Vestvågøya | 68 North

Friday Photo #62 – Vestvagoy Winter

Photo: Winter landscape, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Feb 16, 2013. 14:22

The light on Lofoten is not always magical and quite often you’ll have to make due with much less than ideal conditions. This day in particular had been dull and flat, low clouds casting near contrast-less gray light over the land. One of those days where I tend to drive in circles looking for something, yet often find nothing.

But Lofoten, particularly in winter, is more than glowing pink mountains and amazing sunsets. The islands are often bleak, weary, and forlorn. Skipping these moments means missing out on what the islands really are, while not always visually spectacular, the islands have more depth than the idealized illusion of them which we see posted all across the internet.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
34mm
ISO 200
f 11
1/100 sec
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom

March 14, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Vestvågøya, Winter

Friday Photo #61 – Vik Beach Winter

Photo: Ice covered rocks at Vik beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Feb 16, 2013. 16:40

I’m not quite sure what it is, but I often find myself to focus on certain places on any given trip to Lofoten. In the past, I have driven past Vik beach quite literally dozens of times, yet never stopped to take a photo. However in February 2013, I seemed to be photographing at Vik nearly every other day. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with a particular location being more ‘in condition’ than other areas, or that I’ve just grown weary of other places over the years and look for something new.

Anyhow, while passing Vik on the way to camp at Utakleiv for the night I came across this scene. It had been cold for several days and a few lights snows had fallen. Had the ice on the rocks not been present, then I probably would have driven straight by this scene. And while I feel the balance of the image is a bit off, I like the contrast of the white ice against the blue water, helping to and depth, and cold, to the image.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
31mm
ISO 160
f 9
30 sec
WB Daylight
B+W 6 stop ND filter

March 7, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Vestvågøya, Winter

Friday Photo #54 – Winter Roads

Photo: Heading to Haukland beach on winter roads, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Feb 6, 2012. 8:57

This week’s photo is more for illustrative purposes than of something scenic. With more and more people planning on visiting the islands in winter, it can be a bit of a shock to drive on the roads for the first time, especially if you are like me, and grew up in a temperate climate.

While my experience on the European continent is that they tend to keep roads snow free in winter, either by plow or grit, in Lofoten, this is not overly practical. In big storms, the roads are cleared of deep snow and snow drifts, but overall, there always remains a layer of snow and ice covering any asphalt. To deal with these conditions, the Norwegians (and Swedes) utilize studded tires from November to April.

While not like driving on dry asphalt, the studded tires work amazingly well. In my estimate, I would say they retain about 70% the traction level of normal tires on dry conditions. For road conditions like in this photo, you can more or less drive normally (but be weary on sharp turns).

Where driving conditions become dangerous is when the temperatures warm to 2-6 degrees above freezing and it begins to rain. This turns all the hard, compacted snow of the roads into a layer of wet ice. Scary and slippery! The road plows are good at dealing with this and will have the main roads gritted and ice free within a few hours. But I would suggest minimizing your driving during this period if possible. I have gotten stuck a few times where I pulled down into an icy parking area and was unable to drive back out without considerable effort on my part to clear away enough ice to get a bit of momentum built up.

Camera Info:
Nikon D700
Nikon 16-35mm f/4
16mm
ISO 200
f 57.1
1/30 sec
WB Daylight

January 17, 2014/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Vestvågøya, Winter

Friday Photo #52 – Haukland Beach Winter

Photo: January dawn on Haukland beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 6, 2010. 09:49

Some time ago I posted a photo from this morning at Haukland beach, but as I’m now less than one month away from returning to the islands, it’s time for more winter images to inspire me. Even now, looking back four years later, it still remains one of my most memorable days on the islands and is partly what saw me start this website in the first place and begin to look at Lofoten with a different set of eyes.

After having spent a stormy night at Utakleiv attempting the sleep in the cramped back seat of my all-too-small rental car, Haukland beach was the first scene I came across for the day. I was not in a rush to get anywhere in particular, but I was in a rush to get as much variety out of the 4 hour day as possible. I was also still cold from the night, only having a 0˚ sleeping bag with me, as the temperature dropped to -10˚ or so, and the car had yet to properly warm me up in the short drive from Utakleiv. With already cold feet, I crunched my way across the snow covered sand and down towards the beach.

When I caught sight of this small chunk of ice on the frozen beach, I knew I had found something special. While Lofoten is cold, there is not often ice on the beaches such as this. But thanks to the cold temperatures and the small creek that runs into the sea at Haukland, a frozen piece of creek ice must have washed back onto the beach at high tide, and then a light layer of snow fell overnight to complete the scene. I have attempted to find a scene like this in my last several winter visits, but have never been so lucky again.

The only thing that distracts me is the otter tracks across the middle of the image, I guess he was up before me. But overall, this is still one of my favorite images from the islands.

