Another brick in the wall!

A bit personal this time – if I may…Since four years ago, I decided to try to be a fulltime wildlife photographer. A bold and risky thing to do you might say.  Most of the people I meet think it is virtually impossible to make a living from it, and some of them even discourage me to go further with the idea.

I have always had a reputation of being stubborn, and I always have felt an urge to do things my own way. This might not always be a good thing, but through the years it has certainly helped me to gain self confidence as the number of victories increased. Growing up with a huge fascination for nature, and birds in particular, I’ve spent countless days outside and this has slowly shaped me as a person. Money has never taken a big part of my mind. Being able to have the freedom to go where I want, whenever I want  and at the same time do what makes me smile every single day is worth more than what any money can buy.

However, I will be the first to admit that taking a career move into wildlife photography is not an easy thing to do. When I did the step, I knew it would take many years to build up the business. I needed to build it piece by piece and brick by brick, and work hard every single day to achieve my dream. Every time an article or one of my images is published in a magazine, it is a small victory helping me to believe in my dream. Last year (2010), I had my first exhibition and won a first prize in the world’s most prestigeous photography competition (Veolia WPY). This year has kicked off with my very first National Geographic article (Nordic version, 2/2011). A magazine that only a few years ago seemed impossible to have on the client list. To be published in it, only excisted in the deepest dreams of mine. National Geographic is arguably the most prestigeous magazine to be published in among nature photographers. I am happy to see that my business seems to improve every year.

I still have some distance to cover before I can call myself a full time wildlife photographer. But I have always believed that if one wants anything strong enough, one will achieve it in the end as long as you work hard for it and keep focused. At the moment, I live in a mixture of being a photographer and a fieldbiologist who designs and runs field studies for scientists. I will continue to build my business brick by brick, and the National Geographic article which is on sale now, I consider to be an especially important brick in my wall. To be a full time wildlife photographer is still my dream, and I’ve always believed that dreams are there to be realized - isn’t it?

Online version of the National Geographic article can be read here

This "snowy eagle" was photographed about two weeks ago from the hide to Smøla Naturopplevelser. Experiences like this make chasing my dream well worth every minute of the effort!

-EG- 

Shit happens!

So it happened again – a serious oil spill along the Norwegian coast. Last night - a cargo boat, in nice and calm weather, hit shallow water and parked itself on a skerry. It seems that about 500 tonnes of bunker oil might pollute our ocean. This accident happend in Southern Norway in the outer part of Oslo fjord, and basically in Norway’s only marine national park!


Despite this, I need to admit that, when the accident anyway needs to happen, the Oslofjord area is probably the best place for it since this area is realtively poor in nature quality and especially of relatively low importance to birds compared to the rest of Norway. It is however, extremely important as a recreational area, as this part of Norway is densely populated and has several of Norway’s larges cities close by. However, I was anyway shocked to listen to the news last night when the responsible authorities for minimizing damage (Kystverket) in an interview says that we can’t begin damage minimizing activities because it’s dark and we can’t see the distribution of oil on the sea yet. In other words, in ideal conditions for a clean up, with dead calm weather (only 7m/s wind from NE according weather forecasting service Yr.no) our equipment is not good enough to start minimizing damage because it is dark!?

Everybody seems to be happy with the northerly wind direction and that the serious oil spill drifts southwards away from our coast. This might be good for beach loving tourists and hut owners in the area, but not necessarily for nature. The largest concentration of birds in this part of Norway are pelagic species, and if worse comes to worst – the oil spill might even reach the shores of Denmark where huge amounts of seabirds flocking at this time of the year. The potential damage is enormous. I guess Norwegian authoroties once again prove that nature is not important, but rather that things are ok if they look nice from the outside.

I was perfectly aware that Norwegian oil rescue facilities was in a horribly bad shape, but this is more than worrying for several reasons. At the moment, there is a poilitical fight if Norway should or shouldn’t start oil searching activities in the Lofoten area – on the edge to the Barent’s sea and one of the most bird and fish rich areas in the world. Several threathened species have their core breeding sites in this area. This is the coast of Northern Norway where you barely have a day without gale force winds, and for several months of the year have no light because of its northern latitude! In other words, if an oilspill happens here, our autorities have now admitted that we have absolutely nothing to help minimizing the damage.

Norway wants to make enormous amounts of money on oil – but not spend ”pocket money” to assure that we can cope with an accident if it happens. In my mind, this is reason more than good to ban all oil activities in nature rich areas such as the Barent’s sea as we never know when shit happens!

The black-legged kittiwake (Krykkje) is normally one of the seabird species that get hit badly in oil spills. The species has shown a heavy decline the last decade all over its distribution areas.
 
