Sea Eagles in Vesterålen

Sep 29, 2026, in Photography trips

Whenever I travel with a group of photographers to northern Norway, I always make sure to include a whale-watching tour on the itinerary. The catch, however, has always been the weather. Out of six trips where we booked whale watching, a whopping four ended up cancelled due to unpredictable conditions.

This year, I decided to shake things up so I wouldn’t have to scramble at the last minute trying to figure out how to fill half a day for a group of eager photographers in lousy weather.

Our usual home base in Vesterålen is the town of Sortland. This year was no different, so we looked for options right there – and struck gold with a sea eagle tour: the Sea Eagle Safari to Trollfjord by Vesterålen Adventures.

A boat ride into a fjord just shy of 50 km away. At first, I could barely believe we’d actually go that far, given the tour operator clocks the whole trip at just 2.5 hours. As you’ll read below, it ended up being an absolute breeze.

You can find more photos below the article.

A Few Quick Notes to Kick Things Off

This isn’t a paid gig or a brand collaboration – just a quick report from a satisfied customer. Think of it as a handy recap of everything I had to dig up, deduce, and confirm over the phone myself.

Plus, a photographer’s point of view, naturally.

The Trip Itself

We had booked the tour weeks ahead for a fixed date with no wiggle room to reschedule. That exact lack of flexibility used to bite us with open-sea whale watching, but with eagles inside a fjord, you aren’t nearly as vulnerable to rough weather.

On site, they first geared us up in waterproof flotation suits, turning our entire group into a rather convincing high school reunion of Michelin Men :-)

The boat ride itself turned out to be remarkably smooth. That was definitely thanks in part to the Sortlandsundet strait being dead calm, even at its widest point. And it didn’t take long at all, seeing as our RIB boat was tearing across the water at 43 knots (yes, I asked the skipper), which is nearly 80 km/h.

We spotted our first eagles well before the Raftsundet bridge (which we had driven across to reach Vesterålen the day before). The real magic, though, happened inside Trollfjord itself. At one point, we had up to 10 white-tailed eagles circling directly overhead. We were spinning left and right, barely able to keep up with the shutter button.

Photographing the Sea Eagles

Our main goal wasn’t just to gaze at the eagles, but to photograph them. First off, it’s worth mentioning there were only eight of us on board, while the boat can take up to 12 passengers plus the skipper. While you are allowed to bring a small daypack, you really won’t want to be swapping lenses out on the boat anyway (theoretically doable while stationary, but still), so bags are pretty redundant (= wouldn’t recommend bringing one).

Gear-wise, my Nikon Z8 mirrorless paired with a Nikkor 100–400mm lens worked like a charm, though a 70–200mm or 70–300mm would do the job brilliantly as well. At my widest 100mm end, there were even a couple of moments where I was actually too tight.

I had stashed a Nikkor 24–120mm in my chest pocket, but honestly, I didn’t think about it once during the ride (alright, I lied – I did think about it, mostly because it was digging into my ribs).

Settings-wise, I shot in shutter priority at 1/2000s, paired with Auto-ISO capped at 6400. Since it was overcast, most of the shots (around 70%) hovered above ISO 4000.

Focus was set to continuous autofocus with bird detection turned on. That setup delivered a remarkably low keeper-to-trash ratio. Of course, that doesn’t mean every single frame was razor-sharp – a bird zipping past the busy, textured rock walls of a fjord still proved tricky for the AF system from time to time. Still, as a landscape shooter who rarely tracks fast-moving wildlife, I was genuinely blown away by how far camera tech has come.

Tips & Practical Insights

Location: Vesterålen Adventures sits right next to the entrance of the Scandic Hotel in Sortland (as of Sept 2026). Free parking is easy to find close by.
Communication: If you have questions before booking, giving them a quick phone call works best.
Arrival: Be there 15–20 minutes early. Getting zipped into the heavy-duty flotation suits and life jackets takes a few minutes.
Goggles & Gloves: They will offer you ski goggles and gloves. My take: Take both! Without goggles, the windchill would have had your eyes streaming the entire run. I was very glad I took them. What I foolishly skipped were the gloves, thinking they’d get in the way of shooting. Big mistake – you can always slip a glove off to shoot, and gripping freezing metal handrails bare-handed the whole way was no picnic. Take the gloves!
Layers: The suit keeps your core quite toasty (or at least keeps the chill off). The only spot that got cold was my feet, so definitely wear warmer boots or double up on socks.

Wrap-Up

All in all, an incredible experience, and we’ll definitely do it again next time!

Just keep in mind that this is a safari, not raw untouched wildlife behavior (the skipper tossed a few fish to draw the eagles close). When it comes to great photo opportunities and an unforgettable outing, though, that didn’t take away from the experience in the slightest.

Landing
Nikon Z8 + Nikkor Z 100-400/4.5-5.6 VR S
1/2000s, f6.3, ISO 800