Lofoten Islands Autumn and Winter

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Lofoten islands norway landscape photo

Photo: Cliffs at Å in Autumn, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Sept. 2011

What a difference a few months make to the mood of a landscape.  This scene is at and the end of the cliffs past the village of Å.  It is pretty much the furthest west/south one can easily get on the islands.  To proceed further means traversing those mountains in the background, something I’d like to do one day, but better suited for summer.

I’ve found this to be a good photo location recently as there are various places to get down among the cliffs where one can be sheltered from the winds.  And in the winter months it’s also a decent location for sunset as the sun will be low in the sky over Væerøy (such as the photo HERE) and finally disappear behind the ends of Lofoten.  Lots of other little place to explore out there as well.

Lofoten islands norway winter landscape photo

Photo: Cliffs at Å in Winter, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb. 2012

Lofoten Islands Winter Sunrise

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colorful sunrise lofoten islands

Photo: Colorful winter sunrise over Norwegian mainland, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

A layer of clouds was hanging over the islands with only a thin slice of clear sky in the eastern horizon.  This light lasted a few minutes and then turned to gray and my camera didn’t come out of the bag for the rest of the day.  I was hiding behind a rock to try and get a little protection for the winds – the sea is dark, but you can see it’s a bit rough.  This was the 2nd best/most colorful sunrise of my February trip.  The best was the day before as I was looking out the window of a bus, in my typical expertise of missing good light.

The arctic sun is deceptive in the fact that it rises so slowly in the sky.  In my head I have what I expect as a standard length of time from when I start to see the light of the sun building below the horizon until it finally breaks it.  In the north I end up standing, jumping around the keep warm, and telling the sun to come on and hurry up so I can get back in the car as I can’t feel my toes anymore.  Although the benefit of this is that the light last so much longer and you take take a little more time to work with each scene before the light fades, all depending on what the clouds are up to of course.

Olstind – Lofoten Islands

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Olstind mountain peak rises from fjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Olstind rises from waters of Kjerkfjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

Olstind, as it rises from the waters of the Kjerkfjord is probably the most iconic mountain view of the Lofoten Islands.  It is often a scene that literally says ‘take a picture of me.’  Changing angles from Hamnøy towards Reine can give a different look to the mountain.  My favorite view (below photo) is from down near where the E10 crosses to Andøya.  It’s best to walk out on the rocks to get the most unobstructed view.  Though be careful of an incoming tide, I almost got stuck out there on a lone rock when not quite paying enough attention.

Olstind mountain peak rises from fjord, Reine, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Photo: Olstind reflection in partially frozen Kjerkfjord, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

 

Olstind mountain peak rises from Kjerkfjord in winter, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Olstind, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

This and That

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Winter sun over VæroyPhoto: Winter sun over Værøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Feb 2012

It seems that whenever I return to California my ideas for blog posts disappear down some black hole.  Half the problem is I get the stupid idea that I need to work on other projects, like an eBook on the Lofoten Islands that I’ve been unsuccessfully attempting to write for several years.  If someone else would go ahead and write one I would actually be thankful and finally give up.  Yet at this point in time no one has, so for some reason I feel the duty to.  Though I really am not good at writing.  I have the ideas in my head of what I want to say, they just never seem to make it to the keyboard in any coherent fashion.  I usually do better with good old fashioned pen and paper, yet I’m not even sure there’s any in the house here.

I also need up update my now 3 year old website to something a bit more current.  If I were more successful I would just pay someone, but I’m not, so I spend my afternoons trying to relearn CSS, HTML, PHP and all that other fun stuff.  I like the design part of it, just the coding is a bit of a pain and takes way to long for me to get anything done.

I don’t have anything planned other than sitting around Santa Barbara for the next months so hopefully I can make progress of a few things.  Though I’m sure summer will be here before I know it and I’ll be needing to go out at stretch my legs somewhere.  I’m trying to get the blog on some sort of regular schedule from now on, but I’ve also said this in the past and didn’t quite manage so no promises…

I ordered a few test prints for some new images a few days ago.  Hopefully they arrive in the next day or two and if they look good then I’ll add them to my print gallery.  Might also be time for a print sale 😉

 

Streets of San Felipe

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San Felipe Baja California Mexico

Here’s some random photos from around San Felipe during race week.  No particular order…

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

 

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

 

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

 

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

 

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

 

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

 

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

 

San Felipe Baja California Mexico

2012 San Felipe Baja 250 Photos

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Luke McMillin Class 1 arriving at finish of 2012 San Felipe Baja 250, San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico. 4th place overall finisher.

