Photo: Dusting of snow covers rocks at Unstad beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. February 5, 2024. 12:23
Sometimes one doesn’t need to contribute much more to a photograph than being there. This is one of those times: park the van, walk 50 meters, setup camera and tripod, take a photo.
Lofoten has done all the real work…
Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
35mm
ISO 64
f 10
30 Seconds
WB Daylight
10 Stop Nisi ND Filter
Photo: Noon winter sun casts long shadows over icy shoreline at Nappstraumen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 24, 2025. 12:23
Lofoten hasn’t had much sun this year. Well, Lofoten hasn’t have much sun since last August. But today finally arrived to a fully clear sky and bright sun for everyone to enjoy – at least those on the south facing side of Lofoten. For those of us on the north side, it will still be some weeks or months until the sun is high enough in the sky to shine over our houses.
I had originally written a different article for today, mostly about the frequent changing weather so far this year – from deep snow to heavy rain and flooding to freezing and Icy – which is Lofoten’s current state until next week when it warms up and rains again. But with such a wonderful day, I thought a sunny photo would be nicer.
My original plan had been to shoot a photo at 12:00 noon, mostly to illustrate now low in the sky the sun still is right now, 3 weeks after it first rose again after the Polar Night. But heading out my door in what I though was plenty of time for a short drive down the road, I didn’t realize my van was frozen solid like a rock – even the doors had trouble opening. I guess it must have rained after I returned home yesterday and frozen overnight. So what I thought would be a short drive down the road first turned into 10+ minutes of me scraping ice off my windshield so I could drive. (Remember, in Norway you always need to have clean windows, being in a rush is no excuse)
As I arrived at my planned location just 5 km down the road, I could see my delay caused me to miss my originally planned shooting location as the sun was already emerging too far from behind the mountain. This led me to have to climb up a small icy hill to get the sun back in a better position in relation to the mountain. But again, it wasn’t quite perfect – at least for me planning to have a photo taken directly at 12:00. I probably missed the shot my 1-2 minutes.
Not being satisfied, this led me to drive over to the other side of Nappstraumen, where I’d then have a 2nd chance for the sun emerging from the mountain – although by this time, I’d obviously lost my planning for a shot at 12:00 noon.
Luckily the shoreline was well frozen and a number of small icy ponds were around to attempt to use as a foreground. I always find this a slightly difficult location as it’s full of potential but difficult to find a composition that works well.
Once the sun was a little higher into the sky I noticed the nice shadows being cast from the small rocks in the ponds. So instead of using the end of the pond as a foreground, I put my camera almost all the way down on the ice and looked for what I could come up with. I shot a few different variations and think this one probably came out the best – my 3rd attempt for this weeks photo…
Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
17mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/100 Second
WB Daylight
Photo: Northern lights and moonlit mountains over Vik beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 24, 2019. 00:13
The media hype around this year’s solar maximum and, ‘OMG!!! Best time in 10 years to see northern lights!’ No doubt means Lofoten will be busier than ever this coming winter season. But I’ll tell you a little secret – there are always northern lights on Lofoten, and most anywhere in the aurora oval. Some periods may be more quiet that other, such as January 2024, which otherwise should have been very active, but that has as much to do with the earth’s magnetic field, as it does with the activity from the sun. And of course the biggest factor for Lofoten, the weather!
If you had been to Lofoten during the previous months, then you’ll mostly have been disappointed with your northern lights chasing, as there has been a near continuous cloudy sky and stormy weather over most of northern Norway. No matter how active the sun is, if you can’t see the sky, then you cant see the northern lights. On my own, I usually only go out under ideal conditions the days, as so far that has only been a handful of nights this season.
But the good news is! There is no on-off switch for the northern lights. They will be here next year, the year after, and many years to come.
Here is an old photo from January 2019, during the solar minimum when the sun was supposed to relatively inactive. And yet here is an aurora filled sky over moonlit mountain peaks. And I have dozens of similar nights each year for the last decade. So don’t worry, the northern lights aren’t going to be ‘over’ if you don’t visit the north this year. Next year will be fine as well, and all the years into the future…
Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2000
f 1.8
1.3 Seconds
WB Daylight
Photo: Moon in twilight sky over Skolmen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 3, 2023. 11:19
Welcome to 2025! When I first registered 68north.com in 2010 as a small portfolio for my growing collection of travel images from Lofoten, I never imagined what the journey over the next 15 years would have been. Nor did I image when I first started writing these Friday Photo posts over 10 years ago that I would still be here writing one every week. The world is a lot different today than it was then, especially the world of travel, photography, and information.
