In June 2002 – over nine years ago – several of our family traveled to Norway to visit the home of our ancestors on my father’s side. It was a wonderful trip – planned for us by a travel planner from Norway who knew her way around the country and gave us the insider’s guide on what to do, where to stay, and how to enjoy our travels.
Our first stop was Oslo – where we spent a couple of days before heading over to Bergen and then, via high speed catamaran, up to our family’s homestead at Loftesnes just across the bridge from Sogndal on the Sognefjord.
While reviewing my portfolio of digital images earlier today, I stumbled across this image of The Monolith in the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, shot using my first digital camera – a Kodak DC290. This camera had a sensor with 1.5 megapixels of resolution – “hot” for its day! When I re-discovered the image this afternoon, I loved the strikingly simple composition with, in particular, the young boy in the lower right hand corner with his hand raised toward the Monolith.
I post-processed the image using both the Nik and Topaz tools in Photoshop – striving for a striking yet smooth image. This version seems to work. It captures the beautiful work of Vigeland and his sculptures with just a bit of extra energy from that young boy expressing his delight. I wonder who that young boy is and where is he today – almost ten years later? I’m sure he remembers the striking impact of Vigeland as I do.