The Shore at Svolvaer
Views on the sea shore and the capital of the Lofoten Islands.
Photographed in July 2019.
A Walk in Svolvaer
From a global perspective, Svolvaer may be just a little town, but in regards to the Lofoten islands in Northern Norway, Svolvaer, with its 5.000 inhabitants, is truly a metropolis. The people of the region come here for shopping and for administrative duties. Moreover, it is a cute town with lovely parks and many colorful houses. Some impressions from a walk in July 2019.
Views of Norway
The beautiful country of Norway on photography. Shot in July 2019.
Waters of Norway
Norway is a country of immense wealth. Of course, this concerns national income and, more importantly, national resources. The most important one is simply .. water. The Norse people lived for eons from the water; they were fishermen and used water to sail to foreign countries (sure also rob and make war here and there) and return safely to the fjords. Today, water energy is the primary power source in Norway, and there is capacity for many more renewable power plants. The reason for this wealth in water lies in the country’s geography. During the last ice age, the government was covered by kilometers of ice. 10.000 years ago, the ice melted down in the ancient valleys beneath. The water began to fill these valleys and stream into the sea, creating the fjords. Due to the extreme tides in these fjords, there has been immense energy in these bodies of water up until today.
Travelling North
When traveling north to Scandinavia, you begin to gather an understanding of the vastness of our planet and how many places there are still without any human population. Nature can roam freely here. At the same time, the human-made infrastructure, being roads, tunnels, or even high-speed internet, is superb and links even the most faraway places to the population centers to the south. The beautiful bridges seem to integrate perfectly into nature but make no mistake, nature itself is the undisputed star here.
The North Cape
At the latitude of 71° 10′ 21″ in Norway, there is an island called Magerøya, a seemingly barren land with no trees and harsh weather conditions. The island’s most northern tip consists of a heavy rock reaching into the Arctic Sea, widely known as North Cape, the most northern part of Europe. I had the chance to visit this place a couple of times before, but I saw it as most visitors experience the North Cape: Heavy fog, strong winds, and slim chances to see the midnight sun. In July 2019, though, this changed for me, and I was finally able to visit our home star on a blanket slate of a clear blue sky in the middle of the night.
The phenomenon occurs during the white nights in summer when the sun is not setting down; around midnight, it reaches its lowest point on the horizon but still shines brightly. It looks almost like a sunset, just that the sun is never setting behind the horizon and is getting up again. There is no darkness in these unique and somewhat spiritual nights, and this barren land seems alive like no other place. You see all the birds feeding on the waters, which are still rich in fish and sea animals. And there are reindeer grasses everywhere on the island, eating their beloved reindeer veil, which grows everywhere on Magerøya and is like candy for these animals.
Michael Hoffman Photography 