In some ways I still have one foot in that old world. I still don’t use a gps when hiking, I’m not that into video and social media, I’ve never put any advertising or sponsored content (other than my own products) on this website, and I’m still writing blog posts. With the growing presence of AI in both imagery and words, perhaps a hand written site like this is more important than ever. Even if no one reads blogs anymore amongst the increasing supply of fantasy depicted as reality. At least the information is here should anyone come searching for it.
And a new year means the days are getting brighter as the Polar Night is quickly coming to an end. Weather permitting, it might be possible to see the first half of the sun tomorrow as it floats across the southern horizon. That said, these first days are the year as still quite short. Here, a waxing gibbous moon is just about to pass over Skolmen mountain in the distance.
Opposite of the midnight sun, there is the midday moon during winter here in Lofoten. Whereas in ’normal’ latitudes, a full moon will rise opposite of sunset. When sunset doesn’t occur, and the sun is below the horizon in the south, the moon can be above the horizon at noon towards the north – 180˚ opposite the sun.
Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
330mm
ISO 200
f 5.3
1/40 Second
WB Daylight
Photo: Snow covered Stornappstind mountain peak rises over Nappstraumen, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 27, 2024. 13:04
The temperature has slowly dropped over the last week in what otherwise has been a mild and wet November. In fact, every month since May this year has been above average in temperature after a hot summer and stormy autumn. Compared to November 2023 which was very cold, calm, and dry – 4.4˚c below average (-1.6˚c vs. normal 2.8˚c ), this November will follow October’s trend of above average precipitation and temperatures. It seems like the whole north Atlantic is quite grumpy this year as storm after storm sweeps over Lofoten and northern Norway. Hopefully this pattern breaks before my photo workshop season begins in January!
If you wanna checkout what the weather has been up to yourself, you can see the historic weather statistics on yr.no: Leknes Last 13 Months
I’ve written a lot about the weather lately, but that is because it’s one of the most important elements of any Lofoten trip. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and everything is nice and you don’t even need to think about the weather, but unfortunately, this is far from the majority of the time. So it’s generally a good idea to know a little bit about reading the weather up here – although this year, that might have been somewhat depressing if you’ve visited from late September until now.
I was actually going to post a different photo today, also from Wednesday, but a much more colorful image of what will likely have been my last sighting of the sun for the year. But it was really just a snapshot and nothing very interesting. That image was actually take from below the mountain you see here, looking south, towards the left side of the frame. In this image, just 20 minutes later and looking west, the landscape is dark and almost completely void of color. Colorful sunset vs. grey winter, just a few kilometres and minutes apart.
Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
62mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/13 Seconds
WB Daylight
Photo: November afternoon sunset from Ballstadheia, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 25, 2022. 13:09
November is that middle ground between no longer autumn and still not winter. Although as far as the sun is concerned, the daylight hours are similar to January and early February. So if you’re heading to the mountain for a sunset hike like I was on this afternoon up on Ballstadheia – you probably need to start hiking before lunch! Quite a difference from my after dinner hikes of summer, which was not that long ago.
In the last couple Friday photo posts, I’ve showed images of 2023’s cold November, with a -1.6˚c average temperature, was the coldest month of the whole winter – 28 out of 30 days dropped below 0˚c. November 2022, when this photo was taken, was quite a bit milder, having an average of 3.8˚c and only dropping below 0˚c on 12 days.
What both 2023 and 2022 have in common is that they were both relatively dry, with less that 50% of average rainfall for the month. Now compare this with November 2021 in which there was above average rainfall and precipitation on 29 out of 30 days – I remember it as a grey and misty month when I was struggling to get some final images for my Northern Light ebook. I would have much preferred the weather of 2022 or 2023!
So where am I going with all this? Nowhere really. Just an example of how there’s no predicting much of anything outside of general trends when it comes to Lofoten’s weather.
Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 14-30mm f/4
20mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/25 Second
WB Daylight
Photo: The morning’s high tide line washed into the snow covered sand of Vik beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 20, 2023. 09:23
Not every year is it possible to photograph snow covered beaches already in November. If I was just shown this image and asked to guess when it was taken, my first guess would be January or February, followed by March. November wouldn’t be in my top three guesses, but here it is.
