Photographing Romsdalen in autumn. Misty Birches edition.

I really like how silver-birches stand out in fog with their white trunks. Add a bit of autumn foliage and there were compositions to be found everywhere. Hasselblad X2D with XCD 35-75 @ 50mm, iso 64, f16, 1 sec exposure.

After four great days in Rondane, I decided to spend the last 2-3 available days further west. Romsdalen is mostly known for it’s mountains and waterfalls, but the forecast was grim with low clouds and rain. Not perfect conditions for mountainscapes. To my surprise, upon arrival in Åndalsnes in the afternoon, the weather was quite nice. I photographed a scene I have been wanting to shoot for years as conditions suited it well. Good start!

This is a scene I have had my eyes on for a long time. This year, conditions were quite good. The two peaks in the background (Vengetinden on the left and Romsdalshorn on the right) emerged from the clouds for a few minutes as the gentle warm light from the sun lit up the colorful birches in the foreground. I even had luck with the tide that flooded the foreground, giving some nice reflections. A bit of a postcard-shot, but having wanted it for years, I still like it! Hasselblad X2D with XCD 35-75mm @75mm, iso 64, f16, 1/45 sec.

The next day, the rain kicked in and low clouds covered all nearby peaks. I decided to drive up the Romdalen valley proper to see if I could somehow get above the clouds. I ended up inside of them! Taking a detour on a high-altitude gravel road brought me through dense forests shrouded in mist, and at higher elevation, a wonderful mountainous landscape dotted with colorful birches in dense fog. I spent the whole day there, as the fog came and went, sometimes giving way for spectacular light and conditions.

I really like to use the in-camera crop function. It helps quite a bit with finding the exactly right composition of the scene. Here I used the 65×24 X-pan mode on location, but ended up cropping it slightly different in post-processing, as the whole raw-file is saved. X2D with 35-75 @40mm, iso 64, f16, 0.6 sec exposure.

At higher altitudes, the landscape was dotted with lonely silver-birches with the most wonderful autumn-foliage. This scene caught my attention as the foreground tree had a perfect shape, like a christmas-tree, and the gnarly birches in the background gave some nice depth to the scene. X2D with 35-75 @ 40mm, iso 64, f16, 1/4 second exposure.

Silver birches really earned their name here. These extremely gnarly trees were almost looking eerie in the dense fog. Like bony fingers reaching for your soul. I photographed them from a safe distance with a telephoto lens, cropping and compressing the scene, eliminating distractions. X2D with XCD 35-75 @ 75mm, iso 64, f16, 0.5 sec exposure.

The next day I drove up Isterdalen. The Trollstigen road is closed this year while work is being done to secure it agains rockfall and avalanches, so the higher elevation areas here were off-limits. However, the fog was dense by the river in Isterdalen, and I got to spend a few hours photographing the gnarly birches there as well.

Gnarly, colorful silver-birches in Isterdalen, just at the foot of Trollstigen. X2D with 35-75 @ 75mm. Iso 1600, f16, 7.6 sec exposure. Yes, it was quite dark…

So, this trip to Romsdalen mostly gave me images of trees in fog. I say let mountains be mountains and give me som colorful birches in misty conditions! The mountains will be there next time I go.

All images were taken with my Hasselblad X2D, and as usual a variety of XCD-lenses, mostly the 35-75mm zoom. I hope you like the photos, let me know what you think!