Flam and the Picturesque Flam Railway

View from the Celebrity Apex; berthed in Flam, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

FLAM IS perhaps one of Norway's most iconic spots. A recreational haven for residents of Scandinavia, there are wonderful camping, hiking, biking, skiing and fishing locations up in the mountains around Flam. Once a tiny little agricultural village deep in the end of the Aurlands Fjord, its scenic and recreational offerings have transformed it in modern years into a primary tourism destination. There are approaching a half million visitors to Flam each year. It is one of the sought after destinations by tourists and particularly by cruise ships. The keystone is probably the Flam scenic railroad, which also serves as part of a transportation hub for other rails and locations in the fjords. Norway considers itself one of the more "green" nations of the world, and in keeping with that philosophy, they impose guidelines and standards for the impact that tourism has on the natural environment. In no industry is this more the case than the cruise ship industry. Over the past few years, we have read that Norway will be banning large cruise ships from the fjords. This is not entirely correct, though they have announced much tighter standards for certain  fuel-powered large cruise ships. Originally targeted to begin in 2026, these restrictions would essentially exclude many of the large cruise ships in the cruise industry. When we booked our cruise, it was with this deadline in mind, believing that it would be our last chance to visit the fjords on our favorite Celebrity Cruise ships (or any competitors, for that matter). Shortly after our confirmed booking, they announced that the deadline for newer, stricter, standards would be moved to 2032. But I have not doubt it is coming. Honestly, once we decided to book it, especially with the chance to cruise with Todd and Heather, we wouldn't have changed it for the world. Flam was rainy for the most part, but we were also indoors (on the train, in buildings, etc.) for most of the day.

Flam Cruise Port - Flam, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE PERMANENT population of Flam is somewhere from 300 - 500 people. Many, if not most, of them today service the tourism trade. There is one very nice resort in the village and then a few very small establishments and campgrounds. There are a couple restaurants that service the entire area. We made reservations in one of the "Viking" restaurants, knowing that with the influx of cruise passengers, it might be hard to get a table.

Flam countryside from the Flam Railway - Flam, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

LIKE SO many of the cruise ports these days, there was a certain "Disney" feel. The train platforms were crowded with 100s of passengers waiting to get on board for the approximately 30 minute ride up a steep mountain and through several tunnels on the narrow gauge train. There was a large store at the port/train entrance that was so crowded it reminded me of the Friday after Thanksgiving in a Best Buy Store or the local mall. It was packed full of what I can only characterize as "trinkets" and I have very serious doubts that they were locally made. Putting the commercialism aspect aside, however, there is no doubt that this is one of the most beautiful - and picturesque - places in our world.

Flam countryside from the Flam Railway - Flam, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

AND ALSO in spite of commercialism, there are always opportunities for the photographer (though it sometimes requires leaning to isolate compositions). My worst case has always been shooting from a moving vehicle through glass windows. You have to shoot fast and understand that you are going to "waste" a lot of frames as you quickly move past your subject. There is always glare and reflections to deal with through the vehicle windows. But with some patience, it is possible to get some reasonably nice imges. The Flam scenery from the train is beautiful, and the local famers and landowners have accomodated us by painting their homes and buildings in bright colors that stand out in the lush, green landscape. Our day in Flam was a rainy, mainly dreary day. But that also made for clouds and fog, which always ads interest to images, in my view. I got a couple that I liked.

Flam Countryside from the Flam Railway - Flam, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

Norway at Last

Alesund, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025

MONDAY AND Tuesday were a bit of a blur for me. A 90 minute ride to the port from our hotel. Check in and boarding was Celebrity's usual quick and efficient process except for the luggage dropoff. That area was a 3-ring circus. I don't remember it being that way back in 2021, but then we were at Princess Cruises terminal, and it was during Covid-19, so things were very regimented. Anyway, we were basically quickly boarded, obtained our room keys, and found our way to the Magic Carpet Bar. Let's get this show started! We were pretty familiar with the ship by now. This was my wife's and my 4th time on Apex, and Todd and Heather's second.

