Why I take myself for photo weekends

PICSPIRATION SUNDAY: A couple of times every year I organize photo weekends all for myself. Here are some photos from the last one.

My favorite form of photography is landscapes, as you probably have noticed. But new photos don´t just pop up by themselves. They are usually the result of hard work.

For a photographer this means two things:

• You need to visit beautiful landscapes
• You need to have plenty of time when you are there

I often prefer to be alone when I take landscape photographs. Being alone allows me to focus on the photography – and I avoid having an impatient travel partner I feel guilty of not giving enough attention. In fact even a patient travel partner will make me feel guilty for stopping so often for just another photo 🙂

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Photographing alone

Therefore I try to organize photography weekends on my own a couple of times per year.

It is not that I don´t like travelling with other people. I do. But it is also good to have weekends when I can focus 100 % on my hobby.

For my photography weekends I usually fly to a city in western Norway, rent a car and spend the weekend driving around in the beautiful landscapes of this part of Norway.

Driving alone I am free to stop anywhere at my own impulse. And I do. When I see a nice landscape along the road I can suddenly decide to stop and turn around.

Not many travel partners are happy when this happens 10-20 times in a day.

And that is why I travel alone on my photography weekends 🙂

Visiting western Norway

My last such weekend was three weeks ago between the Western Norwegian cities Molde and Ålesund. I flew from Gdansk in Poland to Molde on a Friday, drove to Ålesund and used that as the base for the weekend and drove back to Molde on Sunday night.

It was a fantastic trip – although the weather was not always perfect.

And I did take quite a few photos.

Here are a selection of them.

Photos from the last photography weekend

Sunset in Ålesund, Norway. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

Old buildings in Haramsøy. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

Flower field at Haramsøy, Norway. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

Fjord boat! Photo: John Einar Sandvand

Rainbow over the lighthouse. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

View from the mountains on Haramsøy. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

Haramsøy, Norway. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

The Hardanger fjord in bad weather. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

Bad weather can be great weather for photography. Photo: John Einar Sandvand

Under the rainbow

At Godøy outside Ålesund