Tag Archives: nature

Besseggen Panoramas

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Last summer I went hiking in different Norwegian mountains. Here are some photos from the Besseggen hike in Jotunheimen, Valdres.

Besseggen, Jotunheimen.

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The Changing Seasons: October 2016

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Autumn has definitely arrived. Colorful leaves on the trees and the ground. Rainy days, cold, chilly, then suddenly a couple of “warm” and sunny days. It’s a beautiful season, but at the same time it means that winter is coming.

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.

Oslo Opera House
SALT is an art project. These constructions were placed at Sandhornøya the summer of 2015.
SALT is an art project. These constructions were placed at Sandhornøya the summer of 2015. I have some photos of them there at the beach in the North of Norway, but when I looked for them I realized that I’ve forgotten to post the photos…
Fire trucks at Rådhuskaia (City Hall Docks).
Flowers at Rådhuskaia (City Hall Docks).
October: Train tracks bathed in early morning sunlight.
Cityscape
Rådhuskaia / City Hall Docks
Akershus Festning / Akershus Fortress
October: Someone stole Franklin D Roosevelt’s nose.
A tank outside Forsvarsmuseet (Defence Museum).
Beautiful colors. Akershus Festning / Akershus Fortress.
Leaves
Leaves on a bench.
Enerhaugen
Akershus Festning / Akershus Fortress
Akershus Festning / Akershus Fortress
Plassmajor (klossmajor?)
Akershus Festning / Akershus Fortress
Akershus Festning / Akershus Fortress

V2: My Version 2 this month

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.

Re-shoot of Akerselva (2016)
Akerselva is beautiful during autumn.

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:

Hønse Lovisas Hus (2016)
Akerselva, by CardinalGuzman.wordpress.com Focal length: 24 mm Exp: 20 s Aperture: f/7.1 ISO: 200

There’s a lot of Akerselva photos in the Flickr gallery, plus some videos from the opening of the local skate park.

What’s this «Changing Seasons» blogging challenge?

«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):

  • Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
  • Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery.
  • Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.

These are the rules for Version 2 (The Changing Seasons V2):

    • Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
    • Each month, post one photo (recipe, painting, drawing, whatever) that represents your interpretation of the month.
    • Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!

TheChangingSeasons_6367

Links to participants:

Summer Portraits

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Here’s a small update from my adventurous summer:

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:

Both models behind me are inked by 梵天慶 – George from Funtian Tattoo in Taiwan.
“Can you take a photo of our bums? – YES, I can!”
Tattoo artist Olivia Moonchild from Twin City Tattoo.
With Danny O’Donoghue – an Irish singer-songwriter of the Irish pop band The Script and as a coach on the television singing talent show The Voice UK.
With the super-talented George. 梵天慶 -Funtian Tattoo in Taiwan.
St. Johns Ambulance, Belfast. “I feel very ill. Quick! Give me mouth to mouth!”
The wonderful Christine Lynn from Blue Sphynx Tattoo / Tattoos by Snoopy.
Tattoo convention after-party in Belfast. Here with the totally awesome Olivia Moonchild.
The stars of the after party.
Drag queens and Burlesque entertainment at the tattoo convention after-party.
Road trip
Do not feed.
On top of Preikestolen. Back: Maurizio, Aurelien. Front: Marie, myself, Marine
Marine at Preikestolen, Norway.
Norway at its best.
Nice view from Preikestolen.
I’m hiding in this photo somewhere… Photo by Maurizio (who didn’t spot me).
From the Kjeragbolten hike.
Kjeragbolten hike
Maurizio, Kjeragbolten hike.
Rose & Maurizio. Kjeragbolten hike.
Kjeragbolten hike.
Lunch at Kjeragbolten. Myself, Marie, random stranger in the background, Rose, Argentina, Aurelien. Photo by Maurizio.
Kjeragbolten #FTW

Make sure to follow my official Instagram account for more updates:

The Changing Seasons: July 2016

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My changing seasons post this month is a scheduled post.

I don’t have many photos from this month (yet) and the ones that I do have is basically just different takes on the same scene. I went nuts on the post-processing, but it was fun and I don’t regret it! Hehe. Hopefully, after the summer, I’ll have plenty of landscape photos and lots of portraits to share with you.

July: Cityscape and flaming sunset.

I also had time to create something artistic for the V2 (version 2) part of the challenge this month.

nude model monkey skull

This is a double exposure (post-process) of a nude model that I shot in a studio and a monkey skull I captured at a scientific museum (Yes, I’m a geek that sometimes do “boring stuff” like visiting museums).

What’s this «Changing Seasons» blogging challenge?

«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 2016. 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):

  • Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
  • Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery.
  • Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots.

These are the rules for Version 2 (The Changing Seasons V2):

  • Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons
  • Each month, post one photo (recipe, painting, drawing, whatever) that represents your interpretation of the month.
  • Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material!

