There aren’t a lot of countries in the world more photogenic than Norway. So, compiling a list of the best photo locations in Norway is a never-ending mission. In fact, I’m sure I’ll be adding photo spots to this list for the better part of the next 10 years.
Below are my favourite places to take photos in Norway. And like all my posts of this type, it will be updated in the future with other places I photograph.
Trolltunga
I started my Norway adventure in the most epic of ways; with a hike to Trolltunga. Troll’s tongue, as it’s known in English is one of the most beautiful hikes anywhere in the world. Every corner of the trail just begs to be photographed. Since it’s the summer in Norway, I was able to do the hike as a bit of a midnight adventure leaving the parking lot at 8pm and arriving at camp at midnight. The hike up looked a little like this:
Then, after finding a couple hours of sleep just above Trolltunga, I got up for “sunrise” at just after 3am to shoot some pictures. Though the light wasn’t really behaving. When a place is as beautiful as this, it doesn’t matter. These are a couple of my favourite few photos from Trolltunga:
The Waterfalls of Norway
After Trolltunga, I headed to Bergen to chill out for a night and get my gear charged and dried after the hike to Trolltunga. I was planning on doing some photography in Bergen, but was just too wiped out to go out and shoot.
The next day, though, I went on the search of a couple of the bigger waterfalls in Norway, and came across these 3 (well, and a number of others I didn’t photograph.
Tvindefossen
This was a photogenic waterfall surrounded by farms and a bit of a tourist trap set of gift shops. Maybe the least impressive of the waterfalls in the area, but also very easy to photograph.
Skjervsfossen
This was such a cool waterfall, but it was incredibly difficult to capture. And, there’s no shops around and I had it all to myself. Really a cool spot worth visiting even if the photos don’t do it justice.
Distractions
The drive along highway 7 towards Voringfossen is one of the most beautiful in the world. If there were more places to pull over and stop, I would have never made it to the last waterfall. This was just a casual view along the way.
Voringfossen
Wow. Maybe one of the coolest photography locations in all of Norway, Voringfossen just blew me away. This was the number one sight I wanted to shoot in Norway, and it was even more impressive to see than any photograph I’ve seen. Just unbelievable.
Joining TopDeck in Oslo
I joined a TopDeck Travel group in Oslo. I was set to start a 15 day assignment with them through Norway as well as Finland and Estonia. My assignment is video heavy, but there’s some photography involved as well. I shot this at the lake near our campsite in Oslo.
And, the vlog below has some of the hyperlapse I shot in Oslo as well as a bit of an explanation of my travel photography assignment with TopDeck.
Midnight Hike in Andalsnes
We drove from Oslo to Andalsnes on the first travel day of the TopDeck trip, and the drive was just stunning.
That evening, we were free at the campsite and the light was looking to be seriously epic. So, I grabbed a couple of the passengers and we went on a hike up to this viewpoint on Rampestreken. It might be the best viewpoint in the country, and no one does viewpoints like Norway. The hike was challenging, but the images made it so worth it.
Troll’s Pass and a Midnight Canoe
The following day we went cruising through The Troll’s Pass. This is one of the most photogenic places in all of Norway. It’s a series of mountain passes and serious fjords. The roads were pretty gnarly, so a shout out to Catalan, the coach driver from TopDeck. All-in-all, the journey was just stunning.
Here are some of the photos of Troll’s pass and area:
In the evening, after a cheeky nap, I grabbed a canoe from the campsite and went on a bit of a paddle up the river to try to grab a couple images.
Trondheim
We didn’t have nearly as much time as I would like in Trondheim. We just stopped for about an hour. It’s a really cool little city in the center of Norway. It’s definitely the type of place I’d like to get back to and photograph/explore a little bit more in the future.
Even though we were only in Trondheim for a minute, and even though the light was harsh and blue, I did manage to sneak off a couple pictures that I’m happy with.
Steinkjer
From the epicness of Andalsnes and area, we headed north to Steinkjer. And, though the location wasn’t as mind-blowing as some of the others, I still got out and grabbed a couple images.
If I’m being honest, I was a little bit worried at Steinkjer that the most beautiful places in Norway were in my past.
