I was fortunate to spend a week in what has to be one of the most beautiful areas I’ve ever visited. Gulen, Norway is the site for the Nordic Photo Event run by UK photographer Alexander Mustard, OW-USS Scandinavian coordinator Lars Stenholt-Kirkegaard and Christian Skauge, the Editor of the Norwegian diving magazine Dykking. During the event I stayed at the Gulen Dive Resort, the owners Ørjan and Monica have hosted the event for the second year running and are incredible people both very much into their diving and providing the best diving experience one can wish for in both Norway and the World.

I also got to spend the week in Norway with Ingrid, the European Rolex Scholar, being on home turf she was excited to show me what Norway had to offer. Let me tell you, it didn’t disappoint, it was great to hear of her adventures and compare experiences we had each had during our scholarship year so far.

Arriving in Gulen having snaked our way along the thin Norwegian roads we were greeted by Lars, Alex, and a bunch of keen photographers who we were to spend the next five days with photographing and diving some of the best dive sites Norway has to offer. With formalities over we got straight into the diving with our first on the spectacular Fernedale and Parat wreck.  During our diving experience we also dove the impressive Frankenwald and Bandak wrecks as well as a number of fjord sites with names like Stingray City and Little Norway, all aptly named and each with their own unique charm.

The level of photography that was being produced was really impressive, the majority of the participants were underwater photography hobbyists but the photographs they produced blew me away. It was such a positive experience gaining the collective wisdom of not only Alex but all the photographers there. Ingrid and I both felt that our knowledge of underwater photography expanded greatly over the 5 days.

While the wrecks, lying silently at the bottom of the fjords were eerily impressive, the house reef right in front of the resort had it’s own treasures and charm. Many hours were spent by the photographers roaming near the wharf for that perfect shot. Strobes could be seen lighting up the water from the surface in the evening light, evidence of the beauty of the area as no one wanted to end the dives!

Upon returning from a dive we would fill up on coffee, waffles with jam and sour cream (a combination that seemed strange to me at first but I found delicious. I’m craving some right now J) then a mass upload of images from the dive would commence. Interspersed with all the diving were lectures by Alex and one or two from Christian. We were also fortunate in that we had and a special guest lecture given by the current world champion of UW photography, Espen Rekdal. Espen who is Norwegian has an amazing portfolio on everything that is Norway underwater. He has images on everything you could imagine, from plankton (these were his mages that really wowed me) to orcas.

The end of the workshop had us donning traditional Viking costumes and taking a photo that I feel is both epic and bizarre. I look so much like an elf it’s not funny. Lord of the rings eat your heart out!