Photo Walks and Travel Photography in Norway with The Justine Files

Justine, from The Justine Files on YouTube, is a Canadian photographer and content creator. While researching photography in Norway for a trip I’m considering, I came across her videos—and after watching a few, I knew I wanted to talk with her.

In this episode, we talk about where photographers find inspiration during creative lulls, her travel photography tips for shooting in Norway (spoiler alert: my idea for a three-week trip might be overkill), and what it’s like to organize a photo walk with strangers in a foreign country.

If you’ve ever felt stuck—or wondered what it’s like to photograph somewhere rugged, remote and wildly photogenic—this one’s for you.

Show Notes:
Instagram: @justine.files
YouTube: @JustineFiles
Substack: Justine

Photography in Norway
Norway Photography Locations

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00.29)
As I mentioned before about home blindness, I found that when I go on photo walks with a local, I help remove their home blindness by noticing things that they've walked past a thousand times.

Welcome to the Big Photo Hunt podcast, a show where we talk with aspiring and professional photographers to help us all grow and improve our photography together. I'm your host, Ken Deckinger. If you're one of our community members and you'd like to be a guest on the show, please visit bigphotohunt.com for more information.

Speaker 1 (00:49.206)
Last summer, my wife and I went to Italy for a little over three weeks. It was awesome. My wife and I can both work remotely. So we went to mainland Italy and then we went down to Sicily, ran out of house in the ocean. It was really cool. And I love the photography in Italy. So we were talking about doing another trip this summer and I yelled out, let's go back to Italy. You know, she's like, well, why don't we go somewhere we haven't been? And she suggested Norway. And I was like,

Norway? Norway? I don't have anything against Norway. I don't have anything against the Norwegians. It just hasn't necessarily been top of my list. I just haven't really wanted to go there. So I started to consider it and I was obviously very curious about the photography in Norway. So I start doing a little research. I come across this YouTube account called the Justine files.

And there's a woman, her name is Justine, and she's a photographer and she's traveling in Norway. And her videos are really helpful. And I'm understanding what the landscape is like, and I'm understanding the kind of photography there. Next thing you know, I'm like four videos deep and I say to myself, I got to have Justine on the podcast. And so that's my guest today, Justine from the Justine Files on YouTube.

We're going to talk about Norway. We're going to talk about photography in Norway. We're going to talk about photo walks and just how to organize them and how to find people to do photo walks with when you are traveling. Justine, I am so happy that you're here. How are you and where are you?

I'm good. I'm in middle of nowhere Ontario, Canada. It's raining outside.

Speaker 1 (02:38.798)
I remember you mentioned you live in like the forest and I was like, where is that? So it's in Canada in Ontario

Specifically, it's the Muskoka region.

I've been to Toronto and then I've to, is it Cremor? Maybe like outside of Toronto or something?

I was born and raised there. Okay.

Speaker 2 (02:59.732)
just like zoom out. Okay that's close to Barrie which is the in the middle point of where I live so however long you drive from Toronto to Barrie or Cremor and then drive the exact same length north and you'll hit where I live. It's a big region of cottagers and vacation people.

So Cremor at least, I've been up there, but Cremor was gorgeous. mean, with all the cottages and it was beautiful. Could we start with like, just tell everyone who you are and how you got into photography and what photography is to you and your whole journey there.

Sure. I'm a hobbyist photographer from Ontario, Canada. And I've been shooting since 2005 and it all started with a boy. So I didn't pick up a camera at first for art. There was a band. I had a crush on a guy in the band, of course. And I had a point and shoot camera. And as you probably know, point and shoot cameras in 2005 were potatoes and

That's where it started. Like every photo just looked like garbage. And I wanted to learn how to make my photos not look like garbage in the most challenging environments. So I didn't start taking photos in like the best lighting conditions. I started taking photos in the worst lighting conditions. And I think that was how my journey started and stuck because there's just rabbit holes that you can go down on. And yeah.

like I got my first DSLR around that time and it was the Canon Rebel XT. I still have it, it still works and then I paired that with the Nifty 50 f1.8 lens and that carried me through many years of concert photography and I don't think I kept in touch with the guy, the crush, but I kept in touch with the love for photography.