 
 
-EG-

The Ferrari of Mammals

I have travelled all over the world in quest of seeing and photographing wildlife. However, there are a few species which in my mind stand out, and one of those is the leopard. Every time I see a leopard I get goose bumps all over my body – the adrenalin rush is intense! I have spent the last week in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Heavy rain this summer had made the grass very tall, thus searching for the elusive cat was more challenging than ideal. Parts of Kruger has the highest density of leopards in the world, and despite the difficult conditions this year - we managed to find five different leopards. We even saw a female with a newborn cub. Even though the leopard is rarely seen, it is actually widespread all over Africa and most of Asia. Maybe surprising to many, it is also fairly common outside the national parks. It is one of the very few predators in the world that on a regular basis kill people. Even so, the leopard is a highly respected and honoured animal, maybe strangely, it is in the areas it kills most people that it gains most protection.

The leopard is the master of all senses in nature. Stealthful yet large, fast yet silent, powerful yet gentle, camouflaged yet colourful, beautiful yet scary. It is the ferrari of all mammals. Please have a look at my images from last week, and you can make up your own mind.

A leopard crouching together, in hope of not beeing seen. I can just wonder how many times I've actually been watched by these intense eyes in the African bush....

















A young male leopard watching a nearby flock of impalas, and is ready to start its evening hunt. The impalas of course, have yet no clue about the spotted cat watching them.

















The leopard might look lazy and relaxed some times, but when needed, it shows the power and speed for which it is built.



















By coincidense, we came across this leopard. This female actually hides her newborn cub between her front legs as the image is taken. Unfortunately for the photographer, she never lifted her offspring high enough so it came clear of the tall grass so I could photograph the rare event.

Careful, silent and well camouflaged,yet still perfectly aware of the photographer - the leopard takes its risks because water is a vital resource also for these cats. A forest stream in the African bush, makes a perfect setting for the natural scene.



-EG-

WildNature.no featured in the best Nordic Nature photo magazine!

In the January issue of the Nordic nature photo magazine, Natur og Foto, there is an interview about me and a small portfolio from my work. Even though the magazine is only about one year old, with its 12500 prints it has turned out to be one of the most popular photo magazines in the Nordic (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and it is a real honour to be portrayed in such a high quality magazine!

The magazine can be purchased in magazine selling kiosks in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, or you can become one of the other 3000 subscribers at their web site: http://www.naturogfoto.no/

-EG-

Madagascar introduction

Madagascar has always been a dream of mine to visit. Because of its unique fauna and flora, and extremely high rate of endemism (species only excisting in Madagascar and nowhere else in the world), the country off the eastern coast of Africa is often referred to as the 7th continent. And it really is true, the wildlife here is fantastic and abundant depending that the right places are visited. The country suffers a lot from deforestation, but a few scattered forest reserves are protected and a good eco-tourism industry is now established.

My first ten days in Madagascar was spent working in the remote Kirindy forest reserve together with French and Malagasy herpetologists. I also enjoyed assisting a good colleague and friend of mine, who is currently doing some very interesting frog research here. To underline the uniqueness of Madagascar’s fauna, I briefly mention that during the few days we spent in the forest we found an incredible 4 probably new species to science never described before. This included three lizards and one frog. Furher analyses needs to be taken before final conclusions, but because of scientific publication matters I can’t publish images of the new specimen here on the blog yet.

Anyway, I will show you a brief introduction to some of the amazing wildlife we have encountered during the last week.

Fosa, the largest land predator in Madagascar. A bizarre looking animal which is the size of a small dog, and looks somewhat like a hybrid between a cat and a maarten. Except for in Kirindy, it is virtually impossible to see it anywhere in Madagascar. Needless to say, to be able to  photograph this species  was an amazing experience!
 
 

Giant jumping rat – a 1,3 kg rodent that was once widespread in Madagascar. The population is now restricted not only to Madagascar, but to Kirindy and the surrounding areas only. The nocturnal Giant jumping rat is now considered to be one of the absolute rarest mammals on earth, with a population of a few hundred only.
 
 

One of the few chameleons encountered so far on the trip. Chameleons usually becoming abundant after rain, but so far we only had three afternoons with rain, so the forest was still very dry on our visit.
 
 

We spent a lot of time searching for frogs, frog eggs and tadpoles. This is probably a member of the genus Aglyptodactulus.
 
 

When most people think of Madagascar, they also think of the acrobatic lemurs. These primates are unique to Madagascar, as well as abundant. Here is a Verraux sifaka with her offspring flying through the air...followed by a curious baby.
 
 

 

As you probably understand, the first ten days have given me some amazing photography oppurtunities, and I have a lot more images to show. As our travel plan includes visiting fairly remote places in Madagascar, I am not sure when I will get internett access next time. I promise I will try to keep the blog updated as far as possible.

-EG-