With my 5 part astrophotography series completed, I wanted to make a change for this blog. This past June I spent a couple weeks in Norway in a little coastal town called Andenes on the island of Andøya. What a stunningly gorgeous place! Words can not do it justice. It is nearly impossible to take a bad photo there. I live in a mountainous desert region, and am accustomed to seeing and photographing the life of mountains. But this area takes mountain beauty to an entirely new level.
Across the Coast
Oddly enough, the day I arrived, it snowed. In June… It snowed. So I knew I was in for an interesting 2 weeks. The majority of the time it was cloudy, windy and a little rainy. For most photographers it would have been a total bust. But for me, it was an ideal setting for the kind of IR photography that I enjoy shooting. My taste in photography is like my taste in music, dark, moody with lots of rock. So needless to say, I had a great time shooting during this weather.
Path to Security
The Lean
As luck would have it, I was introduced to a fellow photographer that lived nearby. I met Leif on my previous visit in February, a year earlier. Working on rockets by day, He has a portfolio of absolutely fantastic scenic and aurora photos. They are truly second to none. During this first visit, He took me around to shoot aurora. My aurora images pale in comparison, but I learned a lot and had a great time.
During this latest visit, Leif was again my guide to various terrestrial sites. He knew what kind of things I liked to photograph with my IR camera, so we spent several days after work, taking a photo tour. After all, it was nearly the Summer Solstice and the Sun was up 24 hours a day. The first shot in this blog was taken at about 10:30 PM. This made for some ideal photography. If the light wasn’t right, we could just come back later.
Lonely Road
Put me to Work
The shooting conditions were superb, and even better suited for infrared. So we shot until late in the “night” on several occasions. Most of Norway appeared to me to be very modern. But Leif also knew of some interesting old barns and houses. So we headed to the area in and around a little town called Fiskenes.
Withered
Homestead
We arrived at one photogenic house that appeared to be occupied. I asked if it was acceptable to get out and shoot photos of this place; with a head nod, I was out the door. I always shoot on a tripod, so it’s a little more of an event to take a photo, especially infrared. Several minutes into my set-up, an older Norwegian gentleman emerged from the house. He appeared to be somewhat displeased and I figured things were not going to go well. Leif walked up to the gentleman and had a short conversation with him. After several minutes the old man walked away with a quick wave. Leif fired off a double thumbs-up and a big smile. I returned to composing and photographing his home. After I finished shooting, I returned to the car and asked what he said to the gentleman. He had told him that I was a great artist from the USA and picked out his home to photograph. We had a good chuckle over the event.
The Great Artist
As we drove around the island, there were many other places we stopped for photos. Sometimes it was raining. Other times not. But the dark mood of the day didn’t overshadow the enjoyment of seeing the stunning sites.
Test of Time
Decorated
I found the 24 hour days, the gloomy weather, and the fantastic scenery to be perfect for my style of photography. But there was too much to see and nowhere near enough time to take it all in.
Out to Dry
Window in Time
Once the work was over, I was glad to be heading home. I’m looking forward to returning but will always remember this visit as one of my top photo adventures… Thanks Leif!
Latest articles by Eric Chesak (see all articles)
- IR Fireworks - July 14, 2018
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Eric Chesak is a physicist, engineer, photographer, and general technophile. He has always been interested in cameras, photography, and optics with several patents and scientific publications on the subject. He’s a full-time consultant, after a successful career in Engineering and R&D management. Eric has been enjoying photography for more than 40 years and began shooting with his grandfather’s rangefinder, 35mm Zeiss Ikon camera. His life-long passion for astronomy and astrophotography spun off to IR photography which developed into a full-blown obsession.
Eric's images are published in Astronomy & other magazines, many websites and on the artwork on a classical music CD. He has also written for several engineering trade magazines and received numerous awards for technical excellence. In addition to his photography hobbies, he enjoys metalworking, machining, and mechanical design and is experienced with CNC machining equipment. In fact, he designs and fabricates some of his own equipment for astrophotography and photography.
You can view more of Eric's IR and Astrophotography at his online gallery.
Eric currently shoots with custom, full-spectrum modified Canon 50D and 5DmkII -- and learns something new every time he shoots a photo.
See All Articles by Eric Chesak
It’s been a few years since this was posted but I just discovered it. It’s really encouraging as I like the dark moody images and most IR images I see are bright and airy. I’ve only been shooting my FujiFilm X100S converted to 820 for a year now. It’s a constant learning process and this article frees me up to push the boundaries of what constitutes a good day for IR. Thank you.
Beautiful captures and write up, Eric!
Sorry for the late reply. I’ve been traveling. I really appreciate the comments. Thanks Bill, Len.
To Bill, I don’t have a blog with before and after shots. But there are a couple things that help me a lot. First, I always use a tripod for IR, always. It gives me flexibility and time to get the framing and focus perfect. Second, I always use a custom white balance. And third, I always focus manually, using the LCD and a loupe.
My preference is shooting the moody shots. But living in the desert, we have more Sun than rain. So this was a unique opportunity for me to shoot in my favorite IR conditions. Lots of fun!
Awesome set of images Eric! I love the moodiness of the skies and the post processing on all of these. Great stuff!
In the context of IR I often have a difficult time trying to produce a good image captured in over cast conditions like these. (I am more of a sun soaked trees, puffy clouds guy.) Would love to know your secret. 🙂 Do you have any blog posts where you share the before and after of any of the Norway images – I would love to see what the out of the camera versus the finished image comparison looks like.
Cheers.
-bill
Great work! Norway is a great source of inspiration, full of amazing landscapes. I really appreciate how you took advantage of the rainy weather and created these dark mood photos. They take me to a Tom Waits and whiskey mood. My favorites are The Lean and Put Me To Work.