Halftime

I love August.  Well, I mean I love August in Germany.  I don't remember it being particularly pleasant in Ohio due to insane heat, the usual drought, and the sense of melancholy that comes with the approach of Labor Day and the end of summer all together.  However, here, even if you have to go to work, it feels like a month of vacation.  Germans, by law, have to have 30 days vacation.  Some can even manage to eke out a little more depending on other variables.  Some choose to spread those 30 days out through the year.  Others take a big lump all at once, usually in the summer, and head off to the Alps or the beach for a couple of weeks.  Oh, and they have to take these days according to the law.  The worker certainly has a pretty sweet deal here, in my opinion.  This, of course, doesn't apply to people like us who are expats with contracts from a non-German company.  Personally, I think companies should give their expats the same vacation days as their native co-workers during their assignment because being the only person working most of the year is pretty taxing.

On the plus side, during the month of August a lot of people are out of town on vacation so being at home actually feels like a holiday too.  The shops are less crowded, no one is is around to dig up the roads (or, unfortunately, fill in the holes they made in July), and the people who are around are just a bit more chilled out.  It's really nice.  The weather is pretty great too.  While we've been here the heat always hits in July and then tapers off come August.  This year it's been downright chilly, almost Autumn-like.  So, here I am sitting on our balcony with a view of the river as I punch out this update.  The only sounds are church bells and birds.  It's a pretty sweet deal for us too.

We've always treated the month of August as a holiday too, just in a different way.  We don't go out of town at all.  With everyone coming and going from the office, this month is a perfect chance for my husband to get a lot done at work.  It's also a chance to get some things sorted out and planned for the rest of the year.  We use the weekends to get things done around the house that we've been putting off, doing some cycling, and exploring the local area a bit more.  I too have been taking August off from a lot of photography, preventing a burn out that would no doubt hit if I ran around at breakneck pace all year.  I might do a little on the weekends or within a quick bike ride of the house, but for the most part I just focus on catching up on some reading, doing a little digging through whatever backlog I have, updating the Zazzle shop, or organizing my files.  It's nice to put down the camera for a bit and see the world with my eyes for awhile.  Keeps me sane.

I decided to kick off this break a little early this year with our trip to Lake Como last month.  Well, circumstances decided a little bit for me, but I'll get to that in a bit.  My husband and I decided to stay at our favorite hotel to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary in July.  We stayed there in 2013 on the way back from a trip to the Riviera.  We were only there for two nights on that trip, but we fell head over heels in love with the place and promised ourselves and the proprietors that we would return.

View from hotel at dinner.  We decided to climb it later that week. 

So, for this trip we decided to spend 8 days there.  Our plan was to do a little photography, a lot of hiking, and even more relaxing.  For once, this was going to be a proper vacation.  Strolls, naps, and afternoon ice cream cones were going to be regular occurrences.  We never take trips like this (the last one was in 2013 to the Riviera, actually), and we definitely needed one.  It's been a long year.

I did want to get out a couple of times for some early morning shooting because, obviously, we were in a prime landscape location.  However, we discovered upon our first attempt that the hotel locks the doors until 6:00am, thus trapping us well after the July sunrise.  At first I was really upset and contemplated asking if we could make special arrangements.  But, I realized that it was actually a good thing.  We both wanted to make this trip more about spending time together and relaxing than getting up at 4:00am and rushing to a location every morning.  I was going to be ok.  It turned out to be exactly what we needed.  We both felt 10x better after the trip, relaxed and ready to face the rest of the year.  I imagine the dinners at the hotel restaurant every night had something to do with that.  The owner totally spoiled us with perfect homemade pastas and local specialities every night.  It was pure heaven, even on the days it rained.

View from the top of the mountain.  Blessed with a clear day
after quite the climb up there.

