Whilst you ‘marvel’ at that title let me explain. There’s a WhatsApp group called “Monochrome Masters”. A little bit of hubris in its naming and as I’m a member very possibly a misnomer. For the sake of transparency and equality we are of course wide open to accepting “Mistresses” (so to speak). The other “Masters” are: Kevin Haggith, Øyvind Vigdal and Ashely Sowter. I met Kevin a few years ago in Toronto (Life is Better in Canada) You might remember last October I met Ash in Venice (Italian Lessons). I just clicked on those links and it appears that a couple of members are posting mostly in colour, it’s not just the Masters part that needs amending. That said, not everything lends itself to black and white, I’m struggling to find many for this blogpost, damn those muted colours. Anyway, this WhatsApp group consists of four photographers who have known each other in an online sense for around 14 years. Time then for the Monochrome Masters to assemble, our good friend Kevin couldn’t make it, 3/4 of the masters met up in Norway.
But first and I’ll try to keep it brief: Our Australian member Ash flew into London prior to the Norway odyssey with our Norse God of Photography aka Vinni. Ash was in the U.K. for a couple of weeks during which he stayed with me for three nights in Wiltshire where it rained continuously, slackened off to torrential occasionally and I took him to various dull historical religious spots. Ash begun to spontaneously smoulder, each time we entered anything vaguely religious, fortunately the rain helped on our way out. I would too, but I did a deal centuries ago, though not on the unholy entrance fees which is enough to make anyone hot under the collar. Obviously there’s history attached to these places. For example at Salisbury Cathedral I was able to show Ash a Magna Carta (1215) manuscript, arguably the most important document ever written. Essentially, you might be King, but you’re not above the law, with some justice and rights for ordinary people thrown in. At Lacock Abbey (home of photography) we took in the photography exhibition, currently from the Royal Photographic Society. As with the one by Pelligrin we saw in Venice the two greatest photographers to ever walk this earth were hypercritical and slated almost everything. Eventually we chose three exceptional photographs that received our seal of approval. I’m sure those RPS members and photographers will be delighted with the recognition from two people who happen to own cameras and are on a WhatsApp group.
A must see in Wiltshire are some really old stones in a field placed there by aliens/magic. At 5,000 year old Stonehenge an official asked if we’d been before, “I was here when they built it” was my reply. No one laughed, perhaps I’ll save “how do you take them down at night?” for another visit. Ash just raised an eyebrow, wondering if his choice to spend three nights with me was little over optimistic from a patience perspective. Not great shots of Stonehenge from me, yet again. I can’t help but get slightly bored and end up taking shots of people whenever I’m there. This time mostly of Ash with just a small part of his unfeasibly large collection of camera gear he lugged around everywhere. Looking very stylish in his hat too, I really wish the same could be said once we crossed the North Sea.
We drove down plenty of very narrow English country lanes, astonishing from an Australians point of view that there weren’t more head-on collisions. You just hope nothing is coming the other way, it seems to work. We ate out every evening, on one of those Ash joined our pub quiz team in a packed Red Lion pub in Lacock, we came second…from last. I took him to Castle Coombe so called the prettiest village in England and Stourhead, a country home with a modest garden and pond. Okay, the garden (built in the early 18th century) contains a lake, Palladian bridge, a grotto and to keep on the religious theme a couple of temples and a Pantheon. Neither of us caught fire, the bloody incessant rain came to our rescue once again. Here’s some shots before we move on to mountains and fjords.
Ash was fabulous company, I already knew this from the time spent with him in Venice. A very happy camper, no whinging or complaining, all round great guy. Hold it, there was the morning he wanted to change the settings on my espresso machine, knowing that I’ve been involved in the coffee industry for over forty years he even insisted on sending me a link to the coffee he uses! Even so I was sincerely sorry to see him go as I dropped him to Bristol airport for his flight to Inverness for the Scottish leg of his tour. No doubt he was relieved, but he couldn’t escape that easily, we would meet again in Oslo. Him flying in from Edinburgh and me London. At last a monochrome shot coming up provided by a fantastic piece of Oslo architecture that we didn’t know the name of. That’s not Ash in the frame by the way, he was still at the bottom of the slope with all his gear and the heaviest tripod known to man :
Vinni had already told us that in Oslo we should see the Opera building. I only realised once we’d seen it and noticed the Thon Hotel Opera next to it. Thon is a chain of hotels. Ash and I stayed in one, I think had the smallest and hottest bedrooms I’ve ever stayed in. The Thon Astoria, more apt would have been the Thon Minature or Thon Sauna. Once checked in we immediately immersed ourselves in Norwegian culture by having an Indian meal and avoided taking a plunge in the freezing fjord as seemed popular with the locals, though in the middle of the night in that bedroom I seriously considered it. It was a brief stay because the next morning we were to catch a train to meet our tour leader. A man I’ve wanted to meet for a very long time, the incomparable Øyvind Vigdal. Years ago when I’d be having one of those laughing out loud moments that lasted for around five minutes my then wife would ask: “What’s so funny?”. “Just something Vinni wrote on 500px” I’d reply wiping tears from my eyes whilst she’d just roll hers. There’s been many of those moments and there were plenty more on this trip, from both Vin and Ash. I mean wiping tears from my eyes from laughter, though there may have been others rolling their eyes.
Norway, in the company of Vinni, was a dream. Everything I expected. Long drives through majestic scenery, stunning and far too beautiful for words. Norway that is, not Vinni, though he is majestic and a beautiful human being. Actually he reminds me very much of my dad, he one of the rarities that I feel “gets” life. Fortunately there’s a piece of equipment that saves you from reading my attempts to describe the views, you’re going to see some photos instead.
