Mist rising from the autumn forest, Rogaland, Norway
Canon EOS-1D Mark III, 500mm, f/4, 1/125 @ f10, ISO 200
The first rainstorms have now blown away the last colours on the trees in my part of Norway. We are going into a quiet time of the year with not much to do for a nature photographer. Why not take a trip abroad? I am leaving in a couple of days, for over three weeks to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic. We are going into winter in Norway but in the southern hemisphere it is spring. Still, I expect to get cold. This means the blog will not be updated for a while, unless I find some sort of internet connection on the way. I might be able to update you while I am on the Falklands, but don't expect too much. But when I get home on the 22. of November I will hopefully be able to present some nice shots from down south.
Great Tit (Parus major) in rowan tree, Hedmark, Norway Canon EOS-1D Mark III, 500mm, f/4, 1/1000 @ f/5,6, ISO 250
The rowan trees in Scandinavia have been filled with striking colours this autumn. I have previously presented an image of a Fieldfare from Finland in a rowan tree, and I thought then that this would be my autumn colour, picture of the year. Then I travelled to a meeting in the Norwegian Professional Nature Photographers Association (NN) in eastern Norway and to my surprise the rowen trees were still sparkling with colour. I found a tree with lots of birds visiting - Thrushes, Starlings and even Waxwings. After a while a small flock of Tits landed in the tree and started to search for insects on the branches. I waited for quit a while before one of the birds enter the isolated branch with berries I had been focusing on. Yellow birch leaves filled the background. The visit to the branch was swift, but I managed to shoots some frames. This picture of a Great Tit (Parus major) have to be my autumn picture of the year, or is still not over?
Pouring rain, Norway. Canon EOS 1-D Mark III, 500mm, f/4, 1/250 sek @ f/4, ISO 500
I have spent some time trying to photograph the elusive Red Deer during the last weeks, but it has been a real struggle. I haven't been able to get close to the rutting males, and the weather has been challenging to say the least. Pouring rain can make some really nice pictures if your camera ISO levels can stand being pushed up, but the animals never showed when I needed them to. Some short sightings on long distances have been my only decent result so far.
Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) female on the horizon, Norway. Canon EOS-1D Mark III, 500mm, f/4, 1/500 sek @ f/4, ISO 200
I am a big fan of northern nature and I am very lucky to be living where I am surrounded mostly by the habitats I treasure the most. There really isn’t anything comparable than a real and wild boreal forest untouched by human activities. Fortunately we still have some such places left in Estonia, where it’s impossible to see anything human. The paths in such a forest have been tramped in by wild animals that move around their territories using the same trails their ancestors have done for many centuries. In such a place I really feel as a guest and act accordingly.
Wandering around in old growth forests usually elevates my spirits and I start to see things I generally miss. It’s really an eye-opening experience. The most fabulous of this all is that the deep woods are a thing in itself, but as a bonus there is abundant wildlife that can really make me feel that I am a sharing this experience with someone who is able to appreciate it all in similar fashion. To see a wild creature in a place like this gives me a positive charge that I use, when I have to work inside behind a computer. It seems that nature photography is becoming more and more an office job. But this cannot be helped, because if I wish to make people see what I am seeing and experiencing, then I have to get the images out of my computer and onto others’. Only then can the experience be shared and protected. Working inside is a good opportunity to plan the trips I am about to take. This kind of planning usually has a downside. More often than not I get so obsessed with such planning in my head, that I abort all the things I had to prepare behind a computer and rush out to the places I thought of visiting the next days or a day after that. These places are just too powerful to resist, when they start going round and round in my head. But this was not something I wanted to bore You with...
Ural Owls – my best companions
The Ural Owl used to be my nemesis. For the first time we met I was just waiting for my first SLR camera to arrive and therefore didn’t have anything to record this meeting with. I guess I don’t have to point out that the first meeting was photographically perfect – the perch, the light, the environment. After this first meeting, the Ural Owls became my obsession, cause I tried hard to find them, but they always eluded me.I took me several years and not until the winter of 2006/2007, when the vole population dropped to very low and suddenly Ural Owls started popping up all over the places I visit regularly. To my amazement one was holding a territory in one of my favourite places of all. So I started visiting her, as it turned out she was a female. At first she was very shy and did not allow me closer than 30 meters. But on one cold January morning when my car’s thermometer showed -31, I found her perching high on an aspen tree. I walked by under the tree and decided to stop and just stand. After an hour my mind was becoming occupied with thoughts about leaving, because I was not dressed for waiting, but for walking and therefore I started to feel the cold. The Owl had done nothing so far, she was just perching peacefully and letting the sun warm her. Suddenly she took off and glided down and smashed into the snow just 7 meters from where I was standing. She caught a vole out of the blue. Because she was so close I did not get any sharp flight shots but got some when she was on the ground. From this day on we were mates.
I shadowed her for who knows how many days during that winter and was able to locate her nesting site come April. The Ural Owl is considered a fierce protector of the nest, which it definitely is. I have seen this on numerous occasions towards several species – even the Black Woodpecker got a whipping – but not against me. It’s probably because we became friends before the nesting season started. I have watched this amazing female for almost three years now. Now I am longing for those days in spring, when I sit on my tree platform (I don’t need a hide) and wait for the male to deliver prey to his family. The female and her young are my daily companions. And of course the forest is amazing there, really old growth pine and spruce trees. I hope she is doing well and we will meet again in the coming spring. During the winter of 2007/2008 I did not catch her doing any daytime hunting, cause prey was abundant and she got about her business in the dark.
I feel very lucky to have gained such a friend deep in the forest. People and nature can co-exist and do so in harmony. Sadly the animals have seen a lot of bad publicity about the human race in the past. This publicity has been done by some bad people – for example shooting Owls for fun, to get a nice stuffed Owl to make their home look better. Well, I think the Owl looks much better where it is supposed to be, instead of hanging over a fireplace. I suppose such days should be over. I hope the human race will get some better publicity in the future and after that we would be allowed deeper into nature to see the amazing events than happen there daily.
Sea Gull in flight, Norway Canon EOS-1D Mark III, 70-200mm, f/2,8, 1/20 sek @ f/22, ISO 50
I have adopted a term called "Art by accident", and I find myself referring to it ever more often. Of course all photographers can do a mistake and suddenly end up with a very appealing image, but creating art from accidents can easily be further developed. By using special lighting, long exposures and moving camera and/or subject can result in some very interesting images. Whether it can be called art or not is pretty much up to the creator. If I accidentally have the wrong setting on my camera and get a interesting shot I don't call it art, but like for this Sea Gull image I spend a lot if time trying to get something special. I ended up with more than 400 pictures from this session, picking out 64 that were appealing. I like to call this art... at least it looks good on the wall.
The next post on my site will be an article by the highly talented Estonian photographer Sven Zacek. Keep updated!
Vikedal River with smoke from the fire, Rogaland, Norway Canon EOS-1D Mark III, 17-40mm, f/4, 1/20 sek @ f/22, ISO 100, Hoya polarizer
This weekend I had the pleasure of hosting a workshop on nature photography at Hjortefestivalen (Red Deer Festival) in Vikedal, Rogaland. 13 enthusiastic participants attended, really making me stand on edge with lots of good questions. The workshop was partly technical, with all the typical questions on how the camera works, but also included an inspirational part with tips on how to work with nature. Perhaps we can do this again some day?
Mist rising from the autumn forest, Rogaland, Norway
