Friday Photo #426 – Winter Is Back

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Photo: Snow covered birch copse on Haugheia, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March 5, 2021. 13:35

Winter is back! After a rainy finish to February the temperatures have finally dropped again and the typical March snow flurries have been blowing across the islands for the last few days. Today though, the wind finally calmed and so I headed out into the snowy weather to Haugheia to see if the snow added any character to the small copses of wind twisted birch trees that sit along the ridge. You might recognize these trees from Friday Photo #405, during autumn last year.

Conditions were slightly more difficult today than on a sunny autumn afternoon, but I kind of like the starkness of the winter look a bit better. I had been hoping for heavier snow flakes, and while the forecast showed rain, it was a thin, light snow that was falling as I reached the trees.

I spent a couple hours shooting various compositions. It is really a place one can get lost in, especially in the larger grove, which I find the chaos of to be slightly intimidating for my general preference of clean and simple compositions. Even this image, with plenty of negative space, is already feeling on the busy side for me, especially the thick cluster of branches on the left side.

Though as an easy 20 minute walk from the parking lot, I should put in a bit more effort to explore the area, as they are some of the cooler looking trees in the western half of Lofoten.

Tomorrow the first proper storm of the winter is forecast to hit Lofoten after what has been a pretty calm and sunny winter overall – much better than last year! So I don’t think I’ll be back then, but hopefully all the snow doesn’t get blown away!

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

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 200
f 8
1/250 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #421 – Himmeltindan

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Photo: Last light over the peaks of Himmeltindan and Ristind, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 29, 2021. 14:35

I don’t post panos very often because I think they’re too small on the computer screen, but for this image from today’s sunset, a pano was the best representation of the scene.

After a dry winter, the the central and western islands of Lofoten received around 20-30cm of snow on Monday night, immediately turning the islands into a winter wonderland which has so far been missing this season. And even better, the temperatures have remained cold and the wind has mostly been calm all while the weather has been fantastic.

It is unfortunate that this winters photo workshops have been canceled, as compared with the struggles of last years terrible weather and the struggle to find light, this year would be a dream for guiding, as there is literally light everywhere! But I’ve been out enjoying it for myself, and hunting for new locations which might work for future workshops.

I had passed by this scene yesterday with a completely clear sky. The full moon had already risen but was too far to the right of Ristind for any sort of useable composition. So I made plans to return today. However, the weather had other plans and a layer of clouds on the northern horizon blocked any possibility of me getting the moonrise photo I was looking for. Luckily, the light itself was fantastic, much better than the previous day. So, moon or not, I still ended up with something nice I think!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
130mm
ISO 100
f 5.6
1/100 second
WB Daylight
6 image panoramic

Friday Photo #418 – Second Sun

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Photo: January sunrise/sunset over Nappstraumen, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 8, 2021. 12:39

The sun has returned to Lofoten! For the last two days, the sun has been visible again across the whole of Lofoten. Yesterday, Jan 7, was even better, with a perfectly clear sky and the sun floating along the southern horizon. But I was lazy and didn’t take any photos of it – the lack of snow in the mountains has left me somewhat uninspired for hiking lately.

Today, the sun returned again, but this time with a fiery sky. I was a again a bit slow to start my day, but on the way to Leknes I stopped by Nappstraumen for a couple images – I couldn’t completely ignore light like this.

Though with the sun still low on the horizon, and a fair amount of clouds around, the light was mostly focused in the direct south, not leaving me too many compositional possibilities. I shot a few wider images, but I couldn’t quite get the feeling I was looking for out of the foreground – the wave were quite small and the tide was low, forcing me out onto the seaweed, which I don’t think looks very nice.

So instead, once the sun popped around the bottom of Skottind, I put on the telephoto lens for a closer detail shot. By now the illuminated clouds had also pulled back quite a bit, leaving much of the sky a flat grey. Perhaps I should have also shot an image at 14mm to use as a reference. Not the best composition in the world here and I would have rather shot wider with a more dynamic foreground if there had been one. But at least it was a nice colorful sunrise over this part of Lofoten.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 f/4
125mm
ISO 100
f 8
1/60 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #417 – A New Year

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Photo: New Year twilight at the eye of Uttakleiv, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. January 1, 2021. 12:43

The new year has arrived with the soft pastels of winter twilight. Cold and clear, perfect weather for the first day of 2021 and a slightly slow start. Feeling lazy, I headed for a Lofoten classic, the Eye of Uttakleiv.

Lots of locals were out and about enjoying the weather, but at will likely be the trend for most of the winter and probably the first half of the year, no other photographers were around. Though had I not been lazy, I should have probably used the nice weather to head up a mountain. But there are still 4 months of winter left, so plenty of time for that in the days and weeks ahead.