We headed for the old mining town of Røros where we’d arranged to meet Vinni’s new partner Hilde later that evening. We found a great hotel and at dusk had a quick wander around. Now, I’m going to post a photo next which I think encapsulates our friend Ash. It’s just a silhouette. You’ll note the backpack containing the largest collection of photographic gear in private's hands, tripod (rarely used) and might be able to just make out some “different” headgear that he’d decided to bring 9,000 miles specifically for Norway. Don’t worry if you can’t, you’ll see plenty of it soon.
We wandered around Røros the next day. Fantastic old town, almost like walking around a living museum. I proceeded to take more shots of other people rather than the surroundings. It’s a strange thing with me, I really do appreciate scenery and architecture. I could cry at the pure beauty of nature. It still becomes just background when people are involved, especially these three people…
A few more from Røros:
It was around this time that there were comments began being made that inferred I might talk a little too much. Put it this way, when we returned Kevin Haggith asked how we all got on. Ash’s reply “Vinni thought I was a mute for the first two days”! I discussed this with my friend Kev (Bristol not Toronto) the other night. “Do you think that’s true? Perhaps I’ve got Aspergers Syndrome or something?”. “Not Aspergers I’ve looked it up, but I’m pretty sure there’s something wrong with you, we just need to keep looking”! Hilarious. Here’s a shot as we left Røros the mining town, the church amongst the slag heaps. I may have made a comment about seeing heaps of slags in the past!
A disused mine was our next stop. I wanted to take photos, none of which did it justice, I’ve seen Vinni’s shots over the years and they’re really good. Here’s one of “mine” (see what I did there), two days after I took this Ash offered me advice that I should always consider including foreground interest in my photos!
Although I of course admire the photography and appreciate the wise words of Mr Sowter, it’s difficult to take him seriously…here comes the hat that he “won in a drinking contest in Sydney”…
I’m always a huge fan of people who don’t take themselves too seriously. Ash is one of them, similar to my best friend Kev (Bristol). We wandered around, snapping away…sometimes the scenery mostly my companions:
It struck me that if I’m supposed to a people photographer I should take some photos of Vinni and Hilde. They’re very much in love and even an old cynic like me can’t help but envy that feeling. It’s beautiful to witness. Not making excuses here, though I’m clearly about to, I wanted to take some photos of them, but it was bloody freezing. Don’t be fooled by Vinni’s shorts. Relatively mild and warm everywhere else we’d been, the wind up there made a huge difference. Plus, I’m more of a candid portrait photographer. I’m not a fan of any posed portraits, I like to get a more natural feel. Additionally I’m crap at directing people, probably because I have absolutely no interest, even if I got people into a perfect pose I still wouldn’t like it. Anyway, here’s the results.
On to Trondheim, where Hilde had very kindly offered to put us up for the night. She prepared a delicious meal. I want to say Swedish Meatballs, but of course they weren’t. Vinni had already reminded me after I’d mentioned Louis (my youngest son) had liked Stockholm and we should go there that “Sweden. pfff. It isn’t even Scandinavian. It’s all trees, one mountain and about four reindeer”. We discussed photography and art amongst other things, had a great laugh and drank some red wine that was specifically there for my enjoyment. I say discussed, I expect I was mostly talking. Next day, after a cup a coffee (no complaints from Ash I noted), a little trip around Trondheim where I failed to taken anything decent, especially of the pretty painted houses on the river. Ash actually used his tripod and I’ve seen the result, it’s very good. I got a shot of him taking it though. Really need to change my approach to photography. I suppose I’m more of a documentary photographer.
We left Hilde in Trondheim and set off for the mountains. And you’ll be pleased to know this long blogpost is drawing to a close. We passed reindeer and moose, the scenery became more dramatic. We stayed a night in a hotel come flophouse in the village of Sunndalsøra. It was perfectly fine actually. There was quite some fuss however over the receptionist wanting to text a code to our phones for the bedrooms door entry, we suggested writing them on a piece of paper. This wasn’t acceptable, after ten minutes of fiddling around and tapping on a keyboard he gave up and wrote them down on piece of paper. I have a few videos taken on my iPhone of this segment through the mountains, I’d like to show you, but unfortunately Squarespace my web host finds it way too difficult for that. We drove through the most wonderful scenery, tunnels high in the mountain passes that we presumed the trolls dug out by hand. At times we were on a kind of gravel track that if we’d been tourists without our guide would never have attempted or seen. More photos, we’re nearly there and I’ll wrap it up.
I’ve never laughed so much, obviously talked too much. The company was absolutely fabulous, Norway unsurpassable. Thank you Vinni and Ash. Thank you Hilde. Not wishing to sound too soppy or sentimental, I’m avoiding the L word, though I may have used it to both Vin and Ash in person when we went our separate ways. I’ll leave you with a couple of photos by me and one Vinni took on his phone. You’ve already seen the hut and pond in the mountains way back at the beginning. Here’s one as we stopped, the pond perfectly still and the sun hitting the mountain in the distance. Followed by another after Vinni and I had taken our photos and heading back to the car before the rain hit. Our intrepid photographer Ash was still getting all his gear out. The rain beginning to fall and the lake not mirror like any more, the sun looks brighter, it soon completely disappeared from the mountain in the distance. In Vinni’s you can just about make out a hat and tripod as he trudged back to the car. I’m still laughing. What a trip!
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are made using a Leica M with Summicron 28mm Lens fitted. Vinni & Hilde I used a Noctilux 50mm.
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