November 2008 – Photos from Northern Norway: A photo blog

Picture of Norway maple leaves (Acer platanoides) with fall / autumn colors

6 Comments / Autumn, Flora, Forest, Leaf, Nature, Norway Norwegen Norge, Plant, Tree / Thomas Laupstad

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera October 19th 2008. Click image for larger view.
In this picture you can see some Norway maple (Acer platanoides) leaves that I photographed this autumn. I really like the shape of maple leaves and with autumn colors they can be a stunning sight. The sun were shining through the tree tops unto the leaves so I just had to take a picture of them.
The autumn colors are almost gone now so it is nice to able to look some pictures and remember how nice it was.
The Norway maple is the only type of maple tree that is native to Norway. The maple trees grow in the southern part of Norway where the climate is a bit warmer.

Check out my other photo from the same trip of the forest floor covered with leaves and my other autumn pictures here. Note: This photo was taken in the southeastern part of Norway.

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/3.2
Focal Length: 11 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 11-22mm F2.8-3.5
Location: Fjellstrand in Nesodden, Akershus in southeast of Norway

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Picture of Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) bird on birch tree log

9 Comments / Birds, Nature, Norway Norwegen Norge, Tree / Thomas Laupstad

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera October 19th 2008. Click image for larger view.
Here I have photographed a beautiful Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) bird. This is the first time I have ever photographed a woodpecker as they are pretty rare and often fly off before you are able to take a good photo. The Great Spotted Woodpecker is one of our biggest woodpeckers and it is the most common woodpecker bird in Europe. The Great Spotted Woodpecker is about 25 cm long and weighs 70â€“90 g.
In the winter the bird eats seeds from spruce and pine trees, and some bark beetles. During the summer it mainly eats insects, but the Great Spotted Woodpecker is also known for breaking into nests and eating the young birds.

Check out my other photos of Norwegian birds here.

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 70-300mm F4.0-5.6
Location: Fjellstrand in Nesodden, Akershus in southeast of Norway

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Picture of Yellow foot, Winter Chanterelle, Funnel Chanterelle (Cantharellus tubaeformis) – Tasty mushroom

5 Comments / Autumn, Forest, Fungus, Macro, Mushroom, Nature, Norway Norwegen Norge / Thomas Laupstad

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera September 18th 2008. Click image for larger view.
This autumn has been a really awaking for me when it comes to edible mushrooms (and toxic ones). I did not know much about mushrooms except for golden chanterelles and fly agarics. A friend wanted to learn more about mushrooms so we picked up a book at the library describing edible mushrooms. We went out into the forest and found several types of yummy mushrooms.

In this photo you can see Cantharellus tubaeformis (known as Yellow foot, Winter Chanterelle, Funnel Chanterelle and Yellow Legs in English) mushrooms. Funnel chanterelle was the mushroom that we found in largest quantities and we could easily fill a basket in an hour. The funnel chanterelle has a very pleasant taste and we used it in a lot of dishes. It is so great to be able to go out in the nature and harvest all the delicious goods from her 🙂
We actually found so much funnel chanterelles that we were able to dry a good deal. I photographed the whole process of drying so stay tuned to my RSS feed if you want to learn how to dry mushrooms.

Note: This photo were taken in the southeastern part of Norway. This photo should not be used to identify unknown mushrooms to check if they are edible or not. If you are not certain about a mushroom do not eat it!

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Flash used
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 35mm F3.5 Macro
Location: Fjellstrand in Nesodden, Akershus in southeast of Norway

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My picture was published in The New Yorker magazine

44 Comments / Clouds, Mountain, Norway Norwegen Norge, Sky / Thomas Laupstad

Some months ago I was contacted by an employee at a magazine called The New Yorker. They had found one of my pictures on the world wide web and wanted to use it in collage that were to illustrate a fictional story. The picture they found was of some clouds hugging a mountain. I didn’t think the picture was my best, but it probably was perfect for the artist at The New Yorker.
It is very nice to get recognized like this and of course get paid for your work. It makes it worthwhile to get out and take more pictures of all the beauty around us.

Here is the picture The New Yorker used:

Now the story is published in The New Yorker and if you want to check out the story and collage with my picture check out this link.
You can see my other photographs of mountains here.

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