I really think breaks are important.  Athletes have off seasons, kids get summer vacations, why shouldn't creatives step back for a bit once a year too?  Sometimes I get so wrapped up in photography, I can't even contemplate something else.  Laundry can pile up, I don't get enough sleep, and the cats come in my office periodically to make sure I'm not dead (ok, they may just be there to remind me it's their dinner time).  I admit, I get obsessive.  So, stepping back for a short time is definitely something I need to do.  While we were in Italy, not being able to worry about getting the next shot or chasing the light everyday forced me to focus on the trip and have a really great time.   We did do a lot of hiking and walking, plus we climbed a 8,560ft mountain on a whim.  We weren't exactly sitting with an ice cream all day every day.  But, not having the next shot goal permeating all my thoughts made it possible to have a really relaxing time.  It wasn't work, it was vacation.  You know what?  I was totally ok.  It was ok not to get shots every day, or only have a couple of the two of us (and The Dog) on the card for a change.  It was like coming up for air.

So, I do have a couple mini projects for the rest of the month, but we don't have another photo trip scheduled until October.  In the meantime, check back at my Zazzle shop regularly because I am using this time to add some new products.  If you're already in the market for a 2017 calendar, they are now available!  Next month, is the hallowed home leave trip back to Akron, so you can expect some more cat photos and misc hometown whatnot in my feed pretty soon.  But for now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy this lovely view we've been blessed with, read a little more of Susan Sontag's On Photography, and maybe think about working in the garden.  Maybe.

Oh, I almost forgot!  The name of our favorite hotel is Hotel Europa.  Remember, it's the one in Sorico at the northern tip of Lake Como.  If you are passing that way, there isn't a better place to stay.  At least make sure that you stop for dinner!

Shooting Iceland Part I

Skógafoss

Alright! After a couple of weeks I've finished going through all the photos from Iceland, they're up on the website, and I can finally start telling you about the experience!  Even though we were only there for four days, a lot happened so I'm going to break this into at least two parts.  I'll put up the second part next week.

The flight from Frankfurt to Reykjavik brought us in late in the midst of a snow storm.  I was pumped.  Dropping down from the clouds in the midst of a blizzard was the perfect way to begin a trip to a place I've been fascinated by long before it hit everyone else's radar when the volcano blew in 2010.  To be honest, I'm fascinated by arctic locales in general.  If I had my way and endless funds, we'd hit Greenland, Nunavut, and the granddaddy of them all- Antarctica.  The imagery and intensity of polar deserts, mountains, glaciers, basically places that are really cold and can kill you without too much work have been a fixation of mine since childhood.  I'm not sure why, maybe because I'm attracted to the perfect forms of ice and snow or maybe it's because these places aren't for people and places like that are an introverts dream.  Anyway, I'd happily take a take trip to a polar wasteland over a beach every time.

Svinafelljokull Glacier

Well, Iceland is obviously is not quite as an extreme choice as Antarctica or as difficult to access as Greenland, and it sits just south of the Arctic Circle.  It's just as modern as the rest of northern Europe, has a couple of airports, and the tourist trade is booming.  We chose it because it's the easiest to access from where we are, because its unique geology makes it unlike any other spot on earth, and because it's on the edge of becoming a travel cliche (I'll get to that in another post).  We decided to go over the Easter holiday because it sat at the tail end of the Winter season and that meant we could participate in the colder tours and, if we were lucky, catch the Aurora Borealis.  From the get go, I planned this to be an intro visit.  I have every intent to return as soon as possible.  Iceland is one of those places that hooks you in and there's nothing you can do but start planning the next visit.  It's inevitable.

Since we were coming at the end of Winter, we decided to do something that we've never done on a trip before- sign up with a tour service.  Normally we'd rent a car and do our own thing, but this is Iceland in Winter and growing up in Northeast Ohio you learn to respect what Winter can throw at you.  It's one thing to drive around Cleveland in a flash snowstorm, it's a whole other thing to get caught out in the Icelandic countryside.  Plus, we wanted to participate in a few activities you have to have guide for- glacier hiking and such.  So, after doing quite a bit of research I decided to go with Extreme Iceland.   We signed up for two tours with them, but for this post I'll just talk about the first one which filled the first two days of the trip.

