Some old images from a work trip to Istanbul a couple of years ago.
Hiking in the Lofoten Islands
As I’ve said here before, the hiking highlight of last summer was a wonderful day hike in Rago National Park, on the Norwegian mainland. The Lofoten Islands, on the other hand, although great for photography, were a slight disappointment as far as hiking goes. The trails we tried were not in great condition, and we came back underwhelmed by the islands’ hiking potential.
Six months on that assessment seems a little harsh. The memory of slogging up steep and muddy trails has faded, and looking again at some of the images we actually made it to some damn impressive locations! The best hike was a partial loop to the summit of Ryten via Kvalvika beach, which can be seen in the panorama below. The hike makes a moderate traverse over the low pass at the center of the photo, before descending to the beach, which is not accessible by road. It’s a popular spot, but no less impressive for that. From the beach a steep trail – more a route really – scrambles up to the lake seen at the left, before doubling back for a more moderate ascent to the summit of the mountain. On the descent you can make a loop by taking a left at the trail junction near the lake (Forsvatnet) and then a right at the next junction to come back to the road at Bergland. On a sunny day, this makes for a great day out with a lot of variety.
Another hike we tried was the route to Munken, via the Munkebu hut, starting from the village of S
Lofoten coast
Continuing my re-appraisal of images from last summer I found this image from the coast of Norway’s Lofoten Islands. Hiking along the coast on a rather murky day we turned around at this point, but not before taking some photos of the waves crashing into a small rocky cove.
More Fuji experiments
My first experiments shooting with a Fuji medium format rangefinder (a GW690ii) in Iceland led to very satisfactory results. During the rest of the summer and autumn I shot a few more rolls, which I’ve only now gotten around to processing and scanning (such are the trials of film!). I’m afraid the laboratory work this time around has not been a total success
Boulder and the Plains
Heading to the office this afternoon I spied some promising-looking clouds to the west, and with thoughts of a backlit orange sunset behind the high peaks made a detour up Flagstaff Mountain to the Lost Gulch Overlook. It’s the nearest place to downtown that offers a clean view west to the Indian Peaks, and as usual for a decent day there was a small crowd there to see the sunset. Alas, sunset didn’t happen. Returning to town, though, I found a pull-off I’d overlooked before with a great view over Boulder. On the right day, this might be a good location for sunrise too.
Hiking the Natural Bridges loop
Utah’s Natural Bridges National Monument was established way back in 1908, but it remains off most visitors to the Utah desert’s radar. It’s a small, rather old-fashioned park, with a beautiful loop drive that takes you right past the main attractions: Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo natural bridges. The first bridge you encounter – Sipapu – is the second largest in the world, and an impressive sight. You don’t need to do any hiking to see the bridges, but the 9 mile loop hike which connects the bridges via stretches of beautiful canyons is highly recommended. I’ve done it twice, and it makes for a wonderful moderate outing in the desert.
Stormy seas
A second look at Iceland
Looking at some photography books over Christmas prompted some experimentation with a different black and white process of images from Iceland. Although I rarely try to process color images “as I saw them” (often, for example, applying a gradient of color temperature which is not really a naturalistic thing to do), I do have a tendency to gravitate toward a somewhat neutral look. In black and white it’s easier to push toward something more dramatic, and for this second look at Iceland I’ve played with a much more contrasty look.
A month of sunrises
As fall turned to winter I set up a camera in my office to capture a short time lapse sequence of the first light on the Boulder Flatirons every morning. Over the course of a month there were some spectacular dawns and a handful of my favorite Boulder mornings when the Flatirons are covered in fresh snow. Processed for 4k, if you have the bandwidth and screen for it!
A great day hike in Rago National Park
My first trip to Utah was in 1999, and although there were already plenty of internet sites back then information on even popular hikes was pretty hard to find. As a result my brother and I got to do some of the classic hikes like the Zion Narrows and Angels Landing with only a vague idea of what to expect. That kind of experience is rarer now, when searches for even obscure trails in the US return hundreds of photos, but there’s plenty of wilderness elsewhere with less of an internet presence! Planning a trip to Bodo in arctic Norway last summer – primarily as a base to visit the Lofoten Islands – we noticed that Rago National Park was just a short drive from the town. Rago has one famous sight, the incredible Litlverivassfossen waterfall, and it looked like one could combine the two front-country trails to make a long day hike that looped past the falls. We couldn’t find any web pages that described the loop in detail, so we turned up at the trail head in late July with a map but only a rough idea of the length or difficulty of the hike. It turned out to be one of the best day hikes we’ve done.
The hike starts at the end of the road at the Lakshola trail head, reached by following the E6 north from Fauske and then taking the turn toward Nordfjord which comes immediately after a short tunnel. The road is paved all the way and the trail head is notable for having the fanciest restroom, by far, that I’ve ever seen gracing a wilderness! The first two miles follow the Storskogdalen along a peaceful and surprisingly lush forest. On a pleasant summer Sunday we encountered a pair of locals on this stretch of trail, the only other hikers we met or saw all day. At a bend in the valley the trail crosses a creek (at a spot that’s not entirely obvious on the ground