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Friday Photo #385 – Midnight Sun Season

Photo: A sun that never sets – beginning of the midnight sun season, Unstad beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. May 22, 2020. 02:03

Last night was the first night the sun set after midnight for the year – and still a full month ahead of the summer solstice. Luckily this coincided with a perfect blue sky, perhaps even a bit boring photographically, but at least the horizon was clear. And so I headed up Helligberget – the Holy Mountain – above Unstad to see.

I should note that on Lofoten, the term ‘Midnight Sun’ is generally used to describe the period in which the sun is above the horizon 24 hours a day: i.e. never setting. Other locations might use the term a little more loosely to mean setting after midnight, but not necessary 24 hour sunlight, which only occurs north of the Arctic Circle.

However, since I was a few hundred meters up a mountain, I essentially transported myself into the future with my elevation. And so from my vantage point, the sun remained about 1/3 above the horizon at its lowest point around 01:00. Had I been down on the beach, the sun would have been fully below the horizon.

This photo is actually just a single frame from part of a time lapse I was shooting – which may or may not ever see the light of day, but I captured the full sequence of the sun drifting across the horizon from a little before it set until after it began to rise again – which is this image here, from just after 02:00. I didn’t use a photo from earlier in the night as it wasn’t as photogenic for a single still image – as at midnight the sun was in the far left of the frame, and felt somewhat out of balance to use here. The overall composition is also not the best, as capturing the full movement of the sun for the time lapse was my purpose, so my composition was constrained by the sun’s movement.

Today, the sun is shining again and it’s 13 degrees out! Feels like summer and time for a bbq – so I’ll watch the sun from by yard…

Camera Info:
Nikon D810
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/100 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #379 – Uttakleiv Twilight

Photo: Himmeltindan rises over Uttakleiv in April twilight, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 10, 2019. 21:57

Last year on this evening, April 10th, I headed up Veggen with a forecast of clear sky to try and catch my last northern lights of the season, which I did – Friday Photo 327. This year has been a completely different story. I don’t think I’ve been camping at all – although Covid-19 is a little responsible for that, but the weather has been equally uncooperative. I can barely remember any calm days, though there were a few luckily, but camping weather there hasn’t been much of at all. The wind seems to have never stopped blowing this year.

Even this past Wednesday a quick to strong storm passed Lofoten, taking several barn roofs with it. But outside of the bigger storms this winter, was just a constant, never ending wind. Stronger wind than I’d like to test my tent against on a mountain top – and I’ve already broken a tent here over Easter 2017.

And so I spend most my days staring out the window and watching the rain, or today, snow clouds sweep over Himmeltind which sits across the sea from my village. One minute I can see the mountain, the next its gone. And repeat…

The northern lights will leave Lofoten’s sky next week. And soon after that the winter storms hopefully! I’ve had enough for this year – words I write as my house is whistling and shaking in the wind on this Friday afternoon as the next snow flurry arrives.

But despite the weather, these ever brightening twilight nights of the next weeks are a sight that summer is on its way. Even now in mid April the horizon glows at night. Soon the sun will hang over the sea in the north at midnight, and shine over Lofoten 24 hours a day. I can’t wait!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
18mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
8 seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #378 – Uttakleiv Aurora

Photo: Northern lights reflect in the Eye of Uttakleiv, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 1, 2020. 23:40

I wasn’t planning to post another northern lights image today, but this was the only time I’ve been out shooting since last weeks image, so here you go. While it seems like the constant wind has continued, I also just don’t have much motivation to go out at the moment. I’ve look at the mountain out my window and tell myself, ‘Tomorrow I’ll go up there for sunset.’ That tomorrow has not come for two weeks so far…

In a small attempt to find a silver lining in our current situation, it feels live Ive been in a time machine and transported back 10 years in time to the Lofoten I remember from the old days: Empty and quiet. When winter was the season of fishermen and little more.

And so with this in mind and a rare clear sky Wednesday night, I headed to Uttakleiv and found myself pulling into a completely empty parking lot. Maybe only on a night in November or December is this possible these days while in February or March I won’t even go near the place anymore – too much chaos for me to enjoy. But in these strange corona times, I found myself alone for hours, like the Lofoten I first met decades ago…

In other fronts, I haven’t been completely idle. The 3rd edition of West Lofoten Hikes eBook should be published in a couple week. With 8 new mountain hikes added, as well as the beaches that I hadn’t previously included, it will now have 40 mountain hiking destinations in west Lofoten. So if you’re able to get here in summer, there’ll be plenty of mountains to keep you busy for a while!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 1600
f 2.5
8 seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #374 – Wind

Photo: Windy ridges of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 20, 2020. 12:39

Each winter here on Lofoten seems to have it’s own defining element. For 2020 it will be the wind, and maybe rain for 2nd place. Defiantly not on the list is sunlight, which at the time of my writing this text in late February, I’ve still only seen the sun on 5 days out of a possible 48. Maybe I’ve missed a couple chances here and there, but even doubling the days to 10, that’s still an 80% overcast rate so far this year. Pretty dismal, even for here.

