How Did I Create These Images
Over the last year or so, I had the opportunity to witness spectacular moments in which I was able to freeze in time thanks to the art I have chosen: photography. At a glance, one can only think it was easy to create these images. One click and done? Not really…in fact, some required much more time, effort, preparation, trial and error than you could possibly imagine.
And even though I truly love a good challenge with my photography, I must admit that once in a while, it feels good to be standing there surrounded by nature, take the camera out and press the shutter once and done.
I will dive deep into the details of what it required to create these four images I recently captured which also happen to be some of my all time favorite images. These are very special to me for various reasons which I will share in great detail in the next few paragraphs. Some are funny, some took years in the making…
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LAND OF THE IMMORTAL
Probably my favorite afternoon of the entire trip and the third time in the Lofoten Islands, one of the most memorable photography moments of the year 2025. Sunset at Molneva Falls was truly gorgeous. We had just finished a very successful photo shoot at the lovely beach right across the street from our super cute Airbnb. As opposed to what I normally recommend people do, we decided to change locations at exactly the moment the light was at its best. We decided to try to hunt for two rabbits at the same time. And even though taking chances like this often means you end up losing both rabbits, we actually succeeding at both locations. It was a very short drive and since we had already gotten epic light at Vareid Beach, why not try to bag a few extra images on the same afternoon?
As soon as we arrived at Molneva Falls, I went ahead and jumped into my waders. I knew this location and even though the water is literally gliding on rock slabs which at the same time makes the water extremely shallow and accessible for the most part, I knew for sure that waders were going to give me an advantage for the final couple of images of the day. Getting my feet wet and being uncomfortable wasn’t going to be an option at that moment. It’s a good thing that I always carry my waders and even better that I had them on that afternoon. Surprisingly enough, this whole landscape was covered with snow just the day before. The weather had been so mild that the snow melted in less than 24 hours. The waterfalls were flowing so nicely and thanks to my waders, I was able to find countless different compositions. I am never going to say it often enough, if you are serious about landscape photography, get yourself some waders and unleash an abundance of creativity potential.
As far as camera settings go, my preferred shutter speed most of the time will be 0.4 second. Aperture is often set at f11 because it seems to be my lens’ sharpest aperture. But depth of field isn’t the greatest so Focus Stacking was a must again here. Since I was standing a few dozen centimeters away from the cascades, I was constantly wiping my lens’ front element to keep it free from water droplets. These aren’t fun to Photoshop as they not only blur parts of the image, they also generate colorful light seculars which aren’t very pretty. Keeping a couple of lens clothes in my zippered pockets is extremely useful and I highly recommend you do the same when you are photographing water in motion whether it is a seascape, waves or waterfalls. Things are going to get wet at some point.
We took a big chance, I think it’s fair to say that we did have the best of the light earlier at Vareid Beach, but these last couple of images of the tail end of sunset were a fine addition to this already extraordinary day deep in the Norwegian Fjords. And then came time for whiskey and a fine dinner cooked by Chef Dan!
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A REWARD TO REMEMBER
Malin Head…oh my God! The first time I saw this location was back in 2019. I visited Ireland for the third time right before COVID became a thing. Of the many locations I wanted to visit, Malin Head was very high on my list. It’s difficult to find words to describe how amazing this place is. Star Wars fans, this location was used in one of the earlier sequels of the series. Now back to 2019, I was on a very tight schedule back then and I only had one opportunity to go there. Sadly, the light wasn’t anything I had in mind. It was very cloudy and very windy as well. I don’t mind the clouds but no sun means less light. Less light and windy means you either have to expose for a longer period of time or bring the ISO up. I went for the wrong option and messed up a few of the good images I had captured…
In July of 2025, I was returning to Ireland and I was hyped to go back there. Going to Europe from North America will most likely mean you will need to travel overnight. I don’t know about you but me, I seriously cannot sleep well on a plane. It must be a super hero power to be able to sleep on a plane, right? As soon as I arrived in Dublin, I had to wait for my friend Gina to land, pick up her luggage and meet me on her way out. Then came time to take possession of the rental car and drive almost four hours to the north to our respective Airbnbs. We unloaded our luggage, went to buy some food, grabbed a quick snack and then drove an hour and a half further north to Malin Head. At this point, we were both around 36 hours without sleep…I don’t know how I was still functioning at that point. I am pretty sure I was looking like a Zombie! Once we got to Malin Head, we walked a few kilometers to the view point I had in mind, went down a few big boulders and I sat down and enjoyed the view for a few minutes. It was simply breathtaking. A few clouds in the sky, beautiful summer flowers in the foreground and basically no wind at all…a well deserved reward I will remember forever! Over 36 hours without sleep to end the first day in Ireland like this? I’ll take it any time!