Signing up with a guided tour brings a lot of advantages over just renting a car and consulting a book.  Guides can tell you things that books never do, and the great thing about all the guides we met in Iceland is that they really love talking about their country.  Heck, I would too.  Guides also take the guesswork out of the trip.  You can just sit back and take in the scenery, hit the high points, and get a sense of the land without having to worry about finding the next gas station, the weather forecast, and all the other logistical headaches.  But, taking a guided tour also has its disadvantages.  First of all, unless you can hire a private guide, you're going to be with a group.  That can be cool because it's a chance to meet some new people, but it can also be a pain in the neck since some of those people may be, well, a pain in the neck.  The other downside, and this one is huge for photographers, you aren't in control of the schedule.  This is something you accept immediately, of course, but it's still frustrating when you are out there trying to get a shot and you only get 30 minutes at the location.  But, as I said, this was an introduction trip, so I knew from the onset that I wasn't going to come home with a ton of work and that it wasn't going to be an ideal shooting situation.  That still didn't prevent the occasional groan when we'd disembark our bus on a beautiful spot in the absolute worst glaring light possible.

Inside the infamous mini bus

The Icelandic landscape speeds by outside the bus windows

Horse drive, seen by bus.

Our guide, Gunnar, picked us up from our hotel in Reykjavik early on our first day and we spent probably about an hour in the city picking up the rest of the group.  By the time we headed out of the city our Mercedes minibus had about 20 tourists.  Probably the only negative thing I can think of about this tour was that mini bus.  It was the most uncomfortable vehicle I've ever taken a long distance drive in since the time I made a torturous 4 hour journey in an Egyptian taxi.  Really, the problem was the bus itself. It had ridiculously tall seats that you couldn't see over and zero leg room, worse than economy seat on an airplane.  Between all the coats and bags and people it felt like we shoved in a sardine can.  I can't imagine what a claustrophobic person would go through on that bus.  Anyway, despite it's lack of transport comfort, the tour met our needs and then some.

Seljalandsfoss

The first day we stopped at several locations.  The first were waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss.  Iceland's waterfalls are some of its most popular tourist attractions, and for good reason.  They're very impressive.  These two are located right off the main ring road, so they're a must for all the buses and car rental tourists.  According to our guide, he had never seen so many people at the falls before.  Iceland, I think, is going to start facing some facts about its tourist trade.  Anyway, both of the falls were packed, crazy packed.  We were given 30 minutes at Saljalandsfoss.  That's 30 minutes to walk to the falls from the parking lot, find a decent spot to set up, meter, put on filters, teach random tourists how to operate their own cameras, and, finally, take the shot.  Thirty minutes feels like fifteen.  For the next two days, my husband and I were running.  I'm a landscape photographer, I was going to come home with some decent landscapes from Iceland, even if I only had 30 minutes at a time to do it!  This shot of Seljalandsfoss above is the first I took on the trip.  I was able to get one more and then it was time to head back to the bus.

I decided I was only going to use the X-T1 on this trip.  There was no point in bringing a camera that wasn't weather sealed.  I shot 90% of the trip with the 16-55mm lens.  I think this is the perfect X Series combination for travel to challenging locations.  That combo is totally weather sealed and 16-55mm range can pretty much get you whatever you're after.  I threw the 10-24mm lens in the bag, just in case I needed a super wide angle, but I only switched over to it a couple of times.  I shot most of the first two days on a tripod (trusty Brian) with a 10 stop ND filter.  Besides the visual advantage of smoothing out water and clouds, ND filters are a huge help in tourist spots.  People (usually) move around a lot.  Sometimes they all blur out of the shot, but usually they blur just enough that I can remove the ever present pink jackets and garish ski pants in post without too much work.  This shot above was taken much further away on our hustle back to the bus, but you can see the crowd of people around the base of the falls.  By using the ND filter I was able to remove all of them.

The next falls, Skógafoss, was more of a challenge.  We were given 40 minutes at this one and I used every second.  At this falls, you can climb up above it, but we've climbed a lot of stairs in our lives and we didn't have time to do that and get a photo.

