A Brief Encounter

Though the main purpose of this trip was to see and shoot the Black Grouse courtship activities during the peak of the mating season, the Swedish forest gave us the opportunity for a brief encounter with a nice little owl.

The Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus), also known as Tengmalm's Owl, it is said to be very shy and elusive, so difficult to study and apparently not as much is known of this species, vs the other owls.

Our chance to take a picture lasted just a few seconds, the time the owl popped out of the hole in the tree to check who was out there. Not much light at that moment so the photo is a little grainy, but still I am happy to have been able to shoot this nice nocturnal bird.

              560mm f/5.6 1/500sec ISO 800 +0.67

              560mm f/5.6 1/500sec ISO 800 +0.67

             560mm f/5.6 1/500sec ISO 800 +0.67

Another Nice Little Fellow

The thing I like about the tits is that they are usually going around in packs, many different species all together giving the opportunity to shoot different birds. And with them it's not unusual to spot also Nuthatches and Treecreepers. The Nuthatch resembles a small woodpecker and it's a very peculiar bird, especially for the way he moves on trees. In fact, it's common to see it "walking" down, head-first, along the tree side. Also, the way it poses with the head pushed out it's typical.

             280mm f/7.1 1/500sec ISO 400 +1

             280mm f/7.1 1/800sec ISO 400 +1

             280mm f/7.1 1/2500sec ISO 400 +1

             280mm f/7.1 1/640sec ISO 400 +1

             560mm f/7.1 1/800sec ISO 400 +1.33

             560mm f/7.1 1/400sec ISO 400 +1

                                 280mm f/7.1 1/1250sec ISO 400 +1

             280mm f/7.1 1/2000sec ISO 400 +1

             800mm f/11.0 1/640sec ISO 800

             420mm f/5.6 1/250sec ISO 400




Last summer I was able to shoot a different species in California. While the most similar to our European version is the Red-breasted Nuthatch – it just have a white area above the eye black stripe – the one I shot is the White-breasted Nuthatch. You can see it below.

             560mm f/8.0 1/320sec ISO 1600 +0.67

             560mm f/5.6 1/500sec ISO 1600 +0.67

             560mm f/5.6 1/640sec ISO 1600 +0.67

Searching for the Golden Eagle – Day 4 and 5

The time to leave has arrived. We are heading back to Skelleftea airport this morning and... yes it's a gorgeous day without a single cloud in the sky. Grrrr. Of course: when we are leaving it's going to be a beautiful day with perfect photographic conditions. Oh, well, that's how it goes.

Yesterday, on the contrary, it was the worst day, weather-wise. It's been overcast for the whole time, with really little light. Our last chance and hope to take good shots of the golden eagle was a little disappointing. Not because we didn't see the birds, but because it was very challenging to shoot them.

Since the early morning, our friends the woodpecker, the squirrel and the little birds kept us company until the eagles came.

             EOS 5D Mark II – Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM f/5.6 1/100sec ISO 2500

             EOS 5D Mark II – Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM f/5.6 1/160sec ISO 2500 +0.33

             EOS 5D Mark II – Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM f/5.6 1/80sec ISO 2500 +1

Yes, we had a decent number of visits, but the light was too bad. I shot anyway, but the very high ISO turned out to heavy digital noise that killed all the details in the pictures.

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXT@560mm f/5.6 1/40sec ISO 8000

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXT@560mm f/5.6 1/80sec ISO 8000 +0.67

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXT@560mm f/5.6 1/100sec ISO 8000 +0.67

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF200-400mm f/4L IS USM EXT@560mm f/5.6 1/50sec ISO 6400

In the evening, after another deliciously awesome dinner cooked by Catarina, we lived a 30-minute drama when we found out our Lufthansa flight had been cancelled because of a two-day strike. We got on the phone for a wait that seemed to last forever but finally we were able to change the flight going this time through Switzerland. It turned out to be a much longer trip, but at least we were able to find a flight.

Conny had offered to bring us to see the forest were Ally shot the Siberian Jay a few days ago and relieved then, after securing our flights, we got ready to go out for some night photography. The sky was now perfectly clear and we were looking forward to some nice shots in the forest.

The experience was great. The two-hundred-year-old forest, next to the icy river, was lit by the Moon and its rays were reflecting on the ice. No photo can really make you live the same way when you experience that in person. The view was fantastic.

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @17mm f/6.3 25sec ISO 3200

                          EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @17mm f/10.0 30sec ISO 6400

                          EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM @29mm f/11.0 13sec ISO 1600

It's time. We say goodbye to Ally and Conny as they go to the hide for another day, and we go to take our luggage.

The trip will be ok, apart still some problems with our luggage not able to fit on board the last Swiss Air very busy flight, but in the end we'll get home safe and sound.

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @24mm f/10.0 1/1600sec ISO 1600

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @40mm f/10.0 1/8000sec ISO 1600

It's been a very good experience, despite the photographic results a little below our expectations – you can't command Nature, it's part of the game. This "adventure" gave us the possibility to meet great people and to get to know a place where we want to go back. November is probably not the best time, light-wise, so next time we'll try to plan better, if we can.

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @24mm f/5.0 1/60sec ISO 800

We thank Conny Lundström for the help and guidance he gave us during this experience. He shared his 25-year experience as a nature photographer and his deep knowledge about those wonderful birds that are the golden eagles. His pictures won international prizes and have been published in famous nature photography magazines.

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @24mm f/4.0 1/5sec ISO 4000 +1.67

The European Lynx

I have always loved the lynx. It has a powerful and elegant look at the same time, and the characteristic tufts at the tip of the ears give this animal such a distinctive personality. It happened only once I saw one in nature, and that was actually a bobcat, in California, smaller than the species I am talking about here. 

Due to the difficulty of shooting such a shy animal in the wild, I decided to go to the Bayerischer Wald National Park in the Bavarian forest, to try and take some photos of the lynx under controlled conditions. As I mentioned earlier, I think this is a very good training field for the nature photographer, even though we can't certainly compare these to shots obtained in the wild after long and careful hiding and study of the behavior of specific animals in an area. At the same time, even in controlled conditions, getting a good shot is not straightforward and that gives a certain satisfaction when you get away with good pictures of the animals.

I had a couple of opportunities to shoot the lynx, even though both not ideal. The first time the animal was resting and that went on for five hours, until the light, after the sun set, got really too little to be able to shoot. The second time, after a four-hour wait, I was able to get a little more movement, but some of the action was first covered by some trees and then again the late hour and the cloudy sky made it tougher to take good shots. Despite all that, I am pretty happy with my first shots of the lynx and I am dreaming one day to be able to take some in the wild as well.

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/125sec ISO 800

              EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/640sec ISO 800 +1

        

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.0 1/320sec ISO 800 -0.33

            

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/200sec ISO 640

            

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/5.6 1/800sec ISO 800 +1

        

             EOS 5D Mark III – Canon EF600mm f/4L IS USM f/6.3 1/500sec ISO 640 +0.33