Lofoten Islands, Norway Photography Workshop FULL BLOG POST
Lofoten Islands, Norway Photography Workshop w/ In the Wild Workshops
(Nate in the Wild & AutPops)
“We think that accomplishing things will complete us, when it is experiencing life that will.”
The Norway photography workshop I experienced back in February was nothing short of incredible... I’ve always wanted to go on a photography workshop and this was the perfect fit for me. It was exceptional to be alongside and shooting photography with legends like Nate Luebbe and Autumn Schrock for their seven day Norway workshop. I look up to both their photography styles and skillsets greatly so being able to spend seven days learning and evolving my photography skills was literally a dream come true for me. I was also very stoked (and fortunate) to be surrounded by a group of extremely enthusiastic and adventurous photographers - we all gained energy from each other as we battled some gnarly conditions in the Arctic circle. Not only did we gain energy from each other but we found ourselves teaching each other and making the most of every opportunity to soak in lessons from our instructors. Shout out to all the other ‘In-the-Wild’ers who joined on this incredible journey… let’s take a peek at what happened on each day, the emotional roller coaster of chasing the aurora borealis and dealing with challenging weather in northern Norway.
Day 1 & Day 2 | We started our first morning at a classic Lofoten Islands photography spot not far from the seaside cabins we were staying in... the town of Reine is beautiful and will take your breath away. There's this notorious composition of the sun rising and some magical alpine glow hitting the sheer peaks rising from the sea, unfortunately for our first morning we didn't experience any golden light but instead we witnessed a moody, cold scene. This first morning set the tone for the next four days: moody, unpredictable, cold, windy, snowy and rainy. A real taste of what it's like to be on a photography workshop in the Arctic Circle... instead of stressing about the weather and conditions we leaned on our workshop guides to plan out the locations and show us some incredible sights. On our first afternoon, we also went to a coastline covered in snow and watched the waves crash against the shoreline with some amazing Norwegian peaks lining the horizon. Here's an image I made from the sunrise location over Reine, Lofoten Islands, Norway (see below) after shooting the coastline we drove into the town of Leknes for a local meal of cod and veggies. I’m not huge on fish but I’ve learned when traveling you can’t always be picky - I enjoyed my meal as I was starving from adventuring around with my camera all day. We took off from dinner trying to chase some aurora borealis above the town of Reine (where we started the day) and were met with cloudy, moody, night time conditions where we captured the glowing red cabins reflecting off the sea. We ended the night near the FredVang bridge area starring up at the sky, feeling a little bummed that we didn’t capture any aurora on the our first day but Nate and Autumn reassured us that we would have plenty of chances to capture a beautiful light show. I had a hard time falling asleep on the first night, due to jet lag and excitement for the days to come…
CLASSIC NORWAY CAPTURE | REINE, LOFOTEN ISLANDS, NORWAY
Day 3 | I woke up to the feeling of the cabin moving… and we peeked outside to see some pretty serious gale-force winds pushing the ocean around outside - we had been tracking a winter hurricane up near Iceland and knew that it would all send some storm surge our way as well. We ate breakfast, enjoyed some camera talk over many cups of instant coffee and made the group decision to go over to the arctic surf beach called Unstad Beach. This beach is known for arctic surfing and we had hoped some of the local surfers would be out on the beach testing their skills on the storm surge sized waves. When we showed up at the beach parking lot we were shocked at the size of the waves… we jumped out of the van in a panicked frenzy trying to keep gear dry but also capture the scene in front of us all. It was epic!
I have never seen waves so big in my entire life - check out the size of these waves my brus!
Location: Unstad Surf Beach, Lofoten, Norway
STORM SURGE FROM WINTER HURRICANE NEAR ICELAND | WAVES CRASHING AT UNSTAD SURF BEACH, LOFOTEN, NORWAY
We were cold, soaking wet from the walls of rain hitting us so we retreat to a local surf shop bar called Unstad Arctic Surf, drank a few beers as the rain turned into snow outside and socked in the rest of the light for the day. To be honest, some of my fondest memories from the trip were not only the epic photography locations but also just sitting around with our group listening to Nate and Autumn tell legendary photography stories of capturing polar bears, working with Sony Alpha and some of their favorite trip stories. The weather never cleared up that day, we lost pretty much an entire afternoon and evening to storm conditions, looking back in my Lightroom catalog I tried to capture some northern lights shots behind the cabin only to capture a frame full of cloudy skies. I went to bed confused because I wanted badly to see some aurora borealis but still felt stoked on all the amazing things that happened that day - the weather was challenging but I liked the challenge.