So the whole viewpoint truly deserves an image in landscape orientation. That’s what most people will do there. I wanted to challenge myself and look for something much different than what I often see. Instead of focusing on the whole scene, I focused on the two pointy rock formations. Thanks to the fact that I was using my ultra wide angle lens close to its widest focal length, I was able to make them much more pointy and prominent than what they normally are. I settled my small tripod so I can also take advantage of those lovely little daisy looking flowers in the foreground. I was some 10 centimeters away from them so a lot of focus stacking was required to get all the details perfectly sharp. I also love all the lovely leading lines created by the vegetation. Thank God it wasn’t windy on that evening…because focus stacking would have been impossible. And what else could be said about the lovely sunset we had than a big fat WOW?
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GRANDIOSE
I have a love relation with dramatic peaks. I love pointy peaks and rock formations. You’ve probably noticed that from the previous image… While scouting the area, my friend and I went for a walk. He wasn’t too keen on bringing his camera bag because the light was flat. It sure was flat…not a single hint of sun and fully clouded sky. But if I am going to scout, I will always bring my camera bag anyway. There’s always that « What if » type of scenario in my head. What if the light becomes better and I don’t have time to grab my camera equipment in time?
I was making my way down the steep hill trying to find some good looking foregrounds, I was literally jumping from one rock to the next just like a mountain goat…until I found a composition I was truly happy with. There was a crevice between to boulders that was filled with water. And where there’s water, there could be a reflection. I captured a few shots but knew I would come back another day… The next morning, it was snowing. It was a white out. My friend stayed in bed which I think was the smarter decision given the conditions we had. But I still went anyway. Nobody will ever blame me for not trying! Right?
Then the very next morning…we both woke up on time, the weather was looking good so it was a GO! We drove the required 45 minutes to get there. The sky had the right clouds with a lot of openings. It was promising. We got there, the mountains were even prettier than two days earlier. There was snow on the peaks. I rushed myself to the spot I scouted two days prior, settled my tripod and camera and started capturing some blue hour images. Then after a few minutes, a few massive dark clouds drifted over our heads. The sky literally started pooping precipitation in every possible state known to man! It was raining and then snowing…it switched to ice pellets and hail. All of this weather cocktail within a few minutes? I was almost ready to give up and take shelter. I packed my camera and left but it cleared out…and a few minutes later, the sun made its way between two clouds and we got this. Mother Nature definitely had an attitude on that morning…but being patient paid off big time!
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
That one was ten years in the making…I visited this location for the first time ten years ago with a good friend of mine. We were with our wives and we were on a tight schedule. We made it there a bit too late, couldn’t find our way down to the beach, lost the light…so we went to have a beer in a local pub…
Back in 2019, I wanted to be sure I was going to get a proper shot of it so I planned to stay in this area for two full days. Two days should be enough, right? Maybe not… I missed my shot on the first evening because the tide was too high and I couldn’t make it to the beach. After looking at the tide charts for the next day, I realized I would need to lock myself in there at high tide in order to possibly capture a sunset. Next step, I looked at the weather and there was no storm coming. Since I was there the first night, I also made sure I had multiple safe spots to wait for the tide to go down. It’s ok to take some chances for images, but I just don’t want to kill myself. For my second chance there, I had to be on that beach by noon and wait until sunset which was past 6PM. It was a long time but I was prepared, I had water and snacks…I also had my iPad so I played a bunch of games of Tetris. Then came sunset…the ocean was so calm and the sky was completely clear. I had to wait a few more hours before I could make it out of there though.
