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Landscape and Nature Photography from the North of Europe

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Our little road-trip leads us to our first destination in the east of Finland, a waterfall called Kiutägöngäs a bit north of Kuusaamo. I’m little familiar with the location as I have visited this waterfall, or more correctly rapid, once before now two years ago. During that visit I had a good chance to explore the scenery and then focused more on wider views.

Somehow though I didn’t had the feeling that I managed to capture the essence of the place and was not entirely satisfied with the outcome. This time the lack of light, switching to B&W and using a long lens inspired me to approach the torrent from a different angle.

Essentially this torrent is a wild river which caved its way through the hills and even though the rapid is rather large, it is though a narrow place and not necessarily easy to photograph.

Leaving the wide-angle lens in the bag this time and by focusing more on the details of the scenery, especially the structures in the rocks and contrast between them and the stream, I managed to get a different and more satisfying take this time. Also by excluding the sky I had the feeling to not only have been able to create more interesting photographs, but also capturing more of what makes this spot so exciting, yet difficult to photograph.

Maybe in an upcoming visit I again might have more and different ideas, but for now, this is getting closer to what I would think to be more interesting.

There are moments in landscape-photography when just about everything comes together perfectly: you’re at the right place at the right time and the conditions are just right. These are rare and good moments. And then there are the moments when just about everything goes wrong. This is one these…

If you have been reading my last post you will have read that I planned a quick visit to the island of Senja, Norway. The forecast predicted something which promised to be rather dramatic conditions: meaning sun, clouds and mild rain. Perfect!

By the time I started to write this in my car I was supposed to be just there; hopefully waking up in the morning after a night of successful photography. And it all came different…

Since you are already sitting in front of your computer, you might want to look up the city of Alta, Norway on Google maps and then follow the E9 with the direction to Kautokeino about 52km to the south. You might be able to find a parking spot there. It’s a nice small resting place where I stopped for a nap and it was just there where the battery of my car died. I’m not sure whether the lights were on before I fell asleep or if the GPS was draining the battery, either way, whatever it was, the car didn’t start.

In short: I was kind of screwed.

(more…)

It has become a little bit like a habit, that I as soon as my vacation begins head out and spent some time doing my landscape photography. In fact, I usually take the liberty with starting a little early, which requires me to be back for my last day at work, which makes this first trip usually only a one-nighter.

The distance of these locations appears to get larger each time and this year it took me Finish Lapland, to a lake called Ukonjärvi. I passed by during my trip to the Finmark area in the north of Norway (which reminded that the write-up on this one is about to be published here soon), and spotted a few nice locations along this lake, which I then had no time to explore. I had a panoramic image in mind, which I hoped to be able to take this time.

The journey up here took me about 6 hours in the car and I arrived in the late afternoon at the lake and found me a nice place to rest and a quick nap (thanks to the wonders of Street view you are able to see the very same place here).

The Lake

The weather during the day was very interesting and it changed all time: rain, sun, clouds, rain, sun, sun.. you get the idea. Short, perfect for landscape photography, it just has to stay like this.

The sun is about to set around midnight and I hoped for some nice and warm light during the late evening. In the end it turned out not so nice as a layer of thick clouds which came up in the evening and prevented just that.

Since I arrived early in the afternoon, I spent a fair amount of time exploring the area and then decide to limit myself to only to the lake of Ukosjärvi and not expand further to the north, to lake Inari. Even though it sounds like a bigger distance, it is in fact only a few kilometers, but still thought it would be more useful to limit my range to prevent me wandering around more or less randomly in the evening. In the end this turned out to be a good decision, as I already now had a hard time in the evening to remember the different vantage points I scouted.

The Waiting Game

During the early evening the sun is still high up in the sky and lighting the area with very bright and harsh light and the moment a cloud softens the light almost felt a bit relieving. Even though I have planned a few images for the night I don’t have something like a “project”, a clear idea on what to focus on. Maybe it would have been helpful, but while I wait for the evening to arrive I spent some time trying to capture some details and every now and then and doing some abstracts with the reflections of the blue sky in the water. I know, and have witnessed frequently, that the lakes around here can turn into beautiful mirrors but I gave up that hope already during the ride up here as it is too windy at the moment.

