Backwoods Bikepacking is all about sustainable outdoor life, preferably on two wheels. Follow me on adventures and assignments with my camera in the Norwegian forests and mountains.
I’m a biologist, a writer and a photographer. A book reviewer once called me a professional vagabond. I take that as a compliment. My love for the outdoors and nature burns so strong in me that I made it my work to show others that you don’t need to travel to the other side of the world to find adventure. Most of us can find it right at our doorstep. You just need an open mind.
When I’m not cruising around on the interwebs, I work as a Norwegian based authoor, outdoor magazine writer and public speaker. You can see some of my Norwegian work at the Norwegian website mikkelsoyabolstad.no.
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Backwoods Bikepacking 
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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Glad I’ve found your blog. Lovely pictures, great writing. Inspiring! Looking forward to following you. Cheers, Trien
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