... and one from Southampton.
On most cruises I go on I take hundreds of photos, many of the same thing, at different angles and exposures and never get round to sorting out the wheat from the chaff. So, I've started this blog to encourage me to do so and showcase my favourites.
This first post contains twelve taken on our cruise on Independence of the Seas from Southampton, 17-25 May 2014, to Skjolden, Flam, Olden, Alesund and Stavanger.
On most cruises I go on I take hundreds of photos, many of the same thing, at different angles and exposures and never get round to sorting out the wheat from the chaff. So, I've started this blog to encourage me to do so and showcase my favourites.
This first post contains twelve taken on our cruise on Independence of the Seas from Southampton, 17-25 May 2014, to Skjolden, Flam, Olden, Alesund and Stavanger.
Day 1: Southampton
Spending the afternoon before departure on the top deck of a cruise ship in Southampton often provides opportunities to photograph other ships coming and going. Here, the CMA CGM Columbia is being maneuvered round tight corners to the container port in the River Test.
It was a sunny but murky afternoon, so the photo needed some levels tweaking to restore the colours of the ship its containers.
It was a sunny but murky afternoon, so the photo needed some levels tweaking to restore the colours of the ship its containers.
Day 3 Skjolden
Our first stop was at Skjolden, which is right at the very end of the Sognefjord, the longest fjord in the world, which stretches some 130 miles inland from the North Sea.
After spending all day traversing the fjord we arrived at Skjolden at 4pm. We did a tour to nearby Urnes which is home to the oldest stave church in Norway, whose timbers have been dated to the 12 century.
Photographing it proved challenging due to the number of people there who were milling about outside. Luckily just before our coach left, those that arrived on a later coach went inside leaving the churchyard and path clear.
After spending all day traversing the fjord we arrived at Skjolden at 4pm. We did a tour to nearby Urnes which is home to the oldest stave church in Norway, whose timbers have been dated to the 12 century.
Photographing it proved challenging due to the number of people there who were milling about outside. Luckily just before our coach left, those that arrived on a later coach went inside leaving the churchyard and path clear.
Day 4 Flam
Bright sunshine and blue skies greeted us at Flam, also in Sognefjord. I walked round the edge of the water at about 8am to take this photo. The sun was low and incredibly bright which necessitated -2 exposure compensation to prevent blowing the highlights, which is easily done when photographing white ships on dark backgrounds.The deep blue/green waters of the fjord are almost like a mirror.
The highlight of Flam, indeed the whole cruise, was a trip on the 20Km Flam railway which climbs 850m from Flam to Myrdal, which was above the snow line, in about a hour.
On the return journey I alighted half-way down, at Blomheller, then walked the 13Km back to Flam, while Maria remained on the train.
The walk provided many opportunities to photograph the train. This one was the best. It's a shame, isn't it, that the train isn't painted a colour that would provide more contrast between it and the scenery...
A selection of photos from Norway wouldn't be complete with one of a waterfall... This one was taken on the walk down the Flam valley. The noise made as the water crashes onto the rocks was incredible.
The stave church at Flam, at the bottom of the valley. Stave churches are now unique to Norway, apparently.
Sailing hundreds of miles down fjords provides many opportunities for photographs but most that I took all look the same -- water, mountain, sky -- and suffer from low contrast due to the mist that seems to hang about all day, even in sunny conditions.
This one, however, taken shortly after leaving Flam, summarises them all: the distinctive colour of the water, lush forests on the lower slopes and snow-capped mountains in the background. Note the road cut into the side of the mountain.
Just before we went to bed at 11:30 pm I went out onto the balcony and was greeted with this scene. The sun had just disappeared behind an island just off the right hand side of the photo.
Other than tweaking the levels, there's no post-processing.
Day 5 Olden
Olden is at the end of another fjord, the Nordfjorden. The main attraction is the nearby Briksdalsbreen glacier to which I took the coach trip to. It was an hour's up-hill walk from where the coach dropped us to this point. It was not cold but there was an incredibly strong wind in the valley presumably caused by the temperature change.
The black specks on the rocks bottom left are people, which gives some idea of the size of it.
Typical of most places cruises dock at in fjords, Olden was tiny, with a population of 500. However it had the fastest mobile data rate I've ever experienced through my phone: over 8Mbps.
When you see cruise ships at Southampton they tower over everything around them, but here the vastness of the Norwegian landscape makes it look tiny.
Day 6 Alesund
The day started bright enough but it wasn't long before the clouds descended and rain ensued. That didn't stop me taking the 400-odd steps to the viewpoint at the top of the Aksla hill that overlooks the town, though...
Day 7 Stavanger
A much nicer place than might have been expected given its size and connections with the oil industry. Here, our ship is berthed in front of Old Stavanger, a delightful area of the city.
Here's a view from the top of the ship of Stavanger harbour. The small boats take tourists to nearby Lysefjord, a trip we did earlier in the day, when it was a bit overcast, to see the Pulpit rock, waterfalls and goats.
That's your lot... I hope that's given you a taste for Norway. It's a fantastic place and one I hope to to back to one day with more time to explore. May is a good time to go, when the peaks are still snow-capped and the waterfalls more numerous.
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