Discover Senja

Expe­ri­ence the Arc­tic in its purest form

For many years, Lofoten has been cel­e­brat­ed as one of Norway’s most pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tions for pho­tog­ra­phers, and with good rea­son: dra­mat­ic moun­tains, sweep­ing fjords, and pic­turesque fish­ing vil­lages. Yet in recent years, its pop­u­lar­i­ty has meant it can some­times feel a lit­tle less wild and a lit­tle more crowded.

Sen­ja, by con­trast, remains one of Norway’s best-kept secrets. Often described as a more majes­tic and tran­quil coun­ter­part to Lofoten, Sen­ja offers soar­ing peaks, sculpt­ed fjords, and breath­tak­ing coastal vis­tas – but with far few­er peo­ple. In win­ter, the island trans­forms into a true Arc­tic won­der­land. Snow is not just pos­si­ble here, it is almost cer­tain, blan­ket­ing the land­scape in pris­tine white and cre­at­ing the per­fect can­vas for photography.

Norway’s sec­ond biggest island is approx­i­mate­ly 450 kilo­me­tres fur­ther north into the Arc­tic Cir­cle and is affec­tion­ate­ly known as Nor­way in minia­ture. The south­ern part of the island and the areas sur­round­ing Stong­land­sei­det, Vester­f­jell and Vangsvik boast low lying gen­tle hills inter­spersed with long fjords pop­u­lat­ed by small fish­ing set­tle­ments and vil­lages. As you ven­ture fur­ther north in Sen­ja the land­scape changes dra­mat­i­cal­ly and it is this area where we will focus our atten­tion dur­ing this incred­i­bly excit­ing win­ter workshop.

Dur­ing our tour we will vis­it Ska­land with its views over to the mighty moun­tains of Bergsoy­an, Stien­fjord and Ers­ford­stran­da with its open beach that offers a per­fect van­tage point to pho­to­graph the dis­tant moun­tains. No trip to Sen­ja would be com­plete with­out explor­ing the plateaus of rock at Tun­ge­ne­set, where in the dis­tance we will see the omi­nous crag­gy spires of Oksen, Staven and Ram­nen as they jut-out of Eris­fjor­den, com­mon­ly known as ​“The Dev­ils Teeth”. Anoth­er ​‘must-see’ is the view above Bergs­botn from the switch­backs of the steep moun­tain pass. Here you can walk out onto the 44 metre view­ing plat­form that shows the vast scale of this island and its inter­lock­ing fjords.

Fur­ther south we take the road from Hamn across the high open plateau and over the moun­tain pass above Grylle­fjord where the almost ver­ti­cal sides of Sturen and Bukketinden drop abrupt­ly into the waters below. To the north our jour­ney will take us through the small town of Sen­ja­hopen and the tiny road that hugs the side of Mefjor­den end­ing at Mefjord­vaer. As we con­tin­ue north we explore the old fish­ing ham­let of Husoy where all its inhab­i­tants are perched on this tiny island with an array of dif­fer­ent coloured hous­es and breath tak­ing views north and south of Oyfjor­dan towards the grandeur of the Ytste Kon­gen and Skultran.

What makes Sen­ja different?

Along with the high moun­tain views and intri­cate series of fjords, the oth­er qual­i­ty that makes Sen­ja so dif­fer­ent from Lofoten is the vast swathes of stunt­ed and weath­ered trees that occu­py the south­ern flanks of the moun­tains. High in these moun­tains, snow is often pris­tine, and these trees offer count­less oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore min­i­mal­ist pho­tog­ra­phy in a land­scape that is not dis­sim­i­lar from Hokkai­do in Japan.

What makes Sen­ja so spe­cial is the sense of space and soli­tude. You can stand at the edge of a fjord with tow­er­ing moun­tains at your back and feel as though you have the whole island to your­self. The still­ness of the snow, the dance of the North­ern Lights across the sky, and the qui­et fish­ing vil­lages nes­tled in shel­tered coves all com­bine to offer a more inti­mate and reward­ing expe­ri­ence for the pho­tog­ra­ph­er. If you’ve pho­tographed Lofoten before, Sen­ja offers a refresh­ing new per­spec­tive. If you’re com­ing to Nor­way for the first time, it is a chance to expe­ri­ence the Arc­tic in its purest form — majes­tic, dra­mat­ic, and unspoilt.

Our Base:

For the dura­tion of this pho­tog­ra­phy tour, we will be based in the ancient fish­ing vil­lage of Mefjord Brygge, and from here we will explore no less than nine penin­su­las that exist tight­ly togeth­er, accessed only by moun­tain pass­es and a series of tun­nels. Around each bend, and through each tun­nel you expe­ri­ence a dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ment con­sist­ing of stun­ning fjord views with jagged moun­tains that rise out of the sea, and often nes­tled at the base of the moun­tains are tra­di­tion­al Nor­we­gian ham­lets with old red wood­en huts and jet­ties from which small fish­ing boats are launched.