
Haukland beach, Lofoten islands, Norway

Haukland beach, Lofoten islands, Norway
Brecon Beacons December 2009 photo gallery
I’ve uploaded about 40 new photos so far from the mountains after the snow in December. I made a few trips up Corn Du and Pen Y Fan and once up Fan Fawr. Recently added photos appear at the top of the gallery, which I’ll still be adding to during the next weeks as I get more photos processed. There’s also a few old photos from 2006, you can tell which ones they are as there’s no snow.
View from Pen Y Fan of Corn Du partially hidden in Clouds, Brecon Beacons, Wales. December 21, 2009
Super cold and lots of snow, but the winds were calm. The clouds were slowly blowing over the summits creating total whiteouts with occasional moments of visibility. Would have been easy to get lost if I wasn’t familiar with the area.

Unstad beach, Lofoten islands, Norway.
An unrelenting storm had been hanging over the islands all day, but the weather on the islands can be quite localized, so I took a gamble that the north side might have some better weather, and indeed it did. Emerging from the tunnel to Unstad, the snow had stopped and been divereted around the mountains that surround the village. I wish I had arrived earlier as the day was already late and darkness – and more snow – was soon to come.

Kjerkfjord as seen from near Reine, Lofoten islands, Norway.
This is the light at around 1:30 pm on the afternoon of January 6, the first day since mid December where the sun once again appears on the horizon at 68˚ north. Got lucky to have calm winds and mostly clear skies on this day. Imagine more or less the same light like this lasting for hours. Magical.

Haukland Beach winter, Lofoten islands, Norway.
When the sky is clear, the light as this amazing diffuse glow to it. Due to being so far north, the sun travel at much more of a horizontal angle than what occurs as one approaches the equator. So due to this, the period of ‘sunset’ or ‘sunrise’ light is extended into hours, not just minutes. In early January, the sun barely rises above the horizon so there is not really any direct sunlight, more like a 4-5 hour sunrise-sunset until the darkness of night comes by about 2:30-3:00 pm.