Day 4 | On the fourth day we woke up to similar conditions: rainy, sleet, wind pushing the cabin and overall feeling a little beat up from the first couple days of intense arctic weather. The weather reports didn't look very promising so we started to rely on pockets of open sky instead of only listening to the weather apps. We saw an opening on the horizon and drove towards a local beach to see if we could watch some surfers or make some compositions with an opening in the storm clouds, here are some scenes from that beach...
We jumped back in our adventure van and took a drive around 'that magical bend' and came upon a small Norwegian town sitting peacefully on the coastline. I snapped a few images on my Sony A7riii but opt to fly my drone on this stop and was not disappointed at all, I captured perhaps some of my favorite aerials on this flight right here
“Go for it! No matter how it ends, it was an experience.”
AS SEEN ON MY INSTAGRAM: @FR33WATER | TINY LITTLE TOWNS BY THE SEA CAPTURED ON DJI MAVIC PRO HOVERING OVER LOFOTEN ISLANDS, NORWAY
The day was changing dramatically in terms of weather and vibes - it was fun to drive around and chase little pockets of light but at the same time just see things I had never seen in my life. Nate and Autumn took us to a great spot to capture some 'person in frame' photographs where Autumn balanced precariously and gave us a few opportunities to make an epic adventure image. Check out a few of my shots from this location:
That afternoon we found a frozen lake and got out on our first mini-hiking adventure - I was elated and keep charging in front of the group like I was hiking in my backyard back in Colorado. I had to slow down and remind myself that I was on a group trip and many of our moves had to be made as a group, I lined back up with the rest of the duckies and we marched towards some cool spots hiding off the roadway somewhere on the Lofoten Islands.
HIKING NEAR A FROZEN LAKE IN THE ARCTIC CIRLCE, LOFOTEN ISLANDS, NORWAY | SEE MORE ON MY INSTAGRAM PAGE: @FR33WATER
Matt Franklin and I found this epic spot down by the ice, all credit to him for finding this epic composition and leading lines with the cracking ice - now this is a frozen Norway landscape scene to me (see below). We stood out here until a hail storm rolled in from the coastline and forced us to quickly hike back to the van. The in-between time was spent eating, re-charging ourselves and batteries and editing tutorials guided by Nate and Autumn - it was so unique to watch them edit and learn from them. I asked a million questions about the business side of photography and a million more questions (sorry for all the questions Nate & Autumn). We spent the evening inside our cabins, peeking outside for a break in the clouds to go chase some aurora storms… that break never came, I went to bed feeling a little anxious if I would ever get to see and photograph the aurora borealis.
Day 5 | The weather was predicted to break finally on our fifth day in Lofoten, so we drove to a new coastal town called: Nusfjord to start our day chasing more breaks in the grey clouds. I tried to remind myself to capture some details and smaller moments, not just big, epic landscapes during my trip to Lofoten so I spent some time with my Sony A7riii x Sony Zeiss 55mm F1.8 trying to tell a story while I walked around Nusfjord following the group. A snowstorm rolled in over us and we decided to head to our cabins for an afternoon editing session, we cruised by the classic FredVang bridge and got lucky again with a small pocket of golden light which captivated us and lift our spirits as well. Here are a few images from Nusfjord and FredVang from that fourth day...
We spent the majority of that afternoon driving to more of the classic spots like Reine and walking around capturing some more compisitons of the yellow and red cabins that lined the seaside. I captured one of my favorite shots on this day, it’s really simple and nothing crazy but the compositions feels almost perfect to me and I love the way this color pops off the peaks towering over in the background - one of my favorite captures from the entire trip.
