Often, a significant part of one’s portfolio is comprised of travel images. This discussion forum could include advice on sites to photograph and lessons learned from the travels of NPN members. A barrier in making travel images is lack of time to photograph different sites and limited an often poor lighting conditions. Much can be learned from those who have been to places before us. We are planning a trip to Norway and Denmark and could use such guidance.
@Larry_Greenbaum Where are you going in Norway? I’ve been once and can offer only limited advice, but I’d love to hear your itinerary.
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Thanks, Bonnie for your response. When I started this travel discussion I didn’t know if it would be appropriate or of interest. We are just getting started in planning the trip and are seeking input on places to see and photograph. We would likely go in September. We know that we want to get to the north around Tromso. I want to photograph the Northern Lights with a good foreground. The Lofoten Islands, the Rauma train, the fjords, Trondheim and surrounds, Bergen, and Oslo are on our radar now. We would spend up to two weeks in Norway and maybe a week in Denmark. I have been in touch with another NPN member who lives in Norway - that’s a real plus. Thanks again.
Hi Larry,
I have not been on photo excursions neither in Denmark nor in Norway, but I will soon! This November I will join a photo workshop in Tromsø then hopefully catching the aurora borealis, and in April next year I will visit Skagen in Denmark to take photos in the famous Skagen light (that for instance attracted the so called Skagen Painters more than100 years ago).
According to my preliminary research these are examples of good general photo places in the Tromsø area: Senja, Grøtfjorden, Otertind, Kvaløya, Oldervik, Ersfjorden and Lyngen Alps. For specific advice on good photo spots for photographing the northern lights near Tromsø try to find the book “Northern Lights – Ultimate trips around Tromsø” by Lena Pettersson and Kristin Berg (issued 2014). It includes 14 specific spots with a short description, a map showing how to get there from the Tromsø city center and gps coordinates (An example is given below just to promote the book - Lena Pettersson will be one of the photo guides during the workshop I will join). Note that this book could be rather hard to find, I got my copy from a second-hand bookshop.
When it comes to Lofoten, I know that the Danish photographer Mads Peter Iversen (https://www.mpiphoto.dk/) sell an interactive map that, according to him, cover all the popular photography locations and some added spots found by himself.
He also has a map covering Denmark. It includes approximately 90 spots that he has covered/presented in youtube videos.
BR,
Ola
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Ola, Thanks so much for this excellent information. We will check out the places you mention. Your photo workshop sounds great. We will try to get Lena Pettersson’s book. I know Mads Peter Iversen from seeing a few of his excellent videos. I’d love to hear more about your Tromso adventures. Conversation like this helps to bring far away places close and enriches our sense of geography and culture.
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Hi Larry 
I’ve been to Norway a couple of times and the places mentioned already are awesome ideas for places to experience.
I’d just like to add that Flam was a place I visited on both of my trips, the small village of Flam is about 95 miles (150km) NE of Bergen, Norway by train and it’s a neat village but I think my favorite part was the Fjords and the Flamsbana Railway train ride, the train ride was the most memorable for me, it was a step back in time because the train is from days gone by. The train cars are vintage but they are powered by modern electric train engines.
Link to Google Maps>>> Flamsbana Railway Images <<<Checkout the images associated with Flamsbana Railway on Google Maps if you’re interested.
We took a short cruise from >>>Gudvangen<<< to Flam (on a Fjord tour).
Anyway, I just thought I’d mention it.
Best of luck and I hope your experiences in Norway are awesome!
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Ola, I looked all over for Lena Pettersson’s book and finally e-mailed her at her website address. I also checked out Mads Peter Iverson’s site. He’s a terrific photographer and entrepreneur too. Thanks so much for your help.
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Thanks, Mervin. I am pleased at the responses I have gotten on Norway. Flam and the Flam railway sound like they are not to miss. I appreciate your input. Any images from your trip you want to share?
Hi Larry,
I do have a few decent images from the Flam area (and a few other areas).
I’ll have to dig them out of the archives though and to be honest, I’d enjoy looking through that stuff again so give me a day or two and I’ll share a few with you.
Thanks Mervin.
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Hi Larry,
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you on the images from the Flam area of Norway but I made a big mistake when I plugged in the power supply to that archival hard drive, the hard drive is powered by a 12vdc power supply and I accidentally used my laptop power supply which is 19vdc, the results were a fried voltage regulator on the PCB controller board! Argh!! 
I wish they had of used a dedicated power plug size but no, the 12vdc and the 19vdc barrel connectors are the same size.
