During my weekends, I'm taking photos in the surroundings. A holiday so now and then is never bad, however. Until now, I have made three journeys with an emphasis on taking photos.

In the beginning of September 2003, I headed to Finland together with a friend of mine. The first part of the journey went by train: from Brussels to Frankfurt, Bremen, Hamburg and then to Rostock. Like in some other German seaports, it was possible to take a boat towards Scandinavia.

After a trip of 22 hours across the Baltic Sea, we arrived in Hanko, a city at the south coast of Finland. Not so far from there, in Ekenäs (in Finnish it is called Tammisaari) we set up our tent at the local camping. We have been camping at the waterside for nine days.

I had only taken an analog SLR with a 50mm f1.4 lens with me; so it was a pretty limited equipment. The combination of landscapes, fog and colored skies gave a lot of opportunities, however. Moreover, 50 mm is a "normal" and "average" focal length, which made this probably the most polyvalent prime lens that I could have.

Finland has left me with a very good impression. I would like to return there, though maybe a bit more northwards.

The time had come for a new trip, this time to Norway. I took a Scandinavian Airlines line flight from Brussels to Oslo. There was a connecting flight to Alesund, a nice city in Jugendstil-style at the western fjord-coast (don't confuse it with Ny Alesund on Svalbard).

The first two days, I stayed on a camping near the centre of Alesund. There was a place on my wish list that I really must see, however: the bird island Runde.

Because of its huge colonies of sea birds, it was a very nice place for nature photographers. Every day I discovered new things. Puffins, gannets, shags, gulls ... had their own specific places on the island. The focal length of my 300mm lens was good enough for the birds (in combination with the Canon EOS 20D it resulted even in a 480mm length in 35mm film equivalent).

As it was the beginning of the summer, the sky was always illuminated at this latitude. Sunset and sunrise were divided by a remarkable twilight.

Several people told me that they would like to visit the Norwegian fjords as well; I can only recommend it!

I had scheduled a holiday to Abisko, Sweden from June 19th until July 7th. It is situated in Lapland and consequently it is located pretty northly (about 150 kilometers above the polar circle). At Abisko, a national park can be found, and it's also the starting point of the famous King's trail (a.k.a. Kungsleden).

The vegetation (quite special for me) consists of tundra, birch shrubs, birch forests and pine forests. During my vacation, the temperature varied between the 2 and 20 degrees Celsius. Sometimes, this was very fresh (like on that moment when it hailed in the mountains), sometimes it was pretty warm (in the tundra, with thousands of mosquitos around me).

Abisko is a nice place for nature lovers. You can see several species of animals, but keep in mind that that often requires a combination of effort, patience and luck. That is how I was able to see a lynx.

I had taken three lenses along: the 100mm macro lens (that I rarely used over there), the 300mm tele lens (always ready for action) and the new 17-40mm wide angle lens (ideal for dramatic skies and the midnight sun).

Like last year, I went around midsummer to Scandinavia. The destination was the Lofoten archipelago in the northwest of Norway.

Temperatures in Lofoten are very mild, which is caused by the Gulf Stream. However, during my stay, there was some kind of heat wave with hot and sunny weather. It was not exactly what I had been waiting for: the tent felt like a sauna and the light was often too harsh to make nice photos.

I have been camping on several places. During the first week, I stayed on the mountainous island of Værøy where I made day trips by bike and by foot. The next place was Røst, a very flat island with quite some wading birds. On Røst, I met a Canadian, Jim, who had also come to Norway for wildlife photos. We decided to join together, to share a car, and to go to the peninsulas of Moskenesøya, Vestvågøy and Austvågøy.

The number of photos that I made during the Lofoten trip is limited. Lofoten is a great place for fishermen and active tourists (eg. climbers). However, I found that photographic opportunities where often limited.

A trip to Iceland had been on my wishlist for a while, because the country is renowned for its birdlife an scenery. When Jim proposed to visit the island, it didn't take long for me to decide to join him.

Canada 2010