Finland, the land of thousand lakes and the home for ViewBug member Marjo (marjonatalielaitakari). Marjo captures the stark differences between the Finnish seasons. The dark Arctic winters with the mesmerizing Northern Light and the natural phenomena Midnight sun during summer. She wants to show nature’s feelings and allow others to experience Scandinavian nature in odd hours and weather. She loves the forest, but her next trip is not anywhere near the Finnish forest, instead she is heading down to to the southernmost observatory in Europe, Mountain Range of Gran Canaria, to seek more night sky photos.
Where did you take this photo and what time of day?
This was taken last summer in our very first day of the two week holiday to Lofoten Islands, Norway. We were taking photos in this shoreline the whole night and were already starting to pack our gear in the very early hours in the morning to head back to our cabin as the sun started rising again. I then turned to this direction and saw the magnificent clouds hanging around the mounting. I just needed to set up my gear again and take shots of this beautiful moment I discovered.
Anything worth sharing about lighting and equipment used?
In that moment so many items just came together - sun was rising - the clouds were reflecting these beautiful sun rise colours and we still had the shades of the night also present. The photo was taken using ND 500 filter for allowing the long exposure to smoothen the waves of the sea. I shoot with Nikon D610 coupled with my old, old Nikkor 30-75 mm f/2.8 lense. In order to take long exposure photos you do need to have a tripod so I used my heavy duty Sirui tripod.
What inspired you to take this photo?
We ended up to this rocky shoreline as we were looking for nice foreground for sunset/sunrise photos. This particular viewpoint was found by "accident" and proved that you should always look around and see how the sun and clouds change over the time you are shooting and how that affects the scenery. Here the clouds setting themselves around the mountain made the picture for me and I was so happy to have one certain successful picture from that night.
What equipment do you normally have in your bag?
With this kind of trips I carry so much equipment with me that my bag is really very heavy. But you need to be prepared to what ever comes along. So I have different type of lenses from 14mm to 200mm with extender to reach to 400mm. Also I have a bunch of ND filters, tripod, camera, three batteries, chargers, as many memory cars (and very big ones) as I have and so on.
Any advice for others trying to capture something similar?
The weather at North of Scandinavia can be very unpredictable. You will need to be prepared for anything from heavy storms to very blunt calm warm weather and that creates a challenge to what to bring with you. My advice is to use layers, so you can put more on if the weather is cold and you can easily reduce the amount of cloths when it is warm.
Do not forget the weather proved clothing as it will rain. And do not forget to protect your camera from the elements also. I also always use rubber shoes when I go shooting at the shoreline - keeps your feet dry and will allow you to stand on the water if needed.
And the most important thing: Remember to look around - there always might be something interesting happening behind you that you might completely miss otherwise.
Checkout Marjonatalielaitakari's profile to see more awesome photos.