Speaker 2 (04:58.178)
and photography is something that has been through my life for so long in various stages of my life. I've stopped and started over and over and I think that's a very common thing that happens to a lot of people with their photography or their hobbies.

It is interesting about the whole start and stop thing, right? I'll see it with our members on the Big Photo Hunt where they'll post photos for like six weeks, eight weeks in a row. And then I won't see them for three months. And then they come back. And I get that way too. And do you think it's part of this creativity? Like what is that?

That's a great question. It can be driven by either inspiration from a person or a crush, or it could be driven or inspired by a point of travel that you had for two weeks. Like I traveled to Europe recently, and that brought out like thousands of images that I still to this day have to go through and edit and select the best ones. But you have this rush of like sudden

output that you want to share and it's so intense that you post every day and then when you get to the end or bottom of the pool you just go silent and it's because the Swedish have this saying called home blindness basically translates to home blindness meaning you get so you can't see anything remarkable in your immediate surroundings or your hometown and people stop posting or sharing photos because they're so

immune to whatever that's happening around them or so blind to whatever is happening around them. And so there's this feeling of like needing to travel to take photos or create content, so to say. And so that's why people can start and stop. And then I also mentioned earlier about the crush, sometimes people inspire us. We can meet people or artists or photographers that inspire us to make something similar or impress them or

Speaker 2 (07:02.264)
want to get their attention. And so a lot of creation of art comes from even just wanting to get their attention, you know, but in the process, the interesting thing is, is that, you know, the muse or inspiration can come and go and the core passion, task, action of making things sticks around. And that's ultimately what I hope, you know, happens when those kinds of instances come across.

I can also even be from watching movies, you go on a binge or watching like a series. And some series that you watch these days are so cinematic, they're so beautiful. And that can also evoke a need to also create and add your own spin to it. But then when the season or the series ends, you know, it's almost like mourning a friendship or mourning the loss of a loved one. And then you just kind of plateau a little bit, you need to kind of go back and marinate.

something else in the future. yeah, peaks and valleys, it's natural.

try to take that blindness off because I live in Boston, which is a major city in the United States. And I know people love it and they want to photograph the city. for me, am just completely, and I've talked about this before, I'm just completely bored by it. And I've forced myself to get out there and see it differently, but it's so hard. And I know it's cool. I know it's a beautiful city and there's so many people and things to shoot.

but I get so bored, so I totally get the travel thing. So I don't really enjoy landscape photography that much. I love like street photography. This past weekend, my wife and I were up in Maine. We're in Portland, Maine. We went out to this island called Peaks Island, which was, it's okay, it was an island, but it's got a rocky coast, like a New England rocky coast. And I was shooting. I was just like, this is terrible. And I just looked at one of those photographs yesterday. I was editing it a little bit and it actually came out really cool.

Speaker 1 (09:05.646)
And so now I'm inspired to go shoot more landscape. you know, you're motivated maybe by your own success in a way sometimes or something that feels right to you and then you can kind of get out there.

Totally, yeah. Landscape and street are so two very different genres of photography, but if you probably have seen my Instagram feed, there's a lot of forest photography and then there's also street photography. And I kind of had a little bit of a identity crisis, so to say, what kind of work should I be putting out? But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter as long as you find it interesting. You shouldn't really have to pigeonhole yourself into one type of genre just because it's...

what people think they want.

I agree 100 % and I'm not a great photographer, right? Like I'm learning. you actually, if you look at my work now compared to like a year ago or three years or five years ago, I mean, I've got years.

No, if you're not cringing at something that you posted a week ago, then you've waited too long, so...

Speaker 1 (10:05.026)
I cringe a lot. But if you look at my Instagram feed, there's just stuff all over. Because for me, it's just what I enjoy. And as long as I'm getting enjoyment out of it.

That's all that matters.

Let's talk about Norway.

Sure.

So I just don't want to spend three weeks in Norway if the photography is just not my style. so I, yeah. What's that? Is that a lot or a little.

