The size of a marabou

Using contrasts in your composition, is sometimes a good tool to help you tell a story with your image. Contrasts can be used to enforce your punchline in the images as well. In these images taken in Ethiopia, I use different bird species (which actually are not that small) to give a scale that helps the spectatour to understand how big the marabou really is. It's one of the largest bird species on this planet. The upper one shows marabou and white-faced ducks, and the lower one is of a black-winged stilt and the marabou. The variation within the bird fauna never stops to amaze me.

-EG-

45 deaths per hour!

At this time of the year, about 2 millions of these animals are released into the wild Norwegian mountains without virtually any supervision. About 130 000 of them will never arrive home after the free ranging grazing season ends around September some time. That means that 45 sheep dies pr hour in the Norwegian nature during the 4 months ahead!

Norwegian sheep farmers blame the large predators like wolf, wolverine, brown bear, lynx and golden eagle for their big losses, but the thruth is rather different. The fact is that in 2010, about 35 000 sheep and lambs were economically compensated as killed by a predator by Norwegian authorities. Only about 2500 (1,9% of total loss) of these were actually documented killed by a predator. The rest is killed by deseases, broken legs, infections, rock slides, fly larvae invasions, plant poisoning etc etc...in other words - a lot of slow deaths and animal suffering!

Even though Norwegian government and nature management authorities (Directorate of Nature Management) acts like big predators are the main problem for Norwegian sheep farming, the reality is very different. Isn't it time that sheep farmers look at their real problem, and stop hiding what is really going on in their industry? At the same time, it is time for nature management authoroties in Norway to start mange their wildlife population based on biology and ecology and not purely out of a sheep farming industry false perspective. Large predators are not the reason why sheep farming in Norway is decreasing!



-EG-

Fluffy, white and cute

In March, I was attending the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research on a seal monitoring project of one of the most remote seal populations in Europe. The West Ice east of Greenland is for a few weeks each year dotted with harp- and hooded seals crawling up on the ice to give birth. It is both a fantastic and priveleged experience to jump from ice floe to ice floe between thousands of seals knowing that if the ice breaks or one miss judgement of falling into the crack between the ice floes and there is 1600 meters down to the bottom of the sea...Here is some harp seal (grønlandsel) pictures from the trip.

Only a few hours old, still drying off the blood from the birth.

One mistake of jumping, and 1600 meter to the bottom of the freezing ocean.

   -EG-

Forest Shapes

This photo was taken some years back. It is actually one of my favourites, even though it is never published anywhere else than on my own website and through my own presentations. To me, this image shows the habitat that Scandinavia is so well known for - yet at the same time so very much in danger of loosing as the forestry machines work its destructive way through Scandinavia's pristine forests. The picture is one that show endangered nature. The heavily lichen infested trees, means that this is old primary forest, and one of birds that is dependent of old forest to survive - the woodpecker.

- EG -



All photographers - let's work together!

As a photographer living of the images I photograph with my camera, it can sometimes be hard to accept the terms or price that buyers are offering. More and more often the terms are so bad, that I at the end decline the offer even if it means less money into the bank account. The last couple of weeks, this has already happened three times. I understand that the buyers run their own business, and they as well try to profit as much as they can. My problem is more that photographers seems to be the only link in the production of whatever product that there is an acceptance, or even expectation to get to work for free or virtually nothing. As little as the magazine editors expect to print their magazine for free, I don’t go to the local food store and expect to get my bread for free. I bet the editors themselves would never accept working for free. I don’t either.

Since everyone nowadays own their own digital camera, it seems that many people think that anyone can go out to make ”that” picture. That is not true. Taking high quality images needs a certain skill, and not the least time. To take picture of a certain animal or bird might take me days or even weeks of work before I get anything near an end result that I am satisfied with. Traveling to different locations, and keep my photography gear updated is quite demanding from my bank account’s perspective as well.

Unfortunately the trend seems to be buying photograpies for less, but I hope photographers can work against this by working as a team and clearly demand a good price for your images. Even if accepting a bad price or a bad term of condition for a sale might mean a few quick dollars into you bank account tomorrow, accepting bad conditions today will only bite you back in a few years when editors and other picture buyers expect to get images for less and less. Getting paid for an image will be virtually impossible, and photographers will be in the loosing end of it. It is no one but the photographers ourselves that can set the standard. I hope next time you have a potential sale, that you don’t let the thrill of seeing your image on print prevent you from demanding a decent payment for your work. Let's work together on this!

This image, I did take in Madagascar, not only one of the most interesting trips I have ever made - but also one of the most expensive. If someone wants to use this image, they should accept paying a small price for it, to help cover a fraction of my expenses of about USD 5000 I paid to be able to get to the location to photograph these endemic bugs.


-EG-