You can see in the photo that the snow is still quite thin on Lofoten. It’s nice for driving, having the roads clear and mostly dry. But for photography, a little more white in the mountains would be nice! Soon hopefully.

The moon has been shining bright the last days, though in this photo it’s just a small spot above the rock on the left. It would have gone blurry from the 30 second exposure anyhow. I used a dark polarizer filter to actually bring out the reflection in the foreground water to add contrast against the dark rocks – though this did slightly make the ‘eye’ less visible, I liked the overall feel of the image better this way.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70 f/2.8
24mm
ISO 100
f 14
30 seconds
WB Daylight
Breakthrough Photography 6 stop dark polarizer

Friday Photo #416 – Christmas Moon

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Photo: Christmas moon in December’s twilight light over mountains of Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 25, 2020. 13:06

Driving home from Stamsund this afternoon I saw the moon sitting low over the mountains along the southern side of Vestvågøy. I was actually looking for a better angle of Vågakallen, which was rising nicely into the mid-day twilight. But unfortunately I was slightly too slow for that and by the time I got to a decent angle, a lay of clouds had drifted into the scene.

The moon looked quite cool, however, and was a good backup shot. Unfortunately again for me, since I had slept in my van, I put my 200-500mm lens into the house yesterday. Probably would have been a more interesting shot at 500mm, but I’ll never know…

God Jul from Lofoten!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
120mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
.6 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #415 – Polar Night

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Photo: Twilight glow of December’s Polar Night over Vestfjord from Ballstadheia, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. December 12, 2020. 13:04

It has been nearly two weeks since the sun left Lofoten, and still a few more days to go until the winter solstice, when the days will finally begin to brighten again. The weather of the last week has improved somewhat from the soggy grey of November. Yet, with the sun not rising above the horizon, Lofoten only gets twilight light spreading out from the southern horizon.

On day’s without clouds, it almost feels like daylight, but not quite. And perhaps it is because I’m already well used to the darkness by now. I see references to how some people like this time of year, but I am not one of them. Maybe they think the light is special because it happens at noon, whereas in summer they are probably sleeping while I’m out wandering among mountains in the midnight light. I prefer the endless light of summer.

But the good thing about Lofoten is that no season lasts too long. In a few more months the northern horizon will be glowing at midnight and soon after that the midnight sun will return.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200mm f/4
140mm
ISO 100
f 5.6
1/60 seconds
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #412 – Reflection

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Photo: Mountain reflection in Farstadvatnet, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 24, 2020. 10:53

After last week’s brief cold spell, the mild and wet weather of this November has continued, with daily rain and overcast skies. With the sun disappearing below the horizon in 10 days, I’ve probably already seen my last sunlight of the year – unless I happen to get lucky and randomly be in the right place at the right time for a sudden hole in the clouds. I think by the time this month is over, the temperature will end up being 3-4 degrees above average for November.

Now of course this is Lofoten, and who knows what will happen over the next months and into winter. Last year November had the coldest day of the entire winter, which then turned into a rainy and warm January, and overall mild temperatures into the spring. While I wish for snow photographically, daily life is much easier without having to deal with constantly icy roads – there will be plenty of time for that later.

In the middle of the week, the wind dropped off sufficiently for some nice reflections of many of the lakes of Vestvågøy, as they are somewhat sheltered from the surrounding mountains. I was actually heading out to Unstad on Tuesday to shoot something when I passed the perfectly calm Farstadvatn. Normally I don’t stop here, but this day I think I had to, so I pulled over on one of the pullouts and walked down to the shoreline. I actually like that the lower ground is snow-free, adding a bit of separation from the mountains.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
45mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/10 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #411 – First Beach Snow

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Photo: First beach snow of 2020/2021 winter at Haukland beach, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 19, 2020. 11:54

After some unusually mild November temperatures over the last weeks – and no shortage of rain! – the winds finally shifted to the north and brought a cold blast of winter snow across Lofoten. Although this looks to be fairly short lived for snow, as the winds will shift to the south again by Saturday, bringing more mild temperates and rain.

I had been at Haukland beach just a few days ago, working on one of my ongoing projects. Yet with Thursdays snow, and basically full blizzard conditions much of the day, I headed back to the area again, as it would at least offer me a fairly large choice of subjects depending on what the weather decided to do at any given moment. Though I could see on the weather radar that I would have a small 20-30 mininute gap between the super heavy stuff, I figured the beach would likely be possible.

