Program

“Norway has been on my radar for a number of years. Finally, in June 2016, my wife, Cindy, and I, along with two of our long-time friends, spent 17 days touring the south and central western fjord region. We stayed in 10 different locations and traveled over 1000 miles, mostly by car.  We experienced snow-covered mountains, crystal-clear fjords, icy lakes, thunderous waterfalls and the two largest cities, Oslo and Bergen. We hiked numerous trails, saw beautiful vistas and several glaciers; we rode ferries and other boats and even met a few trolls along the way!  In this slideshow you will see examples of all these places and things.

The areas in Norway we visited were beautiful and exciting with many unique photo opportunities.  I hope you enjoy the presentation and consider it as a destination in your future travels.”

-Mike Whalen

Biography

Mike is a former software engineer who took up digital photography to fill his spare time created by retirement. He purchased his first serious camera in 2006 – an entry level Canon DSLR. Ten years later he is still trying to answer the same basic question: “What makes a good photo?” He believes that being inspired by others, much practice and some luck are the major contributors to successful photography.

Mike has been an active member of NVPS since 2009. He has served as Co-Coordinator of Field-Trips, Co-VP of Competitions, Assistant Webmaster and President. He has received NVPS’s “Photographer-of-the-Year” awards in all “advanced” categories, as well as “Color Print of the Year” and the “Ollie-Fife Award” for “Image of the Year”.

Mike loves to photograph all kinds of subjects in both color and black & white, and enjoys the entire photographic process from composing the image (in-camera) to rendering the final print. He embraces digital post-processing tools like Lightroom and Photoshop and feels their use can expand one’s creative ability in ways that were unthinkable during the film era.

His influences come from seeing the great works of his peers as well as those seen on popular photographic websites. Mike believes that being an active member of NVPS has been the single most important factor in improving his photography skills.