roadtrip

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I still can’t believe this was almost a month ago. It was such a spur of the moment trip but everything was absolutely perfect. The timing, the weather, the company. I loved everything about our overnight trip to West Virginia.

Since it was so last minute, I had no idea what to expect. I just knew I was in for an adventure. I kept my camera in my hands for pretty much the entire hike up Seneca Rocks. This bridge was right at the beginning. I could see from a distance that the bridge went up a little bit in the middle so I knew I told Jennie and Audrey to go ahead of me and I was going to take pictures of them walking on the bridge. I really liked how the tree trunks were such distinct lines framing the bridge, especially those in the background. The white trunks really pop.

And yes, those are hiking poles that they’re walking with. HAHAHA Jennie is so prepared for adventure that she had a spare that Audrey and I shared. But I’m thankful for her and all her outdoor knowledge. I learned a lot from her about hiking, like how she finds the hikes, how she plans them and even the equipment she uses. Out of the many things that we talked about, for some reason it was the breakfast that stands out in my mind.

You know those squeeze pouches that you see little kids eating apple sauce out of? Did you know they haves for oatmeal too? I don’t know why, but this seriously blew my mind. Here’s the link in case you wanted to check them out. LOL Jennie was so generous that she packed one for Audrey and I and I was surprised how good they were. Who knew eating oatmeal could be so easy? I definietly want to get some for the next time I’m on a hike. They were just so convient. I had the apple cinnamon flavor and I was a fan.

My camera settings for this image is F5.6 at 1/1600sec and ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm lens.

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There are scenic views EVERYWHERE in Norway. It’s hard not to fall in love with the country. If you haven’t already, check out my road trip guide and everything we did on our getaway. If you remember I mention the fact that there’s always a bench somewhere scenic in the country. I forgot to mention one big difference difference between Norway and Iceland.

Iceland is great because just like Norway, its an amazingly beautiful country. But it was a little easier to take pictures there because the roads are a little bigger with pull off areas anywhere you want to go. In Norway, the roads are way smaller and it would be dangerous to pull over just to take a picture in a lot of places. So for that reason alone, I found it a little more difficult to take all the pictures I wanted while in Norway.

Luckily, there was a huge pull off area on the way down from Dalsnibba where we were able to park the car and get out to take a few pictures. It’s hard not to feel like the king of the world from this viewpoint.  What really attracted me to this scene was the yellow/green grass compared to the blue mountains. I just loved the natural color contrast.

In order to create this image, I asked Andrew to walk over and stand on that rock. I think by this point he was used to be the subject of many of my images and just naturally stretched his arms out like that. It made for a way more interesting photograph however can someone please get this man a red tshirt or something? LOL.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/2000th sec at ISO 500 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm. 

PS: I updated my gear page. Click here to check it out 🙂 

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When visiting a new country, I always try to learn as much as I can about the food, people and language. It’s the best way to totally immerse yourself into your new surroundings. In Iceland, it was a little difficult to learn the language. First off, everyone speaks english. Really good english too! So being able to listen to the Icelandic language was really limited to just locals in a restaurant or people talking quietly amongst themselves. But I did manage to learn a few words. “Foss” means waterfall. So if you notice all the waterfalls in Iceland end with the term “Foss”. This image was taken at Skógafoss which is in a small town called Skógar. You add foss to the end of it, you have the Skógafoss! Pretty cool huh? Another important word to know is “Kaka” which means cake! Who doesn’t love cake right? So if you wanted to say chocolate cake, you would say “súkkulaðikaka”.

Now that we’re talking about food, the food was great. Expensive but the overall delicious. I don’t think we had one bad meal. I ate a lot of smoked salmon, at least once a day. There aren’t very many vegetable dishes. It’s all very meat/seafood oriented and to our surprise, a lot of pizza. I’m not sure if that was just a tourist thing but almost every restaurant we went to had a lot of pizza options. We noted one day that the pepperoni pizza was cheaper than the vegetarian pizza.

The people are very nice as well. Super helpful when you have a million and one questions about travel. Even when they knew you were a tourist, they didn’t look at you funny or treat you differently which was much appreciated. However, I did notice that a lot of them weren’t originally from Iceland. Many were from different parts of Europe that just fell in love with the country. I can totally see why minus all the cold temperatures.