It was dark when all of a sudden, two flashlights started screening the area. Two guys were on top of the cliffs and they were looking for something. Or somebody maybe? Me? I turned my flashlight on and started talking to them. I told them I was 100% safe and hopefully they’d just leave. Nope! They found the way down to the beach and simply wouldn’t leave. It was getting late so I figured that maybe the tide was low enough to leave. I then decided to put my waders back on and walked towards them. The water was just over knee deep so the tide was gone enough. To my big surprise, it was the local police. A local lady saw my car parked there at noon and still parked there after sunset so she was worried. She called the police. Even funnier, the police called the coast guard to get me out of there! They later canceled the coast guard and we had a good laugh about it…
July 2025, I planned my whole Ireland trip around the tide at this specific location…two more nights, two more tries and please this time it has to work! The first night was good but Gina and I were both stressed because we had a very short window to shoot it. The second night on another hand, we almost had two straight hours at low tide. When we first got there, it was pouring rain. It was windy and quite cloudy. We made our way down the hill until we reached the beach. The weather calmed down, the wind almost died…but the waves were astonishing. I studied the waves for a few long minutes before I decided to settle my tripod somewhere. I chose a spot where the waves would lose all their momentum. Then I started shooting a few images for focus stacking. I was also making sure to capture images of the incoming waves as they were coming my way. I basically did some Time Blending. Gulls were circling the arch and I truly loved the visual impact it was creating. I changed my shutter speed and ISO so I could have a much quicker shutter speed than 0.4 second. I wanted to freeze the gulls. It probably took me 150 shots before I was happy with everything for that specific image, it requires many hours in Photoshop as well but the end result perfectly reflects what I saw on that very dramatic evening. Finally, after ten years, I got THE shot I wanted!
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GRAND FINALE
Senja is truly lovely. Senja is much quieter than its big brother the Lofoten Islands. And I truly love Senja for that. Senja is much more than just a quiet place…it’s also a place where beauty overflows in every direction. That sunset was the last one before leaving Senja so I wanted to make sure I could make something very special out of it. I am not sure what that place is called…I looked on the maps and couldn’t find a proper name so I called it Ballesvika Beach. Correct me if I am wrong…to me it makes sense since the closest village is called Ballesvika.
After capturing a few images farther on the same beach, I decided to explore another area which looked pretty sleek. Uddy also wanted to see where I was going but when he saw where I wanted to go down, he aborted. Was it a sketchy spot? Maybe a little…but I made sure that the spot I was standing on was dry. If it’s dry, it means the waves aren’t going there. And since the ocean was pretty wild that day, I didn’t want to put myself in a questionable position. The day was quickly coming to an end, the light was improving by the minute and boom, in good Norwegian fashion, it started raining again for a few minutes. And it cleared up once again pretty quickly…
I loved all the water action and movement on the rock slabs in front of me. It was creating such an amazing visual impact. To get it all in a single image was close to impossible. I just couldn’t get it right at once. Once again, I started rolling the shutter as the waves were coming in and did a lot of Time Blending until I was happy with what I got. But the problem that remained is that the mountains across the fjords were looking way too small. I captured the background from the same location but at a longer focal length than the foreground. The end result is something that looks closer to what my eyes were seeing. I played with perspective, I did some Focal Length Blending so the final result looks more faithful to the actual thing. The way an ultra-wide angle lens compresses things, it always makes the background look much smaller and I corrected that effect. You can read about the techniques used here: How To Play with Perspective. Later, I blended everything in Photoshop with a very simple layer and mask setup. What a great final sunset in Senja! Right?
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…IN CONCLUSION
In conclusion, all of these images were captured in 2025. It truly was a great photography year for me and my Art. I revisited many locations I had previously visited. Even though I am often much more inspired the first time I visit a location, I am truly happy with the outcome of the images.
I have many more great Behind the Scenes stories and funny things to talk about of many of my Artwork. Do you like this kind of content? Please let me know! I personally like to share the more complicated not so green content and how I struggle to capture it. If you’d like to know more about one specific image of mine, just shout me out and I’ll be happy to talk about it!
Oh…this was the second article of this kind…you can read the first one too! Click on the link right here:
