Photos from Northern Norway: A photo blog

Pictures of Golden chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius) - Our most delicious mushroom

Thomas Laupstad — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:49:57 +0000

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera September 18th 2008. Click image for larger view.
Here I have photographed some delicious Golden chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius). They are the most well known edible mushroom here in Norway and is probably the most exclusive mushroom too.
You can use Golden chanterelles in a lot of different dishes, but I prefer to eat them plain after some minutes on a hot plate with a pinch of salt and maybe some organic sour cream. It is absolutely yummy!

This year we have found a lot of edible mushrooms in the forest so stay tuned for more mushroom pictures. It is very nice to be able to gather edible food from the nature, but it is also a bit scary to gather mushrooms as there are so many toxic ones. I use a rule for gathering mushrooms: If I am not certain I wont eat them! I can also enjoy the meal much better if I know that the mushrooms that I’m eating is safe. If you want to look at a mushroom that is toxic, take a look on my photo of a fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) fungus.

Here is another picture of Golden chanterelle. They are a bit dirty, but fully eatable and I must say I enjoyed eating them. A lot!

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera September 18th 2008. Click image for larger view.
Note: These photos were taken in the southeastern part of Norway.

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

The future of Photos from Northern Norway - I have moved to the south

Thomas Laupstad — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:54:13 +0000

Some of my readers might wonder why I haven’t posted any new pictures on this blog. The reason is that I have moved to the southeast of Norway (Nesodden in Akershus for those who know Norwegian geography) and I haven’t really got back into blogging.

The big question now is what I should do with this blog and I want some input from my readers about it. Since I live in the south I will rarely have the opportunity to photograph scenes from Northern Norway. I will still take pictures from where I live now, but I’m not sure if I should post them here since the blog is called “Photos from Northern Norway”.

One option would be to make a totally new blog and just leave this blog alone. Another option is to change the name of this blog and start posting pictures from the south too, but I’ve heard that Google and the other search engines don’t like namechanges like that and will “give you” less search engine traffic.
A third option is that I just keep posting on this blog as it is and add a note in each post that the photos were taken in the south and not in the north.

I would love to hear if anyone got opinions about this

Midnight sunset picture of distant village in the sea in Northern Norway

Thomas Laupstad — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:20:35 +0000

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera June 29th 2008. Click image for larger view.
In this picture I have captured what was a fantastic midnight sunset here in Northern Norway. The sunset created some incredible light where this village in the sea was bathed in a beam of sunshine. The picture should be looked at in large size to get a better view of the sunset.
The midnight sun is already gone (I can’t believe how fast this summer has passed), but the nights are still very light if the rain clouds could stay away.

The distant village is called Laupstad and is the place where I grew up (hence my last name Laupstad). The mountains in the background is a part of the second largest island in Norway, Senja.

I have photographed the same village from above in this picture and in this picture you can see the village with a some pink sunset-clouds as background at 01:30 AM.

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 89 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 70-300mm F4.0-5.6
Location: From Ånstad viewing Laupstad (Andørja) with Senja in the background, Troms in Northern Norway

Pictures of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) feeding their young

Thomas Laupstad — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:02:25 +0000

The starling couple that I photographed and blogged about in this post laid eggs in the birdhouse on our barn this year too. Here is some pictures that of the starlings feeding their young.

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera June 6th 2008. Click image for larger view.
It seems like this young starling was really excited to get a taste of the delicious bug. Notice the tongue sticking out

Ahh, food! The parent really makes sure that the young starling is swallowing her/his food.
(more…)

Pictures of a 24 kg (53 lb) big cod fished in Northern Norway

Thomas Laupstad — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:11:29 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I caught a 24 kg (53 lb) heavy cod on a bottom-longline. This is the biggest fish I have caught in years so I was very excited when I dragged the huge fish up from the depth of the ocean.
The head was so big that it alone completely filled a 10 liter (2.5 gallon) bucket.
Here is a close up picture of the cod. If you click the image you can look at the picture in a bigger size.

As I mentioned I used a bottom-longline to catch the cod. A bottom-longline is a long line filled with many hooks that are baited. I used some herring that I caught last year as bait since herring seems to be loved by larger fish. The longline is placed on the bottom of the ocean over night and is dragged with a lot of excitement as you never know what you might catch. I also caught a nice Atlantic halibut and some smaller cods along with the 24 kg cod.
Here is a picture of me, the proud fisherman with orange fishing-trousers, holding the big cod:

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 11-22mm F2.8-3.5
Location: Laupstad (Andørja), Troms in northern Norway

Harstad - the pearl of Vågsfjorden

Thomas Laupstad — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:08:18 +0000

Harstad is the fourth largest city here in Northern Norway and has a population of about 23,000. It is located on an island called Hinnøya and this island is the largest in Norway with it’s 2,204.7 km². Harstad is often called “the pearl of Vågsfjorden” as the city lays by a beautiful fjord called Vågsfjorden. The scenery in Vågsfjorden is great for photographing with midnight sun during the summer and northern lights (aurora borealis) during the dark winter months. The combination of steep mountains and narrow fjords produce some of the most stunning scenery that I have ever seen. This scenery is simply perfect for a nature photographer like me.

