Lofoten

Senja and Lofoten, part 10: All good things...

When I woke up the next day and looked outside, I was met with very gray skies. I felt a bit down, but mostly relieved; I had gotten out the morning before and got some amazing images. Now I could sleep in and not feel disappointed with myself for not getting out. 

During the night, the snow had come rolling in. What was just a cloud bank on the horizon was now thick clouds with occasional snowfall, adding more fresh snow to the already impressive amount. I was in no hurry anywhere. It was my last full day, and I had a very early start the next day. I ate a good breakfast and packed down most of my stuff that I didn't need. I decided to drive around a bit just to scout the area. I knew there was no photos to be had, but at least I'd have a record of the area for next time.

A good sunrise location, just not today.

Ytresand beach.

I tried to find inspiration to take some photos that day. I really did. But I was tired. I had been on the trip for 11 days now, and I was really feeling it. The location was still as beautiful as ever, and the weather wasn't all that bad, but I just kind of gave up. It was enough. There is only so much travel and photography I can do during a trip. One final location, and I was done.

Beach on the road to Myrland. I wish I was here earlier.

As another patch of snow started coming down, I snapped the final image of the trip. The location was great, the rest wasn't.

The drive home was long. Apart from some GoPro time lapse, I don't have any footage from either day. Nothing really happened either; the weather was good, the roads were excellent (especially the Swedish ones), and I just kept driving. In hindsight, I'd probably do the same trip in three days next time, especially the return drive. It took me days to recover from the driving, and weeks to recover from the trip itself.

Home, at last. 5223 kilometers, by far the longest trip I've ever done by car.

So, was it worth it?

For once, I don't know. I really don't want to complain, but there is one really big issue with the trip after I've been home for a few months. I'm completely fed up with landscape photography, and photography in general. It's now been three months since I came back, and I've taken my camera out of the bag once during that time. I think it was too much. The utter, absolute, amazing crazy place I spent many days in spoiled me really, really badly. I look out my window at home, and I don't see a single mountain. There's no fjords, no solitude, no deserted beaches, and no eagles anywhere.

It's taken me this long to process all my images, and I still have over 200 GB of time lapse footage left; I have no idea when I'll have the energy to finish that. I'm sure I will get around to it eventually, but it still feels I need a break. My summer vacations are coming up in a month or so, I will probably try something then; I've been thinking about some intimate woodland landscapes this time around. Maybe that'll work out, maybe it wont. Time will tell.

I'm sure I will go back to Lofoten. I want to see how it looks without snow and ice. It feels like I barely scratched the surface of what you can see and experience in the region, and now that I've been there, I know where to head next and what regions to concentrate on. But the return trip will have to wait. For now, I have the images, and more importantly, the memories to remind me of that superlative, magical place. They remind me of how incredibly lucky I am to be able to visit such a paradise.

Senja and Lofoten, part 9: Hamnøy and exploring southeast

In the second post of this series, I talked about putting in the effort. As landscape photographers, it is almost mandatory if you want to get those once in a lifetime shots. Sure, you can get lucky and get the perfect conditions at the perfect location (the storm clouds over mountains a few posts ago is an example of just that), but for consistency, you have no choice but to do the work, set the alarm, and get out of bed.

That said, I'm horrible at it. On this trip, there were multiple mornings where I should have gone out, but didn't; many times I'm a lazy man, even with things I know I'd enjoy once I get going. This particular morning however, I didn't have a choice. I had two mornings to go before heading back to Finland. If the weather wasn't on my side this day, I'd only have one backup morning. So, at 4:30 in the morning, I started my drive to Hamnøy.

Of course, I wasn't alone. Hamnøy is the defining photo of the Lofoten islands, and I counted around 30 other people on the bridge with me. I was one of the earlier ones so I could pick my spot. We all lined up, set up, and waited.

45 minutes to go.

If I'd sell my stuff I guess this one would be called the money maker. Then again, I know for a fact that 30 people have the same image, so...