Photo: Luke McMillin Class 1 arrives at finish of 2012 San Felipe Baja 250

–CLICK HERE– For a gallery of 2012 San Felipe Baja 250 images.

Here are the first few photos from San Felipe.  I was at race mile 58 when the motorcycles came through, then at mile 30 for the trophy trucks and again at the finish for the first trucks.   I only have a few photos in the gallery at the moment and will be adding more over the next couple days.  Though this was more of a working trip to help out my brother’s team, so I didn’t end up shooting too much.

3x KTM motorcycle of Kurt Caselli/Ivan Ramirez pass race mile 58 in 2012 San Felipe Baja 250, San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico. 1st place motorcycle finishers

Photo: 3x KTM of Kurt Caselli/Ivan Ramirez first bike through mile 58 and overall class 22 1st place finisher, 2012 San Felipe Baja 250.

 

B.J. Baldwin Trophy Truck arriving at finish of 2012 San Felipe Baja 250, San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico

Photo: BJ Baldwin’s Trophy Truck sends dust into the crowd at finish of 2012 San Felipe Baja 250

San Felipe Baja 250 Time

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Kendall Norman Baja 250

Photo: Kendall Norman Honda 1x, San Felipe Baja 250.  March 2011

It’s that time of year to head down to San Felipe, Baja California for the 2012 Baja 250.  My brother is racing again so I’ll be helping out the team while pre-running and on race day.  By ‘helping out,’ I mostly mean sitting out somewhere in the desert in my truck, cooking in the hot sun while waiting for a rider to arrive, fill them up with gas, watch them ride off and their dust fade into the distance, drive to a new location and repeat.  Only a week out of Europe, even 10,000 spf sunblock wont help and I’m sure I’ll be lobster Honda red after a day or two.

I’m not really sure how many photos I’ll take this year.  There’s so many other photographers these days and I don’t really have an outlet for race photos so it’s not really worth much effort.   I’ll probably focus a bit more on behind the scenes stuff while pre-running and maybe a few sunrises and landscapes while I’m sitting around in the desert.  For me it’ll just be more of a fun trip this time around.  And there’s lots of cool stuff down there to explore.  The race is almost just an excuse for me to go down there.

(All photos on this post from last year (2011).  2012 Photos coming next week.)

UPDATE, March 12: –CLICK HERE– for gallery of 2012 San Felipe Baja 250 Images

 

Jesse James trophy truck arrives at finish of 2011 San Felipe Baja 250

Photo: Jesse James trophy truck arrives at finish, San Felipe Baja 250.  March 2011

Spectators await arrival of 1st trophy truck at finish of 2011 San Felipe Baja 250

Photo: Spectators await at finish for arrival of 1st trophy truck, San Felipe Baja 250.  March 2011

San Felipe Sea of Cortez

Photo: Calm waters of the Sea of Cortez, San Felipe.  March 2011

Sea of Cortez, Near San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico

Photo: Dawn over the Sea of Cortez, San Felipe.  March 2011

34,000 Feet Over Greenland

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Greenland from Airplane

Photo: Flying over Greenland.  Feb 2012

I’m now home in Santa Barbara where I’ll more or less be for the next few months, not counting a road trip or two.  Had a good flight from London to San Francisco yesterday.  The plane was remarkably empty so I had the whole center row of the 747 to myself to stretch out on.  Too bad it was a daytime flight and I couldn’t really sleep to take full advantage of it, but it was still nice none the less.  Then I had a 1 hour delay getting out of SF to Santa Barbara, so I guess that equals things out a bit.  Was pretty tired walking in the door last night, but not as bad as I expected.  Most people I know say they deal with jetlag better when heading east, but I always seem to do better going west.

I can’t believe I haven’t been to Greenland yet.  Definitely a beautiful place from the air.