I’ve hold onto these photographs more than I’ve held onto any photographs ever before.
I visited Norway the first time over 10 years ago and it was only a quick trip to Oslo and back to Sweden within one day. Second time was also a quick one; we spent one night in Lofoten, one in Tromsø and then we drove back to Finland. But something got stuck in my heart. Then our third trip happened and… something else happened too. Something I didn’t ever expect to happen in a way it did. Right after we crossed the boarder from Sweden to Norway I felt like I had arrived home.
After that everything changed. There’s a fire burning deep in my heart, a fire that grows stronger every day. It’s so huge that I don’t even know how I’m going to contain it anymore. Editing these photos was hard because it felt like no preset could ever perfectly describe the landscapes of my soul. When I watch TV shows from Norway, I feel like crying (and I do cry when I’m alone) and after our trip I’ve found a few favorites like Severin and Der Ingen Skulle Tru At Nokon Skulle Bu (the first ones shows the life of Severin who lives in a remote place and the second one is a series of similar people living in the remote parts of Norway). Right now I have no idea how I’m going to finish blogging this set without cryin. Silly me. My silly head. My silly heart.
They say that no dream ever comes true unless you say it out loud. So here I am with my big dreams, feeling like I’m going to burst open because I want all of it so much. I want to arrange adventures in the nature, for people getting married and for all adventurers out there with brave hearts. I want to create awesome experiences, getaways from everyday life. I want to live in some remote location, with quietness as my company and let nature heal me. I want a small place where I’m hopefully able to invite people with the help of some organization; people who don’t necessarily have a chance to come by themselves. I want to have a place for people to have their wedding with nature surrounding them. I want to give back from all the joy I’ve gotten from photography. I want to document life, nature and stories. I want to make Norway my home.
As you can possibly guess, this post won’t be the shortest one. Within those 10 days we were on the road, we traveled thousands of kilometers and saw so many wonderful things. We drove up and down the mountains as we were trying to avoid crowded ferries. We slept in our tent and woke up to see most awesome views – and when we were too tired to set up our tent, we slept in our car. One of my life’s favorite mornings was the one I woke up to when we spent the night sleeping in our car, parked next to a mountain road and it was all foggy. In that moment I couldn’t find any reasons to not be happy. ❤ We climbed two mountains (KNUTSHØ & KJERAG) and won ourselves. Especially our hike to Kjerag was out of this world beautiful and SO HARD. I never would have guessed I was able to pull that one out of me. I fought the urge to give up so many times. But somehow, with one step at a time, I followed Jouni and we made it to the pulpit rock. It paid off to start our hike so late as we were greeted with an empty spot. There were just us and clouds that rolled by, hiding the views from us time to time. On our way back I stayed to rest while Jouni went to check out Nesatind. Somehow we made it back with the help of a bright summer night. We found an open restroom where I was able to wash my face. Since we couldn’t find a good spot for our tent, we drove back up the mountain roads and found a rest stop next to a waterfall. There we spent another night in our car. I’ve never felt as sore as I did for the next couple of days!
One of the highlights was swimming in the clear waters at Honnevje beach. I made a decision that if my first swim of the summer cannot happen in Norway, I won’t swim at all. I’ve kept that promise ❤
I also did this tiny little holiday video just for fun. It’s shot with my iPhone 5S and Jouni’s Xperia something. I definitely don’t have the skills to go and shoot weddings for video yet, but you never know where this little thing leads me to – there’s another little dream in the making! ;)
// Johanna
httpa://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIHMu-6z4j0
Dennis Sheperd ft. Katty Heath – Where I Begin
Photo above by: ARTHUR CHAMBRE
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