The sky eastward slowly got brighter and brighter, lighting the horizon a lovely pink and orange. Then, there it was, the first light hitting the peak, a lovely pink spreading around the cliff face. I took my shot, double-checked it, re-framed, and shot again. Two images, slightly different, and both absolutely worth it to wake up for.

But I wasn't done. While most people were staying on the bridge, shooting that scene, I packed my stuff and walked up a small hill close by that I'd scouted the day before. I had gotten an idea for a shot; something I could use as a background for my emails, to remind me of where I had been. Something simple. Something that showcased this wondrous place. I knew just what to shoot, and I had the perfect weather for it.

View northward from the hill. You don't have to look closely if you don't want to. But if you do, you see the small detail, such as the fishing boats. This photograph brings a smile to my lips each time I see it; it's not perfect by any means, but it means the world to me.

After that, I was done. I had gotten the photo I came to Lofoten for, and a great bonus on top of that. It had been a superb morning. While driving back, the landscape got brighter and brighter as the sun rose. I tried a few locations on the road back, but they would have worked better at sunrise. Didn't bother me though, not one bit.

Not the best I'd seen, but not bad.

After breakfast I decided to explore the final direction I hadn't been to yet, the southern part of Vestvågøy, the island I was staying on. The reason I had left it for last was that the maps didn't promise a lot of amazing views. I mean it isn't bad by any means, but it just isn't as dramatic as the drive south. 

Possible sunrise location for the last morning, but OK mid-day too.

Ballstad harbor.

Mountaintop detail.

Same mountain from the other side of the bay.

I continued my drive along the coast, trying to find images, but also just enjoying the scenery. As expected, it wasn't as dramatic as the previous days, but the weather as great so I didn't mind. On the way, I found a small installation of fish drying, nestled in by a small leisure harbor. I really do wonder why the birds don't eat all of the fish, since there is nothing to protect them, they just hang there:

Dried fish, anyone?

I didn't count them.

I mean, there were plenty of crows and eagles around, I'd think they'd treat the display as an all-you-can-eat buffet. I don't know, maybe the local birds prefer more sportsmanlike behavior. But speaking of eagles, guess what I photographed during my lunch?

I really do miss being able to take close-ups of these majestic birds.. Although we do have white-tailed eagles in the Turku archipelago too, they are mostly very shy and don't come nearly as close as this. At least if, you're not being sneaky, which I really wasn't, eating my bag of food at the top of a mountain pass.

After lunch I finished my drive round to Stamsund; not really much to report there. That particular area has forest by the road and coast, so you can't really see much of anything while driving. My mind was quickly moving to where I was planning to take the sunset image of the day, Uttakleiv Beach. Uttakleiv is one of the iconic beaches in Lofoten and is right next to Haukland Beach where I had been earlier. Getting there was no problem; finding a composition with more than a hundred other photographers was.

I'm not super happy with what I got, to be honest. There were too many people around and I couldn't really concentrate on the image. After I took this, I wanted to see if I could find something else, but it was no use. The beach was full of tourists and the light was disappearing fast; another storm was heading our way and it covered most of the horizon, blocking the final phase of the sunset. I stayed on the beach for a good hour after I took the image above, just taking in the view. I knew it was probably going to be the last sunset image I took during the trip. It turns out I was right.

Senja and Lofoten, part 6: Last day in Senja and driving to Lofoten

After the fireworks the evening before, I woke up early feeling maybe not rested, but energetic. I wanted to try to get a similar shot to the first one of the trip, where the sunrise just touches the tops of some mountains. I couldn't really find a great location, but I thought I'd try the beach I was at earlier. There was a gap between the mountains which might be enough for the sun to sneak through.

Pre-dawn blue hour. I was hoping to catch the sun in the water as well, but no such luck.

Turns out the mountains weren't cooperating with me, and I didn't get any rays of sun. It wasn't a big surprise, the chances were low from the beginning. I was just happy to have the energy back after a few crappy mornings. And even if I didn't get a sunrise, there was still one photo I wanted to take while the weather was peaceful. This one is another ripoff from Mr. Heaton, but it doesn't matter to me. It's a nice shot to have. Right next to Hamn, there is a small rocky island with a single house on it. The way to get on the island is a small suspension bridge, which looks pretty cool. The water around the island is so clear you can easily see the sand on the bottom.

