About a month ago I came back from a trip to one of my favourite places on this planet – the Lofoten islands in northern Norway. My plan was to go up there to produce some fresh winter landscape images and to capture the northern lights, as this years winter has received the best northern lights predictions in years, even from NASA.
Well, it didn’t all come as planned. After three visits in summer, it was my first trip to the islands in winter and in my head I had these images of steep mountains rising from the sea covered in a thick layer of pure white snow. That and a combination of pink skies in the mornings and afternoons and clear nights with amazing Auroras.
The only night without clouds was actually the night of my arrival, when I didn’t have a chance to take any photos, and there was even a little bit of snow on the ground and a hint of northern lights above me. I fell asleep happily just to wake to a grey first morning. To make it short, almost the whole week it was raining like crazy and storms were beating ocean and islands. Temperatures went up to 7° Celsius (while it was -15°C at home in Hamburg) and basically all snow melted.
If you experience this as a photographer who came to shoot dreamy winter landscapes, you could easily hate these islands. But I don’t. And I don’t know anybody who does. The place is one of the most spectacular in the world. One of the most beautiful sceneries I have ever seen. And that I never grow tired of watching. Some light on the land helps to bring out the magic, but any kind of weather, even the worst you can imagine, fits well. You have to love these islands. I do.
And maybe that is the reason why, on the last day, I experienced a more typical winter day with wind and sun and snow and beautiful light, all changing back and forth in a 10 minute rhythm. That really helped to get some nice shots.
These are a few images of those magic moments up north …