I had an amazing time on the trip, and while I loved adventures in the south like Trolltunga, I think the North of Norway is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. I had such a great time that I’m already planning a return to shoot more locations.
This is the breakdown of my time in Northern Norway.
Svartisen Glacier
Leaving Steinkjer, I kind of worried that the most beautiful landscapes in Norway were behind me. I mean, how could it possibly get better, right?
We pushed north and did a day trip in to see Svartisen Glacier. And, as a Canadian, and having grown up near the Icefields Parkway, I kind of thought that there’s no way I’d be really impressed with a glacier. I was wrong.
We arrived at the park, and hopped on a boat which cruised us across to the start of a hike. Immediately upon arrival I started seeing amazing potential locations to shoot images. There was this crazy series of waterfalls tumbling down through the landscape into the lake and so I kind of ditched my group to get a couple shots there.
Then, I pushed on towards the glacier.
The glacier too, was amazing. I was also amazed at how accessible it was. Sure, there are places in Canada like this, but they are fairly hard to get to or totally controlled. I got some shots at the glacier, and then we pushed on.
Crossing the Arctic Circle & The Polar Plunge
That same day, we pushed across the Arctic Circle.
It was my first time across the Arctic Circle, and I’ve now been across both the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. The drive north was just stunning. I have no idea how some of the passengers could sleep through some of these beautiful Northern Norway landscapes. My biggest problem was trying not to over-film as we drove north.
That afternoon we arrived in Skibotn at our campsite.
There, we had the task of ticking off one of the TopDeck #Ultimate49 bucket list items: a polar plunge.
Since the weather was pretty good, everyone seemed totally up to the task. It was almost as soon as the bus had stopped everyone was already in their swim gear and headed towards this bridge over a glacial-fed river to do the plunge. Honestly, since I had done a polar plunge in Antarctica – literally as icebergs floated around us – I was expecting this to be easy. But, it wasn’t. I mean, jumping in was easy. As soon as I hit the water, though, all the oxygen was smashed from my lungs and just swimming to shore seemed like a “fight or flight” moment.
The problem with the polar plunge was that the light was terrible. I was on the trip on assignment. So, I needed cool footage and shots. I needed to photograph this scene at sunset. But, of course, there really isn’t sunset this far north in June and July. However, the light did improve at about 2am. And, I managed to convince a couple people to do the jump again. I captured this series of photos of it.
Thanks to Donna and Jonno for being troopers.
The Midnight Sun
One of the other bucket list items on the #Ultimate49 was to head to the northernmost point in Europe – Nordkapp – and shoot the midnight sun. So, our TopDeck squad jumped on a coach in the evening and headed north.
I almost seemed foolish thinking that the landscapes wouldn’t be amazing in the north. These northern landscapes are so beautiful that on the drive to Nordkapp I decided I need to do a month trip up there just to shoot imagery.
Once we got to Nordkapp, I was actually really surprised how busy it was. It’s funny, it seems like we haven’t seen tourists at all on this trip. Then, as we arrive to the place farthest away from any major city they are everywhere. The parking lot looked like an RV dealership. It was insane. But, luckily, most people seemed to congregate around the monument and so they were easy to get away from.
Along with a couple TopDeck passengers, I went off on a little bit of a photo shoot up along the cliffs overlooking the sea. The light was amazing, and I walked away with some images I really love. Again, I need to get back up here and spend more time. There are just way too many incredible photo spots up here not to spend more time shooting.
I think, if I have some free time next spring I’ll rent a car and explore this part of Norway much like I did southern Norway on the couple free days I had down there.
Down to Estonia
In Nordkapp, our northbound journey ended. Over the next couple days we pushed back south cutting down a rainy Finland eventually settling in Tallinn. Over that trip, I had my birthday. It was kind of a special evening leading into it.
What’s Next
As I mentioned recently, I’m kind of jumping all over the place these days on the blog because I feel like I write better when I’m writing about what I want to write, rather than just following the same time frame as my travel vlog channel. So, over the next week or so, look for blog articles from Kyrgyzstan, London, and Scotland.