I didn't venture far that day, I had way too much fun looking through the images I had shot so far. And I hadn't even gotten to the main attraction yet, the Lofoten islands. While I was looking at the images, I kept tabs on the weather; after many days of blue skies a bank of clouds was making it's way towards me. It didn't look as enough to ruin sunset, fortunately. I just had to pick where I wanted to go.

Even though I had a nice pic from Tungeneset, I decided to go back there for sunset, early enough this time so that I could choose the spot I wanted. The incoming clouds had also brought some waves with them, so I settled down with my composition, taking images while the waves crashed on the rock. There were a few glints of direct sunlight, but the clouds blocked most of the light. That was OK, I had taken a look at the images from the previous day and I knew I had a colorful one already; now I just took another kind of image.

One with (some) color

And one without :)

Very serious. Yes. It took me around 15 tries to get this right; it's tricky when you can't see the composition (or sharpness) when you are in front of the lens.

From the road back to the cabin. The viewing platform of epicness is in the valley top right, looking this way.

Looking back, it really was a productive 4 days on Senja, even if it didn't feel like that at times. I have a lot of photos to be proud of, and I learned a lot taking them. The fact that I've been doing this for more than 6 years and I still have a lot that I don't know is what keeps me going. Although, at times I do wonder why I'm freezing my ass off at the side of a fjord 1500 km from home.

The next day was a travel day again; I had a long drive ahead of me to reach my next accommodation in Leknes. I was hoping that I'd make it in time to get to a sunset location; but with the short days and the long drive, I wasn't sure. This time I did remember to charge to GoPro during the night. 

One thing that I had expected to see during my trip was reindeer. I've seen and heard countless tales of reindeer filling up roads so that you can't pass. I had seen plenty of road signs warning of them and moose during my driving. But the one place I saw reindeer wasn't where I'd expected them.

Umm, hi? Would you mind moving, I have to pack my car.

Thank you! Sorry to disturb. I'll drive away shortly.

The drive itself was pretty crazy. As you can see, it started off well. Around negative 5 degrees and sunshine, it was no problem driving along the beautiful vistas. Then, somewhere after Narvik, the clouds hit. And I mean hit; out of nowhere, I was in a blizzard. And then it cleared. And then I was in a blizzard again. And then it cleared. It was probably the most stressful drive I've ever done. I actually completely forgot to eat lunch that day. I also didn't take any footage of the blizzard, that's how hard I had to concentrate on keeping on the road.

The nice thing about sudden blizzards is that when they leave, they produce absolutely fantastic light. I was lucky enough to catch a few photographs on the way when this happened; they were truly fleeting moments. 

Just some haze over Narvik, this is fine.

Driving through Svolvær, very gingerly.

Probably my favorite image from the whole trip. I got really lucky, being in the right place at the right time.

So, after a long stressful drive with just a few candy bars instead of food, I finally arrived in Leknes. I had chosen Leknes because it is basically in the middle of the south Lofoten islands, and everything was a relatively short drive away. Also, Leknes is a city, and as such it has services available, such as food stores. Which I ignored, because as soon as I had met the landlord and gotten the key, I drove away to get a sunset shot.

My target was the well-known Haukland beach. I was a little too fast though, because I didn't drive all the way there; there are two beaches at Haukland, and the northern one is the 'correct' one. I was in such a rush I didn't even notice. I ran down the beach, found a composition, and snapped off a bracketed exposure. And just like that, the light was gone. The resulting image has a few nice elements, but it's not one of my favorites. For now, it had to do.

The color is weird in this one, I don't really know how to fix it. One of those images I have to come back to in a few months.

The sun set, and I went to the local supermarket to buy myself some dinner. The rest of the evening went into planning; so many locations, so little time. Exhausted, I quickly drifted off to deep sleep.