15 April 2011

The fieldseason is soon knocking on the door again, and the images from my last Arctic summer is bringing up some nice ”dejá vus”. Since the last update, a lot has happened in my photographic career with numerous publications national and international, winning the prestiogeous ”animal portrait” award in the worlds most prestigeous nature photo contest (BBC wildlife photographer of the year), exhibition and my very first National Geographic publication. The year 2010 was mostly spent outdoors, and very few days was spent in front of the computer. I anyway made time to start a blog, where you can follow my photoographic steps a bit closer than on this web site which slowly will transform into a more formal outfit.

                   


                   


                   


                   


         

30 September 2010

I’m not even going to try to appologize for the long overdue update. This year has just been incredibly busy out in the field with fieldbiology jobs, guiding and of course my own photography outings. Since January, I barely had a whole week at home. This means a lot of stunning nature experiences while traveling around in my beautiful and exotic country. Some of my work from May is shown in this update, and one of the things I will remember best from this year’s May is when a huge orca (killer whale) came playing side by side while myself was sitting in a small wooden boat just a few meters away! I challenged myself with my first underwater images trying to document the mating rituals of the common toad. Difficult, but fun! I also had a meeting with the critically endangeres great crested newt – an animal struggling to survive in Norway mainly because of habitet destruction. Since last time, I’ve also started a new blog – WildNature-live. I have put a link to this blog in top of this page. The blog will be more regularly updated with topics from my latest trips as well as facts and thoughts concerning nature and conservation related issues. You are always welcome for a visit!




25 April 2010

The last update from Japan show you some of the most charismatic species the country has to offer. The huge and colourful Steller’s sea eagle is high every birdwatchers ”must see” list when visiting Japan. These Russian birds migrating with the drift ice from Russia, and is considered one of the five nature spectacles in Japan. Another spectacle is the snow monkeys in Jigokudani Koen monkey park. These wild endemic monkeys has put on a luxurious behaviour of taking spa in hot springs during the cold winter days in the snow covered mountains close to Nagano. Even though they are wild, they are fed regularily by the national park staff, and thus is somewhat habituated to humans. I spent two days with this flock which count about a 100 or so individuals. Since they are used to people, its a really good chance to study their behaviour, and this turned out to be two of the most fun days on my trip. The different facial expressions, interaction between the animals and the ability to purely enjoy life in a Japanese onsen was very entertaining to watch. The true species name is actually Japanese macaque, and besides swimming in hot springs they are famous for the behaviour of having sexual courtship wihtin the same sex. A behaviour recorded in few other species than Homo sapiens. During February, I also got to visit northern Norway for a day to photograph the increasingly rare Steller’s eider. The species is on the Norwegian list of threathened species, and its future is indeed unsecure due to a strong decline in the population size the last decades. The last weeks have been spent in the pack ice zone between Svalbard and Greenland in search for bowhead whales – more on that in the next update. Now, its time to enjoy the spring that finally has arrived up north!




21 March 2010

Another update from my recent trip to Japan, earlier this year. My third reason for going to Japan was to photograph the extremely beautiful harlequin duck. Even though they are very common in Japan during the winter, it proved difficult and shy to photograph. My only half satisfying image is shown here. Even though I didn’t intend to focus on the whooper swan, the large gathering in Hokkaido is considered one of the four nature spectacles of Japan. One day, I came across a group of birds on an icy shore line which proved cooperative with me and my camera. The purity, beauty and size of these birds always impresses me. Another very impressive bird is the extremely rare blakinton’s fish owl. An owl, mainly living of catching fish in small rivers and streams in northern Japan and a small part of north eastern China. The world’s total population is estimated to less than 1000 individuals, and currently the only easy accessible place to see this extremely large owl is by a river in the UNESCO protected Shiritoko penninsula in Japan. The reason for its rarity is that it is dependent on old, healthy forest to find hollow trees to breed in. A habitat that unfortunately is dissappearing all over the world as we speak. Two birds catching fish just meters in front of me, made the two nights of waiting in minus 13 degrees celsius well worth the effort. The Japan trip was my first chance to properly test my new canon 7d camera. Together with the accurate autofocus, the quality of high iso shooting is one the things that impresses me most in this camera. The owl images are taken on iso 3200, 1/60s handheld.

15 February 2010

The year kicked off by a trip to Japan where I was booked to hold a slide show about Svalbard, and at the same time get the chance to do some long wanted photography. Japan has a population of 130 million people, but somehowe they manage to still preserve some great wilderness and to attract some of the most spectacular bird species in the Northern Hemisphere. I had 5 things I really wanted to try for on the trip. In this update, you see two of them. The first stop was the large flocks of hooded- and white-naped cranes in the very south of the country in Izumi. Having a flock of 12 000 cranes just a few meters in front of you makes it actually difficult to decide where to point the camera. This can be both frustrating and fun at the same time. Looking at the rare white-naped cranes flying against a setting sun, or hooded cranes fight for some space is an experience not to be missed! However, the most bizarre birding experience you can have in Japan, is probably near Tsurui where they feed the cranes with fish. This also atract some white-tailed eagles, which fight the cranes for free meals! The red-crowned crane was for 20 years thought to be extinct, until someone found 10 birds in a remote marshland. Today, thanks to the local government feeding the cranes during the winter, the world population is about 1000. A perfect conservation example! Enjoy the cranezyness of Japan!