Alesund, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025

SOMEWHERE ALONG the way, I began to feel the effects of the cold that Heather had gotten on our last day in London. By dinner time, it was full on. I medicated, went to bed, and begged off of our first shore excursion. Sadly, because it was Bruges, which is a beautiful place. Fortunately, we had been there back in 2020, and it is small enough that we had really seen most of it. It was the only repeat for me, and was as good as any one to miss. The following day was an "at sea" day, giving me a pretty good period to just relax and recover.

The City of Alesund from our Cruise Ship deck
Copyright Andy Richards 2025

ON THURSDAY, as we docked in Alesund, Norway, I was (mostly) back among the human race. There have been some cruises where I have taken hundreds of photos during our excursions. And then there have been some where I have taken very few. This cruise was one of the latter, for the most part, which will probably make this post seem relatively shorter. Much like my takeaway from Iceland, I would say that the primary draw of the fjords of Norway are the natural beauty of the environment. Except for Trondheim (our last stop and a very fun city), most of my images here were made from the ship, or from high vantage points at the ports.

Alesund, from Aksla (the highest point in the city)
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

BY NOW, we had seen a lot of the kind of scenery we saw on this cruise, beginning way back in 2010 along Alaska's Inside Passage, and then again in the fjords of Iceland. Each of these 3 spots had their differences. In Alaska, we never saw any evidence of human occupation on land except close to the towns we stopped in. In Iceland, it was almost the same, but not being as vast, there were the occasional fishing boats and cottages and villages from time to time. The Norwegian Fjiords showed more evidence of habitation. Still pretty desolate though. Norway and iceland were more "green" than Alaska, but that probably was a function of the time of year.

Another view from Aksla - Alesund, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025

NORWAY, SWEDEN and Finland are the countries that make up the Scandinavian Peninsula and together cover the vast majority of the north shore of the Baltic Sea. Except along the seacoasts, they are relatively sparsely populated. But they did seem to have a couple cities that were more populous than what we saw in either the Alaskan Inside Passage, or in Iceland. Alesund, for example, has a population of nearly 70,000; over double the population of Juneau (the most populous city on the Inside Passage by a magnitude). The metropolitan region in and around Reykjavik, Iceland, on the other hand, approaches 250,000. But that is where everyone lives in Iceland. You won't find anything close to that outside the Reykjavik area. Akureyri's population was about 20,000 and Isofordjur aobut 4,000. Trondheim, Norway was over 200,000. Tromso was nearly 80,000. However as we got further north, those populatiun numbers really dwindled. Honingsvag, our most northern port, was only around 2,000.

Alesund, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025

IN THE fjords and northern areas of Norway, it seems that the primary industry is fishing, with other types of agriculture being important, but lagging well behind fishing. Tourism, as seems to be true worldwide, has grown to be another significant economic piece for Norway.

Restaurant sign in Alesund, Norway
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

A FUNNY little anecdote: Just before we all left the U.S. for London, Todd confided to us that Fish & Chips, possibly the most popular meal in the British Isles, was something that just doesn't work for him. My first lunch in London at the Olde Thameside, was fish & chips and it was delicious. Of course, I had to send Todd a photo. 😋 I wanted to let him know we had found a great place for us to get fish & chips. Whenever we went anywhere and I saw evidence of them during the trip, I made sure to point them out. With that, some readers here know I like to collect images of "eclectic" signs. When I saw the sign above, I knew it was a must-have image. I love the passive-aggressive confidence the sign exudes! Probably. 😏

Is Your Composition "Tight" Enough? A Reprise on a (very) old Post from the Early Days Here

[As I post this, we are just two days away from our somewhat traditional, Carribean Cruise. This is kind of a break in the series on our England and Norway cruise back in 2025. I left off there with our final day in England. The rest of the cruise covered Norway and rather than break that up, I am posting this interlude. I will start with Norway when we return from the Caribbean. Thanks - as always - for reading and stay tuned - next up Alesund, Norway]

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WAY BACK in the early days of this blog, one of my first posts held the title: "If You Look Closer." In that post, I noted that one of my most frequent comments about an image (if asked) was to "get in tighter" with the shot. 

