Two women with the love to photograph rocks and ice, living in different parts of Norway. Where should we meet to do what we both love to do? We decided to explore the “Helvete” potholes in the valley of Espedalen in Norway, 200 km north from Britt and 300 km southeast from Antje (me). After having been there some years ago, together with my boyfriend, it would be good to come back to this fascinating place.
Prepare
This place can be quite cold in February. The weather forecast showed temperature between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees. As we would stand still and only move a little while photographing, we needed really warm clothes. Heating pads for gloves and shoes were a good choice to avoid freezing on fingers and feet. The path down to the potholes is not long, but steep. What would be the best equipment for walking down safely? Crampons or snowshoes or stingers? We had all of this in our car and decided at the location. To use crampons with walking sticks was really the best choice at this day. Also helmets were good to have as icicles or bites of ice can fall down.
After a long period of planning, we now were ready to explore this special location.
Preview and Overview
When we reached the bottom, the view was amazing! We needed some time for just looking, being there, to admire the overview at the rocks and ice formations. Often, I wish to start to take pictures all at once. But to slow down and just look when coming to a new place feels right. We can call that Mindful photographing and we will also be photographing in this way at the Fotohelg på Ona in May.
Perspektiv
After a while we took our cameras and started the photography exploration. We spent many hours at this place, each in our own pace, focusing on different things. That is quite interesting when looking at the pictures afterwards. We have been at the same location, but we had different perspectives on what we saw. Our pictures are so different, so different as our personalities are.
Photo: Britt Tveter
To change perspective with the body can make a big difference. Good to have clothes for laying down on the ice and have a low perspective.
Particulars – Details
After taking some overview pictures we looked for details, shapes of rocks and ice and reflections in icicles. Really a paradise for photographing! The area was tiny, but so much to photograph.
Photography with multiple exposures
After some hours focusing on details and getting known the motives with traditional photographing, I was ready to do some multi exposure photographing. This can be done by so many different ways and often the mood of the place is guiding me in my choice of the technique I chose.
If you are looking for learning the technique of multiexposure in camera you are welcome in my upcoming online workshop.
The 5 P’s in Helvete have been a good photography experience together with my friend Britt. Hope you like the pictures and get some inspiration. Feel free to comment if you like!