Mikkel Soya Bølstad is a Norwegian based outdoor magazine writer, author, photographer and public speaker. His formal education as a zoologist fuses with his background as an endurance athlete and his love for writing and photography to produce a unique blend. A regular contributor to Norwegian outdoor magazine UTE as well as the Norwegian mountain bike magazine Terrengsykkel, his published pieces range from urban microadventures to wilderness bikepacking and outdoor life with kids.
He published his first book, Vill glede (Wild Joy, outdoor life with kids), in 2013. His second book hits the shelves in March 2016, a book written in close collaboration with partner in crime Marius Nergård Pettersen. Their joint project about Norwegian microadventures have resonated well with the outdoor community, resulting in several public talks even before the book release. Alongside the microadventure project, Mikkel is working on a book about bikepacking in Norway in collaboration with the Norwegian publisher Fri Flyt and the mountain bike magazine Terrengsykkel.
Mikkel has given public speeches on venues ranging from Pecha Kucha nights to mountain film festivals and seminars, big and small.
You can see more of his work at the Norwegian website villglede.no.
Norwegian clients
Terrengsykkel
Magasinet UTE
Fjell og Vidde
Friluftsliv
Fjell
Snø & Ski
International clients
Sidetracked Magazine
Books
Vill glede, friluftsliv med barn året rundt. Gyldendal
Contact:
Mikkel,
Found you blog after your comment on ours regarding the GoLite SGL-5. Nice blog! Looking forward to following.
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Thanks for the comment, Brian. Looking forward to have you as a follower.
Mikkel
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Hi Mikkel, love the blog so far. Would you be interested in writing an article for Sidetracked Magazine? Send me an email if so.
Thanks,
John
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Hi John
I’m glad you like the blog! I will email you.
Cheers,
Mikkel
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Lovely blog Mikkel. Your writings and images are beautiful and give a delightful insight into part of the life you live on the other side of the world from me.
What camera are you shooting pics and video with, your images and editing are magnificent?
Steve
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Hi Steve
Many thanks for the very nice comment. Nowadays I mainly shoot with a Nikon D7000 with a 35mm 1.8 DX or a 16-85mm DX on trips (lightweight and pack a lot of bang for the buck). Editing is carried out in Bibble 5.x. By the way, we hope to go packrafting in Australia at one point (my better half partly grew up in Tassie).
Cheers,
Mikkel
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Your photography is amazing. What lighting are you using? It looks like maybe some of your photos with the sky are done with a polarization filter? The EXIF info in the images doesn’t say what cameras and lenses you’re using. Some of the photos look like they are done with expensive wide angle lenses. I would love it if you did a post about your photography techniques, using the images on your site here as examples to show the results.
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Thanks a lot! I might do a post about my photography one day. Unfortunately there’s no polarization filter involved. The equipment used is modestly prized, mainly a Nikon D7000 with a 35mm 1.8 DX or the 16-85mm DX. I did use a 10.5 mm DX fisheye on the night pictures from the hammock trip combined with light painting with a flashlight. I often use an SB-700 flash to give some fill on persons.
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Light painting with a flashlight! Brilliant! That’s the kind of solid gold photography tricks I’ve been hoping to learn from you! It’s obvious there was something different in the lighting in that photo, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. I will keep that trick in mind for the next opportunity to try it. I just bought a new flashlight that arrived this week, so the timing is perfect for flashlight lighting tricks 🙂
I have gotten one evening photo with similar strong blue cloudy sky. I’m not sure what causes that, but it shows up pretty frequently in one of my secret photography spots. It’s so vivid, it’s easy to assume that it must be some trick like a filter, but I’ve seen it happen naturally myself at low latitudes.
Norway is an amazing place. The location, the landscape, and the locals are all exceptional. It’s a good place for a photographer to make amazing photos, even from a family vacation 🙂
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I might not be the right person to learn lightpainting from, as this was my first attempt outside 😉
There was no filter involved, however. One trick you could try is to play around with tungsten white balance in the evening.
Cheers,
Mikkel
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Great blog, I’ll be back for more; I’m your new follower! 🙂
Hilsen Hanne i Bonn
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That´s great to hear, thanks for the follow!
I better put some new stuff out soon, then 😀
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Please do! 🙂
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By the way, if you understand Norwegian, I would suggest checking our more up-to-date Norwegian blog http://villglede.no
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Jeg skynder meg dit med en gang! Norsk gär bra det. 🙂
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Simply awesome photography you got here.
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Lovely outdoors photography! Glad to have stumbled across your site! =D
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Thanks for the feedback, Matthew, glad you liked it!
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