Camera Info:
Nikon D700
Nikon 24mm f/3.5
24mm
ISO 200
f 16
8 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top/bottom

________________________

Well, I’ve reached image number 52, a whole year of weekly Lofoten Images. Good thing I still have about 900 images left in my archive to keep things going. But at the moment, I’m not too sure if I’m going to continue posting weekly photos. I initially started when there wasn’t all that much content here on the site, so I was just hoping to fill things in a bit. And in all honesty, I haven’t received much feedback for my efforts during the last year, so I’m kind of questioning whether it’s worth my time to continue.

So now your chance to chime in. If you find the information or stories useful on this Friday Photo series, maybe make a comment letting me know. If it’s just been a waste of time, you can let me know that as well. 🙂

Happy 2014! For those of us heading north in the next months, lets hope the mountains are full of snow and the skies full of Auroras. And if you see some guy in a ugly blue jacket wandering around, come say hello. (I also accept invitations to hot tea and use of an oven to cook a frozen pizza for dinner in.)

January 3, 2014/10 Comments/by Cody

Autumn, Friday Photo, Vestvågøya

Friday Photo #51 – Holandsmelen

Photo: Afternoon light over Vik and Haukland beaches from the summit of Holandsmelen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. 26 Sept, 2013. 17:30

I almost didn’t head up Holandsmelen on this afternoon, preferring to be a bit lazy, as I didn’t get much sleep up on Reinebringen the previous night. But as the hours of the day passed by, the weather was too good to be wasted just sitting around. So in mid afternoon I decided to head up Holandsmelen.

I didn’t know anything about the mountain or if the views would be much good. Rising to the north of Lenkes’ urban sprawl, I knew the views towards the south would probably not be very interesting. But with close proximity to some of the beaches on Vestvågøy, and looking like an easy hike, why not?

I like to be on mountains for sunset. But I also like to catch the last traces of daylight, incase it works better for a given location. Upon leaving Stamsund, I couldn’t see that there was something of a layer of clouds on the northern horizon. I hike fast, but by the time I reached the summit, the beaches were in and out of shadow as the sun became obscured by the clouds. I rushed to find a decent composition as quickly as possible to at least get a couple photos with the beach and farm fields illuminated by the ever sinking sun. Without the light on the beaches and sea, the image loses too much color and contrast, becoming fairly dull and boring. But I think I arrived just in time for something interesting to appear.

The Landscape photographer in me wants something a bit ‘wilder.’ More nature, less roads and buildings. But this is Lofoten, people live here. And so this is actually something of a typical Lofoten scene: man and nature, side by side. Even the dead (cemetery towards the left) have a nice view!

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
27mm
ISO 200
f 10
1/100 sec
WB Daylight

December 27, 2013/2 Comments/by Cody

HIking, Updates, Vestvågøya

Holandsmelen – New Mountain Hiking Guide

There is now a hiking page for Holandsmelen up on the site.

-CLICK HERE-

Holandsmelen is a small, round peak to the north of Leknes on Vestvågøy. The summit is reached after an easy hike where one is given fantastic views over Vik and Haukland beach.

This will probably be my last hiking update for the next few weeks. My travels for the year are finally over and I’m heading home to California next week, where it will take me a week or two to get my life reorganized and everything back on track. The mountains to be added are: Grytdalstind, and Kroktind.

I will also soon add a summer photo gallery, and I must say that after editing through the images, I’ll probably have one of the strongest image collect from any of my trips. Despite an overall trend of rain for the 2nd half of August, I did manage to be in the right place, right time on several occasions.

On the other hand, I’m not too sure about an Autumn gallery. Drowning my camera in Sweden, it took me two weeks to receive a replacement, which then left me only 6 days on Lofoten before I left. While the weather was good and I got lots of hiking in, I’m not sure I achieved the variety of Images that I would like to show. I’ll see how it goes once I get a bit more editing done.

My next trip to the islands should begin sometime at the end of January or beginning of February.

November 4, 2013/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Vestvågøya, Winter

Friday Photo #41 – Eggum Nights

Photo: Winter night on Nedre Heimredalsvatnet, Eggum, Vestvågøya, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Feb 2, 2012. 17:38

With a near full moon and calm winds, five-o-clock is too early to go to be, even in February on Lofoten. Parked at Eggum for the night, I wandered off for a bit of exploring.

Growing up in California, I’m not sure I even stood upon a frozen lake until my time in Germany five years ago. But with the low snow levels upon my arrival at the beginning of February, frozen lakes were about the only thing of interest. I wandered out into a shallow section of the frozen lake, making sure I could always see the bottom in case I happened to fall though; I figured as long as I could still stand up, it wasn’t too likely that I would die.

Several cracks formed interesting features on the surface of the lake, and so I used these as a foreground subject, lit by moonlight. It was a bit eerie, to stand there alone in the darkness, the ice creaking and cracking as the temperatures dropped, occasionally echoing a loud ‘boom’ through the mountains. I did my best to remain still and not fall over, often having to use my extended tripod as a bit of walking stick. A few days later, while on a different part of the lake, as I was putting my camera away, winds blew my tripod towards the center of the lake. It was a scary few minutes trying to get it back!

