Make a Memory with Me: a family trip to Norway

Before kids (and Covid) I used to travel almost every weekend, ticking off unusual European cities and unique destinations. Now I come with a permanent plus two (well three if you count my husband), so my ability and desire to travel has evolved, making the trips I do embark on really count. Picking a place or hotel to travel to is not dictated by its family-friendly options but I do want my children to be inspired, educated and accepted at the chosen location. 

Norway at New Year felt like a magical idea – cold and dark but wondrous. I’m always up for a challenge, which in this case was layering kids enough to withstand -13C temperatures (thanks Uniqlo Heattech), and taking multiple flights to one of the fjord regions of the country. When my oldest son’s Christmas list arrived at the start of December with “snow” on it, I became set on the idea and started researching flights to Oslo. 

I teamed up with 62Nord, a luxurious Norwegian travel company who offer curated journeys through the west coast of Norway. It has three contrasting hotels in the collection – starting with the most accessible, the Brosundet Hotel in Alesund, next venturing by water to the historic mountain escape Union Oye and finally a forest retreat at the elegant Storfjord Hotel. It felt like a triptych of hotels where the journey between was as exhilarating as the hotel stays themselves. Needless to say, I returned home with an overflowing camera roll and wanted to remember the trip with a tangible album of photos my kids could enjoy flicking through together. A Popsa Photo Book was the perfect way to compile and celebrate the holiday in print.

Capturing the trip

Visiting an epic new landscape is very overwhelming as a photographer. I have to remind myself to put the camera down sometimes and enjoy the visuals first-hand rather than purely through my lens. The remote regions of Norway in winter could not be more different from my everyday backdrop of busy, bustling London – and it forced me to be more considerate and intentional with the shots I took. 

We were lucky to encounter a furious snowstorm during our trip and the ground was soon coated in a thick layer of white snow. In the daytime (there’s only three to four hours at this time of year) the sky was mostly a dusty shade of pale grey – the lack of contrast in this natural palette was tricky to capture. I made sure there was a striking point of interest within the shot, whether that was my boys, in their brightly coloured jackets sledging over the hills, or a charming traditional hut looking stark and lonely in the distance. Inside the cosy hotels the lighting was entirely different – similar warm tones and dark, luscious materials. For the interior shots I focused on taking photos during daylight hours, relying on the natural light from windows and the glow from the giant open fireplaces. My kids playing games and slurping creamy hot chocolate in the historic Union Oye hotel was one of my favourite moments to photograph, and thankfully they were too fixated on their delicious drinks to move, which made it easier to get the shot!

Usually my main topic for my photography is food, static flatlays or appetising action eating shots. But in Norway the landscape was so arresting I found myself more interested in shooting nature – the stillness of the deep dark fjords and the majestic snow-covered mountains. I felt a need to capture the scenes exactly as I saw them to show the boys the proof in years to come – their excitement was so infectious and I knew it was unlikely we’d ever see snow scenes like this at home in London. Logistically, it was tricky to shoot outside because I was wearing multiple layers, gloves and trying to protect my camera equipment from the harsh weather conditions, but this challenge made the results even more rewarding.

Turning the photos into a Popsa Photo Book

Once we were home and the gloves, thermals and snow boots were finally packed away, I turned my attention to what to do with the hundreds of images I’d taken. Norway felt too special to live only on my phone, especially as so many of the moments belonged to my children, who experience photographs very differently to adults. I wanted them to be able to return to the trip easily, without scrolling or swiping, and to understand the journey as a story rather than a series of disconnected images.

I chose a Popsa Photo Book because the process felt refreshingly simple after such a logistically complex trip. Uploading the images took minutes, and I quickly settled on a clean, timeless layout that let the photography speak for itself. I arranged the book chronologically, mirroring the journey we’d taken, from our arrival in Ålesund, through the dramatic fjords by boat, to the quiet forest setting of Storfjord. Seeing the trip unfold page by page brought back details I’d already started to forget: the muted winter light, the contrast between wild landscapes and cosy interiors, and the sheer scale of the scenery compared to our small family within it.

I also loved being able to mix expansive landscape shots with intimate family moments – snowy boots by a hotel door, flushed cheeks after hours outside, half-finished mugs of mulled wine. Designing the book felt like a final act of reflection, allowing me to slow down, edit intentionally and give the memories a permanent home. It transformed the trip from something we’d done into something we could keep.

The end of the journey 

Though much of my working life is digital, my heart is still very much in printed pages. I have always owned a paper diary and my guidebook company Weekend Journals was set-up to inspire people to travel in the form of a beautiful, tactile, book. Creating my Popsa Photo Book allowed me to sort through hundreds of photos from our Norway trip that would have otherwise just got buried in my iCloud storage. I was able to select key moments and memories and arrange them into a wonderful keepsake that the whole family can treasure for years to come.