Even with the bad weather, I try to keep my camera with me as much as possible when out and about on my daily life. I used to be kinda bad about this, but enough times of missing fantastic light while just going to the supermarket or gym in Leknes taught me the lesson to always be prepared.

This photo is one of those occasions. I had to drive to Svolvær to drop off my visa application and even with a bad weather forecast, I tossed my camera bag in the van. The entire drive was mostly uneventful until I was 5 minutes away from getting back home. Then, the sun peaked through the high clouds shining on the ridgeline of Haugheia. Comibined with the wind blowing of the light dusting of snow that had fallen, it created a cool back-lit scene.

Driving along the E10 I wished I could have stopped in the middle of the road, as that was the best angle for distant Skottind and the windy ridge lines. But I knew the parking area at Skreda would be pretty good as well, so I continued there. A quick lens change to the 70-200, and then I shot hand held.

After only a minute or two the sun had moved away and the ridge was in the shadow of clouds again. Lucky timing that I was even able to get a shot!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 f/4
200mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1/1600 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #368 – First Sun

Photo: Skottind rises over Ballstad in the soft January twilight, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 18, 2020. 13:35

And just like that, after weeks of bad weather, the sun returned to Lofoten both on Saturday and Sunday. Though this didn’t last long and by Sunday night 30 m/s winds were shaking my house again as another low pressure system swept over the islands.

Waking up Saturday I could see blue sky overhead. I wasn’t sure where to go, my original idea had to been to head west and hike something on Flakstadøy, but as soon as I drove around the corner to Napp I could see a fair amount of clouds in that direction. I could also see there was a layer of cloud low on the southern horizon that was blocking the sun.

The weather was still the nicest it had been in weeks, and so with little expectations I headed for an easy hike up Ballstadheia as at least the mountains were covered in a nice layer of snow. Getting higher up the mountain I could see the cloud layer was thiner to the west and there might be a chance that the sun would get out of it before setting. And eventually it did.

The sun is still low on the horizon and the light soft, but I saw my shadow for the first time in 6 weeks! Actually I had to struggle with a few shots as the shadows of my tripod legs interrupted several compositions I was attempting. Nothing too complain too much about though!

I also wanted to show this winder image so you could see that while the mountains have snow, the low ground remains almost completely snow free in west Lofoten. It is such a fine balance of only a few degrees here between a complete white winter wonderland landscape or a brown and soggy one. Just 2-3 degrees cooler and we’d be skiing in epic powder with all the precipitation we’ve had in the last month.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 14-24 f/2.8
14mm
ISO 100
f 13
1/10 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #363 – Noon Sunset

Photo: Fire in the December sky, Nappstraumen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 13, 2019. 12:39

Despite being fully cloudy over all of northern Lofoten for as far as I could see from home, the strong southern near-gale of the day led me to believe that there would maybe be a chance of clear sky visible from the southern side. So I threw my camera bag in my van as I headed to Leknes in the late morning. As I drove along Nappstraumen and could see the clear southern horizon over the Vestfjord, with heavy clouds over Lofoten, hmm, something interesting might happen…

After finishing my errands and getting a coffee to go, I could see the sky was already lighting up just before noon. If it had been a purely photographic day, then I would have already been in place somewhere – As my location in the center of Leknes, and needing to get somewhere with a open view towards the south meant I was at least 20-30 minutes from most places. The quickest location, though not ideal, would be to park near Skreda, with views over Nappstraumen.

The sky was even brighter when I arrived 10 minutes later. And the wind was blowing! I immediately headed out to one of the rock outcroppings – I was also wearing my rubber boots – but I could see the water was coming in quickly. A quick check to the tides and yep, high tide was in about an hour. So I didn’t want to hang out there too long!

In the crazy winds, it took me a bit of wandering along the shoreline before I found an interesting enough foreground, and a place were I wasn’t getting completely soaked in crashing waves and spray – though as you can see in the photo, I bit of water got me.

It took me a while before I eventually arrived at this final location, though still not entirely happy with the composition – and by now the sky was beginning to fade a bit. And while I have many photos with more color in the sky – also due to shooting a tighter composition, I think this image works a little nicer. I actually found a final composition that I liked even more, but by then too much of the sky had faded.

