Lofoten Islands Part One: Hamnøy

The Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway have become a popular location for hiking, boating and exploring in the summer and for viewing (or attempting to view) the northern lights in the winter. Even though there are some challenges traveling above the Arctic Circle in the winter, the reward is a beautiful array of islands, mountains, fjords, villages and beaches that provide a multitude of photographic opportunities. I spent about 10 days in Lofoten, splitting the time between Hamnøy for the first part of the trip and Leknes/Svolvær for the second. This post focuses on the first part of the trip and includes views around Hamnøy, Sakrisøy, and Reine as well as some nearby areas.

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One Day in Oslo

I made a trip to the Lofoten Islands in Norway in February, with the goal of photographing the northern lights over the beautiful landscapes in the area. I decided to spend a full day in Oslo on the way there since I needed a layover anyway and had never seen the city. I arrived at the Oslo airport late in the evening and learned my first lesson: take the train to the city and not a cab. The train costs less than half as much and makes the trip in half the time. Lesson learned, I made it to my hotel, got a good night’s sleep, and had a filling breakfast before spending the day walking. My plan was to walk from the hotel to the Oslo cathedral, up Karl Johans Gate passed the Royal Palace to Vigeland Park, and then along the waterfront to the Akershus Fortress and the Opera House.

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2023 Favorites

I look forward to this retrospective each year – both as a chance to look back at how I spent the year and as a chance to review some of my favorite images, often leading me to reprocess them or select different favorites from the same shoot. I won’t make any claims that these are the best images I created in 2023. I don’t believe that there is an objective “best” photograph. Selecting favorites allows me to tie them to my memories in a way that is more personal. This was a tough year for this exercise, as I have alternates for many of these photos that I like just as much. On another day I could easily have selected several different favorites. I’ll refer to some of those in my comments below.

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Dark Skies in the Eastern Sierra

I made a trip to the Eastern Sierra in late October (Halloween to be exact) with the primary goal of capturing the Milky Way over the Mobius Arch and Mount Whitney. This is a popular spot for sunrise photos, as the rising sun creates a glow on the mountains and I have been there to see this at sunrise several times. I wanted to get a similar effect at moonrise: I wanted a glow on the mountains while having the sky dark enough to clearly see the stars. Few people do Milky Way photography with a nearly full moon, but I guess I am one of the few. I used an app called PhotoPills to find the best date where the stars would be behind the arch at moonrise, with the sky already fully dark after sunset. October 31 was that day.

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Autumn in Montana

Sandee and I made a short trip to our home in Western Montana in October to visit family and help get the house ready for the winter. As it happened, we arrived the day before the Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier National Park would close for the season. That left me no choice but to go for a drive! I spent a day in Glacier and then the next day Sandee and I drove to Holland Lake for a hike (with some lunch along the way). The larches were bright yellow throughout the area and I enjoyed photographing Montana’s fall colors.

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Scouting in Grand Teton

I took the “long way” in July when I drove to my home in Montana so I could drive through Grand Teton and Yellowstone. I’ve been to Grand Teton a few times but never had a chance to photograph the mountains at sunrise – either because the weather was bad or because I wasn’t there first thing in the morning. On this trip I managed to get a campground reservation in the park which made it easy both to scout the area on the evening I arrived and get to my preferred location early the next day. I was also treated to some visitors while photographing the scene.

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Fly Geyser and Bonus Stars

I recently made a day trip from the Bay Area to Gerlach, Nevada which is famous for hosting Burning Man each year but is also the home of Fly Geyser. I had wanted to photograph in this area for a while, but it was on private property and permission to access was difficult or impossible to obtain. The property was eventually purchased by the Burning Man Project and tours are now available through the Friends of Black Rock High Rock. At this time, tours are offered on Saturday mornings and evenings and I booked an evening tour in the hopes of getting some good late afternoon light.

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Southwest Winter

Mesa Arch – Canyonlands National Park, Utah

I had been planning a trip to the area around Moab, Utah with my friend Alejandro Velarde for a while. I had been there several years ago on a very short visit and was looking forward to spending more time exploring this beautiful area. Our main goals were to get a good shot of Mesa Arch (above) and to get some images of Monument Valley in winter conditions. Our friend, Marcell Puzsar was able to join as well and we made the trip in early February, with 5 days and 4 nights to photograph. For those looking for a good time to visit these often crowded locations, this was a good one. Temperatures hovered around freezing and even popular locations like Delicate Arch and Mesa Arch only had a few other people around at sunrise and sunset.

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2022 Favorites

2022 was a very different photographic year for me as I actually captured far more images than usual with the vast majority taken over a two week period in early July. While I usually plan several trips for landscape photography during a year, my 2022 plans were based around my twice-delayed African safari in Botswana. You can also see that in the blog posts that I shared this year – virtually all of them were from that tip.

That said, I was able to take some images I enjoyed in California and Montana and hope that you enjoy them as well. Images are presented below in the order I captured them. I’ll also note that this is NOT a list of my ten “best” images from the year. I focus on my favorites – chosen either because I believe the image is particularly strong or because of the memories I associate with it. Best of lists have no room for memories!

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Botswana Safari Part 4: The Okavango Delta

The final portion of our Botswana safari took place in the Khwai Community Area and Moremi Game Reserve in the northeastern part of the Okavango delta. We spent one night in a lodge in Khwai while our campsite in Moremi was readied, and then camped there for four nights. The Okavango is an inland delta where the rivers that feed it, including the Okavango and Khwai, do not flow into an ocean but instead evaporate and simply disappear in the swampy land. Unlike the Savuti, water in Moremi was everywhere and this created a tremendous concentration of wildlife.

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