This was the first angle we went for because there were less people nearby.  I obviously used the filter here again, but I didn't remove the people so you could get a sense for how many were around at this location.  Take particular notice of the two in black on the far left.  I wasn't real keen on this spot, so we relocated closer to the river.  The rainbow caused by the falls' mist was more noticeable from the new angle and I wanted something a little more interesting in the foreground than the stones.

This is the final shot, after I've removed all the people.  I took about 15 usable long exposures.  Other shots were ruined because someone stepped right in front of me, or were standing so close to the side that I couldn't cleanly remove them in Photoshop.  Normally, even in a populated area like this it will take several exposures in order for me to capture a clear moment of every spot in the frame.  It is easy to cut people out of dark areas, but I wanted the actual data of the water and the rainbow to work with.  I felt they were just  too delicate to recreate with a clone stamp.  Remember those two folks in black from the first shot above?  They ended up being why it took 40 minutes to get one image of this location.  They didn't move.  Well, they moved, but just enough to make them unusable.  And, they were smack over a good portion of that rainbow.  If they had stood perfectly still, then I could have left them in, nice outlines of people in the center of a beautiful scene.  But, since they, of course oblivious to my artistic needs, moved around a little, hugging and kissing, they just created an irritating black blob.  So, we stood there waiting and waiting until FINALLY they moved over just 4 feet and I could get that last chunk of the image.  Just as I was about to get a second exposure with them out of the way, they moved right back to where they had been!  Thankfully, that one shot I got had what I needed.  I combined the 15 different exposures in Photoshop to get the scene above.  Only took half a day! Whew!  Of course, I wouldn't come to this location at that time of day necessarily, but when you're on a tour you have to improvise.

Just when I thought tourists were going to be the big hurdle, we headed to the black sand beach of Reynisfjara.  The weather changed dramatically from the nice sunshine and rainbows to a gusty, dark skied, storm. Reynisfjara is known for its black sand and basalt columns.  I will always, always remember the wind.

I've been in some high winds before, but nothing to the degree of this.  Sand was blowing everywhere, seaweed was flying through the air, and I'm pretty sure a small child was lifted off her feet at one point.  It was incredible, a demonstration of the devastating power of nature.  There would be no tripod work here.  I could barely stand still.  We had 30 mins here, but with the weather being as it was, I couldn't see remaining much longer anyway.  All shots had to be taken downwind, since spray off the ocean and sand would hit the lens if facing in the other direction.  Even though it wasn't at all conducive for photography, I think this was my favorite moment from the first day- leaning against the wind.

From there we headed pretty rapidly to the famous Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, spotting some reindeer running along side the road on our way.  It was the end of the day, and the clouds had moved in pretty heavily.  The lagoon beach was fairly crowded though, and it was clearly THE spot for time lapse shooters that day.  It was difficult to find a patch of beach that wasn't occupied, and even after we staked a claim to a small bit, we still had to defend it.  I'm not sure why some people think it's ok to step in front of someone with a tripod, but I'm pretty sure there's a specific corner of Hades waiting for them.  But, we had 45 mins here, so no need to run for a change.  

This was my favorite location of the trip.  I love the forms the glacial ice takes and could have happily spent hours and hours in the soft light shooting the bits that had washed up on the rocky shore.  It was an otherworldly place, and the epitome of that polar beauty and starkness I have been fascinated with.  This was exactly the sort of location I was hoping to have access to.  To top it off, quite a few seals were hunting in the lagoon.  They were too far out to capture with the camera, but it was very moving to watch these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat amongst the ice.

From there we went to our hotel and enjoyed a nice evening chatting with some of our fellow travelers and guide over lamb burgers and reindeer tartar.  The next morning we headed back to the lagoon and I think we had about an hour there again.  The morning was already quite advanced and the sun was directly overhead, but I was able to shoot quite a bit and had a blast not only photographing the ice, but finally having a chance to take it in.  I would have killed to have gotten there at sunrise, but to have some more time there at all was fantastic.

