February, last year, I visited northern Finland to design a photo-tour that I, along with Finnish photographer friend Paavo Hamunen, would lead this year. Emphasis was on birds but time was also included to allow for a little landscape photography as it would be a shame, I think, to come all this way and not to get a flavour of the frozen forests of the north. The last day was kept open in case of possible great grey or hawk owl activity. As was explained to everyone that came: imagine keeping to a strict itinerary knowing there were great grey owls in the area and not having sufficient time to photograph them?! Why, that would be a travesty!
Finland was going though a bit of a mild phase with temperatures around freezing which is considerably warmer than 10 to 20 below you would expect for this region at this time of the year. Never mind, there was still close on a metre of snow with more to follow and, as we found out, it worked in our favour when working with the local wildlife.
Our days were spent photographing black-bellied dipper, Siberian jay, landscapes, the magnificent golden eagle and the most stunning bird of them all - the great grey owl.
Just prior to the trip, Paavo had informed me of an obliging great grey owl that was resident in Kuusamo and we were treated to a number of incredible close-encounters on our first afternoon. Over an hour and a half was spent sitting in snow holes to make us less conspicuous which also provided us with a close-to-ground perspective. As I said, the relatively mild temperatures worked in our favour as I am not sure how much of the group would have coped sitting for so long if it were -20! It was a wonderful start to the trip with great images had by all of dipper, siberian jay and great grey owl and all on our first day, too!
As the light faded, rather than 'fight' the conditions I opted to attempt some slow shutter speed images. I'm pleased I did as I can't hep but think that these have far greater aesthetic appeal. At least to me, anyway.
The following two days were spent in Olli Lamminsalo's golden eagle hides and our clients were not to be disappointed with amazing views of both male and female birds. The highlight, however, was watching the male perform his rise and fall display flight just 100 or so metres away. it was quite breath-taking I can tell you.
With feeders positioned nearby, everyone busied themselves with shooting smaller birds as they waited for the larger quarry.
Eventually, the male made an appearance in near perfect conditions and, once settled, fed for a good 15 minutes.
More impressive display flights followed and on the second hide day the much larger female came down to feed.
Our final day was spent back at the dippers (you'll notice I don't have any dipper images here and that's because I obtained stronger images on my last visit and I was content with just being there - watching), shooting landscapes and, once again, attempting to improve upon our GGO images.
One thing we had all hoped to see is what Finns call "tykky" which is hard frozen snow, rime frost (mixture of mist and freezing temperatures) and windy conditions which are invariably found on fell tops. This is very typical of the region and creates amazing 'sculptures' but due to the storms that hit Finland a couple of weeks previous much of the snow had come down. However, there was still some tykky left on the summit of nearby Rukka fell which we were all thrilled to see and spend a little time photographing. I can only imagine how it would look under a blue sky or, better still, a full moon. Next year perhaps...
As if concluding the trip with yet more great grey owl experiences wasn't enough we were treated to the presence of my photography hero - Hannu Hautala. It was through reading an article in BBC Wildlife magazine illustrated with images by Hannu back in 1986 (funny how you remember, exactly, such moments) that had set me on the path to visiting Finland since 1999. Hannu is widely regarded as the 'father' of Finnish nature photography and it was his distinct style that set him apart. While others were concentrating on producing frame-filling images, Hannu was utilising Finland’s unique landscape and light by placing the, often, small subject within the landscape. I guess you could say he was at the forefront of contextual nature photography. His work has always been a source of inspiration to me and if you are not aware of him, do yourself a favour and seek out his images on the internet. Better still, buy one of his books! My particular favourite is To Everything a Season: Year in the Finnish Wilds.
Many thanks to the group for really making the trip what it was which is not all about the photography, it's also about the laughs (and there was much - especially on the snowmobile-sledge ride to the hides!), banter, conversation and the experiences you share with those around you.
Paavo and I will be doing the same tour over the following years so if you'd like to join us you can register your interest here.
