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 -



Night creatures

The first month of the year, I have barely touched my camera. Office work and planning the year ahead has unfortunately taken most of my time. It is a bit ironic that when you try to make wildlife photography a living, one need to spend at least half the time behind a computer preparing and promote your images. During this frustration, it is good to look back at images and field trips and remind yourself that life as a photographer is pretty nice afterall.

About exactly a year ago, I returned from one of my most exciting travels I've ever made. Madagascar is a treassure for those that are interested in nature. During my visit there, I did a lot of nightspotting and this was the first time I tried seriously taking picture during the night. As anyone that has ever visited a rainforest knows, it is a very different world that appear after dark. Well worth exploring - so is playing with lights, and I found that often you get a much more interesting image just having a strong torch instead of using the flash. Here are some of my first nocturnal rain forest images.

A fossa is the largest land predator in Madagascar. Only maglight used to enhance the predator look.

A Brokesia, one of the smallest chameleons, that is flashed from behind.

This is one of the rain forest's most saught after creatures, a satanic leaf tailed gecko. As its scientific name Uroplatus phantasticus indicates, it is really a fantastic experience to see it!

A snake swimming, only showing its head to navigate. A strong torch as the only light source.

For this beautiful chameleon, I've used a combination of a strong torch from underneat/behind and weak flash from the front. I wanted the colours in the moss that hangs down from the branch to be enhanced through some backlighting.



-EG-