From there, the tour became more active.  We were to hike the Svinafelljokull Glacier.  That involved quite a bit of prep, fitting crampons and such.  The tour is very well organized, down to the minute and I can't say enough about how impressed we were by the guides.  They have to lead total novices around in one of the most dangerous locations you could lead them.  Many of the tourists don't listen or ignore instructions, and it must take a lot of willpower on the part of the guides to prevent smacking them with an ice ax.  This glacier has been used in several films- Interstellar, Batman Begins, and Game of Thrones, so obviously it's pretty safe for a glacier.  But, you're still walking around on ice, and it wouldn't take too much to screw that situation up.  We spent about an hour on the glacier and even after an entire day of being wowed by Iceland's landscape, our jaws were dropping again.  It was another spot I could have spent hours in.

Fixing ice screws

Preparing to descend into a crevasse, not very far mind you.

Crevasse

The most important thing to have on ice after crampons.  I have no idea why this
one was lying on the ground.

After our glacier experience, it was time to head back to Reykjavik, albeit leisurely.  On the way we had 20 minutes to walk through moss covered lava fields.  Then, it was 30 minutes at Vik and another chance to run, this time to get some shots of the sea stacks.

  

We made one more stop at another waterfall, which I didn't have much success photographing since we were inside it. It was a great test of the X Series weather sealing though!  Then it was back to Reykjavik.  We took the long way back, hoping for a break in the clouds to catch the aurora, but no luck this time.  It had been overcast for the the past two nights.  The third night was forecasted to be clear, so there was still hope.  I certainly had plenty of shots I was pleased with, and if those two days were all we had there I think I would have been more than satisfied.  We climbed into our beds around midnight feeling like we'd been through a whirlwind. 

I, even weeks later, cannot get over the majesty of Iceland.  It is a landscape photographer's Mecca.  Even though it was during the brown time of winter, it was overcast, and it rained and snowed quite a bit, the beauty was not diminished.  In fact, I think in many ways it was heightened.  Despite the frustrations that come with taking a group tour, we were very pleased with our decision to join Extreme Iceland.  It was certainly a challenge for me to get the images I wanted, but we wouldn't have been able to get to some of these locations in that short amount of time without their help.  Getting to walk on a glacier, stand in the blasting wind of the Atlantic, and marvel at the ice sculptures of Jökulsárlón were totally worth being crammed on that bus.  Now we have a good idea of where to go on our return trip when we have our own car.  We're definitely taking an entire morning at Jökulsárlón!

Please head over to my website to see all the final photographs from the trip.  You can find them under Countryside when you click "Browse Galleries" or click "Newest Additions" to go directly to the Iceland gallery!

Next week I'll fill you in on the third day of the trip and tell you what it's like to photograph the Aurora!

Trip of the Year

About fifteen years ago I stepped off a plane into Oslo Airport.  It was the first time I had left the United States (sorry, Niagara Falls, you don't count).  The next two weeks in Norway changed my life.  After that trip, I was addicted to traveling.  In the next three years, before I graduated high school, I visited 9 other countries.  My love of travel was probably one of the main reasons I chose archaeology as my field of study.  It's why I didn't freak out when my husband came home one day and announced The Company wanted to move us to Luxembourg.  That first trip abroad gets credit for a lot in my life.  Why?  There is no place on earth like Norway.  Ever since I left, I was obsessed with getting back.

Last month I did.

A trip to Norway takes some planning.  It's wild.  It's a little unpredictable.  It's expensive.  The thing is, though, it is totally worth it.  I say this with complete sincerity, Norway must to be on your bucket list.  It must.

We had nine days and the goal was to get a full sampling of Norway's widest section.  Norway is one of the few countries in Europe where wild camping is permitted, meaning you pitch a tent pretty much wherever you want.  As much as we've been craving a proper backpacking trip that doesn't involve campgrounds, friteries, and Dutch RVs, we wanted to spend some time there first to get a feel for the terrain, the weather, and the people.  We didn't want our only visit to be spent entirely in the backcountry without getting to know the place a little bit. So, we rented a VW Golf and did a road trip circuit which started and ended in Oslo with pauses in Fossbergom, Bergen, Odda, Valle, and Kristiansand.