Speaker 2 (10:28.238)
That you said three weeks? Three weeks is well, I mean three weeks is a lot and it's also very little. Depends on who you ask, depends on what you want. For me, so I've been to Norway three times and the past trip that I went on this past spring was four days. I know that sounds so short, but

The thing is that I don't have a whole lot of pay time off from my full-time job and so I have to, you know, make do with whatever time I have. I don't drive either. So I was doing this on a hard mode because Northern Norway, there's no public transit or there's very little frequent public transit. And so you have to drive. So when I went to Norway, I traveled around there.

with just guided tours and trains and buses. And I covered Northern Norway or at least Lofoten Islands in two days. I took a night train, an 18-hour night train from Stockholm all the way to Narvik, Norway. And it was a lovely, lovely train trip. But going back to photography, Norway is beautiful. You can't take a bad photo. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to be there.

for so long to take a photo of all the mountain ranges and all of its lighting conditions. I think the thing is people have a lot of expectations about the photo they want to take in Norway. And if you budget so much time there and you don't get that one photo, but that specific expectation and photo in mind, you'll get disappointed. So I think the trick of like being able to visit a place as beautiful as Norway and...

come away with some photos you're happy with and come away feeling satisfied is to lower your expectations. yeah, like combining the beauty of Norway with lowered expectations, it's a dynamite combination for coming away with like the most beautiful photos you'd want to print and put on your, in your home.

Speaker 1 (12:37.454)
I have zero expectations. I don't even know what is there. I know there's lot of trees and mountains. And I know that... So first of all, it sounds like we should probably go to some other Scandinavian countries, not to stay in Norway.

Yeah, I mean there's Sweden, there's Finland, but the most scenic of all Scandinavia is Norway.

And how was that night train? Cause I love night trains and there's a new one, the night jet. It's a new night jet with like these.

Capsule cabins? Yeah, I want to take that. I think that's through Vienna to Berlin and a few other routes. But yeah, the night train from Stockholm to Narvik, Norway was 18 hours. It's in a bit of an older train. I can't recall exactly how old it is, but I love like, I don't know. I've loved trains and sleeping on a train. That was my first time. And it'll be, it won't be my first time, my only time.

It feels like sleeping in a baby bassinet. you sleep well in cars, if you sleep well in any kind of moving vehicle, that's an excellent way to reach another city, like a whole other country too. It's above the Arctic Circle, Norway. And so you cross the Arctic Circle in the middle of the night.

Speaker 2 (14:01.862)
And you go from like no snow to like snowy landscapes in less than a day. Cool. Without driving. So that's cool.

I've been on a night train. I feel like I was in the south of France. It was a night train all the way through France into, it wasn't going into, I think it was going on the way to Amsterdam or something like that. And I think eventually I stopped and had to switch. I loved it. I love that kind of travel. I want to just talk more about the photography specifically in Norway, what people can expect. But you mentioned you've been to Norway, was it, did you say three times? Do you have family there or do you love it that much?

I may as well, I may as well have family there. I don't know. So I have a friend who I worked with in Canada and she moved to Norway during the pandemic. And I decided to visit her. so ever since I started visiting her, she's a really close friend of mine too. I just fell in love with the country and then went back every year since then. I don't know. I think it's just...

I think if you talk to anybody who has visited Norway, they'll say they love it. And it's hard to describe. You really have to go there to see it for yourself and experience it. think also I'm, I really relate to the culture and I guess the behaviors of Norwegian people, which is like really quiet, introverted, non-confrontational. They're really funny people too. And so like funny in a very like...

dark way. So I really identify with the people and just I love how everything just works there.

