Lofoten – The Land of the Sea from Jim Ruff on Vimeo.
Lofoten – The Land of the Sea. Time to pour your morning coffee, relax and enjoy the beauty of our world.
The third and final video from my March trip to the Lofoten Islands of northern Norway.
This remote island archipelago with its rugged mountains is truly an amazing place. Being approximately 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle, I packed layers and more layers of winter clothing in anticipation of frigid temperatures. Instead, it’s a maritime climate moderated by the Norwegian Atlantic Current. During my two week visit, the temperatures never dipped below 20F. However the downside – most days were cloudy with frequent snow, rain, sleet and hail storms. Conditions often changed on an hourly basis. Photographing the northern lights – the aurora was only visible for about five minutes due to total cloud cover at night.
As the islands are so far north and so remote, I envisioned very few inhabitants. Instead, many small fishing villages and plenty of farms scattered in the mountains. There were several retail stores in Leknes (approximately 3,000) with a large inventory of appliances, furniture, electronics, etc., very similar to small town USA before WalMart,
Fishing drives the economy as evidenced by the many cod drying racks near the villages and along the roadways. Some racks contained the fleshy bodies while others had only the grisly looking heads. These will be ground into powder and exported to Africa as the feedstock for fish soup.
This final video is composed of several time lapse sequences and numerous still images. I shot nearly sixteen thousand images during my visit.
