Yesterday (and today) I went cross-country skiing. Here’s one of the photos and a video.

Sognsvann, Oslo.
Landscape photography
Sognsvann, Oslo.
Power station somewhere between Ålesund & Trollstigen.
Såpeboble
View from Romsdalseggen
Romsdalseggen, Norway.
I went hiking. Just woke up one morning and thought: “I want to go to the mountains”. So that’s what I did: got up, booked a train ticket, packed and went hiking for a couple of days. Now it’s soon off to a tattoo convention to do some photographing and meet up with friends and sexy women.
I’ll post more photos from Romsdalseggen in my next Changing Seasons post.
Enjoy the summer! (winter if you’re down south)
Besseggen, Jotunheimen.
Here’s a similar photo I shot in Norway:
From this post: https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/the-changing-seasons-november-2016
For the WordPress challenge: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/ambience/
This HDR panorama is my entry to: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/names/
Edit: It’s 18 photos processed as HDR, then I created a panorama out of the 6 HDR photos.
This is an old photo. It was shot back in 2005 when I spent a few months in Rishikesh, India. I’ve done quite a bit of work on the photo.
Rishikesh was a great place to relax.
Preikestolen
We started in Oslo, rented a car and drove to the West coast of Norway.
The first day of hiking, we visited Preikestolen (English: Preacher’s Pulpit or Pulpit Rock), one of the most visited natural tourist attractions in Norway (The two most visited is Oslo Opera House and Vigelandsparken in Oslo). “Preikestolen is a steep cliff which rises 604 metres (1,982 ft) above the Lysefjorden. Atop the cliff, there is an almost flat top of approximately 25 by 25 metres (82 ft × 82 ft)” – Wikipedia.
The hike to Preikestolen is an easy one. It has some small parts of uneven terrain and the beginning of the hike is moderately steep, but there are stairs built in the mountain, so anyone can do this hike. Even fat, untrained people can do it.
Kjeragbolten
The second day we walked to Kjeragbolten. “Kjeragbolten is a boulder located on the mountain Kjerag in Forsand municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The rock itself is a 5-cubic-metre (180 cu ft) glacial deposit wedged in the mountain’s crevasse. It is a popular tourist destination and is accessible without any climbing equipment. However, it is suspended above a 984-metre (3,228 ft) deep abyss.” – Wikipedia
The hike to Kjeragbolten is much more interesting than the ones to Preikestolen and Trolltunga. It has some technical parts and, according to visitnorway.com, it’s a demanding trail: “The hike starts at Øygardstøl south of the Lysefjord by the Lysevegen road above Lysebotn. This demanding trail traverses several ridges, and climbs 570 metres. To avoid wear and tear and accidents, please use the marked trail.” – visitnorway.com
Trolltunga
On the third day we hiked to Trolltunga (the Troll’s tongue). It’s an easy hike, without any technical parts, but it’s a long hike.
Here’s what they have to say about it on visitnorway.com:
“Trolltunga is one of the most spectacular scenic cliffs in Norway. Trolltunga is situated about 1100 meters above sea level, hovering 700 metres above lake Ringedalsvatnet. The view is breathtaking. The hike starts in Skjeggedal and goes through the high mountains, takes 10-12 hours (23 km in total to Trolltunga and return) and the ascent is about 900 meters. It is a long and hard hike. The hike is usually possible to do from mid-June, depending on when the snow melts in the mountains. Normally one can hike to Trolltunga until mid-September. Consider carefully whether you are in good enough shape and have the right equipment before setting out. There is no mobile phone coverage along the route.”
My Italian friend and I did the hike in 6 hours, but the others that we were traveling with, completed it in around 9-10 hours.
If you’re going on any of these hikes: Bring food, water (you can refill the water bottle on the way) proper hiking boots and warm clothes. The weather can change quickly, so it’s a good idea to bring warm clothes in a backpack and to be prepared for possible rain.
Also: leave your walking sticks at home – it’s just stupid and you should rely on your own balance. There’s absolutely no reason to use walking sticks!
(This post is my entry for WordPress’ Weekly Photo Challenge – check out WordPress for more).
Visit my Flickr gallery:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskBnsky8
Here’s my gallery this month: a couple of the photos are from the last days of September, but most of them from the beginning of October.
In 2012 I shot a photo of Akerselva (Aker River) one early morning. Yesterday I went there again to re-shoot the area, not only that particular place, but several spots along the river. You can never fully recreate a photo and get the same result, because it’s too many random things that you have no control over, but it’s still fun to re-shoot places and compare the shots afterwards. In 2012 I was there early in the morning, yesterday in the afternoon, so obviously the light was different, but also the foliage. Different cameras and optics were used in the two shots.
I’ve added the original photo for comparison.
All the photos from yesterday’s photo-walk is uploaded to my Flickr account, so make sure to check out the gallery there.
Here’s another one for comparison, it was taken next to Hønse Lovisas Hus:
There’s a lot of Akerselva photos in the Flickr gallery, plus some videos from the opening of the local skate park.
