it is often a good location for views across the Vestfjord if the sky looks like it might do something interesting. On my final sunrise before heading off to Sweden I found myself wandering around the small rocky island once more.

Heavy clouds filled the sky, but, as often occurs in winter, there was a narrow break in the clouds along the horizon. Just enough for a few moments of light before the sun is swallowed up by the sky for the days and the light turns flat and gray. The light was too week to cast much colour, or light up Olstind behind me, so as I was walking back to the car I noticed the sun lined up quite nicely with these cod drying racks.

The lines caught my interest, but without the hanging stockfish, the scene felt a bit empty. So I decided to go for the full ‘tilt’ effect with my 85mm tilt-shift lens and throw most of the scene out of focus to give the scene a more abstract effect.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 100
f 4
1/100 second
WB Daylight
3 images – left, centre, right
Full lens tilt

May 9, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter

Friday Photo #68 – Northern Lights Over Vik

Photo: Northern Lights over Vik beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 1, 2014. 22:45

The journeys from California to Lofoten are always long, and I always arrive thinking of the soonest possibility I can lie down flat on a bed, or in this case, the back of my rental car. I also made the mistake of arriving on the islands on a Saturday, which is never a good idea, as it meant a long wait in Leknes for my bus to Stamsund, where I would pick up my car.

It was early afternoon when I pulled up to the parking area at Utakleiv beach, folded down the backs seats to the car and crawled into my sleeping bag. I was soon asleep.

Some hours later the slamming of a car door followed by some somewhat loud voices woke me from my slumber. It was dark. I wiped a clear spot from the fogged up windows to see if I could see if the stars were out. Shit, even better, Auroras! A faint green arch hanging over the beach and mountains. I quickly dressed, prepared myself for the cold, then hopped out of the car and went down to the beach, the lights now getting brighter.

I shot for a while at the beach, but I noticed the stronger parts seemed to be coming from behind the mountains to the left, so I quickly headed back to the car and drove a few km to the beach at Vik, more of less just around the corner from Utakleiv, and giving a much more open view to the western part of the sky.

Barely have put my camera back on the tripod the sky lit up, from the horizon, fully overhead, and then behind me. Even at 15mm, this image only captures part of the overall scene. Not a bad way to arrive on the islands!

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
15mm
ISO 1250
f 4
30 seconds
WB Daylight

April 25, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter

Friday Photo #67 – Winter Sunrise

Photo: Winter sunrise and empty cod racks, Toppøy, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 3, 2014. 09:20

My second morning on Lofoten and the wind was screaming in from the south, cold and bitter; I had not quite gotten used to the north yet, having been in t-shirt and shorts just a few days earlier in California.

There was a clear spot on the horizon where the sun should rise, but it was racing a huge rain cloud blowing in across the fjord. In near perfect unison, they met in a 2 minute flash of light, sky glowing bright orange and pink as heavy drops of rain began falling from the sky.

I was beginning to run for shelter but turned around for one last image, before my camera and lens became completely soaked (it was that super heavy, big drops type of rain). Not an ideal composition, but about all I could manage given the conditions. And something different from what I usually seem to photograph.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 250
f 5.6
1/30 second
WB Daylight

April 18, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Moskenesøya, Winter

Friday Photo #66 – Lake Agvatnet Winter

Photo: Patterns of snow on lake Ågvatnet, Å I Lofoten, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 2, 2014. 15:27

I had been following the on Lofoten for the months before my travels at the beginning of February and knew the islands where having a ‘dry’ winter. This first was evident as I walked the cold, windy streets of Bodø from the airport to a friends house. Usually it is a perilous and slippery journey along icy sidewalks and streets, yet now I found only blowing circles of dust on the midnight roads.

So it was a surprise for me when I woke up expecting to see the first glow of dawn on the horizon, only to find my car enveloped by swirling snow and the world beyond the reach of my headlamp a deep black. I drove the winter roads, parked at some beach and waited in darkness until the storm began to pass and black turned to grey before turning to deep blue.

As afternoon arrived I made my way to the end of the road at Å, Normally a good location for winter sunsets. Waiting for the light to improve I hesitantly wandered out onto the frozen lake Ågvatnet. A few locals were out and about on their afternoon walks, so I figured it should be fine, and the ice was quite thick. Still, it makes some interesting noises while you stand out there.

The morning’s snow had blown into some interesting looking patterns, giving a nice contrast to the nearly black ice of the lake. And in somewhat flat, fading light of late afternoon in February, I searched for some interesting elements.

As much as I like this image, I do feel it a bit imbalanced. I would have liked to go with a square crop, but that caused me to loose too much of the cloud in the sky, which I think is important to the image. So I decided on a 4×4 crop, to give a little more space in the sky. But this leaves the image a bit centred I think, my eye not quite sure where to go first and not as drawn into the scene as I would like.

One of the difficulties of using multiple exposures with a tilt-shift lens to achieve square or panoramic images is that you never can see the overall composition as you are shooting. I do my best to estimate where the horizon will land one I combine the images and I often shoot a bit extra to give myself room to crop down, either from the top or bottom, but there are times like this where keeping the full image seems to work better.

Do you see an animal in the cloud?

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 16
45 seconds
WB Daylight
3 images – top, middle, bottom
6 stop B+W neutral density filter

April 11, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

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