Speaker 1 (15:45.368)
I am not confrontational just for the record. I'm big. I'm actually physically large and I'm like six foot, about 230 pounds. like I'm a large presence, but I'm also like a large presence. I know that about myself. My point is that I'm not confrontational and I think that Norwegians would love me. Okay, so back to photography.

you

Speaker 2 (16:09.422)
You

It's a lot of landscapes. sounds like if you're traveling, obviously there's some cool travel photography. Maybe you want to, you know, the experience of the train, the experience of the bus to address your question about the car. Like we may have a car, we may not. I don't know. Right now this trip is not even happening because I had no idea if I wanted to go and I was stalling on it. And so that's why I literally searched Norway photography. And I'm like, I'm not going to a country if the photography is going to be me. And like, I don't know, just a bunch of like

trees, which it apparently is, but it's apparently beautiful trees. Yeah.

I mean, I think the mountainous regions are very specific areas. So there's like additional research you have to do to make sure you're not stuck in some place that's just something you could see in Boston. Catching also the correct season of to see Northern Lights. It's a puzzle in a game to determine where to look and where to see the good stuff, which is I think what draws me to Norway and what draws a lot of people to Norway.

I'm sold. You've got me sold. If my wife is listening to this. All right. Okay. Let's go. She won't listen to this, by the way. She doesn't listen to my podcast. Do you listen to my podcast, Jess? We'll see if she answers that. So one more thing I want to talk about with you is photo walks, because I know you went on a photo walk and you were there. Big fan. But I just want to let you know, I was in my quest to better understand Norway. I did a little research and I found some fun facts. So I want to just rattle a few of these off to you, because I don't know if you know these, but for me, I was really kind of pumped.

Speaker 1 (17:42.094)
to know this stuff about Norway. First one I found is that it has the most tunnels in the world. It has over a thousand tunnels. That's kind of cool. Norway is the first country to ban deforestation, which I like, that's good. Keep the trees, it's very important to me. And finally, we can thank Norway. Apparently, the idea of putting salmon in sushi,

Totally.

Speaker 1 (18:07.572)
was actually, did you know this? It was actually marketed to the Japanese to start convincing them to use their salmon in the 80s. And that's why we have salmon sushi.

Yeah, no sushi was primarily tuna based I think and yeah they they they met they met a Norwegian and said all right let's shake hands and give us your salmon. Amazing. I love salmon sushi more than tuna though so.

I like salmon, obviously love salmon, but I love tuna sushi. Have you been to Japan by the way?

Yeah, I've been there twice in 2019 in the same calendar year. I loved it that much.

Me too. I've been there twice. Loved it that much. I love Tokyo. I love Japan. People ask me what my favorite cities are. It's usually Paris, Tokyo, London, New York in that order. New York would be higher, but I live here. I lived in New York 15 years, so I feel like it's lost a little bit of its exotic flair.

Speaker 2 (19:01.514)
Right, you have to miss it for a bit before you go back.

Exactly. Let's talk about photo walks. I love photo walks. I had some questions for you about the photo walk that you went on when you were in Norway and would love to know like how you organized it because I think as a traveler going to another country, meeting up with another photographer is something that I have started doing over the past year and I've really enjoyed it and it has really helped me see a city differently and

taking me to places that I wouldn't have been able to go to myself.

Yeah, totally. Um, photo walks started out for me as a way to see a city through a locals eyes and also showing the local what I see as a foreigner through my eyes. As I mentioned before about home blindness, I found that when I go on photo walks with a local, I help

remove their home blindness by noticing things that they've walked past a thousand times. And it was also just like wanting to be curious about other people's creative approaches. For me, like I learn best by observing and also doing. So in photo walks, you're doing both observing and doing and taking pictures. They are also benefiting because they're seeing how I'm also approaching my photos if they're any good and

Speaker 2 (20:31.156)
I'm benefiting by observing how they approach a frame, composition, notice light, how they deal with bad weather. And also just in general, just it's good to connect with people and other human beings because so much of photography I've noticed is so on our phones and so consuming like first and not creating first.