There are several other attractions beside the nature that one can check out in Harstad. One example are some huge guns called “The Adolf Guns” that was built during World War II by the occupying Germans. The Adolf Guns consists of the largest naval guns placed ashore in Europe during WWII and the whole gun battery is claimed to be Atlantic Wall’s largest and most powerful.
One should also check out the beautiful Trondens Church. This old church was built around 1434 and is the northernmost Medieval stone church in Norway.

For more information about Harstad you can visit the Wikipedia entry about the town and the official travel website for Harstad. If you want to travel to Harstad and are looking for a good hotel you can check out this website where most of the hotels in Harstad are listed.

When I grew up Harstad was the closest city to where I used to live and we used to simply call it “The city” as it was the only city we ever visited. Here is a picture taken from the harbor in Harstad with a view over Vågsfjorden and with the island I live on (Andørja) in the background. The boat pictured is an old fishing boat called “sjark” that are still commonly used in the fisheries here in Northern Norway.

Picture of field full of dandelion flowers and a red boatshed in Northern Norway

Thomas Laupstad — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:16:10 +0000

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera June 8th 2008. Click image for larger view.
I love the short period when every dandelion plant seems to flower at the exact same time. A field full of yellow flowers on a sunny day is a beautiful sight so I could not resist taking out the camera to snap some pictures. Since I’m a big fan of photographing boatsheds I had to make a composition with a shed in the picture.
As you can see there is still some snow in the mountains here in Northern Norway, but the green color is creeping pretty fast upward to the top of the mountains. Maybe it is time to go for a photo-hike up those mountainsides?

Check out a few shots of grass fields from last summer:
-Taking pictures while laying in a buttercup meadow
-Photo of old fence keeping out hordes of yellow flowers

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 11 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 11-22mm F2.8-3.5
Location: Laupstad (Andørja), Troms in Northern Norway

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Picture of wood anemone (nemorosa) flower with purple primula flowers as background

Thomas Laupstad — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:37:03 +0000

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera May 31st 2008. Click image for larger view.
In this picture I have photographed a wood anemone flower (anemone nemorosa) with some purple primula flowers as background. I loved the contrast with the sun shining on the white wood anemone flower and the the primula flowers in the shadow. These beautiful small flowers are also known as windflower, European thimbleweed and smell fox.

The wood anemone flowers is a sure sign that the spring is here and that summer is right around the corner.
Flowers are popping up everywhere now so expect more pictures of flowers from Northern Norway in the near future. You can also check out my previous pictures of flowers here.

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 35mm F3.5 Macro
Location: Laupstad (Andørja), Troms in Northern Norway

Sunset scene during the spring in Northern Norway - Picture taken from bedroom window

Thomas Laupstad — Mon, 26 May 2008 08:59:17 +0000

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera May 16th 2008. Click image for larger view.
In this picture I have photographed a sunset late in the evening (at 11 PM) from my bedroom window. I love this view and I never get tired of looking at it
Notice all the snow in the mountains that you can see in the horizon (if you click on the picture to view it large it easier to see the snow). We are still a bit away from summer here in Northern Norway and spring has been pretty cold so far. It will hopefully get warmer here soon so a cold Norwegian can get a tan

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 22 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 11-22mm F2.8-3.5
Location: Ånstad (Andørja), Troms in northern Norway

Pictures of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) on the coast in Northern Norway

Thomas Laupstad — Tue, 20 May 2008 09:16:14 +0000

Here are a couple of pictures of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) that I captured last weekend while collecting seagull eggs on some skerries on the coast in Northern Norway (a post about the egg collecting is coming in a few days so stay tuned).
Herring gulls live here in large numbers and the sounds of the gulls are to me very typical for summers in Northern Norway.

I love the curious expression of the herring gull in the first picture.

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera May 11th 2008. Click image for larger view.

In the next picture the gulls got a bit too nervous by me coming so close and are taking flight to escape the evil human

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera May 11th 2008. Click image for larger view.
Check out my other seagull pictures here. I love these birds!

Information about the pictures:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 70-300mm F4.0-5.6
Location: West coast on Senja, Troms in Northern Norway

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