The birds are back, the ones that left last autumn to spend the cold months in a warmer country. Not the one above, The Blue Tit is here all the year. And actually not the other one, because the bullfinch too, stay here all year. This one is a female, which are greyish-brown, compared with the bright red-chested male. I have used a bit of textures on these pictures, and there are more in this bird gallery, which I called Scandinavian songbird. Songbird might not be scientifically correct for all of them, but these birds are giving concerts all the time right now.

The 17th of May is our national day, the day we got our constitution (17th May 1814). There are parades with schoolchildren and school bands playing brass music, all over the country. In big cities and on the countryside. Prior to this day there was a big discussion about our flag, and about nationalism: is it good, is it bad? Some think this is bad in a modern world. And Norway has now one of the fastest growing population in Europe, thanks to immigration. Personally I think we have a challenge when there are more immigrants than there are children born. Because the changes are happening so fast. Others want no discussion, it is not a topic.The Swedish author Henrik Arnstad even claimed that Norway is characterized by extreme nationalism – and are therefore particularly susceptible to fascist ideas. Claims that were well contradicted by the Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård, among others.

We also had a big discussion about a school with school children from all around the world who wanted to use flags from a lot of countries in their 17the May parade. I don’t want a flag ban. I just agree with those who say that our flag is an important symbol. We are a small country and it is nice to be able to celebrate freedom, democracy and our constitution. Together. Hopefully it will last. And I hope for peace and freedom in countries were this simply does not excist. More pictures from out national day on this link.

Going to a photography festival, you can’t get it all. There are to many lectures and exhibitions and things going on. If there is one thing I regret at the Nordic Light festival, it is not trying to find the Cuban exhibition (the exhibitions are all over the town), showing work from seven Cuban photographers and two Americans working in Cuba. Like Raul Cañibano Ercilla (to the left in the picture above) and Pedro Abascal. Both very interesting photographers who for years have been documenting contemporary Cuba.

Too late for me, who was only there two days, but at least I saw some of the cuban work at the lectures. Like the lecture of Adrián Fernández, a young photographer that studies interior portraits and decorative objects, not what you usually expect in photography from Cuba..

Absolutely interesting was also Alejandro Chaskielberg, from Argentina, who has got his own style working with moonlight and a lot of artificial light used outdoors, working all over the world. More photos from Nordic Light on this link.

I guess a lot of you fellow bloggers are well known with the work of Steve McCurry, not the least his very beautiful blog. The American photojournalist is one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography, having done a lot of magazine covers, over a dozen books, and countless exhibitions around the world. Last weekend he was in Norway, participating at the Nordic Light International Festival of Photography. I was there, both at the exhibition and his lecture in the evening. And it was very interesting to listen to the famous photographer.

One of the most interesting things McCurry told was that he is usually travelling light. Only one camera on the street, one lense, no flash, carrying a tripod but rarely using it. Having an extra camera of course, but not carrying two of them around. McCurry is famous for how he uses light and colours, and not the least for his portraits. At Nordic Light he told us he usually works very fast. He is looking for the moment, and they don’t last long. He is not pushing people around, directing them, but makes people feel relaxed and trusting him, and he works with intuition. He also admitted this might not do on the streets of New York, “You want to take my picture? But who the hell are you?”. In this short video McCurry tells about his portraits and that he nows prefer digital to the old rolls of film:

Quite a lot of photographers wanted their pictures taken with McCurry. Or getting a signed book or poster.

Steve McCurry told about the Afghan Girl, the young refugee who was on the cover for National Geographic in 1985. He found her again after 17 years, and life had been tough for Sharbat Gula. Both he and the National Geagraphic have since been helping the woman financially, but even that is tricky, since the people surrounding her thought that made her something of a millionaire.

Anyway, it was great to see this exhibition and listen to what McCurry had to say. I also was fortunate to take his picture, but I had to work very fast, with a lot of people pushing around for attention… More photos on this link.

Since my last post was from a grey, foggy day on my trip to the coast, here are a few from going back home last weekend. There was a very nice evening sun. Not warm, absolutely not warm yet, but it made the landscape look nice, so I had to stop a few times.

The sunshine actually started very quietly, breaking through the clouds. This is very typical for Norway: we can have more than one season during the day.

This is Gjemnessund Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Norway (although it does not have the longest span). It is 1,257-metre (4,124 ft) long. There are a lot of bridges in this part of the country.

Want to know more about the county, here is a link. There are more photos in my photo gallery.

I went to the coast a few days ago. Towards the small city of Kristiansund, on the coast of Norway. It was a grey and wet day, but interesting since I havent been to this places, at least not the last part. I didn’t stop much but took a few pictures along the way. The building above is the Vince Church, from 1824. Obviously getting some restoration.

