Surf at Jæren, Norway: A weekend to remember, pt. I

I never thought this spot would work I said, passing by a friendly face in the water.

It was mid day on a Saturday at the tail end of October, and we had been in the water for hours. I had hopes, he answered, with white teeth showing through a wide grin. Don’t ever mistake hope for realism I thought, clearly being in the wrong on this occation.

The spot was indeed working good.

Up above the sky was lit in a rare clear, autumn blue, and with the sun beaming down on us you could easily mistake Jæren for Zanzibar on this particular day. At least if you were inside looking out. Outside it was cold, but bright.

If you were to be taking a walk along the coast not wearing gloves, your fingertips would be freezing cold within minutes. But inside the neoprene we felt warm. At least for a while. Warm or cold, it didn’t matter. You just kept going even though you were freezing.

Having both the weather gods and the wave gods coming together in unison is a rare commodity at Jæren, especially at this time of year. The fact that it actually was weekend and everyone were off duty just made it even more rare. In the end of October it’s supposed to rain at Jæren, it’s supposed to be grey. But it wasn’t.

It was a weekend to remember.

Camera settings

Great light, great visibility. All weekend, consistent both morning and afternoon.

Because I in total did five sessions in the sea, I switched it up a bit. I did both the 8-15mm lens fixed at 15mm inside a dome port, and the 70-200mm fixed at 200mm. The fisheye is more fun to shoot with, as you go closer to the action, while the 70/200mm keeps you at a distance making you feel like a sniper in a WW2 video game. A bit more comfy perhaps, but not as much fun. The depth of field and layer building of this lens is unbeatable though.

Inbetween sessions in the ocean I did some shooting from shore as well, using the 150-500mm. I also did some drone shots with my Mavic Pro.

Summarizing all the differerent settings would be a long and boring undertaking, but in generaI I kept the focal length at around F/5.6 in the ocean, and more or less the same at shore. The shutter I set at 1/2000 for the most part. ISO as low as possible.

More to come

Due to the fact that both the conditions and the weater was great all weekend, we stayed at Jæren for the whole thing. A lot of stuff was shot, way more than I’m posting here.

If you met me in the water I probably got a few shots of you. Feel free to contact me.

Pt. II coming soon.

A brief collection of shots

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