This blog is all about outdoor life in Scandinavia. In Norway, most of us have great opportunities for outdoor activities right at our doorsteps – there’s really no need to travel far to get great outdoor experiences. In this time of global warming, it is a great paradox that our leisure activities are increasingly a source of emissions of greenhouse gases. This blog aims to showcase how you can get great, diverse wilderness adventures locally with only a little imagination. Even still, the occasional longer adventure might find its way into the blog.
Acknowledging that there are a fair number of people who never enjoy the pleasures of the outdoors, there’s also quite a few people that put their outdoor life on a halt when they have children. And that’s really a shame. What can be better than sharing outdoor experiences with small, budding mini-adventurers?
Come join us on our bushwhacks in Scandinavia!
MIKKEL BØLSTAD. Trained as a biologist, working as a teacher, writer and photographer, living for the outdoors with family and friends.
Mikkel,
Found you blog after your comment on ours regarding the GoLite SGL-5. Nice blog! Looking forward to following.
Thanks for the comment, Brian. Looking forward to have you as a follower.
Mikkel
Hi Mikkel, love the blog so far. Would you be interested in writing an article for Sidetracked Magazine? Send me an email if so.
Thanks,
John
Hi John
I’m glad you like the blog! I will email you.
Cheers,
Mikkel
Lovely blog Mikkel. Your writings and images are beautiful and give a delightful insight into part of the life you live on the other side of the world from me.
What camera are you shooting pics and video with, your images and editing are magnificent?
Steve
Hi Steve
Many thanks for the very nice comment. Nowadays I mainly shoot with a Nikon D7000 with a 35mm 1.8 DX or a 16-85mm DX on trips (lightweight and pack a lot of bang for the buck). Editing is carried out in Bibble 5.x. By the way, we hope to go packrafting in Australia at one point (my better half partly grew up in Tassie).
Cheers,
Mikkel
Your photography is amazing. What lighting are you using? It looks like maybe some of your photos with the sky are done with a polarization filter? The EXIF info in the images doesn’t say what cameras and lenses you’re using. Some of the photos look like they are done with expensive wide angle lenses. I would love it if you did a post about your photography techniques, using the images on your site here as examples to show the results.
Thanks a lot! I might do a post about my photography one day. Unfortunately there’s no polarization filter involved. The equipment used is modestly prized, mainly a Nikon D7000 with a 35mm 1.8 DX or the 16-85mm DX. I did use a 10.5 mm DX fisheye on the night pictures from the hammock trip combined with light painting with a flashlight. I often use an SB-700 flash to give some fill on persons.
Light painting with a flashlight! Brilliant! That’s the kind of solid gold photography tricks I’ve been hoping to learn from you! It’s obvious there was something different in the lighting in that photo, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I will keep that trick in mind for the next opportunity to try it. I just bought a new flashlight that arrived this week, so the timing is perfect for flashlight lighting tricks
I have gotten one evening photo with similar strong blue cloudy sky. I’m not sure what causes that, but it shows up pretty frequently in one of my secret photography spots. It’s so vivid, it’s easy to assume that it must be some trick like a filter, but I’ve seen it happen naturally myself at low latitudes.
Norway is an amazing place. The location, the landscape, and the locals are all exceptional. It’s a good place for a photographer to make amazing photos, even from a family vacation
I might not be the right person to learn lightpainting from, as this was my first attempt outside
There was no filter involved, however. One trick you could try is to play around with tungsten white balance in the evening.
Cheers,
Mikkel