The Lofoten Islands have blown up in popularity over recent years for good reason.
The roughly 3-hour drive from Svolvaer to the village of Å at the end of the road in Lofoten packs in some of the most wildly beautiful landscapes imaginable, with dramatic mountains plunging into fjords and pristine beaches. Tiny, colorful fishing villages like Hamnøy and Sakrisøy have become the postcard scenes from these arctic islands, but there’s actually so much more to see beyond those places to stop and explore.
While Lofoten sees an abundance of visitors year-round, winter is a slightly quieter time with the bonus of being able to catch the northern lights. It’s not as cold as you might think for a place at such a high latitude. In February, the temperature fluctuated around freezing (32ish degrees Fahrenheit), and some days were snowy while others it rained. Precipitation of one kind or another is pretty much guaranteed, so it’s definitely a place that will require you to have weatherproof gear. I was worried about the short days not giving me enough time to see the landscape in the daylight, but by February, the days were already quickly getting longer. At the middle of the month, the sun was rising around 9 am and setting around 3:30 pm, but the light faded slowly, and the hour or so before sunrise and after sunset proved to be some of the most beautiful times of day.
After some time in southern Norway, I flew to Svolvaer to start a 10-day road trip across the archipelago. At the time, I didn’t know what to expect beyond some of the famous views I’d seen on the internet. After days on end of driving and trudging through snow, I’ve compiled this list of my favorite places to photograph in the Lofoten Islands. If you visit Norway and the Lofoten Islands (spoiler alert: I do highly recommend it), please keep in mind that these are fragile places under immense strain from a recent increase in tourism. Always follow the rules of the road, never park your car anywhere you shouldn’t stop, and give this wild place the respect it deserves.
Some Notes on Photographing the Northern Lights
This isn’t meant to be a technical guide, but I’ll share a few general rules of thumb and tips for capturing the northern lights based on my own experience. I’ve managed to catch the northern lights in Alaska, Iceland, and in my own neck of the woods in New England, but I’ve never seen them as vibrant and dramatic as in Norway. They do actually dance like ribbons of light across the sky, and they can appear and disappear within seconds. Patience and extra warm layers are probably the two most important things to have when photographing the northern lights.
I am not a space or weather scientist, so I’ll keep it to a simplified summary based on my own limited knowledge. The color and light that we see in the sky are the result of charged particles from the sun being released and interacting with the gases in our atmosphere. This is why solar flares and storms result in much stronger aurora activity. We use the KP index as a standardized measurement that’s used to quantify how much of Earth’s magnetic field is being disturbed by solar activity and geomagnetic storms.
This point is important because you can use apps like Hello, Aurora, or even the Apple Weather app to view the KP index at any given point in time. The KP index ranges from 0 to 9, with a higher value representing stronger geomagnetic activity. It’s important to note that this is a global measurement taken from 13 different observatories around the world, and a higher or lower value doesn’t always correlate with better or worse odds of seeing the northern lights. Depending on where on Earth you are, you don’t always need a high KP index to see the northern lights. Cloud cover is another important variable (especially in Lofoten) that dictates whether or not you’ll be able to see them. In general, I’d recommend using the KP index as a loose indicator but not a guarantee in either direction, and always check the weather to see forecasted cloud movement. The highest KP index I saw in Lofoten was a 4, and nights where it was only a 2 still brought a show.
Note for photographers
You can photograph the northern lights using pretty much anything, and an iPhone or smartphone is probably the easiest guarantee at capturing them today. If you’re using a camera, you’ll want to have a wide-angle lens with a relatively fast aperture (ideally 2.8 or faster), a tripod, and maintain as fast of a shutter speed as possible while keeping your ISO at a tolerable level. You don’t want to simply shoot long exposures because you’ll end up with a shapeless blob of color and star trails. Most of my favorite images from photographing the northern lights in Lofoten were with my 24mm 1.8 lens at its widest aperture, with a shutter speed ranging from 3 to 5 seconds, and my ISO between 1600 and 3200. The important thing is to pay close attention to ambient light in your surroundings (i.e. lights from houses, villages nearby, etc.) and the intensity of the aurora. There were some instances where it looked like someone flipped a switch, and concentrated areas became so bright that I had to quickly adjust by lowering my ISO or using a shorter shutter speed. Scouting locations during the daytime is a good way to be prepared at night when you sometimes need to act quickly to capture the northern lights from an interesting vantage point.
