Norway - David Mathre Photography

Tuesday (28-May-2013) — Norway

Gone to See Europe. Semester at Sea Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Day 32: Oslo, Norway.

It had been misting and raining for several hours before sailing into Oslo Harbor. The rain was heavy enough at one point for there to be standing water on the decks. It gets light very early this far north, but it was overcast so I didn’t see the sun rise at 04:13 AM. The mist and fog prevented us from seeing much of the channel and islands as we got close to Oslo. We left the ship as soon as the Norwegian Customs and Immigration officials cleared the ship. Our first goal was getting a Oslo Pass (good for museums, bus, tram, train, and ferry). The nearest tourist office at the port terminal was closed. We were told that it would open at 11:00 AM as soon as a larger 4000 passenger ship arrived — I guess that the MV Explorer with 750 passengers isn’t a large enough ship to rate. The next tourist office was a 15 minute walk, just behind City Hall. This one was open, and we were lucky we arrived early. After taking a number you wait for the lighted sign to indicate your turn to see a tourist representative. In addition to getting the Oslo pass, we got a booklet, maps, and directions. They also exchange currency (but don’t have an ATM) and will make reservations hotels and trips. By the time we left, the tourist office was filled with 40+ folks waiting to see a tourist representative.

Next we walked to the ferry terminal to take Ferry 92 to Bygøoynes. The first stop on the Ferry is within walking distance to the Norwegian Folk Museum (Norsk Folkemuseum) and the Viking Ship Museum. After visiting the Viking Ship Museum we walked to the cluster of the Kon-Tiki, Polar Ship Fram, and Norwegian Maritime Museums. This was a longer walk than expected, and after figured out that we could have taken the ferry to the 2nd stop, or take Bus 30 to get these Museums. The Oslo Pass quickly paid for itself by providing free admission to the Museums. An interesting note about the Fram Museum is that the primary language for all of the displays are in English.

The next goal was Vigeland Sculpture Park. To get there we took Bus 30 to Olav Kyrresplass, and transferred to Bus 20. Two stops later we arrived at the Park. The morning rain ended and the sky started to clear. There were six Tourist and School buses in the parking lot at the entrance, but not too many people for a 73 acre park. The trees were green with fresh spring leaves, and tulips were in bloom. A large part of the gardens had newly planted rose plants (not yet in bloom). In addition to tourists visiting the park, there were lots of locals including several groups of school children out to enjoy the sun. For this segment of the trip, I am focusing on taking pictures with prime lenses. With the sun shining through, I was able to get some sunburst images with the sculptures. A great future project will be to photograph the sculptures in all seasons and weather conditions. Yes, I want to return.

To get back to the ship we went to the bus stop. An electronic sign at the bus stop indicated it would be a 25-30 minute wait for Bus 12. Across the street was a stop for Tram 12 with trams running every 5-10 minutes. As soon as we got across the street, the tram arrived. A short time later we were back at the City Hall. All in all, a great day in Oslo.

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage Day 32. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 24 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 400, 28 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre) — Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 24 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 400, 28 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). (David J Mathre)

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage Day 32. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/1600 sec) (David J Mathre) — Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/1600 sec) (David J Mathre)

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage Day 32. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/2000 sec) (David J Mathre) — Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/2000 sec) (David J Mathre)

Running the Steps at Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage Day 32. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/16, 1/1000 sec) (David J Mathre)

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage Day 32. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/8, 1/800 sec) (David J Mathre) — Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/8, 1/800 sec) (David J Mathre)

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage Day 32. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 24 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre) — Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Image taken with a Nikon D4 and 24 mm f/1.8 lens (ISO 100, 28 mm, f/8, 1/200 sec). (David J Mathre)

Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Semester at Sea, Spring 2013 Enrichment Voyage Day 32. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec) (David J Mathre) — Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, Norway. Image taken with a Leica X2 camera (ISO 200, 24 mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec) (David J Mathre)

Wednesday (13-February-2013) — Norway

Gone to See Norway 2013. Chasing the Northern Lights. Day 16: Tromsø.

I spent the day putting together a time-lapse video for one of the Northern Lights displays. Still many more to go. I catch the southbound Hurtigruten at midnight for a ride back to Bergen.

If the above is blank, use the following link for a 15 second time-lapsed video of Northern Lights

Tuesday (12-February-2013) — Norway

Gone to See Norway 2013. Chasing the Northern Lights. Day 15: Tromsø.