Camera Info:
Nikon D700
Nikon 16-35mm f/4
16mm
ISO 320
f 7.1
152 seconds
WB Daylight

October 18, 2013/0 Comments/by Cody

Autumn, Friday Photo, Vestvågøya

Friday Photo #39 – Himmeltindan Views

Photo: From the Summit of Himmeltindan, Vestvågøya, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Oct 2, 2012. 14:38

I usually try and save my mountains for when the light is good. No point in carrying a heavy backpack several thousand vertical feet only to have shit light. But as the days of Autumn progressed, I seemed to have had some bad timing. A few days previously, clouds decided to form over Skottind just as I arrived at the summit, and of course they cleared as soon as I was halfway down again. Now a couple days into October, another unusually mild Autumn day presented itself. And so I departed Stamsund under nice blue skies and a bright sun, not entirely sure where I was headed, but up something for sure.

As I parked my car at Haukland beach, I could see some high cloud appearing on the horizon and heading in my direction. Headphones in and some good music blasting out of the Ipod, I set myself a frantic pace as I hit the trail. I quickly overheated and had to strip down to only a t-shirt, in October! Higher and higher I ascended, lungs and legs burning while to clouds grew ever nearer to the Autumn sun.

I lost. By the time reached the 931 meter south summit, barely over an hour after leaving the car, at sea level, the clouds had arrived and the light grew flat. I met a few soldiers at the top, lucky them, they got to take the elevator inside the mountain. I half joked if I could catch a ride down and was given a stern ‘No, that won’t be possible.’ I already knew as much, but it was worth a try. Though I was pleasantly informed that since the radar on the higher north summit was down for maintenance, I was allowed to continue on up there.

The wind blew cold and I didn’t waste too much time hanging around. While flat light covered the islands, there was at least a bit of interesting light in the sky. Not the ideal image that I imagined, but not a total loss either. And all the more reason to head back up again…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f/2.8 tilt-shift
85mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/250 sec
WB Daylight

October 4, 2013/0 Comments/by Cody

Autumn, Friday Photo, Vestvågøya

Friday Photo #38 – Stamsund Autumn Storm

Photo: Autumn Clouds, Stamsund, Vestvågøya, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Aug 29, 2013. 19:10

When the winds blow strong, I usually keep my head low and spend my time by the warm fireplace in the Stamsund hostel. Stamsund was one of the reasons I became so enamored with the Islands in the first place, and despite the fact that I wander around much more than my early journeys (before I could afford to rent a car), I still try and spend a good be of time here.

And it’s not all sitting around and sharing stories with other travelers. There are a few places out on the coastline beyond the hostel that are pretty reliable and sheltered for when the weather gets bad. It’s a common sight for me to be heading out the door, tripod in hand, to go scrambling over the rocks and out to the sea whenever a break in the rain occurs.

While the mountains of this scene never change, the sky and the sea often due. If you compare all the photos I’ve taken over the years from pretty much this exact same, you’ll think each one was taken somewhere else. On this particular day, heavy, wet clouds were sweeping across the islands. This spot proved to be the only place where I could get myself out of the wind enough to keep my tripod from shaking while the waves crashed just below my feet.

I experimented with a number of exposure times and this one feels the most dynamic to me. Any slower and there wasn’t quite enough movement in the clouds and they just appeared out of focus. Much longer and the clouds lost any texture, and lost the stormy appearance what this day was.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 50
f 16
30 seconds
WB Daylight
6 Stop B+W Neutral Density filter
2 Images – Top/Bottom

September 27, 2013/0 Comments/by Cody

Friday Photo, Vestvågøya, Winter

Friday Photo #36 – Vikvatnet Thaw

Photo: Vikvatnet, Vestvågøya, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Feb 10, 2012. 10:42

This weeks Friday Photo is more illustrative rather than scenic in purpose. This photo shows that Lofoten is not always a winter wonderland of white snow from sand beach to highest peak. There is actually a fragile balance between snow and rain that has a rather dramatic effect on the appearance of the landscape, and in turn, what photographic opportunities you will find. With a fresh layer of snow, most anything is photogenic. When the snow line retreats up the mountains, the low areas can often look bland and lifeless.

Despite the northern latitude of Lofoten, the winter temperatures remain quite mild. For several days previous to this photo a southwest wind brought the temperatures above the freezing level, while rain melted away the snow. Finally reaching a high of 6.2˚C, which might not sound like much, but it was February in the Arctic Circle. And for another reference, the high temp on June 1st, 2012 was 6.5˚C, while June 1st, 2013 reached a high of 26.3˚C. What an amazing variation! Lofoten weather is unpredictable at best, and years seldom seem to repeat themselves. In fact, the weather almost makes a point of being completely bi-polar year upon year.

When I passed by this scene a few days earlier, the lake had been covered in a nice coating of snow. On this morning, I passed by once again on my way out to Haukland beach to see if I could find something interesting. Now, a layer of rain water covered the ice, allowing for a reflection of the mountains. And in combination with the freeze patterns in the ice, created some interesting texture. The light was a bit flat, but what can you do. I was glad it had actually stopped raining for a few minutes.

Camera Info:
Nikon D700
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
44mm
ISO 200
f 11
1/20 sec
WB Daylight

September 13, 2013/0 Comments/by Cody

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