[we] often get caught up in the overall scene (or something in it) and do not appreciate that the viewer doesn't automatically sort out all the extraneous things in an image and focus on our subject. That is our job. When on scene, we often see our subject and our very capable brain "filters" out distracting elements

READING BRENDA Tharp and Jed Manwaring's Book, "Extraordinary Everyday Photography," recently, one comment stood out. They noted that photographers often get caught up in the overall scene (or something in it) and do not appreciate that the viewer doesn't automatically sort out all the extraneous things in an image and focus on our subject. That is our job. When on scene, we often see our subject and our very capable brain "filters" out distracting elements. If we are not thinking about this in our composition, it is easy to end up with a photo that is really neither cohesive, nor representative of what our eyes were seeing. One of the "cures" for that is to get in much closer to the subject, isolating it from extranea and zeroing our viewer in on the subject. In other words: Get Closer. 😊 

Fleury Maple Farm
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved (as revised by Janice Noyce)

RECENTLY, A friend, photographer, reader and observer reminded me of my mantra. In addition to being flattered that anybody remembers that, it stimulated some thought and conversation. She offered a suggested (and certainly effective) edit to one of my recent images posted on line, in the same vein. Her comment was short and tactful, merely noting that she liked it better a bit tighter. I appreciate honest and thoughtful critique. I think it is how we learn as artists (and sometimes as technicians). And my friend knows how to do that right, perhaps stimulating discussion, but in a polite way that promotes openness. I think it is important both as the giver and the receiver of crique, that it isn't about "right or wrong," and there is plenty of room for variety of vision. So, as is my nature, I couldn't help engage in some commentary of my own. When we "worked" the scene, I made several different compositions, including some that were indeed much tighter, even than Janice's version (note that I exclude both the large maple tree on the right and part of the road). Looking at her crop, I might re-think my exclusion of part of the road.

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

MY OWN approach to composing an image that contains multiple elements is to ask myself what I am trying to do with a particular "take." Because there is a lot to work with here, I made different shots, each with a slightly different goal in mind. When I made the image, I gave some thought to composition, and shot it rather wide, purposefully leaving certain elements in the overall image. I particularly wanted the wider mountain range in the background,  Some viewers would say it it means there is too much going on. Others would perhaps see my way of thinking. Neither is wrong. Neither is right. Or, to quote the lyrics of Dave Mason's biggest single hit: "there ain't no good guy, there ain't no bad guy . . . we just disagree." I know I am taking license with the precise meaning of the song, but I think it underscores my thinking about the approach to photographic composition.

TO ME, it is pretty obvious that the barns are the subject here. Given that, I want to draw the viewer's attention to those barns. There are several elements in the photograph that I though might work to do that. The road, of course, makes a nice leading line into the image, leading to, and beyond the buildings. But the other consideration is how to portray the farmstead. Our "tighter" views give a more intimate feel for the farmstead, as if we could almost step into the barnyard. The image below probably comes closest to her suggested crop, but it is made from a quite different viewpoint. In this case, the "in tighter" was done with my feet, rather than a crop or a zoom. I think that perspective is better.

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE OTHER approach, here would be to have the barn nestled into the scene, off in the distance a bit, but still close enough to give it appropriate weight in the image, while portraying it in the broader backdrop of the distant mountain range. The mountains say "Vermont" to me, and in the opening image, that started this conversation, I have tried to do that. What I also tried to do was render the image in black and white. The clouds held some detail and interest, but they were mostly grey. In pure black and white, I am afraid the barns blended in too much. I was looking for a way (maybe a gimmick) to bring the viewer's attention back to the barn, and my solution was to "colorize" just parts of the image. Looking at it more carefully, I also noted that there were some rather dramatic blue patches in the sky and I thought highlighting them would give more "life" to the image, and bringing out the red in the barn and yellow flowers in front of it would pull the viewer to the barn.

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

ANOTHER WAY to look at a scene like this and the application of the "get in tighter" thought, is a concept sometimes referred to as "the image within and image." What do I mean by that? When your survey a scene, sometimes you see just the "big picture," and can include all that (sometimes distracting) extranea that Tharp and Manwaring talk about. Sometimes we need to try to narrow our focus. What is really the subject? Which external elements detract from and which complement that subject? My goal as a photographer is (normally) to draw the viewer's attention to the subject I want them to look at. It is also true that sometimes, that picture within the picture may be one of 2 (or more) different images. I think this scene is one of those times.