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The light of a winter dawn illuminates Mount Olstind on the Lofoten Isles with the pretty village of Reine in the foreground.

We had arrived in Reine the previous evening after a long and arduous journey. Three flights with three different airlines, and then a long drive over snow covered roads to our accommodation. It was quite an effort to drag ourselves out of bed for an early morning shoot but seeing a scene like this made it all worthwhile.

This was our first visit to the islands, so we were unsure of where to be for the best view of the mountain with the village in the foreground. Fortunately, we had chosen our accommodation well and this was the view we were greeted with as we hurried to dress and get out into the landscape. A short walk along the road took us to a viewpoint where we set up for this shot.

We had a very challenging week weather wise, the snow of the first day turned to rain and then back to snow again the day before we left.

I would recommend going there in winter but be prepared for mixed weather, with the islands close to the gulf stream it doesn’t get too cold, the lowest temperature we had were around minus five.

The quality of light in the Arctic circle in winter has to be seen to be believed though, the air is so clean, you get a wonderful clarity to your photographs.