We didn't linger in Oslo on the first day.  We immediately hit the road, passing by Lillehammer, and began following the Otta River towards the mountains.  It didn't take long before we realized that this was, hands down, going to be our favorite trip of the year.

In Fossbergom
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The Lom Stave Church
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The first day ended in Fossbergom, home to the magnificent Lom Stave Church, the start of the Fylkesvei 55, and our second favorite restaurant in Europe (the Fossheim Turisthotell restaurant).  With the smell of the old tarred wooden church, the sound of the waterfall, the relaxed friendliness of the locals, and the warm ambiance of a 120 year old hotel, all the emotions from being in Norway the first time came flooding back.

I'm not going to go into a point by point description of our trip, I'll just pass along some of the highlights.  From Fossbergom we drove Rt. 55 over the Jotunheimen Mountains down into fjord country.

The most beautiful and longest roadway tunnel on earth
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Then it was on to Bergen, my favorite Norwegian city.  We spent an entire day above Bergen hiking the route from Mt. Ulriken to Fløyen, which was the most painful, challenging, and humbling hike of my life.  Dinner that night was in the old Bergen Fish Market, and, let me tell you, canned beer and fish & chips never tasted so good.

Bergen Harbor

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Mountain trail.

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From Bergen we headed back to the mountains (because we're obsessed) towards the old industrial city of Odda.  This is when we also turned away from the tourist area of Norway.  Odda ended up being the most surprising place we visited.  Despite its prime location at the southern end of Sørfjorden and its proximity to one of Norway's most famous natural wonders, the Trolltunga, Odda looks and feels like it was transplanted from West Virginia mining country.  The paint is peeling, the shops are all abandoned, the locals don't seem to have any zest for life, and the only place to eat in town is a disturbingly raucous and sticky buffet/carry out place.  It was fascinating to find a spot untouched by Norway's recent oil prosperity.  It was like stepping back in time, a time that I'm sure the country isn't keen on returning to.  That night, while I slowly digested the rubbery pizza from the town's one restaurant, I watched the light fade over the fjord.  Netflix's Lillehammer fittingly flickered on TV (with the English subtitles unfortunately missing).  It was well past midnight and the sky was still quite bright.  I laughed, remembering how this troubled my friends and I on that first trip.  We had all felt a little zombie like thanks to restless nights caused by the excitement and the midnight sun.

Midnight in Odda
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Then it was south towards Valle.  There were more mountain passes, tunnels, ferries, and waterfalls.  Oh, the waterfalls!  I was constantly asking my husband to pull the car over all week so I could shoot the mirror clear fjords and the graceful falls.  But, while it was the hardest place to shoot, the Låtefossen blew all the other falls away.

Låtefossen
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I mean, look at that place!  I have a lot of favorite shots from this trip, but I think this one takes the prize of number one.  Norway is absolutely dripping with waterfalls.  But, as you can see, this one is massive and pours out below the road.  You end up right under the thing.  This made shooting rather challenging because of all the water.  Norway had a pretty wet month, so the falls were roaring.  The narrow spots other photographers have used to get down to the river were completely submerged.  One false move would have you in the midst of the tumult, never to surface again.  And, of course, the mist coming off the falls covered the lens pretty quick.  I only had a short period of time to get the exposures I wanted before I'd have to wipe it down.  Thankfully, I've been practicing with my ND filters quite a bit and was able to get the exposures on the first attempt.  Also, mercifully, no one stepped in my frame.  I'm satisfied with how this turned out, but it taught me that if I want to shoot in conditions like this regularly I should definitely invest in a weather-sealed system!

Fjord Ferry
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Our drive south ended in the shipping city of Kristiansand.  After a day spent in the tiny hamlet of Valle, where dinner was a gas station burger and the most exciting thing to do was watch people park their RVs, the relatively small city of Kristiansand felt like a bustling metropolis.  We had also left the mountains and fjords far behind and the flat expanse of the harbor prickling with masts felt oddly disquieting.