Rain, clouds and sun equals

I was spending some time photographing some tree barks when it started to rain ever so slightly again and I continued strolling along the road in my car. The sun came out and it happened what was supposed to happen: a beautiful rainbow appears. I quickly drive the next few hundred meters to a previously visited place from which I had a perfect view on the rainbow.

In the rain I switch from my 70-200mm lens to the 24-105mm only to realize that even 24mm is still not wide enough – the rainbow is simply too large. Again some time passes by until I finally have my 17-40 lens in place and hope for the rainbow to stay while I switch lenses: luckily it did. I wish I would have had a slightly nicer foreground interest available, but I guess one can’t have everything.

I keep on exposing, drying the filters between each shot and try to make the most out of the situation until the rainbow finally disappears and I continue my path along the lake. The sun, now slightly lower, starts to cast increasingly warmer light on the scenery and I take some time to capture some detail images, macros and quite the opposite, a panoramic image.



The last light

Just when the light would have been becoming much warmer and most likely would have dramatically lit the clouds above the lake, more clouds come up and block all of it’s light. Too bad, another hour or such of good light would have been nice.

Nethertheless I continue to visit the vantage points that I have planned and keep on exposing. I had scouted a location for another panoramic image and I was lucky that there was still enough light for a fairly dramatic sky.

It’s getting quickly darker now and exposure times easily reach the 30 second mark, which, together with the movement of the water, made it perfect to try out some long exposures.

After these I decide to call it a day and I’m off on my way home. I had planned one stop on the top of a pass to photograph a few of the trees up there, but it was too windy up there, to ensure a sharp image. These trees will have to wait until I pass there again. Maybe it’s only a few more days…

During this short trip I finally managed to capture an image that I was trying to get for quite some time, and which I now planned to become a bigger project. More on that and a few images will be up soon.

Klick on the map to view location in Google Maps

The mix of snow and rain which is hammering onto the car wakes me up after a couple of hours of sleep in the front seat of my car, which I have left on a beautifully located parking area. I’m looking out of the window and the stormy conditions out there are really not very encouraging. I’m still in Norway and between me and the hopefully better conditions in the north of Finland is only the road through the mountains.

Sunrise is still a few hours ahead but waiting here and not doing anything is not really productive so I start the car and head over back to Finland on the dark and now much more slippery road. It’s roughly a 40km trip and the longer I drive the less rain is pouring on me when finally, on the highest point of road I finally see stars! The sky is clear, lit by stars and a heavy wind blows the snow over the road. Wonderful! The forecast in fact seemed to have been correct.

I continue driving a few more kilometers until I reach the village of Kilpisjärvi and I start to inspect the scenery as much as it is possible in the dark. The sky is full of stars with a few clouds appearing in the dark sky. This seems to be promising.

I have one image in mind, a panorama of Finland’s highest mountain, called Saana. On my very first visit to this place two years ago I already had the idea for this image, but the conditions then simply weren’t right. Today, two years later, it seems to be a lot different and it finally might work out.

It’s still a while until sunrise and I decide to explore the mountain road again in the now slightly brighter conditions. There were surely a few nice images out there, but the very heavy wind on the pass would make a sharp and usable image very unlikely. I decide to head back to my panorama vantage point, to make sure I’m not missing the right moment.

Where's Frodo? I took this image on my very first visit to this area. It was a very grey moment, and even though it was in the beginning of June the lake was still covered with ice. A little later snow started to fall. Exif: 1/80 sec at f6,3 17mm ISO 200 Processed in SilverEfexPro2

As opposed to my first visit here everything comes together just fine. A few clouds show up and the sun rises just at the right spot. To reach over the tree line I would need a slightly higher vantage point, which naturally happens to be more or less in the middle of the road or on the hills behind me. Getting on there without snow shoes is not going to be possible and since traffic at this time in this area not worth mentioning I opt for the road.

A first test image already shows potential, and I continue my setup by carefully aligning and leveling the tripod. The sun now slowly rises over the mountains and not only lights the mountain, but also illuminates the clouds above Saana in colours of purple. Wonderful. This is the image I planned to take two years ago. I expose a series of images for two different panoramic images and once I’m done the best light is over and it becomes rather bright.

Saana, you're Looking Good Today Exif: 1/10 sec at f/14, 150mm ISO 100 7 Exposures stitched in PS CS5.