Links to participants:

Also make sure to out my spreadshirt shop:

kvinner-spreadshirt-1123203

Norwegian shop (NOK):
https://shop.spreadshirt.no/1123203/

English (EURO):

http://shop.spreadshirt.no/100035802

TheChangingSeasons_6367

Musk Ox Safari Part 2

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Yes, you’ve guessed it right: this is the second part of my recent musk ox safari at Dovrefjell. Here you can finally see some close-ups of these interesting animals.

Another group that was on a musk ox safari.
Yes!! Your phone photo will look awesome from up there!
The musk ox that we came to see.
It’s a good idea to over-expose when shooting snow…
…so that you don’t end up with grey snow like this.
They were always keeping an eye on us.
A muskox can reach speeds of up to 60 km/h (37 mph (Come on! Use the Metric system!)).
Their life expectancy is 12–20 years.
Calves are able to keep up with the herd within just a few hours after birth.
Taking a piss. (Remember: Don’t eat the yellow snow.)
Both male and female muskoxen have long, curved horns.
Cows communicate with their calves through braying. The calf’s bond with its mother weakens after two years.
The thick coat and large head suggests a larger animal than the muskox truly is; the bison, to which the muskox is often compared, can weigh up to twice as much.
Cows do not calve every year. When winters are severe, cows will not go into estrus and thus not calve the next year.
Natural camouflage.
The mating (or “rutting”) season of the muskoxen begins in late June or early July. During this time, dominant bulls will fight others out of the herds and establish harems of usually six or seven cows and their offspring.
After the first two months of nursing, a calf then begins eating vegetation and nurses only occasionally.
As we were leaving they headed down from the patch of snow to eat.
Quite obvious, but this is the local flora.
Spectacular view.
Here are some typical “ND filter and water” photos.
ND32 is the filter that I used for these.
With a filter you’ll get the standard “blurry water effect”.
It’s not an original effect, but it looks nice.
The building of cairns for recreational purposes along trails, to mark one’s personal passage through the area, can result in an overabundance of rock piles. This distracts from cairns used as genuine navigational guides, and also conflicts with the Leave No Trace ethic. This ethic of outdoor practice advocates for leaving the outdoors undisturbed and in its natural condition.
Back in the low-lands…
..you can spot Forget-me-nots (Forglemmegei).
You can also come across horses
and trains.
It’s amazing how something that eats grass can become this big.
They look good in B&W too.
This was my entry for Leanne’s “Monochrome Madness” this week.
I like the sound of them eating.
He/she looks a bit sad.
A common dandelion with ripe fruits.
Skogstorkenebb – Geranium sylvaticum (wood cranesbill, woodland geranium) is a species of hardy flowering plant in the Geraniaceae family, native to Europe and northern Turkey. The Latin specific epithet sylvaticum means “of woodland”, referring to the plant’s native habitat, as does its common name “wood cranesbill”.
My hiking-partner in crime.
Advarsel – Warning – Achtung
Info poster on Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park (see the previous post for the full info in English).
In case you were wondering: this is a bridge.
You’re not allowed to ride bicycles in the national park.
Before we left I was waiting for a train to pass by, because I knew that the red would be a nice colour contrast against all the green.
When I’d given up on waiting, the train finally came (which was luck, because they don’t pass by often in these parts).

Muskoxen stand 1.1 to 1.5 m high at the shoulder, with females measuring 135 to 200 cm in length, and the larger males 200 to 250 cm. The small tail, often concealed under a layer of fur, measures only 10 cm long. Adults, on average, weigh 285 kg and range from 180 to 410 kg. Source: Wikipedia

Links:

Musk Ox Safari Part 1

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This is the first part of two posts with photos from my recent musk ox safari at Dovrefjell.

At the start of the hike.
An old barn
In the lowlands
My nephew and hiking-partner in crime.
Landscape
We walked up a small creek.
Beautiful mountains
A bird is resting on a stone while eating it’s prey.
The landscape looks like it’s only green and earthy…
but when you look closely
you’ll find all these hiddden gems.
Red, white
and all kinds of colours
Who put #5/S in the bokeh??
Reflections.
Myrull
Cottongrass
Eriophorum
Another group of hikers.
Here they are again.
Notice the black dots in the hill.
They’re heading up the patch of snow now,
but they’re still far away.
So we decided to get some rest. (to be continued…)

Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park (Norwegian: Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella nasjonalpark) is a National Park in Norway. It was founded in 2002 to replace and enlarge the former Dovrefjell National Park, originally founded in 1974. It occupies 1,693 km² and encompasses areas in three Norwegian counties: Oppland, Sør-Trøndelag, and Møre og Romsdal and includes large parts of the mountain range of Dovrefjell.

Although it is a harsh environment, the mountains, the highest being Snøhetta at 2,286 m, make for spectacular hiking during the summer and skiing in the winter. Due to rather long walks between mostly unstaffed huts, great areas without huts and trails and harsh and unstable weather conditions, this area is recommended for experienced and well-equipped wanderers only.

The park is divided into a major western part and a minor eastern part by the European route E6 paralleled with the main railway between Oslo and Trondheim. Altogether the protected area amounts 4,365 km² and also includes areas in the county of Hedmark in addition to the three of the National Park. Source: Wikipedia

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella-National-Park