Kristiansand

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Then it was on to Oslo and the final days.  I could honestly could have skipped Oslo all together.  Its current revitalization/destruction projects make it more difficult to navigate by car than Rome and it has taken on a steady undercurrent of social unrest, like many European cities.  But, it is home to some of the best museums I've ever been to and archaeologists go to a lot of museums.  Of course, the Viking Ship Museum is a bit archaic in its presentation, but the ships themselves are unmissable.  However it is the Folk Museum and the Fram Museum that make the museum district worth a day in Oslo.  Norway is dotted in old farms,with big red barns, and turf roofed outbuildings.  The Folk Museum gives you the chance to step inside them.  You can see what it like to live on a modern farm or a 15th century one, and anything in between.  For me, this was a fabulous photography experience.  Instead of sweeping landscapes, I was getting the chance to capture the details of rural Norwegian life from the present and past.

15th Century cowshed loft

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 So, Norway?  I'm still coming down from that trip.  I was concerned that the imagination of my youth would create unrealistic expectations, but Scandinavia's most beautiful country (at least in my opinion) didn't disappoint.  It has changed some in 15 years, yes.  There's more development in the countryside.  It is definitely more expensive.  But, it still stops me in my tracks.  The fjords, the falls, the jumbles of rocks thrown from some unknown height, the endless tunnels, the relaxed and personable locals, the food, the leisurely speed limits, the lifeless peaks, and the lush valleys, every single bit of Norway seized me yet again.  Guys, I'm totally and hopelessly in love.  I fell hard in high school I don't think I'm ever going to shake the place.  It's in me.  It's way more fun exploring with a Golf and my husband than it was on a bus with a bunch of high school students and teachers.  I think we got a great sense of the country on this trip, and we're hoping we can go again sometime with some backpacks and a tent.  So, yeah, I'm still obsessed with getting back.


Unsurprisingly, I have a ton of shots from Norway.  You can see my countryside shots in the Norwegian Countryside gallery and a handful of city shots in the Norwegian Cities gallery.  I'll be revisiting some of these photos in later posts.  There's a ton to write about from the drive on Rt. 55 and that day on Mt. Ulriken deserves its own post.

Chamoniiiiiiiix!

Well, I wrote this post once already today, then Blogger had a problem and highlighted all the text, and then it just deleted the whole post all together.  So, here I am, once again, writing a blog post on Chamonix-Mont Blanc, France.  Sigh.  Oh, and as I said in the original version, I was intending to write about the Fujinon 10-24mm lens, but I'm going to leave that for a later date.  Ok, here we go.  Again.

The city of Chamonix with the Mont Blanc Massif towering above

 Last weekend, we drove down through Switzerland to Chamonix-Mont Blanc, France.  Chamonix-Mont Blanc (usually just called Chamonix) is one of the oldest tourism based towns in Europe.  It is pretty much located where the borders of France, Italy, and Switzerland meet.  The famous dome of Mont Blanc towers high above the town.  Mont Blanc is the tallest mountain of the Alps and the tallest in Western Europe.  It was the first major peak in the world to be climbed; the first ascent took place in 1786.  Some of the greatest climbers in history were either from Chamonix or spent significant time there.  Back in the day, the "Chamonix Guides" were men of legend.  Mont Blanc is still one of the most important mountains to ascend for mountaineers, usually the first major climb done by Europeans starting out in the sport and it's a must do for those attempting the Seven Summits.  The town is usually packed with climbers in the summer attempting the various routes of Mont Blanc, Grand Jorasses, or the many Aiguilles.  I'm fascinated by mountaineering and its lore and have always wanted to visit the valley from which the greats like Herzog, Terray, Messner, and Walker climbed out of into the clouds.  It's a sobering experience to see the spurs, walls, faces, ridges, and peaks in the flesh.

The dome of Mont Blanc

The Aiguille du Midi with its visitor center on the peak.  The cable car to the center is the
highest reaching vertical ascent car in the world.