I explore the area a little further but nothing really catches my eye in this light anymore. The panoramic images of today, the views of Signaldalen and my impromptu project from yesterday make up all in all about 20 keepers and I have the feeling that I made of the most of this short trip. It’s actually way more than I have expected. With a good feeling about this outing I’m driving back home.

The Journey Two reindeer strolling along the road. Exif: 1/200 sec at f7,1 191mm ISO 100

Loose snow is blown over the road by the heavy wind and besides a few reindeer, there’s not much other people out here on this road. It will be like this for quite some time and it should take a many hours until I’m home and import the images to see whether my feeling about the images was right. Luckily it was.

Some statistics from the journey:

Auroras sighted: 1
Kilometres driven: ~1700km
Energy drinks: 2 ltrs
Coffees: many, but still too few
Mentionable Food: 1 bread, porridge and 1 piece of cake (of course)
Hours slept: some

The images of my project I hope to have here on the blog during the next week.

During this trip I took images all over the area up to the island of Sommaroy, near Tromsö. But the images in this post are all from the area that you can see here on the map

The journey begins just after sunset and I’m leaving home off to Norway. To make the most of this short trip I planned to be at location just behind the border before sunrise to take advantage of some nice morning light on and in the mountains. After that I shall continue to the islands north of the city of Tromsö, after a little nap that is. So far the plan.

In fact, it turns out that my plan works out nicely. My journey starts as planned and with the now already clear roads the trip proceeds without any unfortunate surprises, quite the opposite is the case: at 22 o’clock I see the first northern lights. Since I was hoping to be able to photograph some of them during this trip this is surely a good start. Unfortunately it’s too cloudy for a good view on them. Only occasionally I can see them through a gap in the clouds. These conditions will follow me during the next few hours.

As planned I arrive in Kilpisjärvi/Finland in a wonderful starlit sky, unfortunately no northern lights this time. A bit knackered I wanted to take another quick nap, but my favourite parking location between the mountains of Saana and Malla hasn’t been cleared of the snow. Too lazy to turn the car I continue my ride on the dark road through the mountains which eventually will bring me to Norway. This road is surely a spectacular sight but now in the absolute darkness there’s not much to see.

I have been driving this road plenty by now and usually I find better weather conditions on the Norwegian side of the mountains. Leaving Finland in starlit skies, this seemed to be hard to improve. And it didn’t. It has become cloudy and some light drops of rain are falling on my windshield while I finally manage to have a quick nap on a wonderful place along the road.

The iPhone wakes me up a little later and a cloudy sky greets me. It’s still dark but an occasional sight of stars between the clouds promises some interesting conditions at sunrise. I only have to find a spot to photograph.

My explore leads me back into the mountains to an area called Signaldalen. I haven’t been visiting here before but I quickly discover a gorgeous looking valley, softly lit by rising sun. Finding a good vantage point turns out to be not as easy though. As usual, it seems the best spot is always blocked by trees or has powerlines in just the wrong place in the frame. Preferably just in the middle.

It takes a while, but in the end I find a decent vantage point and I finally start exposing. The soft light is gently lighting the mountain tops colouring them in shades of blue. I compose another one and continue with my explore.

Signaldalen #1 Exif: 1/25 sec at f11 +1EV, ISO 100, 200mm

Signaldalen #2 Exif: 1/25 sec at f11 +1EV, ISO 100, 93mm Black and white conversion using Silver EfexPro 2.

As so often the conditions changed quickly it looks a lot different once I reach the other side of the valley. Unfortunately not to the better.

Nethertheless I continue with my explore when I “see” an image which will become the starting point of a project which will keep me busy for the remainder of the day and eventually becomes what I would consider some of my personal best work (stay tuned for updates here on the blog).

Signaldalen #3 Exif: 1/30 sec at f11 +1EV, ISO 100, 111mm Isnt this an impressive moutain?! Views like these are what draws me to this country ever since my first visit two years ago. It would be wonderful to photograph this mountain in the warm and golden light of the rising sun. Well it didnt happen this time. It seems I will have to return here again. Black and white conversion with SilverEfexPro 2.

From now on the conditions don’t improve much, in fact they are getting worse. As unfortunate as this might seem it turned out to be very helpful for my impromptu project.

