HDR of a Snow Shower
Yesterday I made this HDR from 9 exposures of a snow shower moving through the Ofoten Fjord. Lovely contrasts!
HDR of a snow shower moving through the Ofoten Fjord 9 exposures
The Sleeping Queen – Sleeping in a bitterly cold storm
I caught this snapshot of the famous mountain The Sleeping Queen (1,576 m.o.s.) today. The wind was blowing approximately storm force at the tops, so the queen is misty from all the snow being blown off the mountain ridge.
IVS KANDA – a small ship
I caught this picture of the iron ore carrier IVS KANDA today. It is a relatively small ship in regard to what the usual tonnage of the carriers that come to Narvik usually are. IVS KANDA is from Singapore, she is going to take on iron ore at pier No 5 bound for Rostock. Right now she has been waiting in port for 11 days to get the load. It is quite busy here now with lots of carriers anchored up all around the fjord and harbor bassin. IVS KANDA is just 32,621 DWT, which is just 1/8 the size of the bigger ships coming in here to load up with the fines iron ore in the world.
So next time you thunder down the highway in your new car or you’re frying some meat in your frying pan, maybe they are made from steel that IVS KANDA transported from Narvik this cold and windy february in 2012.
Singapore's IVS KANDA waiting to be loaded with iron ore. Click the photo to see "The Big Picture"
The loader at LKAB
Weser Stahl is almost fully loaded and ready to set the course out Vestfjorden. The orange and blue machine in the background is the loader weighing 4,600 metric tonns. Below the tip of the loader you can see the black stream of iron ore pelets which has come all the way from deep down in the iron ore mines up in the Swedish mountains by train down to the all-year-round ice-free harbor of Narvik. That black stream of iron ore pellets being dumped deep into the cargo bays of the carrier is being dumped at a rate of 1-2 metric tonns per second.
Iron ore being dumped into the cargo bay of Weser Stahl today at a rate of 1-2 metric tonns per second
Erosion – a country is moving Westerly
The northern part of Jutland is at the mercy of the eroding forces from both wind and seas. The lanscape has changed radically the pas few hundred years – and continues to do so, as these pictures will show you. There isn’t much resistance in compacted sand…
A piece of driftwood worn and torn by the relentless tumbling of the North Sea and the sand - HDR-photo
Eroding sandbanks by the sea
A piece of ancient peat (rich in carbon) revealed as the sand around it erodes
Frontside and backside of erosion - grass klinging on to the moving sand
Not much resistance in these sand barrs against the wrath of the Northern Sea
Snowy Silence by The Fjord
Snow is the most silent thing in the world. Today was calm, and snowy and really silent. Just the occasional bird and snow plow broke the silence.
Downtown Narvik with the harbor in front
Breakwater at the Ankenes Marina with the runway light beacon for the minicipal airport
A bit of Plane Spotting
I had 15 minutes at my disposal today. Enough to do a little bit of Plane Spotting. This is a Dash 8 belonging to Widerøe (Wideroe) an airline company under the SAS group. This specific plane has the call-sign LN-WIF and is named after the county Nord-Trøndelag.
But passenger traffic is not the only function of the airport. An ambulance plane arrives almost every day to evacuate patients from the local hospital to the university hospital in Tromsø (Tromsoe) Northern-Norway. A vital service that cannot be replaced any other way, neither by ambulance nor helicopter due to the extreme weather. But a new bridge project and the immensely huge ego of a handful politicians is now threatening to close the airport…
De Havilland Canada DHC-8-103 Dash 8 thundering down the Runway 19 - Narvik Airport - with a cloud of snow whirled up by the two powerful engines of 1,800 shp each
Take off from Narvik - in the background an iron ore carrier waiting to get to port
LN-WIF taking off from Narvik Airport (NVK / ENNK)
Wheels up and turning up against the wind bound for Bodø airport
And soon the Dash is just a dash on the evening sky
A shower of snow makes for a great contrast
A shower of snow moving through the Ofoten Fjord
The House being eaten by The Sea
On the North-West coast of Skagen I happen to stumble on this lonely house. It’s windows boarded up and with a futile attempt to stop the raging North Sea by dumping boulders around it. All the land around this house had already been reclaimed by the sea. My guess is, that it will no longer be there after a few storms. People in this area has never been able to secure long-term loans from banks if they wished to build a house in this area! It is simply to much of a risk.
On it's way into the frothing sea
Breathtaking
Frozen lake in Raabjerg Mile
Another Raabjerg Mile (Råbjerg Mile) Impression
Frozen Lake in Raabjerg Mile
Poul and Anders
My good friend Poul – who made this trip possible! It has been a fantastic and absolutely delightful week on the top of Denmark. A long with my friend Anders – the three of us has enjoyed a Gentlemen’s Vacation with Lavish Cuisines, Brilliant Wines, Beers, Whiskey and Port Wines, Grand Nature and Breathtaking Cultural Experiences. I am a really lucky man to be in such good company!
Poul in Raabjerg Mile
It’s like the Gobi Dessert – only a bit smaller
In the otherwise green northern parts of Denmark, sand is moving right across the country in the general direction of the wind from West to East. This flying sand is moving like a dessert, although the sand is quite moist. The moving sand has throughout history buried houses, farms, roads and churches and only after many years when the sand has passed the area, these abandoned farming community appears on the back side of this moving dessert. However, the sand erodes the fertile top soil and carries it away with the wind leaving barron marshes in it’s wake.
I shot this photo in a particular area called Raabjerg Mile (Råbjerg Mile).
Raabjerg Mile - Tuesday February 7. The lake in front is frosen.
The lighthouses of Skagen
On the very Northern tip of Denmark there are three distinct lighthouses – Grå Fyr (The Grey Lighthouse, still active) – Hvide Fyr (The White Lighthouse) and Vippefyr (The Tilt Beacon) which all signals the importance and necessity throughout history to guide ships safely around this northern point of Jutland.
Grå Fyr
Hvide Fyr
Vippefyr
Vippefyr (The tilt beacon) seen from the base to the tip. It tilts around the central axis which makes it possible to hoist the basked with the burning logs after it's been been lit.
“The Branch” – “The North Cape” of Denmark
I shot a thsi photos on Grenen (translated from Danish: “The Branch”), the very top of Denmark, where the North Sea meets Skagerag. It was bitterly cold with -7 degrees Celsius, moist air and wind so my wool underwear and sweaters was highly apreciated! The coastline is constantly moving and the seas and winds meets – often times – violently. This has been one of the most dangerous places on The Seven Seas, having lead in earlier times to numerous shipwrecks.
The tip of Denmark covered by ice - Next stop Norway
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