Making Plans for Europe

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Autumn storm clouds over Vestfjord, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Autumn storm over Vestfjord, Lofoten islands, Norway

For whatever reason, it’s been a pretty stagnant and boring summer (and year for that matter) for me so far.  I’ve hardly been able to get out of Santa Barbara and other than a few commercial assignments, I haven’t even touched my camera in months.  I’ve been trying to put something together for several months now, but I always seem to run into some sort of setback..  Finally now it seems I have somewhat of a haphazard travel plan materializing.

With Luck I should be back on the Lofoten islands around the last week of September.  It’s not exactly under the conditions I had hoped, to move there with a work visa.  But if I can manage to find a flat to rent, at least I’ll be able to continue with the application process.  If not, it might just forever remain an unfulfilled dream.  I know its a bit late in the year and I’m hoping autumn waits for me, but other engagements keep me here until then.  I had also hoped to hike another section on the Kungsleden or perhaps wander around Sarek national park in Sweden, but that will have to wait another year unfortunately.  So I’m looking at some other hiking options that I might be able to manage in October.  Been thinking about maybe crossing the High Tatra mountains from Slovakia to Poland, or perhaps something in Austria or Switzerland.  I Mainly just have to see how early the snow arrives and decide from there.  Otherwise I think I’ll pay another visit to Stockholm on the way down from Lofoten and maybe Copenhagen.  Then visit some friends in Germany and perhaps some old places in Czech Republic that I really like.  Hopefully I’ll catch some Christmas markets before going to Wales in early December or so, where I’ll stay a few more months.   As much as I seem to travel, it’s really been over 4 years since I did any proper ‘backpacking’ in the Euro sense of the word: hostels, trains, buses, hitchhiking, cities, etc.  I almost feel a bit nervous about it.

 

Empty stockfish drying rack, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Empty stockfish drying rack, Lofoten islands, Norway

Scenic beach at Ramberg, Flakstadoy, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Scenic beach at Ramberg, Flakstadoy, Lofoten islands, Norway

Snow covered rocky coastline at Stamsund, Vestvagoy, Lofoten islands, Norway

Photo: Snow covered rocky coastline at Stamsund, Vestvagoy, Lofoten islands, Norway

Business Plan for Norway

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My business plan that I wrote to apply for a Norwegian self-employed person visa arrived in the mail today.  I’m not the best at writing these things, so it took most of attention during July (the reason the blog was a bit quiet).  Not to mention I had to re-learn InDesign for making the layout, I guess I didn’t remember much after not using the program for 6 years.  As the business will be photography, I had it printed as a book, 28 pages total, from Blurb.com

My Plan is to start photography tours and workshops on the Lofoten islands, as well as live there.  I’m also going to work on a book that covers a year on the islands.

I only have one problem.  I can’t apply for the visa yet as I don’t have a residence in Norway.  But to get a residence in Norway, you sort of need to be allowed to live in Norway.  No one is likely to rent to me on a 3 month tourist visa.  And I have to apply for the visa from here in California, which can take 2-3 months to process.  And even if I managed to somehow find a place in Norway there’s no guarantee I’ll get the work visa anyhow, so it could end up just being a big waste of money, which I don’t have enough of to waste.  It’s all a big frustrating circle.  I called the Norwegian consulate to try and get some answers, but they weren’t especially helpful.  I actually got the feeling that she thought I was rather stupid for even trying.

I’m not giving up until I get a definite ‘no’ for an answer though.  And if I do, I’ll re-organize and apply again, and again, and again…  I figure that after a few years they’ll get so tired of hearing from me they’ll just let me in so I go away!

I’m thinking of heading to Lofoten in Sept./Oct. to take a look around and see if I manage to come up with any solutions.

 

2011 San Felipe Baja 250 Photos

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motorcycle rider gloves

I’ve put up a few photos from the San Felipe Baja 250 in my archive.  There aren’t too many from this year – well, there’s more, but they’re mainly behind the scenes stuff from the team I was chasing with, so not really interesting as a whole.  Might put them online at some point in the future if I have the time/motivation.

CLICK HERE for 2011 San Felipe Baja 250 gallery

California

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san simeon pier

Photo: Sunset over San Simeon Pier, California. February 5, 2011

I’ve been back in California for two weeks now, trying to get adjusted to life back over here.  I’ve been pretty busy with several photo shoot in the last week, but they are for other things not related to travel or landscape photography, that’s why it will be a bit quite here for a little bit more.