Now, this image could just be a normal sunset anywhere in the world. The difference here being that I’m facing almost 180˚ south, and it’s 12:39 in the afternoon. The sun remained below the horizon the entire time, Yet just high enough for about an hour of sunrise – sunset color in the clouds. And in only 6 months time, I’ll have to be looking the opposite direction, face due north, to watch the midnight sun gently floating above the sea…

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
17mm
ISO 50
f 11
0.8 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #361 – Unstad Winter

Photo: Unstad beach covered in a dusting of light snow, Unstad, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 10, 2019. 08:52

Unstad in white. It was a strange snow on this morning, falling almost like ash and just dusting the landscape. The light was flat and almost contrast-less, but that fit the mood of the scene and turned the landscape almost colorless. If I did any black and white photography, this would have been a perfect morning for it.

I shot elsewhere on the beach first, going for a cleaner images of just snow, sand, sea, and sky. But further down the beach was this pile of seaweed washed ashore by one of the numerous winter storms of 2019.

If there had been less snow I would not have taken the image, nor if there had been more snow. But somehow, with this sugar coating of white on the beach and seaweed, it seemed interesting. A pile of seaweed should be boring and ugly. But on this day, in this light, it worked I think.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 100
f 9.5
30 seconds
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #353 – Autumn Snow

Photo: Autumn snow over mountains of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 4, 2019. 17:43

Winter is coming. Well, kinda… Lofoten had already received its first autumn snow while I was over hiking in Sweden in mid September – more on that later, but if you follow me on Instagram, then you know what I’ve been up to this summer and autumn. But as is usual with most years, waves of warm and cold cycle across the islands as autumn passes into early winter – until one day I’ll wake up and the outside world is white.

Last Friday I went for an evening hike. I was actually supposed to have hiked the mountain in the left of this image, Blåtind. But as I arrived at the parking area in Slydalen, I was in a complete white out of heavy snow. I knew it would eventually pass, but as it was a north wind, I figured it might get caught on the mountains for a while. So I decided to head to the other side of Vestvågøy to where the weather seemed a bit clearer and take an easy hike to Eltofttuva instead.

The mountains to the south remained mostly under the clouds during my ascent, but eventually the clouds cleared, leaving a nice dusting of white down to around 300m – The lowest I’ve seen the snow so far this season. Eventually the sun even emerged on the mountains for a little while before the next wave of snow arrived and I descended from Eltofttuva in snow and then rain.

By the next day the snow was gone. And a few days ago I was on the summit of Blåtind in the cold autumn sun. No remaining snow, unfortunately.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
55mm
ISO 125
f 10
1/10 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #350 – Lofoten Masters

Photo: Surfer at Lofoten Masters surf competition, Unstad, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. September 27, 2018. 15:13

This year will be the 12th edition of the Lofoten Masters surfing completion which takes place at Unstad beach from September 25-29.

Even if you are not a surfer, it is a cool even to watch, and last year I took one of my photo groups to watch some of the action with some of Norway’s best surfers in the water.

If you are not on Lofoten, it can be watched via live stream from the Lofoten Masters Website.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 f/4
185mm
ISO 400
f 5
1/2000 second
WB Daylight

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Friday Photo #329 – Spring Nights

Photo: Lenticular cloud over Himmeltindan at twilight, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. April 20, 2019. 22:50

Spring has arrived in the last week here on Lofoten – even up to 15˚ C in the last few days! That might not sound like much to anyone down south, but for me, it’s the warmest temperature I’ve had since September! I can even go on my evening jogs in shorts and a t-shirt at the moment. How long it will last, nobody knows. But at least it is a taste of summer for us! And a nice July day might not be much warmer than 15˚ C here anyhow.

Spring is a tricky time of year here on Lofoten. The light of summer but often the cold of winter. Though in sun and warmth and sun of the last week I can see the fields outside my house growing greener by the day. Which is quite a difference to last year when there was much more snow, especially on the mountains. It will probably snow again, perhaps several times, but at least the thermometer seems to be moving north.

Usually spring is a slightly unproductive photographic time for me. As I don’t really like the brown landscapes all that much. But this year, I will probably make much more effort to go out and photograph and to illustrate what spring is, as hopefully later in the year I’ll produce the final missing sections of my ’Seasons on Lofoten’ ebook guides – spring and autumn. Which I will likely combine together into one guide, as they are otherwise relatively short periods on their own. First though, I’m putting in long hours for the long overdue 2nd edition of Seasons on Lofoten – Summer, which should be out next week hopefully!

I was hoping to be lazy on this rainy evening. The sunset was interesting, but not enough to get me out of the house. Finally though, a little while later all the low clouds passed and I was this glowing lenticular cloud floating over Himmeltindan. It is not often we get lenticular clouds here, so I quickly grabbed my camera and rain out into the bog of my neighbors field. It was windy – the whole reason the cloud was there – but warm. So between gusts, I managed a few images in the quickly fading twilight.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
38mm
ISO 100
f 7.1
5 seconds
WB Daylight

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