Leaving for Finnmark - soon

Steller's Eider (Polysticta stelleri) is probably one of my favourite duck species. These beautiful birds breed along the Arctic coasts of eastern Siberia and Alaska, and last time I was lucky enough to experience them was during my Alaska trip in 2005. I spent seven days in Barrow, Arctic Alaska - smack in the middle of Steller’s breeding grounds.

This time I go for a week to northern Norway, Finnmark, where hundreds, maybe thousands, of Eiders roost before going east to their breeding grounds on the tundra of Siberia. I will also be looking for King Eider (Somateria spectabilis), and seabirds on the Hornøya bird island.

I will be leaving on Thursday and will try to keep you posted.

Stay tuned :-)

Grey Seal program

Would you like to see the progam about the Grey Seal and my Kjør book? Check it out on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux5ageJiSVo

Please note it is all in Norwegian!

The book about these amazing island is in both Norwegian and English. Please go to WildPhoto and send my an e-mail to get your copy.

On TV

Today I have been out on Kjør island to make a TV program about my book "Kjør - a haven for birds and seals". I was good fun and we saw more than 50 Grey Seals on the rocks. I was also happy to see that there was a lot of seabirds in the nature reserve, including Razorbills. The Fulmars were already in courtship.

The program will probably be shown on TV Vest in the UTE program on Wednesday 24th.

To get your copy and support my upcoming book please contact me on www.wildphoto.no

Good cover :-)

Good weekend

I have just started downloading some of the images from this weekend. I have been teaching a photography workshop together with the great artist Magnus Reneflot. Together we have guided 15 enthusiastic participants though amazing ice formations and challenging geometrics along the coastal rocks of Jæren. I hope everyone had a good time, and developed their photographic skills.

One step at the time...

Kenya in B&W

Yes I know it is not even close to Nick Brandt's amazing B&W photography from Kenya. Nevertheless, I was inspired and had a go at some of my own images from 2009. I think these might look good on the wall?

Nikon Norway and I am now, also announcing a workshop in Kenya in September 2010. If you are interested, give me a buzz.

This Wednesday I will have a talk in Oslo, on the BioFoto meeting there. Hope to see a lot of people. Friday till Sunday I will, together with Magnus Reneflot, hold a workshop close to home in Stavanger and Jæren. There is still two places left!!

How to - with the Nikon D3S?

Several times I've been asked about settings in the D3S menu, and how you can perfect the use of this great camera. For me, autofocus is essential, aiming to get the most accurate focus possible, in order to be able to concentrate on composition and exposure. Nikon has now released a so called "D3S Professional Technical Guide". You can download it as a pdf here. In this guide you will, among many other things, be presented with recognisable situations and the relevant settings used for these.

The D3S is very good out of the box and that is very important for me. If you would, however, like to perfect the camera settings this new guide might be what you need. Next time the Great Grey Owl emerges from the taiga forest you will be ready.

D3S Professional Technical Guide

Need to send large files?

I have found myself trying out different ways of sending large images to customers, but I have never been very happy with the solutions. FTP-servers and all kinds of plug-ins that shall make your life easier have just given me a headache. However, now I have found something I am very pleased with. The Norwegian made program Filemail is just amazing. It is easy to use, and it works very elegantly.

I have been using a free test version for a while, but have finally upgraded to a corporate version. This is giving me the opportunity to upload as much as 25GB in one load!!! The files will be available for my customers or friends for up to 90 days and there is no limitation to number of downloads. This is very good, but at the same time it is elegant.

I can administrate my own account. As admin I can specify a header and custom colours which will be shown on every page. These branded pages will also be shown to all clients receiving my uploads. I will also have access to detailed day-to-day upload and download statistics, summaries and a detailed view showing tracking data on all downloads.

I have also added my own upload-site as a link on my website. This site has been branded with the WildPhoto heading and colours. As administrator I can decide which filetypes are allowed to be uploaded from this page, and all uploads will be collected in an online filemail inbox. I will also receive an e-mail informing me about my received files. Very easy!

Filemail Desktop is a small application you can install locally on your computer. It is a desktop version of the website, with some extra features such as:

• support for sending folders
• drag'n drop support
• compression before sending

Filemail Desktop can be installed on Windows, Mac and most flavors of Linux.

The program is available in 18 different languages including Norwegian.

Check out Filemail at www.filemail.com

Swans...

Well, sometimes you just get caught working on a single subject for days, and that is when you start getting creative. During the last few days I have been working with a large group of Whooper Swans waiting for spring to arrive here in southern Norway. The sun has just started warming up, and the snow is melting, but the fields are still covered in a thick layer of snow. White bird (well almost...) on white snow is one of my favourite subjects to work with. I have been out in the evenings shooting in backlight and after sunset, when the light is soft and nice. I thought I should share some of the images with you guys.

Hope you like them?