Fjordlight, a five-day photo expedition by boat on the Norwegian fjords. Light until one
in the morning.
Jun 8–12, 2027 · five days on the Sognefjord · 2 places left$3,900 · Hold a place
Five days on a small wooden boat through the Sognefjord, eight photographers, one guide who used to print for a living, and the longest evenings of the year. Everyone goes home with one print, matted on board.
The expedition · Tuesday to Saturday
Five days, five prints
Times are Norway’s summer time, CEST (UTC+2). Each day is planned around the evening, when the light is low for four hours.
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Day I · Tue Jun 8
Flåm and the Aurlandsfjord
The falls, Aurland · 22:10 · f/11 · 1/4 s
Board at 15:00 at the Flåm quay. Cabins, coffee, a walk through everyone’s camera. We cast off at 18:00 and anchor under the falls for the first long evening. Dinner on deck at 20:00; nobody goes to bed on the first night.
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Day II · Wed Jun 9
The Nærøyfjord
Nærøyfjord · 05:40 · f/8 · 1/15 s
Up at 05:00 for the narrowest fjord in the country, 250 meters wide between walls up to 1,200 meters high, cloud lying in the middle of the rock. Afternoon off to sleep. At 23:30 the boat lies still on its own reflection.
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Day III · Thu Jun 10
Fjærland and the glacier
Bøyabreen · 14:20 · f/11 · 1/125 s
North up the Fjærlandsfjord to the end of the water, then a short bus to the foot of the glacier. Blue ice, gray meltwater, birch in new leaf. Back aboard for the print room: your first proofs come off the printer tonight.
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Day IV · Fri Jun 11
Balestrand at midnight
Balestrand · 23:48 · f/8 · 2 s
The wide middle of the Sognefjord and an old village of white and red wooden houses. The sun sets at 23:06 and the sky stays rose until it rises again at 03:58. Your best frame of the week, chosen tonight.
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Day V · Sat Jun 12
Out to the sea, home to Bergen
Low tide, Solund · 04:10 · f/16 · 30 s
For those who want it, a 04:00 landing on the bare islands where the fjord meets the open sea. Breakfast under way, and your matted print handed to you before we tie up in Bergen at 16:00.
The light
The night that doesn’t get dark
At Balestrand on June 10 the sun sets at 23:06 and comes back at 03:58. In between it never sinks far enough for the sky to turn black. Here is that night as one strip, eighteen hundred to six, the way Solveig printed it for the boat’s wall.
18:0021:0000:0003:0006:00
The boat
Twenty meters of oak, built in 1952
A wooden coastal boat rebuilt for eight guests: four twin cabins with blackout blinds, a saloon with a big table, and the print room aft. Arne skippers, Liv cooks: fish from the fjord, bread every morning, waffles at midnight.
- 8photographers, never more
- 4nights aboard
- 1print room, with a 17-inch printer and a mat cutter
Portfolio
On Solveig’s wall
Mostly the Sognefjord in June, one from a northern trip, and one of a past group at the rail.
Prints
Prints for the wall at home
Printed by Solveig on cotton rag, signed on the mat, shipped flat anywhere. A red dot means the edition is gone.
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Low tide, 30 s
30 × 40 cm, matted · edition of 25
Edition sold out
Your guide
Solveig Brekke
My father was mate on the Sognefjord ferry. The first photograph I liked was taken from his wheelhouse window at 00:48 on a June night in 1998, when I was sixteen.
That frame is still the first on the wall, and the first on this page. I studied photography in Bergen and then spent twelve years in Oslo as a printer, making other people’s pictures look the way they had felt. I learned more there about light than I did behind a camera.
In 2016 I came home to the fjord and started Fjordlight with Arne and his boat. The idea was simple: a week of the best evenings of the year, and a print at the end, because a picture isn’t finished until it’s on a wall.
Solveig
Past groups
Eleven Junes, eighty-eight prints
“I flew from Melbourne for five days on a boat with strangers. I came home with one print on my wall and seven friends.”
Claire D. · June 2025“I shot the whole week on my phone. Solveig printed my Balestrand frame at 40 × 50 and it holds up. I’m still surprised.”
Sam O. · June 2024“I’ve printed my own work for twenty years. Four evenings at her printer taught me more than all of them.”
Henrik V. · June 2025
Before you come
What to pack
- Any camera you know well
- Mirrorless, DSLR or a good phone. A wide zoom and a short telephoto cover the week.
- A tripod
- For the 30-second exposures and the long evenings. We have two to lend on board.
- ND filters, if you have them
- A 6-stop and a 10-stop for water and cloud. Solveig brings a set to share.
- Rain gear and wool
- June on the fjord is 8 to 18°C, and it rains some days. Rain is when the cloud does its best work.
- An eye mask
- Your cabin has blackout blinds, but the sky outside stays light all night.
- Nothing for the prints
- Paper, mats, ink and the printer are on board. Your print and its mat come home in a flat case.
Where
From Flåm to Bergen, by water
We board at the head of the Aurlandsfjord and finish 200 km west, where the Sognefjord meets the sea.
- Getting to FlåmFly to Bergen (BGO). The train to Myrdal and the mountain railway down to Flåm take about three hours, and are worth it.
- Coming homeWe tie up in central Bergen at 16:00 Saturday. Book flights from Sunday.
- TimeCEST, UTC+2. New York is six hours behind, Los Angeles nine.
Questions
Before you hold a place
Is this the midnight sun?
Not quite, and we’d rather be honest about it. The Sognefjord is at 61° north: the sun sets around 23:00 and rises before 04:00, but the sky never gets darker than a deep blue. The true midnight sun starts about 600 km further north. What we have is better light: low, soft and long.
What times are these?
Norway’s summer time, CEST, two hours ahead of UTC. Boarding is 15:00 on Tuesday in Flåm; we arrive in Bergen at 16:00 on Saturday.
Do I need to be a good photographer?
No. Past groups have had a retired surgeon with a phone, two working pros, and everything between. Eight people means Solveig is beside each of you every evening.
What if it rains?
It will, some days. The boat goes anyway, and the fjord is at its most beautiful with cloud on the walls. On a hard-rain afternoon we print.
How fit do I need to be?
Walks are short, the longest is 3 km on a gravel path to the glacier. You need to step on and off a boat from a quay.
What does the price include?
Four nights aboard in a shared twin cabin, every meal from Tuesday dinner to Saturday breakfast, the bus at Fjærland, and your matted 40 × 50 print. Not your travel to Flåm or home from Bergen. A cabin to yourself is $4,600.
How does the deposit work?
$900 holds your place. The rest is due on April 8, 2027, two months before. Cancel before then and the deposit comes back less $150.
June 8–12, 2027
Two places left
Like a gallery wall: a red dot for each place already taken. $900 holds yours; the rest is due April 8, 2027.
- 1 Taken · Ines, Lisbon
- 2 Taken · Tom, Denver
- 3 Taken · Mai, Osaka
- 4 Taken · Ruth, Edinburgh
- 5 Taken · Jonas, Hamburg
- 6 Taken · Priya, Toronto
- 7 Open · yours?
- 8 Open · yours?
$3,900 in a shared twin cabin · $4,600 for a cabin to yourself · your matted print included
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