The forecast was set to clear up that evening so we re-charged in our cabins and made a plan to drive two hours north, catch Thai food dinner along the way and chase the aurora borealis endlessly. When your on a photography workshop over 4,000 miles from home and you had a vision to photography the aurora borealis… it becomes this nerve-wracking chase at some point. Our fearless leaders Nate and Autumn drove us through white-out blizzards two hours north in the dark to a fjord that was supposed to expose us to some clear skies. We crossed our fingers as we sent it north, I remember looking up through the windshield thinking to myself “There’s no way there’s clear skies ahead”. We drove and drove until finally… someone peeked out the window and said “Hey guys I think I see something overhead…”
We burst out the van like a pack of hungry wolves descending a on fresh kill… I was so pumped to finally see the aurora borealis I hooted, hollered and screamed aloud while setting up my gear and taking a bunch of test shots to dial in my settings. We finally made it to clear skies and an amazing aurora borealis show was erupting above us
AURORA BOREALIS SHOW CAPTURED BY F. SPONTELLI - SEE MORE ON MY INSTAGRAM: @FR33WATER | LOCATION: NORTHERN LOFOTEN ISLAND, LOFOTEN, NORWAY
We made it to three different locations during this particular aurora borealis storm, (more photos coming soon on my Instagram) because the aurora storms last quite awhile we were confident to make some keeper images in one spot, and continue moving to some new spots with new features like this incredible peaks and this picture perfect fjord. What an incredible experience, it’s hard for me to describe what it’s like to stand under these lights that our planet is able to produce… seeing the Milkway galaxy is one thing, but this was a whole different experience for me. The aurora borealis fills your face with a smile, your soul with warmth and humbles you to try to comprehend how our planet can create some amazing masterpieces. I will let these images speak for the moment and leave me a comment below if you’ve ever experienced an aurora borealis chase, I would love to hear your stories. I’m left speechless for the rest of the night (aside from my noises of excitement) feeling so thankful that we were able to photograph such a magical aurora borealis show… wow, Lofoten Islands, Norway you’ve really captivate me on the fifth day of our workshop.
Huge thank-you to Nate and Autumn for all their meticulous planning, aurora app scouring and driving us to experience this phenom:
Day 6 | I woke up only a few hours later feeling rather charged up but also a little beat from a long night of staring up at the night sky. We hurried out of the cabins to go and catch one more golden sunrise attempt over at Reine, Lofoten — as we drove over we noticed that we were going to get lucky with some beautiful light on the last full day of our photography workshop with Nate in the wild.
Our group spread out along the hillsides among other photographers spread around town and captured a stellar Norwegian sunrise with beautiful pink alpine glow and glowing golden light. See below…
PICTURE PERFECT ALPINE GLOW ABOVE REINE, LOFOTEN ISLANDS, NORWAY | FOLLOW ALL MY ADVENTURES ON INSTAGRAM: @FR33WATER
This was the winter sunshine we had been hoping for our entire trip, I’m just thankful we got to experience some of it even if it was on our last day... that afternoon, we went to the cabins for more editing lessons and to recharge for sunset and perhaps another epic aurora borealis chase. We set out in the early afternoon to hit a couple of nearby spots with some really good golden light and as the golden hour crept in on us we quickly jumped from location to location giving us the opportunity to create a diversity of images and capture a mix of the surrounding Lofoten landscapes. We found this epic spot for sunset and once again Autumn was brave enough to be our adventure model, check out this spot from the last sunset and check out these adventure images as well…
We had a group meal in our cabins that night and noticed cloud cover rolling in which limited our chances for another aurora borealis show on the final night of our workshop. We still went to a local beach to see if there was potential for the skies to clear and on our drive back to our cabins we finally found some northern lights floating above our accommodations
Day 7 | The final day a few of us stumbled outside to catch some pink light on the peaks surrounding our cabins, it was time to pack up and get ready to drop the group off at the airport and say our goodbyes. Because I had booked relatively cheap travel it gave me two extra days in Lofoten... I booked a cheap hotel in a small fishing town called Ballstad, Norway where I spent two days by myself before traveling back to the United States. Because this blog post has already reached a pretty lengthy point I am going to write one more brief blog about my final two days on the Lofoten Islands and summarizing my experience and trip to Norway. Thank you for reading the full blog post about my experience on the Nate in the wild photography workshop, it has always been a dream of mine to go on a workshop like this and also a bucket list item to photograph the aurora borealis. Mega thank you to Nate & Autumn and our entire group for being such a badass crew... I will never forget the adventures and experiences from my trip to Norway.
Be sure to follow Nate @NateIntheWild and Autumn @AutPops <— you can find their Instagram pages right here <—
Want to learn more about a workshop with Nate and Autumn check out their workshop page,
right here: https://www.nateluebbe.com/workshops
Next up… read up about my last two days in Lofoten spent exploring Ballstad, Norway on foot with my camera… here’s an images from that part of the trip! Until next time, stay stoked world, and be free. -F
Follow all my adventures right here, on Instagram: @Fr33Water
EXPLORING BALLSTAD, LOFOTEN ISLANDS, NORWAY | CAPTURED BY F.SPONTELLI FOLLOW ALONG ON INSTAGRAM: @FR33WATER