I am a Latvian photographer with a great love for mountains and adventure. So it was no wonder that for my next destination I choose Norway – the land of Fjords, Trolls and Vikings.
In the middle of the heated summer wedding season, I decided to take two weeks off and explore what Norway has to offer. With a group of friends we went on a two week road-trip all over Norway. From the first moments of crossing Swedish-Norwegian border, I was slowly getting surrounded by mountains, and as we drove further, the mountains grew bigger and the nature got more beautiful. Once again I was overwhelmed by creativity and possibilities of making art and my camera never left my side, not even on a long nine hour, along with carrying about 20 kg off photo equipment in my backpack. I couldn’t let myself miss a single thing and I was prepared for everything and anything!
Our trip was more on the active side – not the regular tourist sight-seeing but full on experience of all that Norway had to offer - crazy long hikes, climbing and full on mountain weather. And we started on the second day of our arrival – an eight hour hike over Besseggen Ridge. We tried to avoid the tourist attractions that did not require any challenge – what’s the point in that? We had two challenging hikes. The first one was the hike to Kjerag mountain peek to see the famous Kjeragbolten – a glacial deposit wedged in the mountain's crevasse, suspended above a 984-metre deep abyss. The second one was the Trolltunga (Troll tongue) – a piece of rock jutting horizontally out of a mountain about 700 metres above the north side of the lake Ringedalsvatnet.
Hikes were difficult because of the sudden weather changes. Even though it was the middle of the summer, the temperature dropped to 8 degrees Celsius and with a combination of wind and rain made the hike challenging for the whole day. I often had to make sure I would not destroy my camera, even though in the end I got a little reminder of the time spent in the form of small damage to it and cards full of awesome pictures. Overall some of the most awesome moments of the trip were evenings in different camping sites and long night talks with friends. Exploring with friends and sharing all of the awesome experiences are the best feelings in the world. As Jon Krakauer once said: “Happiness is only real when shared.”
For me as a photographer the trip was more of a challenge than a regular walk in the park, because let’s face it – Norway is one of most photographed countries in the world. So I tried to show it as uniquely as possible by adding my point of view to the outcome so that the viewers could feel what I experienced on the trip.
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