After leaving Ålesund, I ended up driving 13 hours straight, trying to cover some ground during the rain. The drive through this middle part of Norway was relatively boring – mostly rolling hills, forests, and farms. The next day I kept heading north, for several more hours until I crossed the Arctic Circle and finally make it to Bodø. I think I made a good choice to hightail it north; I escaped the rain!
The mountains around Bodø are awesome – sheer granite peaks rising up right out of the ocean. They aren’t as huge as the fjord mountains further south, but they are more abrupt and perhaps even more dramatic. I spent most of the day driving around the coast in the mountains north of the city, and in the evening I hiked up a small peak for sunset. Though the weather was overcast all day, there was a gap of clear sky on the horizon over the ocean, so I had hopes for a great sunset. Just as the sun was starting to dip below the clouds at about 11:30pm, misty clouds started forming in the valley below me and blowing over the ridge I was on. I was worried that the sunset would be obscured by the clouds, but as they blew by the sun illuminated the whole vista with a radiant orange glow! This lasted for quite a while, since the sunset lasts so long up here, and needless to say I burned through many sheets of film. I haven’t had such a fun photo shoot in a long time! It felt great to have some fun actually shooting photos instead of driving for a change.
Up here so far north, the sun moves so slowly in the sky that I actually have time to take numerous different compositions during the sweet light, something that’s usually nearly impossible to do with the 4×5 large format camera since it takes so long to set up and focus. It’s so fun. Then at midnight after the sunset, the bright orange dusk light lasts until morning – it never gets dark. I think after a week or so my schedule will involve sleeping during the day, and staying up all “night” hiking around and taking photos.
As I write this my car is waiting in line for the 4 hour ferry ride to the Lofoten Islands, the main destination for my trip!
Hej! Glad you are enjoying your trip! the cheepest and easyest way to get onto the internet is at a public libary.. I’ve done this several times in Lofoten and every time it was free! fast and genrualy all the computers had a usb slot which sould do for downloading:-)
have fun
mark
Very nice Jack! I have relatives in Alesund which makes Norway a must do in the next two years for us. The Lofoten backdrop is amazing.
Sounds like a great trip so far! I am really looking forward to entire nights of magic light when/if I get to Antarctica (still waiting for decision). Minus the jugged peaks… 😉 Can’t wait to see what you got!
Sounds awesome, Jack! Images look great so far. What a treat to be able to take your time while photographing with the 4×5!