Browsed by
Month: February 2013

Photo Workshop at Sommarøy

Photo Workshop at Sommarøy

I am on a year-long photo course since last autumn, with Jens-Morten Øvervoll (aka JMFoto). It’s really great, we do a lot of different things: concert photography, portraits, drop photography – but best of all: photo weekends. We went to Lyngen in November but I never got around to sharing the photos. Last weekend we went to Sommarøy. We left on Friday afternoon, and stayed in one of the cabins owned by the Sommarøy Arctic Hotel. We had the biggest cabin, which fitted all of us (11 in total). On Saturday we woke up to a grey, cloudy day…

Looking towards the open sea from Sommarøy

We went to the beach and took photos of everything that caught our eye, including strange icicles with orange linings…

This icicle has an orange lining, from organic material Hole in the ice :)

The weather has been cold for a long time, and pancake ice has collected on some of the beaches… pretty!

Hanne getting a photo of the orange-lined icicles - they were huge! Pancake ice on the beach

Our next stop was a little beach with two pretty boathouses…

Our next stop was a beach with 2 old boat houses A small stream

After that, we went back to the cabin for lunch – it was COLD and we all needed a break to warm up. Of course we did go back out for sunset, and the sun even showed itself for the first time that day 🙂 These two photos are taken at Brensholmen.

Ice on the beach, catching the sunset Frozen foam had collected on the beach like snow

We stopped at another beach with a view of Håja, for some long exposures…

One of the white beaches at Sommarøy, under a very dark sky A tropical beach in winter ;)

That evening we had rented the hot tub/sauna, which was lots of fun. Jens-Morten even got some photos of all of us, cramped in the hot tub, with northern lights dancing above 🙂 Børge made mølje for dinner, which was a first for me. It’s a meal of boiled cod, cod roe, and cod liver… I actually enjoyed it, even the liver 🙂

The next day we woke up to a glorious sunny day 🙂 We went to a different beach on the other side of Sommarøy, with a nice view towards Håja.

A world of difference: view towards Håja the next morning Waves rolling in, smoothed by a long exposure

I had so much fun on the beach, trying different compositions and poking around the half-frozen tidal pools…

Waves rolling over a big rock, Håja in the background A tidal pool - a challenge to get a good photo of, as it was so dark in the foreground. A polarizer and two ND grad filters did the trick :)

Just before lunch I took those photos of the frozen lagoon in front of the hotel – quite amazing how the ice has frozen in almost perfect rectangles!

The frozen lagoon and Sommarøy Arctic Hotel. We were staying in one of the cabins The frozen lagoon from the other side - with almost geometrical shapes!

After lunch, it was time to pack up and make our way back to Tromsø. We had a quick stop at Kattfjordeidet, where it was busy with skiers. We got there in time to see the last sun on the mountain tops, but too late to catch it on camera 😀

A quick stop at Kattfjord, the sun was on the top of the mountains when we got there, but disappeared before we could get our cameras out

Just before we got to Tromsø we made another stop at Kvaløysletta to photograph the sunset reflected in the shallow water of a bay.  What a pretty sight…

Panorama of the sunset at Kvaløysletta, with Tromsdalstinden to the left Old shed reflected View towards Tromsø and Tromsdalstinden

… and what a perfect ending to a perfect weekend! 🙂

 

Brosmetinden Panorama's

Brosmetinden Panorama's

Last Saturday the weather was very nice, and I was keen to go out and take photos. I had a late start, so I decided on an easy mountain: Brosmetinden near Rekvik, 525 m high but you can start from the parking lot on the highest point of the road which is at 280 m 🙂 From the parking lot, the view of Storstolpan in the sun was quite spectacular! I took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes to reach the top, at some point I was worried I wouldn’t make it before sunset 😉 but I still couldn’t stop myself from taking photos along the way.

Storstolpan in the sun - spectacular! Looking back, the setting sun was painting the mountains yellow

I reached the top just in time, the colours were amazingly rich and the snow turned pink 🙂 Beautiful! I stopped at the first peak, and carefully moved around the edge – it drops down straight to sea level on that side. For the first time ever I had brought my tripod and filters to the top, and it was well worth it.

The sunset seen from the top of Brosmetinden - everything turned pink! Looking the other way, towards the second top of Brosmetinden with Sørtinden (724m) behind it, and way down the village of Tromvik

The last sun painted the mountain tops pink, and after it was gone the it turned the clouds pink and purple…

The last sun on the mountain peaks, Storstolpan on the right and I believe Hollanderen to the left The colours in the sky turned even richer after the sun had set

One last look towards Tromvik and Ramnafjellet (another mountain on my “wish list”), before it was time to go down again.

Looking towards Tromvik and Ramnafjellet

I made it back to the car before it really got dark. What a perfect little trip! 🙂

Aurora over Hamna

Aurora over Hamna

Last Friday I was invited for very tasty snert at Eelke and Roy’s. It was a clear night, and the aurora forecast was looking good, so I brought my camera and tripod along – just in case 😉 And yes, after dinner the auroras were dancing and we decided to go for a walk near their house. The first photo was taken from a nearby (frozen) lake, the snow was so deep there that we didn’t venture very far! The second photo is taken from a nice lookout over Hamna, a neighbourhood in Tromsø.

Aurora over a frozen lake Aurora over Hamna, Tromsø

I also took this panorama (consisting of 2 images) of the impressive northern lights over Hamna…

A panorama of the northern lights over Hamna, Tromsø

After a while, the activity decreased and we went back for a nice cup of hot chocolate 🙂