Alpen glow on one of the peak of the Aiguilles

But, it's not just a town for climbers.  Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924 and it's still a top destination for skiers in the Winter.  And, there's plenty for hikers, paragliders, runners, and cyclists too.  Chamonix is an outdoor sports enthusiast's playground year round.  It's basically a French speaking Aspen; heck, it's actually Aspen's sister city.  Everyone walks around wearing Columbia, Patagonia, Jack Wolfskin, Northface, or Odlo, even if they're just going to the pub.  The town has been supporting the tourist trade since the early 19th century and it shows.  The center is lined with fondue restaurants, outdoor equipment stores (some with espresso bars), pubs, hostels, hotels, and gourmet food shops.  It's a bit shabby, despite the popularity.  Sleepy alpine village it is not, but for those making a first time visit to the Alps, Chamonix is good place to start.  Despite being a little worn around the edges, it has excellent facilities, good food, and the friendliest French townspeople we've ever met.  And, of course, the views will never get shabby.

View from center looking southeast on the chalky white Arve River

We were kept down in the valley due to snow on Friday, the first real snow we've seen this year (a bit odd to experience it in May).   That allowed us time to get some local provisions like Savoy cheese and saucisson, génépe, fresh bread, and some bottles of Chignin Bergeron.  It was also a good time to check out the Crystal and Climbing Museum too.  The weather was a bit tricky for most of the weekend, as it tends to be in mountainous regions.  It was foggy in the mornings, clear for about 5 minutes in the afternoons, then cloudy again in the evenings.  I threw the 55-200mm lens in the bag as an afterthought, but ended up using it quite a bit to get tight shots of the peaks and ridges (like the ones above) when there was a break in the clouds.  It also came in handy for shooting rock climbers scaling a wall down in the valley.

We did a 10 mile hike on Saturday.  For that I packed the 18-55mm, 55-200mm, and the 10-24mm lenses.  I cannot get over how much easier it is to use the Fujifilm system on a long hike in comparison to my old DSLR.  I packed the photo equipment (tripod, filters, etc) in my Hama backpack and still had plenty of room for extra clothing, lunch for us and The Dog, and other oddments.  That pack was still lighter than the other small daypack we had with a few additional supplies and water!  While I was definitely hankering for a weather sealed system on the snow day, I was thankful to be running the super light body of the X-E2 during the hike.

View of the valley from the Petit Balcon trail shot with the 10-24mm lens

House in Chamonix passed at the end of the hike. Shot with the 18-55mm. 

The rapidly receding Taconazz glacier.  Shot with the 55-200mm lens from across the valley
on the Petit Balcon trail.

Thanks to the weather, we really only got in one proper outdoor day.  It was a bit too early in the season for high altitude trekking as those trails were still under snow and many others were undergoing repairs.  It wasn't proper mountaineering season yet either.  There was a high risk of avalanche and we heard several from across the valley during our hike.  Of course, there were still plenty of climbers hanging around tackling clearer, lower routes.  The lower trails had a steady stream of hikers and runners, the roads were filled with cyclists, and the skies dotted with paragliders.  If ever you're headed to Chamonix I recommend giving it at least 5 days so you're more likely to get some clear weather.  The view from the Midi is supposedly worth the crowds and price.  Unfortunately the cable car wasn't running during our visit because of the weather.  So, summer is definitely the time to go (unless you ski).  There's enough to do in town on a bad weather day.  The cuisine is rich and hearty alpine fare (vegans may have some trouble).  The locals were all incredibly friendly and helpful.  Although it's a tourist town, Chamonix attracts a different type of tourist and generally the place has a laid back vibe.  While it's not my favorite spot in the Alps, I believe it is worth a look.  For someone who climbs (or, like myself, is just fascinated by the sport and its lore) Chamonix is definitely a must see.  However, its slopes and trails will be much more crowded than other alpine spots. So, don't expect to be alone in nature for long periods of time.  Unless, of course, you're clinging to a rock face high above the valley.