At the end of March I went back to Finland as I was running our annual Natures Images trip. I have run this trip now for five years and it is one of my favourite trips to run each year. Every year is different as well for this trip with a mouth-watering list of beautiful species to tackle. Not all of them work but that’s the beauty about Finland because when one subject isn’t working, another avenue opens up. Our main target is always to look for Boreal Owls but you just can’t predict these as some years they are elusive and others they seem to be everywhere. Everything seemed to click on this trip with opportunities all our main targets.
I have always used the services of Finnature for helping me run this trip as their local knowledge is so valuable. The great thing about using local guides is if something is not quite working there are alternatives. Our other main target was spending a few early mornings at a Black Grouse Lek which is always great fun.
There are a number of sites in Finland where you can photograph one of the most iconic raptors in these northern forests. I have spent many hours in these hides waiting patiently for visit from a Golden Eagle and even after all this time it is so exciting when one decides it is safe enough to drop in for a visit. It is the one bird that still gets my adrenalin going. This particular site in Oulanka National Park has never failed me really and we got lucky with a long visit for our first day. A great start to the trip especially for my guests as this was a top target for many of them.
Now Owls are understandably a top draw for this trip and this year was exceptional for one of the most fascinating the Hawk Owl. This really is a pocket rocket and proved difficult to photograph. It is quite hard to explain how fast these birds are in flight but a good comparison is comparing them to Puffins because most photographers have tried to photograph these in flight. Well I think Hawk Owls are about three times faster than a Puffin and it is actually very difficult to watch them with the naked eye. I was using Canons new camera the 1Dx MK II as they sent me one to put it through its paces. The auto focus was impressive and was successful for many of the attempts. What I was struggling with though was keeping locked on the bird so even tried manually focusing and then hitting the shutter once the bird crossed a certain point. Both where successfully so difficult to say which one worked best.
The one species that really gets people wanting to do this trip though is the chance of seeing and photographing the Phantom of the forest, the Great Grey Owl. I have been Lucky with this species in the past but again like the golden eagle it is such a privilege to see this wonderful bird. We tried throughout the trip to locate this owl but only managed one good sighting. One is all you need sometimes though.
The winter was quite mild this year and as we got further into the trip the warm temperatures was starting to melt the snow. Not what we wanted because the other target was to photograph Black grouse, especially in the snow. The warm temps continued but kind of worked into our favour because at night the wet snow would freeze again. One of our sites for photographing Black grouse was in a marsh and so the birds main Lek was like an ice ring in the early morning. Black Grouse dancing on Ice what a great experience.
I have photographed this beautiful member of the Grouse family many times now and it really is an amazing experience witnessing the males competing for right to be dominant at the Lek. I always like working at Lek in the early part of the season because I think there is more fighting as the males haven’t quite sorted who is the most dominant yet. This year was great to photograph them on the ice ring as I have never done that before. Very funny to watch.
So that was a selection of my favourite shots from our Finnish winter trip and after I stayed on in Finland because I wanted to try and photograph some of the countries apex predators. I spent ten days in a hide hoping to photograph Wolves in the snow but although I saw them on a few occasions I just wasn’t overly happy with the shots. It is a very difficult subject to tackle and although I was disappointed I enjoyed the experience none the less. I was also hoping to photograph European Brown bears in the snow too and went up to Martenselkonen a place I know well as I have been many times before. I had arranged another Natures Images trip and was meeting our guests but the week I spent in the hides I didn’t get any opportunities to photograph the Bears. I started to get worried especially as the trip got closer. I needn’t had worried though because it was only a matter of time before the bears started to show.
I spent ten days last winter trying to photograph the Bears in the late winter and only got a brief visit. This year though I was slightly later and so the timing was perfect with a number of bears visiting the feeding station. I think they look fantastic at this time of the year as they are in their winter coats and add them to this winter environment I think you can make some beautiful images.
The first night we just had one Bear turn up but by the last night I think we had six different Bears. My favourite was a large dominant male. Once he turned up the other bears gave way.
The great thing about working from one site over the course of a week is you can try different techniques throughout. Using longer lenses for closer portraits but also using smaller zooms for incorporating the environment of your subject too. Most of these Bear images were taken on the 1Dx Mk II and I was also really impressed with the ISO performance of the camera. I was shooting up to 6400 ISO and found very little noise in the image and the detail is so good. Unfortunately using it has cost me a lot of money as I have come back home and ordered one, don’t tell Liz though.
So there you go another month of my life spent in Finland I still have to pinch myself. I love Finland and will never get bored working here and I feel I have only really just scratched the surface. This was a new trip that we had put together for natures images and it really was such a great experience. If you have been with us during the summer then give this trip a consideration as it will really enhance your portfolio. I still have a couple of places left for next year so drop me an email if you fancy photographing these beautiful animals in the snow. Thanks to Petri at Finnature for all your hard work mate, you are a star. Also big thanks to Jani and Marku at Martenselkonen for making our bear trip such a special one.