Luckily I was also the first one of the day, having the fresh dusting of snow for myself, so I headed towards the river for the classic shot towards Veggen. The river and beach were nice and clean today – there had been quite some seaweed a few days prior – all blown away overnight I imagine. I Initially shot a few images at the river, but I’ve gotten better conditions before with pretty similar lighting and mood.

I liked the subtle cure and tone of this layer of sand on the right side of the image, created by the higher water flow overnight before the temperatures dropped. I couldn’t quite get the angle I wanted, otherwise Mannen, the mountain leading up to the right becomes too overpowering in the composition. But I still like the overall feel here – and finally some snow!

You can also see how dark it is getting on Lofoten now. Taken basically at noon, there is not much light on cloudy days like this. One month to the winter solstice and the beginning longer days again!

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 24mm f/3.5 tilt-shift
24mm
ISO 100
f 11
13 seconds
WB Daylight
2 images – top, bottom
Breakthrough Photography 6 stop ND filter

Friday Photo #408 – Haugheia Tree

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Photo: Changing perspective – Late autumn tree, Haugheia, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 24, 2020. 16:06

I had been waiting for the right light to head back to Haugheia to spend a little more time in the small grove of trees I posted about a few weeks ago – Friday Photo #405. Though by now it was no longer the warm days we had in early October the the whole 2 kilometer walk was along ice covered trails, making it a little slower going to ensure I stayed on my feet!

But while the air was cold, the light was nice and warm, with the sun low on the horizon. I spent a little time in the other grove of trees, but the sun wasn’t in the right location for them and they weren’t as interesting as I remembered. This lone tree caught my attention more, and so I spent a little time with it.

The image below is the first composition that caught my eye, shooting wide at 14mm. But it also felt a little boring. The area is full of twisted old trees, so I wanted to incorporate some of those somehow. I tried putting something in the foreground, but never got anything I was content with as it then often became to busy of a scene – perhaps after the first snow I’ll go try again. Or maybe it was actually the sun itself which was distracting – maybe I also need to try on a completely overcast or foggy day.

In the above image, which I like more, maybe just because of the warmer tones, I switched to a 70-200 lens. My goal was still to isolate the tree but in a slightly more abstract way. I thought the framing of the branches in the foreground looked interesting enough and isn’t something I normally do.

I also eventually took a shot focused on the foreground tree branches with the background tree out of focus, but that didn’t look as interesting. And I should say that I actually don’t like photographing trees very much, so not sure why I’m actually going out hiking to find some. Perhaps it’s just trying to hold on to the last of autumn before the long winter sets in and most my images will be of snow. But one of these image will also likely be part of a long term project for a new eBook I’m working on, and I’m attempting to show more of Lofoten than just ‘pretty mountain views.’ It will be a struggle, especially in the coming two months, but hopefully it pushes me to something new, as I feel my photography have stagnated for a while now and I’m generally not impressed by anything I return home with.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 f/4
120mm
ISO 100
f 6.3
1/250 second
WB Daylight

Camera Info
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/60 second
WB Daylight

Friday Photo #405 – Indian Summer

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Photo: October sun shines through a hazy blue sky over autumn birch trees, Haugheia, Vestvågøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. October 4, 2020. 14:34

After a wet and mostly wild weathered September (with a few windy days), October has brough Lofoten, and most of northern Norway an Indian summer. Since the beginning of the month the temperature has averaged over 12 degrees, about double what it should normally be, with a high temp of 16.2 degrees.

On Sunday afternoon I decided to join some friends for a casual walk up one of the local hill near Leknes – what we jokingly refer to as ‘granny hikes.’ With a hazy, cloudless bleu sky and a bit of wind, conditions were not anywhere ideal for landscape photography. But as is my usual habit, I almost always carry my camera with me anyhow, even if only for a bit of extra exercise.

Initially, a few lone trees against the layered mountain background caught my eye, thinking of some sort of abstract-ish shot at 200mm or such. But I couldn’t find a tree which lined up with the background mountains to my satisfaction. But as I was trying to find a good angle, for one of the trees in the background of this image, the shadows of these twisted branches caught my eye.

I was in a bit of a hurry, with my friends waiting. So I didn’t have too much time to work on the composition – the think the lower left branch is too close to the bottom of the frame, so I should have moved back slightly. But otherwise, I think the empty hazy sky is what allowed this image to work somewhat. Anything else in the sky my have been distracting and taken away from the twisted shapes of the trees. But as it’s only a short walk, maybe I’ll return again for a different version, though I imagine all the leaves are probably gone by now.

Camera Info:
Nikon D850
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 100
f 14
1/100 second
WB Daylight