Along the Coast of Norway - A Land of Light and Shadows

A cloud and snow post to go with the weather; the first rain after five weeks here, and the first autumn gales. There may even be snow later this week.

Light in a land of water and mountains
Traveling along the coast of Norway in early spring can give you some of the most beautiful light effects when the sun fights with the clouds, sometimes losing to a blue-grey twilight.

Afternoon voyage between Ålesund and Molde
Sometimes winning and tinting the sea an incredible blue where only a slight haze betrayed the rain that had fallen a few minutes earlier.

Rainbow over Molde
Rainbows were a frequent sight on this voyage.

Mountain opposite Ålesund harbour
And sometimes the sun just managed to poke a ray through the clouds, and light would sparkle on the water.

Baldur looking down?
Though this was taken at plain daylight, the contrast of the light and the dark clouds makes it look more ominous and nightly.

Coastal mountains
Sometimes there is a hint of what the land may look like in sunshine, a fleeting trace of warmer, richer colours dormant in the shades of grey.

One of the many lighthouses
Thus far south and warmed by the gulf stream, the snow had already melted except for the highest peaks. Further north, the snow remained and would remain far into spring.

On board of the Richard With
The landscape gliding past, and a photo motive around every turn.

Between Bergen and Ålesund; taken in the late morning
In such moments, the light is the only important thing, reducing the mountains to grey shadows and black silhouettes.

Patchwork
A lot of the photos look like they were taken with an old black-and-white filmroll, but it's really my colour digital camera.

The Richard With in Honningsvåg
I picked some with more snow as theme for this post.

A chain of mountains
And then found a lot of those in my files. *grin*

Blue Hour
This is the most lovely time of the day, though the weather needs to be not too cloudy for this particular light to appear.

Reindeer
The big herds of those are further inland, but you can spot the occasional cutie on a private grazing.

Snow covered mountains near Hammerfest
If we get more winters with so little snow, I'll move to Norway. ;-)

Mountains in the sunshine on the Vesterålen
Yes, there were some sunny days, or at least hours, too, and a 'wine dark sea', as the Greek say.

Another view of the Vesterålen landscape
This one was taken out of the bus window during a tour of the island.

A storm comes up
And here we go again; the clouds playing drama queen.

A glimpse of blue sky
And a few hours later, they look like the proverbial puppy that hasn't done anything. ;)

Another Blue Hour, muted version
There will hopefully more sea-and-land photos this year, from a different sea - the Baltic.

Sunset with fishing boat
A Viking ship would have been even more atmospheric, but those are rare nowadays.