«The Changing Seasons 2016» is a blogging challenge with two versions: the original (V1) which is purely photographic and the new version (V2) where you can allow yourself to be more artistic and post a painting, a recipe, a digital manipulation, or simply just one photo that you think represents the month. Anyone with a blog can join this challenge and it’ll run throughout 2017.
It doesn’t matter if you couldn’t join the first month(s), late-comers are welcomed.
These are the rules, but they’re not written in stone – you can always improvise, mix & match to suit your own liking:
These are the rules for Version 1 (The Changing Seasons V1):
These are the rules for Version 2 (The Changing Seasons V2):
Links to participants:
Here’s another post about Svartisen:
https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/svartisen-glacier-with-a-cherry-on-top/
Here’s a small gallery from my hikes to Preikestolen, Kjeragbolten, Trolltunga and Besseggen.
More edgy photos here: https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/edge/
Lysebotn is a village in Forsand municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The village is located at the eastern end of the Lysefjorden in a very isolated valley that is only accessible by one road or by boat. The name itself means the “bottom [end] of the Lysefjorden”. It’s a destination for over 100,000 tourists annually, and it is an access point for the Kjerag mountain, a popular Base Jumping spot. There are cruises and an express boat to Lysebotn from Skagenkaien in the city of Stavanger, Lauvvik in Sandnes and the village of Forsand. All of which pass beneath the famous Preikestolen cliff on the way to Lysebotn. Lyse Chapel, built in 1961, is found at Lysebotn. Lysebotn at one time had its own school, but that is now closed. – Wikipedia
These are my interpretations, the double rainbow was shot while hiking Besseggen a couple of weeks ago, while the vodka bottle was captured at the beach in the North of Norway back in July. I created the panorama from several shots. Unfortunately the software made a little glitch in the rainbow…
Check out the challenge:
Shot this earlier today. Hiking at Besseggen in Jotunheimen, Norway.
Also trying out how WordPress works with my new phone.
I think it’s an interesting experiment to share two photographers impressions from the same trip: even though we saw pretty much the same things, we have captured and processed the photos differently. I’ll share my photos later, but all the photos in this post is taken by Maurizio – except for the few that he’s in. Then it’s me behind the camera (but with Maurizio’s post-processing).
If you read Italian, you can check out Mau’s blog about his journey to Norway. If you don’t read Italian, you can have a look at the photos here and in his blog. You can also follow him on Flickr.
The photo comments in this gallery is written by me (which is quite obvious for those of you who know me). Enjoy Mau’s photos!
Thanks to Maurizio Ghielmetti for letting me post his photos and thanks to Maurizio, Marine, Aurelien and Marie for joining me on this rare adventure. It killed my Iphone, but it was totally worth it (it’s a shame that we lost the timelapse video though…). Iphones aren’t built for Norwegian climate – never trust a fruit!
Check out his Flickr gallery and blog:
This is Lysebotn on the West coast of Norway.
Check out Paula’s black & white photo this Sunday:
https://bopaula.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/black-white-sunday-composition/
As you already know from my previous post, I went to the North of Norway with my son. After that I spent one day at home, getting ready for my next journey: a trip to Belfast with a friend to check out Titanic International Tattoo Convention. Immediately after returning from Belfast I left on a road trip to the West coast of Norway with 4 strangers – 3 from France and one from Italy. We went hiking & trekking in the Norwegian mountains – just in time before a storm hit the area and several of the roads and tourist attractions were closed.
I have tons of photos from this summer, but I haven’t processed any of them yet. Here’s a few from the last two trips, some shot with camera(s), some with phone. Some landscapes, some portraits:
Make sure to follow my official Instagram account for more updates:
Svartisen is a collective term for two glaciers located in northern Norway. The first element is svart ‘swart, black’, the last element is the finite form of is m ‘ice; glacier’. The old ice of the glacier is considerably darker than fresh ice and newfallen snow.
Here’s more info from Wikipedia:
The system consists of two separate glaciers,
Vestre (western) Svartisen (221 km2), which is the second largest glacier on the Norwegian mainland (there are larger glaciers on Svalbard) after Jostedalsbreen
Østre (eastern) Svartisen (148 km2), which is the country’s fourth largest.
Svartisen is part of Saltfjellet-Svartisen national park, located in the Saltfjell mountain range.
Water from the glacier is collected and used for hydropower production via runoff into the streams and lakes and through intakes borred beneath Engabreen.
Svartisen.
Svartisen er Norges nest største isbre, og dekker et areal på om lag 370 kvadratkilometer. Under Den lille istid på midten av 1700-tallet var Svartisen én sammenhengende isbre, men er i dag delt i to: øst- og vestisen. Breen strekker seg gjennom kommunene Rana, Meløy og Rødøy, alle i Nordland fylke.
Navnet Svartisen kommer fra den gamle betegnelsen «Svartis», som beskriver den karakteristiske dype blåfargen i isen, med kontrast til den hvite snøen. Ismassene viser et spekter av blåtoner, fra transparent is, til turkis og mørkt blått.
Polarsirkelen går over søndre del av breen. – Wikipedia