And so I wanted to flip that around and put creating and connecting with people at the forefront in my photography and make the sharing on Instagram very, very low on the list. And that's why I don't even post that often on Instagram. And like how I really organize them, it started out with following certain YouTube photography creators and...

people who also can empathize and relate to lot of the struggles of YouTube creators and any kind of creation. I followed Instagram accounts that I really admired their work, but not just their work, it's also their personality. If they come across as someone with the same energy and vibe in their stories, in their reels, in their captions, their selection of...

photos and videos in your carousels. sounds like I'm like doing some weird CIA work, but you know, I, I'm evaluating that.

or you're just a creep and like everyone should just stay away but that's up to you I don't I'm not

Speaker 2 (22:07.79)
You know that you know, it's the unspoken truth that I think a lot of people don't want to want to admit is that we are evaluating each other online all the time and once I have evaluated Someone that I feel comfortable and safe with and I know that is like how do you even do that? How do you determine that? It's intuition and also just like instinct from my engagement with any of them Then I just say hey, I'm planning to be in Europe

on these dates, it would be great to meet up for coffee and a photo walk. And many of them, after I've built some kind of rapport or relationship with them online, agree and then it happens. But there's a lot of like pre-work that happens. You can't just cold reach out to somebody and be like, hey, I'm gonna be in this place, let's meet up. And I think that is really true in any kind of networking, whether it's getting a job.

landing a brand deal like it's not necessarily who you know, but who knows you as well and typically photo walks this is varies your marriage mileage may vary for me It's like about three to five hours can go on longer if you know, we have like a good connection But before we even meet up we set out a route and some photo clocks. We just walk we don't even have like a plan

In my last YouTube video with Rick Bebbington, he's a YouTuber and a photographer from the UK. He's from Manchester, but we visited London together and he had no idea where to go in London. I had no idea where to go in London. We just had like a route map from Alan Schaller's video about street photography in London and we based our route based on that. And it was fun too. It was fun to also go on a photo walk with someone who's also seeing the city.

with fresh eyes too. So it doesn't always have to be with someone who is a local and knows a lot about the place. So I like to change it up, but I'm very methodical and thoughtful about who I go on photo walks with because it's also social battery and social energy you are expending because it can be the first time that you meet them too in real life. And sometimes they can be nervous, they can be chatty, too chatty to the point where you're not even taking photos anymore.

Speaker 2 (24:30.612)
So it's like, it's a balance and it's also a, the photos are actually really secondary in photo walks, but it is a gateway to connection.

You just answered every single one of my questions. So thank you. The only thing that I was going to ask you and you touched on this is the idea about, are you actually able to take the photos you want and are you? Yeah. Okay. Cool.

It's funny, I like to think everything is secondary. There actually is no primary goal in photo walks. The photos are secondary, the friendship is secondary, know, the seeing the city is secondary. Everything is, again, the theme here is lowering your expectations. So if you lower your expectations in all three areas, you're gonna have fun regardless.

want you to know that for this podcast, I want you to have the lowest expectations. I get it. totally get it. You know, I, I agree with you. I love photo walks. The few experiences that I've now started like going to other countries or cities and reaching out to people. I've had a terrific experience and I do agree with you about the relationship. The people that I have for the most part connected with are actually big photo hunt members. And so in our little community, I've gotten to know them. They've gotten to know me.

And I think you're right on. It is about the vibe. It is about the ability to connect with someone. I also love, though, just going out myself, you going into a city and just going, you know, and taking the subway back to where I started or not and just get lost. It's a very like. It's not meditative, but it's but it's a very like, yeah, it's like a very like it's a very like it like like brings me back. It's experience to like be with myself and become.

Speaker 2 (26:25.186)
For sure, yeah, it's like taking your brain for a walk and you're taking your heart for a walk. it's not just, the goal is not always taking the photos. And I wanted to touch upon this real quick about solo photo walks because there is a little bit of like a debate going on in the comment section of my YouTube videos about like, photo walks with other people, that just sounds awful. And I get the whole lone wolf, you know.

like persona that people love to like, tout and or like wear like a badge of honor and that's totally fine too. But knowing myself, I know that if I were to try to go on a photo walk by myself in a city that I don't know, most times I would listen to my body and just go back to my hotel after an hour because I live such a sedentary lifestyle that like I would just.

give up after an hour, but when you have someone else to hold you accountable, you're likely to go through the entire five hours, eight hours photo walk throughout the city, see so much more, and you're better off as a result because not only did you have a great time with somebody else and saw a lot more, you didn't cave to your...

your tired aging body, you know? Because it takes so much to go across the ocean or go anywhere. Sometimes just leaving your house can be so difficult for some people. And I also want to like touch upon the accessibility of it. If you can't fly across the ocean, if you can't travel somewhere, you absolutely can go on a very fulfilling photo walk with somebody or by yourself if you...