My path leads me to Tromsö and the surrounding islands but the conditions develop to the worse during the course of the day. In pouring rain I compose my last image for this day and after a check of the weather report I decide to go back to Finland where the conditions should more much better in the morning.

More to come…

The storm lasted the whole day but just as the forecast predicted at 22 o’clock the conditions finally change to the better. The wind calms down and the sun is having a first appearance and warming up not only the scenery with it’s golden light but also myself. I’m happy to be finally able to take some images and also to have my clothes drying up after a long day of rain. I’m already prepared what to photograph during this night, as I have been looking for locations along the coastline during the day.

One of my first stops is this bay:

Like in the images that I took earlier, strong and high waves are crushing on rocks along the coast and the light of the late evening sun illuminates the sky above. It just starts to come together just nicely.

Even though the storm calmed down quite a bit I still need to seek shelter from the wind behind a few rocks to ensure a steady camera on the tripod. I find a place which still provides a good angle on the scene and I take my time composing my image. After a few exposures I’ll continue on the path along the coast to the next bay. I have been waiting all day for this, so there’s no time to waste.

Again I find myself crouched in a corner of the cliffs to find shelter from the wind. The conditions look much less friendly around here and huge waves are crashing on the cliffs below me. I try to get a little closer, but the spray was just too heavy down there. It simply would have turned out to be a mess.

In the meanwhile I got some unexpected company out there. Read more about that in this post.

During the course of the evening, or actually night, the conditions improve constantly. The wind calms down and the light of the now rising sun gently lights the sky and clouds above the coast. The waves of the Barent Sea are still crashing heavily on the rocks along the coast and I immediately have an idea of the kind of image I would like to photograph once I see this view. All it takes is to have the right waves. It takes some time, it’s not perfect but it got at least close to what I was hoping for.

The light is getting brighter quickly now and there’s only little time left for just a few more images during this morning…

These and a few more images you can find in my galleries of course and a few write ups are available here on the blog as well.

In my post “The Red Rocks” from the Finmark area (Norwegian Lappland), I mentioned that I had also recorded a clip (actually it were two) as a videoblog for the blog. I finally got it done and added a images as a slideshow to it as well.

I had some fun listening to it since it seems I didn’t quite knew where I have been photographing back then! Luckily I have figured that out in the meanwhile, this location actually is a few kilometres south of the city of Berlevag.

But now enough of talking/writing here’s the video-blog and I hope you enjoy it:

This evening’s shooting started successfully a little while ago at a lighthouse a few kilometres to the north along this road. Again the weather and lighting conditions seem to change after almost every turn of the road (something that I already got used to) but slightly more confusing is the fact that now I’m struggling to find the scene that I scouted out earlier that day. For some reason it seemed to have disappeared. I guess I was exploring a too wide area earlier in the day and I mixed it up complete. Lesson learned, next time mark it right away on the map.

Still, I’m driving along the road looking for “the” spot when the clouds broke and the light of the setting sun turned the otherwise brownish rocks into deepest shades of orange and red. I pull over the car into a nearby parking spot (handy to have it there, as the road was too narrow to safely leave the car on it), grab my gear and head back to the vantage point that I saw.

Too bad though that by the time I was at the right spot the warm and direct sunlight was gone and the sun “set” behind a layer of clouds, where in fact it should a stay for the next hour and a half. While still having nice light, it just wasn’t that warm and direct light anymore. I stick around and take a few photographs and finally decide to continue at a different place and maybe return to this spot a little later.

The road leads me back to a beach which I spotted earlier and take my time for a decent explore. The outing there proved to be successful and I was in luck not only finding some interesting views but also having some nice colours in the sky in as well.

A few of the images I took there I have covered in these posts: Fossil Rock and Tectonic Coast. Feel free to have a look, also you might be interested in browsing through my Finnmark gallery.

After I’m done there I continue my on my way along the road, when just in that moment and at the same spot as earlier, the sun rises just enough above the clouds to throw again its warm light against the coast turning the rocks in shades of red. What a spectacular view. Again I pull over the car to the conveniently placed parking spot and run back to my vantage point. This time the conditions last! Sometimes you just have to have luck.

I compose the frame that I was looking for and continue my path along to road leading me back home. During this shooting here, I recorded a quick video blog which I will release soon here on the blog.