How often do you get the chance to spend a day riding snowmobiles across Hardangervidda? Not too often, so I was quick to accept when I got that offer last week. Here are some photos.

While visiting in Eidfjord, we were offered to help driving firewood and other supplies to different cottages on Hardangervidda. In return we got a chance to see the wild and beautiful nature up close, riding snowmobiles. Armed with lots of clothes and a camera I was really looking forward to taking pictures.

It is not allowed to drive snowmobiles inside the National Park without getting a permission, and it is mostly people in charge of maintaining and supplying cottages that are allowed.

Hardangervidda

For those unfamiliar with it, HardangerviddaWikipedia - Hardangervidda is a large mountain plateau, located inland from Bergen, in the west of Norway. It is the largest of its kind in Europe, covering 6,500 km². It includes Norway's largest national park, and is a very popular area to visit. DNT offers several cottages, and maintains a vast network of hiking trails.

Snowmobiles are a natural choice of transportation. We traveled around 25 km/h, and ended up at 60 km in total. There was little snow this year, according to the locals, but ample to enjoy a smooth ride over the plains. We also met some dog sleds, with 20 dogs pulling it, and I captured these two huskies.

Camera problems

I was given the opportunity to borrow camera gear, and since the lens was better than my own, I accepted. However, a quick routine check failed to alert me to a dust problem in the camera or lens. Only when I later looked at the photos did I see about 20 dust specks on all the photos. I had to manually remove them in post-production. The lens had some rather heavy vignetting in the upper right corner, making panoramic images almost impossible. I have one here, and you can see that the light varies. I learned a lesson the hard way: stick with your own gear!

The photos

Until recently, I've never managed to capture a photograph of snow covered landscape that I liked. The complete whiteness turns the picture gray, and the sky looses all its color and detail. An old trick is to measure the amount of light on the snow, not on the horizon or object, then over-expose it slightly. Using normal HDR techniques does not contribute much either.

My solution is turning the contrast way up, darkening the photos, and getting a certain atmosphere in them. In this series of photographs I've used a HDR method called Mantiuk, that gives the results that I like. The photos end up dark and moody, with lots of grains and details.

Sometimes I feel that the photos gets too dark, and it's difficult to do anything about it. If the sun is part of the scene it will cast everything into shadow, since it is so bright.

Unfortunately, I could not take photographs while riding the snowmobile, so all the photos are taken at three places. We passed so many amazing places, I only wanted to stop and take photographs. I would really like to back some time, perhaps on skis, so I can take more photos.

This photo shows the great conditions we had this day. The clouds were breaking, giving a diversity to the light and sky. Some low and heavy clouds made the sky dramatic.

Panoramic photo

I felt that a panoramic photo was the ultimate result from this trip. I wanted to capture the wide plateau, with the hilly mountains in the distance. The lens was not up for the task, and the result is not as good as I would normally hope for. Because of the vignette effect the light varies across the image, creating shadows and highlights. Still, it is impressive, showing the size of the wilderness. I imagine how different this view must be during summer, since the are several lakes hidden under the snow.

Panorama