The weather here in Santa Barbara has been amazing.  After so many months in the UK, I had almost forgotten what a nice sunny day was.  And to be able to go outside in a t-shirt, I don’t think I’d done that since last August!  I’ve always said that the winters in California are often better than the summers.  Or to put it more specifically, there’s no fog in winter, so the average day is often better.  Now I just have to avoid getting too sunburt.

Over the past weekend, I did take one short trip up to San Simeon to photograph the northern elephant seals on the beach up there.  Got some pretty good photos which I’ll post sometime soon.

Trying to put together a more regular travel schedule for the next few months, with the hopes of spending at least 1 week per month out shooting.  Next week I’m off to Death Valley.  March will find me down in San Felipe, Mexico for the Baja 250, then again out in Death Valley and perhaps Mojave national preserve as I really like the Kelso dunes and I need to explore that area a bit more.  I’m also trying to put a trip together to go out the the Channel Islands off the coast here.  I’ve looked at them across the sea most of my life, yet have never been there.  A bit pathetic I think!

Scottish Western Isles Gallery

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Luskentyre beach, Isle of harris, Scotland

Photo: Last light over Luskentyre Beach, Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

Western Isles, Scotland photography gallery: CLICK HERE

I’ve added about 100 new images to my Western Isles gallery.  The Photos are from my most recent trip from December 30th 2010 – January 8th 2011.  Islands covered are North Uist, South, Uist, Berneray, Isle of Harris, and Isle of Lewis.  I’ve also added a few photo’s from the Isle of Skye, even though it’s not technically part of the Western Isles.

butt of lewis coast

Photo: Rugged coastline at Butt of Lewis, northern most point on the Outer Hebrides, Isle of Lewis, Scotland

Maen Llia

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Maen Llia standing stone, Brecon Beacons national park, Wales

Photo: Maen Llia standing stone, Brecon Beacons national park, Wales

It’s been on my mind lately to try and make some portrait style photos of some of the standing stones in the Brecon Beacons region.  Last night was my first attempt at this, using a single Nikon SB-800 as an off camera flash and the gigantic Maen Llia stone as my model.  Unfortunately, and what seems to be my luck these last few months, it started raining after about 10 minutes, before the sky was dark enough to really create the photos that I wanted.    Hopefully I can make it back again in the next few weeks and have another try.

Also, if you read my blog by RSS feed, stop by and have a look.  I’ve made a few changes, the biggest of which will be larger images, now up to 950px wide.  Though if your monitor resolution is less than 1200px, it might look a bit funny, sorry…

Maen Llia standing stone, Brecon Beacons national park, Wales

68 North Website update

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lofoten islands landscape photography

Photo:  Mountain peak rises from sea, Stamsund, Lofoten islands, Norway

I’ve added a new photo gallery to 68north.com of my Lofoten photos from July/August.  CLICK HERE

68 North | Lofoten Islands Photography

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Lofoten islands Norway photography - Unstad

68 North | Lofoten Islands Travel and Landscape Photography

I’ve been working for the last couple weeks on a new website for my photos from the Lofoten Islands, Norway.  I wanted a place where I could show more photos, as much of my recent work has been from the islands, but I didn’t want to completely take over my main website.  So…  I came up with 68north.com for this new project.

I’ll be traveling up to Lofoten in July, so I should update the site soon after that with more new work.

Back In California

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Arrived back home to Santa Barbara last night after a long day of travel from Stockholm.  Even though the weather is quite stormy here with heavy rains forecast, the temperature is quite warm after 4 months of northern Europe winter – September 17th was the first day I got snowed on.

The Blog will be back on track now with regular updated and photos from the trip as I get them processed.

The Road So Far

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Arrived in Stockholm on the 15th of September and then flew north to Kiruna the and onward to Abisko the next day.  Spent 10 days of mostly rain and snow hiking the northern section of the Kungsleden trail – too late in season to complete whole trail, have to wait until next time.  Next headed to Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands, Norway for a couple weeks of hanging out before heading down the Norwegian coast to Trondheim and across into Sweden.  Walked nearly 20km down a snowy road trying to hitchhike, but it didn’t go so well.  Finally caught a short ride in the late afternoon and ended up camping  in the forest on the edge of some town.  temps dropped to maybe minus 10-12 at night, not so fun in my 0 degree sleeping bag; got up at 6am and thawed out in the train station waiting room for a few hours.  Next spent a few days wandering the streets of Stockholm before flying to London and taking trains and buses to my current location: Hay-on-Wye, Wales – the “town of books.”

Raining today, so getting some needed computer work done…