1 Year Anniversary – THANK YOU!
Happy 1 Year Anniversary! And THANK YOU for making it fun to write!
HDR – Narvik today
Shot this HDR-photo today. This photo is a composite of 5 photos. The camera was hand held, but inspite of that I ended up with a pretty nifty result..!
5-photo HDR-composite of Narvik today.
1 year minus 2 days
In two days time this blog has been up and running for one year. In this time I’ve had some 8,850 visits to my blog. Not bad for a little “miniblogger”.
While waiting for the 1 Year Anniversary – you’ll might enjoy this photo taken today. It is a High Dynamic Range Photo where I tried emphasizing the very special light on the fjord and in the autumn coloured mountain in the background. Enjoy!
Special light - Autumn fjord
Yet another beautiful autumn day by the Ofoten Fjord
Yet another beautiful autumn day by the Ofoten Fjord
Scene from Narvik Harbour
Scene from Narvik Harbour
Mt. Tøttatoppen 1,249 meters towering above the Rombak Fjord
Mt. Tøttatoppen 1,249 meters - below and a bit to the left - the Polytechnical College in Narvik and to the left the new Rica Hotel being built. In the foreground the red train garrages and workshops.
Cutter “Ariadne” – Narvik – Narvik Kystlag
The cutter “Ariadne” this evening in the port of Narvik. “Ariadne” is owned by Narvik Kystlag – an organization for the preservation of traditional vessels in the Ofoten area. Ariadne was taken over in 2005 by Narvik Kystlag from Nordnorsk Fartøyvernsenter og Båtmuseum – an organization for the preservation of traditional North-Norwegian sea-faring culture.
Classic clipper hull – stunningly beautiful lines – although it looks like tha hull has been somewhat rebuilt throughout the years.
The cutter Ariadne
Moon is rising – Sun is setting on Narvik
Moon is rising – Sun is setting on Narvik. Our beloved airport Narvik Airport (NVK) is lit in the dusk. In the Foreground you can see the 180,002 ton bulk carrier “Navios Happiness” of Malta being loaded with iron ore by pier 5 – destined for El Dikheila.
Moon is rising - Sun is setting on Narvik
Treebeard
The black “beard” you see hanging from the branches of this birch has got really nothing to do with Treebeard – the ent – from Tolkien’s “Lord of The Rings”. It is called “treskjegg” in Norwegian – directly translated: “Treebeard”. It is actually one of extremely many species of Lichen (pronounced “lai-kenn”. Lichens are actually a symbiotic organism that consists of fungi and algae. The fungi provides proteines, salts and shelter. The sheltering structures contains, in addition to the fungus cells, algae-cells. The algae has chlorophyll and thus it produces sugar which it feeds to the fungus. A tiny ecological system in it self.
My friend Gunnar has studied lichens for a long time for The University of Tromsoe. Lichens are very sensitive to the environment and mapping lichens in a specific area, species, how much there is of the various species etc., is a very precise indicator of environmental changes; climate, acidity and pollutants. Any change in these paramaeteres can quite quickly be registered in the compositions of lichens, and thus has become a very interesting field in Biology and Ecology.
Treskjegg - "treebeard" - hanging from a birch. This is actually a lichen - a symbiosis between a mycobiont and a photobiont. In the background The Fagernes Mountain bath in sunlight from the setting sun.
Sunset on the village Haakvik (Håkvik)
Sunset on the village Haakvik down to the left
She’s simply beautiful
The Sleeping Queen from a different angle. The glaciers shown prominently as blueish white fields. As she towers 1,576 meters over the fjords, she is lightly powdered with freshly fallen snow. The winter is just a thousand meters away now.
In addition to the blueish white glaciers on The Sleeping Queen (1,576 meter) - she is now lightly powdered with freshly fallen snow.
The Ofoten Fjord this evening
Panorama of The Ofoten Fjord and in the foreground Ankenesstrand in the middle the city of Narvik and in the background Bjerkvik.
The Season of The Carotenoids
Why do the leafs on trees become yellow, orange and red in the autumn? Well, the answer is, they have these colours in the spring and summer as well. But then it is not visible because of the strong green colour reflected by chlorophyll. The colours we see are actually the colours that the tree doesn’t use in the production of sugar through photosynthesis. These colours are reflected and the light that is actually used in the photosynthesis is absorbed.
The red, orange and yellow colours we see in the leafs in the autumn is the reflection of light from carotenoids. These substances are cheap for the trees to produce, and the trees can afford to shed these. The chlorophyll on the other hand is a very precious and valuable molecule for the trees, so these are transported to the roots in the autumn leaving the carotenoids to “light up the forests in the beautiful, warm colours. Next spring the trees formes new leafs and pumps chlorophyll back into the freshly formed leafs.
Common Aspen - Populus tremula (local dialect: Osp) - has stored it's chlorophyll for the winter. This photo was shot today.
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