Some houses or farms were old and abandoned, others not. More pictures in my More and Romsdal photo gallery.

The reindeer herders are moving their animals to the summer pastures these days. And I know also the wild reindeers in our southern mountains do the same migration this time of the year. They need to be there soon, because in the beginning of May the first reindeers start calving. And that will be a vulnerable time for these animals. They should not be disturbed at all during May.

I didn’t go with the herders this year, but have made some adjustment at some photos from a few years back. There are more photos in my reindeer photo galleries. Or look at some of my post from the spring migration last year.

http://bentehaarstad.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/travelling-with-3000-reindeers/

http://bentehaarstad.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/more-reindeers-spring-migration-ii/

http://bentehaarstad.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/time-for-reindeer-spring-migration/

http://bentehaarstad.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/reindeer-working-dogs/

I got a lot of old negatives scanned a time back, but I hardly have time to look at them. And if I look at them I see all the dust that have to bee done. The company doing the job obviously didn’t use any dust and scratches program. The one above is badly damage by the newspaper that originaly developed my film, so much I will not even try to fix it. Luckily they were not all that bad, so I also have one that maybe don’t look too bad, when the dust is gone? The pictures are showing the actors Sean Penn and Christopher Walken, at a press conference for the movie At Close Range, at the Berlin International Film Festival, probably in 1986. Here are some more of my photos from the Berlin Film Festival.

Quite a lot of you wondered why there were so many snowballs in the field on my last post. Well they are not snowballs, but silage. That is grass that is wrapped in plastic to ferment to make food for animals like cows and sheep. As you probably have found out, we have a very long winter with a lot of snow. So from September till about May-June there is no food to find outside for our livestocks. All winterfood has to be prepared during summer and stored.

Farmers used to dry grass to make hay. Now this is rare, and that is why we got these “snowballs” all over the country. We call them roundballs (rundballer) or tractor-eggs, and we even have roundball-festivals. More roundball photos.

Today is the International Day of Peasants.  Their organization is fighting for a good cause, an important one: “La Via Campesina is the international movement which brings together millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. It defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity. It strongly opposes corporate driven agriculture and transnational companies that are destroying people and nature.”

These pictures are from my village, a couple of weeks ago. Many of the small farms around here are no longer doing agriculture. That is typical for Norway. Our numbers of farms was halved between 1990 and 2010. From 96.000 till 46.000 farms. It is the same going on all over the world. Governments and food corporations don’t want the small farms, the family farms with independent farmers. They want bigger and bigger farms, or farm industry. I am not sure that is the right developement. Because the number of starving people and poor people is not reduced.

Norway is only 40 percent self-sufficient in food from agriculture. So I find it timely that the leader of the Norwegian Farmers and Smallholders Union writes on her blog that this day is important also in Norway. These last pictures are typical Norwegian vegetables from a local Farmers Market last autumn.

I was in Oslo for a short while. Having the best cappuccino in my life, among other things. I do not normally recomnend things or places, since it might appear as advertising. But, as I said, the best. And I actually had several cappuccinos in several places during a couple of days. So I just have to say: the coffee at this place is really something. And the cake too, even if we just had a tiny one, shared, since we were going for a meal.

And the boat? It is the ferry going from the center of Oslo. Our view from the delicious coffee….. Fresh, but no snow in the city. More photos from Oslo.

The strange thing about Norwegians is that we endure a very dark and cold winter, and when spring arrives around Easter, what do we do: We go to the mountains to get the most from the last snow. At least 25 percent of the population celebrate Easter by skiing. This year there was a lot of sun during Easter, but that is not aways the case. We go skiing anyway.

These pictures are from an Easter holiday in 2008, and I went to the mountains with a couple of friends. The Norwegian Trekking Association have about 460 cabins all over the country, to be used by memebers, and 7000 km cross-country skiing track networks. We were going to two of these cabins, but because of bad weather (we could hardly see anything), we turned back after spending the night in the first one. It takes a day to reach these far away cabins, and in the mountains you always have to be prepared for this kind of weather.

Some houses owned by a hydro power company that we passed on the way. Nobody was there.

By the end of the day did we reach the big lake Essandsjøen, and we knew we would find the cabin Storerikvollen after crossing the lake. And we were not the only ones going there. The cabin was full of people who looked forward to spending days in the mountains.

Since this one are among the bigger cabins you get full board during holidays. But basic of course. There are no roads to this place, and no electricity.

And the next day we returned back, that is another 7-8 hours in the snow, without seeing anything. Never go on a hike like this without a compass, you might not see the trail. More photos from the hike Østby-Storerikvollen.