Just hold yourself accountable. At the end of the day, it's accountability.

Speaker 1 (28:17.08)
I agree with everything. only thing I'm different on is the idea that I'll go out for an hour and come back to my Airbnb or hotel. I'll stay out all day myself. Yeah.

No, it's everyone's motivated differently. I need an accountability buddy. I am very lazy. And that was actually in the title of one of my YouTube videos was like how how photo walks cured my laziness and loneliness.

I'll go find that video. Just so you know, your videos are great because you're very authentic, but they're also like calming. No, it's like, sometimes some of these YouTube videos on photography and like all this stuff and there's some that are great, right? And, but you know, you get a video, it's like, here are the five things that I'm gonna tell you to do that you're doing wrong. One, you know what I'm just like, my God, I can't watch this.

Thank you.

Speaker 2 (28:55.125)
They're yelling at you.

Speaker 2 (29:09.706)
Yeah, I was very methodical and deliberate with how I chose to carry and edit myself on YouTube because I felt like there was this missing area where people can just watch a video and have a steady heart rate. feel like on a lot of photography YouTube and a lot of YouTube, everything's got to be fast edits and keep your attention and hook you in.

And that's great for retention and all those wonderful things to make money and keep the ads rolling. But sometimes people would really appreciate something that's calming, therapeutic, and feels like we're just chilling with a friend.

Yeah, but you also have a storyline and that there's always like a, there is a story arc, whether it's intentional or not. And that is also as engaging as quick cuts and know, things like that. so I think it's good. It's not like my style. I couldn't do that, but in a way that's what makes your videos you. They make them, they're yours and that's cool. Before we wrap everything up, I have three questions that I end.

every episode with you've probably heard this before. But before I do that, is there anything that I didn't ask or mention or something that maybe you feel like you want the world or at least people listening to this podcast to know? There doesn't have to be. You can say, no, Ken, there isn't. That's OK.

gosh.

Speaker 2 (30:46.702)
ooh, I think sometimes on photo walks, I come home with a great photo and sometimes I just come home with a clearer mind. That's all.

the silence. Speak for that.

Great, I love it. All right, three questions. I ask everybody these three questions at the end of the episode. The first is, what camera system do you use?

Sony. I used to be a hardcore Canon shooter. I still have some of my cameras from back in the day, but I am firmly planted in Sony and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. I'm a hybrid shooter, so I do video and photo and Sony does a great job for both.

Question number two, what's your favorite genre to shoot and why?

Speaker 2 (31:41.406)
I guess like trying to pick who your favorite child is. I think I would say street photography simply because it's accessible to everyone or at least anyone who's got access to street or cities and I just love how you can never take the same photo ever again. It's capturing the decisive moment.

and it'll never happen again.

And final question is on a scale of one to 10, how often do you get that itch to just get out there and shoot photos?

Oh gosh, it changes every day. But probably I would say, I would say nine is a reasonable, reasonable guess. Yeah.

It's respectable answer. Where can people find you on YouTube, online, Instagram, everywhere?

Speaker 2 (32:40.874)
Yeah, so on YouTube, I'm youtube.com/JustineFiles and on Instagram, I'm @justine.files.

And I want to thank you for your time and thank you for being here and for your insight. Really great to chat. If you're ever in Boston, you want to go on a photo walk and there is no obligation to call me. But if you do want someone to take you around or just want a friend to go get some lobster rolls or cannolis, look me up. I'm here and I'll take you around and thank you for being here. I really, really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (33:18.488)
Thank you so much for joining me for today's episode. Our next show will feature more valuable stories from our community members. If you'd like to audition to be a guest, please visit bigphotohunt.com for more information. Thanks again for listening today.