I already wrote a bit of an overview last week (Friday Photo #617) about November 2023 being colder than average, and in fact, the coldest month of the whole winter. This day, November 20th, was a particularly chilly day at -3.8˚c. Lucky for me, the cold temperature actually made this image possible, as the beach remained frozen enough that even a light dusting of snow was able to remain. Had it been closer to even 0˚c, then it is more likely the snow would have melted away before my arrival.
I would have rather photographed the scene closer to high tide, but with sunrise around 10:00 in late November, the timing wouldn’t work. And the snow was nice enough anyhow!
Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 2000
f 2
1.6 Seconds
WB Daylight
Photo: November deep freeze over mountains of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 10, 2023. 08:51
It was a frozen morning with temperatures dropping to -5.8˚c in which I caught the morning light over Ristind and Himmeltindan mountains rising over the frosty landscape. I had actually camped somewhere further east on my way back from Evenes airport after a photo workshop in Scotland, arriving to my van frozen like a block of ice in the cold darkness. This time I at least remembered to put my window scraper in the van, and even then, quite of bit of effort was required before I could drive.
Usually November is a bit more mild with maybe a short cold snap or two bringing a bit of snow. November 2023 was not that! With a -1.6˚c average temperature, it the coldest month of the whole winter. 28 out of 30 days dropped below 0˚c at some point and 21 days had a below 0˚c average temperature. It was cold!
The cold also brought many clear and calm days, and only 40% of average rainfall for the month. Visually it was probably the best ‘winter’ month of the entire winter. If every November was like this, I would schedule 1/2 my photo workshops then. Unfortunately, there is no way to know and it is just as likely, if not more to end up with November 2021 weather, where it rained/snowed 29 out of 30 days.
What will this year be like? I don’t know. But coming off a windy and wet October, I suspect the stormy weather will be quite frequent. Though maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by clear and calm days and nice full of dancing aurora. We will see…
Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
98mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1/80 Second
WB Daylight
Photo: Surfer in wave at Unstad beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 4, 2022. 17:19
The autumn storms bring nice swells to Unstad each year, which combined with the still mild water temperatures and autumn holidays make it a popular time for surfing. This day with one of my autumn photo workshops a nice clean slightly overhead swell was rolling into the bay. Though I don’t surf too much these days – hard to find the time! I still enjoy shooting surfing when I get the chance. And it’s usually a unique experience for workshop clients who often don’t associate the arctic and surfing.
As the afternoon light began to fade I decided to change things up a bit. Instead of continuing to increase my ISO to keep a fast enough shutter speed for the surfers to remain sharp, I did the opposite. Putting my ISO down to 31 and stopping the lens down to f22 – which unfortunately made every dust spot on my dirty camera sensor visible – I should have put on a 3 stop ND filter instead – I was able to get an exposure around 1/2 a second.
Tracking the waves and finding the correct movement and shutter speed is relatively straightforward enough. Adding a surfer onto the wave who then moves within a 3 dimensional space makes things a little more tricky. Ideally the surfer should move as closely with the wave as possible, without too much up or down motion, which then turns them into a mushy blur.
Once finding roughly the right settings its mostly down to a bit of luck to for everything to come together, which I think it mostly did with this image.
Camera Info:
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
300mm
ISO 31
f 22
0.3 Second
WB Daylight
Photo: Autumn mountain birch trees in sunlight as rain conceals mountains, Haugheia, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 4, 2023. 13:59
More so than another time of year, autumn is the season of light and shadow. Or maybe light and rain. Or 4-seaons in one day – well, more like 3-seaons, as summer isn’t likely to show up. Some days it can be 3-seasons every 20 minutes where once you see the light on the landscape, it will be gone by the time you arrive. Or, you arrive in the last moments of sunlight before being greeted by showers of rain, such as the above photo, taken on a blustery autumn day on Haugheia.
The small grove of twisted birch trees on Haugheia is one of my favourite local areas at this time of year. Not in the sense of classical grand landscapes, but more looking for brief moments or details in the passing of time. Often, I just stand around observing, and never take a photo, while other days I wander around in circles with my camera as the light changes on the small hilltop. It is a place of subtleness and thought, which for me, is needed more and more in this busy world, or, perhaps I’m just getting old.
Camera Info:
Nikon Z8
Nikon 24-120mm f/4
120mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/250 Second
WB Daylight