For my second night of chasing Aurora I went with “Northern Lights with Green Fox Guiding- When The Sky Becomes Magic”. Green Fox Guiding is a relatively new company, but Jacek Orasinski has been working in the Tromsø area as a guide for the last 11 years. Jacek is originally from Poland. The group was picked up in front of the Tromsø Tourist Information center at 17:00 (5 PM). There was low fog covering Tromsø. Jacek was pretty sure that as soon as we got away from the city we would have some clear skies. The Space Weather report was also favorable for the appearance of auroras during the night. A little after 18:30 we had our first sighting. This was one of the earliest displays that Jacek had seen this season. We stopped along the side of the road and got some initial images. Jacek drove us a little further to a better location with mountains in the background. Even though there was just barely a sliver of the moon, a couple of Norwegians were climbing the mountain. While photographing the Northern Lights we watched these two tiny lights climb up the mountain and then ski down in the dark. Once down, they started up the mountain again. Jacek knew that I was looking for something unique to use as a background. He brought us to an abandoned coal mine which I thought was great. I think the others got board after a few minutes at the site. I framed an image of the Northern Lights display with the silhouette of a coal chute in the foreground. As I was taking the 30 second exposure, a tour bus drove by and lit up the coal chute. I wasn’t planning on doing light painting – but as can be seen below I am happy with the result. We continued on to several other locations, with the Northern Light displays getting better and better. Finally, we ended up on a beach where we continued shooting. Jacek built a wood fire to heat his signature “Fish Soup”. We were provided with reindeer skins to sit on as we ate the soup. After dinner the Northern Light displays continued for another 3 hours. Although I thought last night was great, this was an order of magnitude better. Jacek even said it was the best night he had seed this season. In all, I took about 1400 images. Many, many will be used for time-lapse videos. I didn’t get back to the hotel until 02:00 and then couldn’t sleep as I wanted to start reviewing the images.

Northern Lights and Coal Mine on Kvaløy (Whale) island in Norrway. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 800, 16 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec).. (David J Mathre) — Northern Lights and Coal Mine on Kvaløy (Whale) island in Norway. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 800, 16 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec). (David J Mathre)

Monday (11-February-2013) — Norway

Gone to See Norway 2013. Chasing the Northern Lights. Day 14: Tromsø.

As the wormhole began to open clouds appeared, reducing the intensity of the burning green rays. This provided some cover and protection for earthlings below….

After leaving the two French Photographers at the Ferry to take them to Finnsnes, I decided to spend the next three nights outside of Tromsø to maximize my chance of viewing and photographing the Northern Lights. There are at least 20 vendors offering trips in Tromsø this year specifically to view Northern Lights. The most famous one is booked a year in advance (after being featured on a BBC TV program for finding a place to view the Northern Lights when the BBC film crew all but struck out). I eliminated the big tour bus, dinner boat, and dog sled northern light tours, and selected 3 based on recommendations at the Tromsø tourist information center. I am glad that I stopped at the tourist information center when we stopped in Tromsø on the northbound Hurtigruten voyage as the tours do get booked and fill up in advance. They all claim to find somewhere that is clear with a good chance of seeing northern lights – whether it is along the coast, up a mountain, or all the way to Sweden or Finland. One even tells you to bring your passport along in case they do cross the border.

The first trip was “Aurora Photo Tour with Professional Photographer” from Creative Vacations. The trip is led by Vidar Dons Lindrupsen. He picked a group of seven up in front of the Blu Radisson Hotel and brought us to his house. There we had a workshop on the basics for successfully capturing Aurora images with a digital camera. Vidar is fluent in several languages. Our group included folks from France, Germany, Brazil, Spain plus myself from the United States. For those that needed, he provided tripods and warm arctic outerwear as we were about to spend the next several hours outdoors photographing the Northern Lights. We stopped at several locations and I got some great images, including the one posted below. I also was able to take several sequences that I should be able to use for time-lapse videos. These were some of the best northern light displays that I had ever seen, but probably average by folks that live in this region. When the clouds started to come in and we only were getting diffuse images through the clouds, Vidar served some hot lentil soup — very welcome after standing for several hours in the cold.

Northern Lights in Tromvik, Norway. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 1000, 16 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec). (David J Mathre) — Northern Lights in Tromvik, Norway. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 16 mm f/2.8 fisheye lens (ISO 1000, 16 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec). (David J Mathre)

Friday (08-February-2013) — Norway

Gone to See Norway 2013. Chasing the Northern Lights. Day 11: Tromsø.

On our first night in Tromsø, a local photographer and her husband took us to a couple of locations to view northern lights. The first place, Telegrafbukta is not far (maybe 45 minutes walking) from the center of Tromsø along the fjord. I got a great image of the northern lights with a reflection in the water. I am not exactly sure what the walkway going into the cold water is for, unless they have a polar bear swimming club. This is obviously a favorite place for locals to view northern lights on a Friday night. There were at least a dozen just up the hill (you can see them in this first image). We then went to Kvaløya (Whale) Island for the 2nd image. The mountain on the right is lit up with a yellow color from sodium lights at the home near the water. It was a lot easier to photography the northern lights when on solid ground with a tripod. On the ship, even with a tripod you get the motion of the ship. I now have several time-lapse sequences to put together once I get home.

Northern Lights from Telegrafgukta in Tromsø. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2, 8 sec).. (David J Mathre) — Northern Lights from Telegrafgukta in Tromsø. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2, 8 sec). (David J Mathre)

Early Morning (00:02 AM) Northern Lights on Kvaløy Island near Tromsø. Image taken with a Nikon D800 and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2, 8 sec).. (David J Mathre) — Early Morning (00:02 AM) Northern Lights on Kvaløy Island near Tromsø. Image taken with a Nikon D800 camera and 24 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 800, 24 mm, f/2, 8 sec). (David J Mathre)