A LOFOTEN ELOPEMENTSophie & Johan
Sophie and Johan eloped around Leknes, in the middle of Lofoten, and barely had to leave it to get the whole spread of the place: fishing village, mountains, beaches, all within a short drive of one small town.
That town is Leknes, and if you are planning a Lofoten elopement it is the first thing worth knowing. Lofoten has two airports, and Leknes is the central one. You can fly in from Oslo or Bodø, pick up a car at the terminal, and inside an hour be standing somewhere that looks like the end of the earth. It is not a place you have to earn with a long drive from the mainland. You land, and you are already in the middle of it. That is where I send most couples.
Leknes
From Leknes a beach, a mountain, or a fishing village are all about the same short drive away.
Sophie and Johan started close to base, on the coast road and the quiet shores near town. The first evening had the soft, low light you get up here, and the whole day looked easy, which is what a central base is for: less driving, more time in the good places.
The mountains and the water
Most of Lofoten is mountains dropping straight into the sea, and you are never more than a few minutes from the next view.
From there the day moved through the middle of the islands: turquoise water under snow peaks, grass headlands, a boulder beach, the little white church at Unstad, the surf village, an old boardwalk up a hillside. Sophie and Johan kept walking out into the middle of it, which is the only way to shoot Lofoten. You put small people against big country and stand back.
The fishing villages
The other half of Lofoten is the fishing villages, red cabins on stilts over the water, with the cod drying on wooden racks.
Rorbuer, they are called, the old fishermen’s cabins, half of them now rented out to visitors. The day finished at a fishing village down the coast from Leknes, red cabins on stilts over the water with a wall of black mountain behind. Then back to the sand for the last of the light.
None of it is far apart, and that is the thing to take from Sophie and Johan’s day: base yourself somewhere central like Leknes, keep the driving short, and you get a different world every twenty minutes. If you want a Lofoten elopement photographer who knows where to point the car, come and find me. There is more of the islands in Ine and Jimmy’s hike up Ryten.