It’s not as simple as just replacing the PCB either, turns out that the board numbers have to match and the old BIOS chip may have to be transferred to the new board as well. I can’t find a matching board for mine so I may be stuck with having to find a voltage regulator from a donor board somewhere.
Live and learn as the saying goes!
I’ll upload some of those images as soon as I can. The images aren’t lost, I just need to fix the PCB to be able to access them. I hope I’m successful because there’s at least 3 years worth of archives on that drive.
I didn’t want you to think I had forgotten about you!
Thanks!
Merv,
No problem. I understand how these electronic devices complicate our lives. I just transitioned away from a Drobo hard drive system to a 18TB hard drive. Good luck getting to your archival images.
No rush on the pictures. We are not going until Sept of 2024. Thanks for staying in touch.
Larry
Hi, Larry! Are you planning on driving from Tromsø to Denmark? Or by train or plane? I haven’t spent much time north of Trondheim, but I’m also planning a trip to Lofoten next year. South of Trondheim, however, I’ve got more experience from.
I don’t want to disclose specific locations, but I can recommend areas you can research further yourself. You can check out Romsdalen, Jotunheimen, Rondane, and Sunnmørsalpene. Those are mountainous areas, some with alpine peaks, some with deep valleys, some near the fjords.
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Julie, Thanks for your helpful input. Since we are just getting started planning, we don’t know how we will get around. We will check out the places you mentioned. It appears that our challenge will be limiting where we can go in the time we have available. Norway appears to be a photographers paradise. Thanks, again.
If it were me, I would rent a car and spend my time around Tromsø, Lofoten, and Bodø. I think you would be very limited without a car, but I’ve not been to the area so take my advice with a grain of salt.
It is also possible to take the cruise ship Hurtigruten (or Kystruten) from Tromsø or Bodø to Bergen (or somewhere in between). It will let you see the fjords that way, but at a higher cost of course. To get to Denmark, in addition to plane, you can go take the ferry from Oslo to Copenhagen, or from Larvik or Kristansand to Hirtshals.
I agree with this advice wholeheartedly.
I don’t know much about travel photography but I do have a fair amount of experience of travelling to new places to make images. One thing I’ve learned is that most of the traveling is unproductive. I’ve found that despite covering a large area most of the images are made in a very small area that I eventually settled on. My advice is to stop when you find a spot you really like and work on it for a lot of time. If you just keep traveling you end up with postcard type of images. To give an example. I’m on the road right now. I landed in Albuquerque and had driven for days up through Taos and west through Monument Valley without making a single exposure. When I got to Zion I found a canyon to my liking and have been shooting there for 5-6 days. I bring this up because this is very typical for me. Like I said, I’m not a travel photographer, so perhaps travel photography is different. In that case ignore my advice.
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Igor, I fully agree with you about spending enough time in one place to make meaningful images. Unfortunately, this is not generally an option. My wife and I travel together, and while she is most tolerant of my spending time in one place, it may be a few hours or a couple days when we stay overnight for a two or more days. Otherwise, I do the best I can to make the most of given light and to discover interesting points of view for images. Thanks, Igor.
A few days ago I finalized my 5 days photo tour in the Tromsö region of Norway. It was a great experience, I could really recommend the area as well as the tour organizers, Polar Lights Photo Tours (https://www.polarlightsphototours.com/): The tour was led by two local photographers that knew the area very well and therefore guided us to the best locations based on the time of day/night, light conditions, weather, tide and so on. And what a great set of locations! They also generously shared knowledge regarding technical issues as well as compositional ideas, but also allowed us to explore the locations by yourselves when we wanted to. In addition to their photo-related knowledge, the tour leaders where great persons to spend the time with and they made a lot of effort to make the tour unforgettable for the participants.
Independently of if you want to join a tour or explore the area by yourself, I could really recommend the Tromsö region. Below you see a collage of images that I took during the workshop (the sky during the day time where not that amazing but I tried my best based on what was at hand). I could not reveal the locations for each of the images since some of them are the tour guides “secret” locations that they kindly shared with us.
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As others have said it’s best to rent a car to get to the best locations. One location I would recommend is Innderdalen: https://maps.app.goo.gl/f3qaZdUuvTpLYw36A
Considered one of Norways most beautiful valleys.
And the area around Åndalsnes is well worth a visit.
Ola, What a fabulous experience you had on your photo tour. I value your follow-up. Your images are great and entice me to want to go and maybe also do a Polar Lights tour if it is available given our schedule. Your images make me drool for the trip. Also, our connection shows the benefit enabling people across the world to connect and get to know one another - a real plus. Thanks again.
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