For the winter holidays, we decided to go on a week’s trip to Lysefjorden in Norway. As we have done a few times before (on our trips to Iceland) we choose to take a ferry – this time from Hirtshals to Larvík.
A few weeks before our departure, I had gotten myself an old Canon TX analog camera. I had only shot one roll beforehand and didn’t know if all my images were going to turn out like a dream or something worse (My first roll ended up turning out blank, but the 4 rolls from the trip were almost flawless - yay!). The ferry ride itself was really good. With a few episodes of my series downloaded on Netflix, the hours went by quickly and we ended up in Larvík. Originally we planned to end up in Kristiansand, but because of bad weather, our new ride ended up going to Larvík. So, with 200 extra kilometers to drive, we took the long ride and ended up by our hut in the middle of the night. The sunset on the way was a gorgeous little treat for us to see while taking the long road – maybe it wasn’t that bad after all.
The first morning was great – after getting a good night's sleep, we could walk right out the door and take a look down the beautiful fjord, with the wind breathing through the fjälls. My first thought was to get my shoes and go out to explore the little paradise our hut was in. After long days we ended up in the neatly placed hot top, down by the water. Nothing felt more refreshing than sitting in hot water and feeling the fresh breeze flowing by.
As it was my first time really trying out film photography, I really had to concentrate on what I was doing (is that a cliché to say?). But the weather changed from sunny to hail in a matter of minutes and if there’s something I already knew; it was that I couldn’t just change ISO as I would on my Sony camera. It definitely was a whole adventure in itself to try and figure out how to control this beast of a camera (or something like that).
Pretty much every day we got around to seeing something new. A winter wonderland up in the deep fjälls and the deep dark wood. We even got around to seeing trolls and goats in a small ‘walkthrough park’ called Eventyrskogen in Årsdal which houses a lot of tributes and figurines from classic stories like ‘Three Billy Goats Gruffs’ and other Nordic folk stories.
The week went by quickly (that just happens when you have fun I guess), and soon we where on our way back home to small Denmark. The drive back wasn’t as long since we only had to drive back to Kristiansand this time. The way back got really moody. The fog rolled slowly in and when we finally got on the ferry, we could only see the closest small islands.
This week shooting film got the better part of me. As a lot of people probably say, I’ve gotten a huge fan of the analog part of photography. Even though it’s hard to get used to, the images I got ended up being some of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken (so much so that I’ve got them hanging on my wall at home). So, if you have been thinking about getting a 35mm film camera yourself. I can only recommend it!
