Finland in Winter: Golden Eagles and Landscapes

Booking: Bookings are now closed for this ongoing or past event.

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Date: Sun 21st Jan - Sat 27th Jan 2024
Price: £1,975.00
Deposit: £395.00
Group size: 6
Tutor / Guide: Robert Canis and Paavo Hamunen
Location: Kuusamo, Finland.
Duration: 6 nights
Cost includes: All transport within Finland including airport transfers. Breakfast, packed lunch, and 2-course evening meal. Single/double room occupancy. No single supplement is required. No discount for couples sharing.
Cost excludes: Flights. You will be advised which tickets to purchase. Circa. £450. Alcoholic drinks at meal and leisure times. The possibility of an additional fee of approximately 40 EURO total for a visit to a nearby reindeer farm and snowshoe hire.
Accommodation: Set in the heart of a remote, snow-covered forest, we will be staying in a very spacious and comfortable log cabin. There will be WiFi! and everyone will have a room to themselves, and although not en-suite, there is plenty to go around including 3 bathrooms and a sauna with showers. I absolutely love it here and I am sure you will, too!
Fitness level: Moderate. You must be of reasonable fitness and mobility, capable of walking up and down slopes (and snow-covered steps) for extended periods in, potentially, very cold conditions. Should you suffer from knee and/or ligament complaints then you must advise me before booking so that I can judge whether or not I feel this tour is for you. This is as much for your benefit as it is for mine and the group as a whole.
Sunrise / Sunset: 9.30 / 3
Experience Level: Intermediate upwards. This is a tour and not a workshop where the emphasis is on getting you to the best locations for photography. Paavo and I will, however, always be on hand to offer any advice you may require and there will be two image review session
Equipment needed: A full checklist will be given nearer the time but the following will give you an idea. Wide-angle through to telephoto. A lens in the region of 400mm will be required for the eagles and smaller birds with, possibly, a 1.4 / 2x tele-converter. It might be worth hiring such a lens though this is not essential, especially if you have a fairly high (30 MP and above) resolution camera where you can always crop later in post-production.
Booking: Bookings are now closed for this ongoing or past event.

If you would like to hear first about future events, including early access to NEW workshops, click here to subscribe to Robert's monthly newsletter.

Join me on this 7-day wildlife and landscape photography tour to northern Finland to photograph the iconic golden eagle and mesmerising frozen 'tykky' landscape under a full moon. With ten years of refinements, this, we believe, is the ultimate Finnish winter experience. Don't miss out on what promises to be a trip of a lifetime! 

Mid-winter in Finland is a very special experience. Silence, deep snow, golden eagles and unending views of snow-laden tree-covered fells leading all the way into Russia combine to make this a photography experience like no other.  

At 65 ° North, our base will be a large log cabin situated in the forests of Kuusamo in northeast Finland. Renowned for its dramatic landscape, wildlife and most of all its frozen, snow-covered trees known as tykky, on this 7-day winter wildlife and landscape photography tour, Paavo Hamunen (whom I have known and worked alongside for 25 years), and I will take you to the best locations that this very special region has to offer. 

Among other things, what makes this trip so special and unique (the only one of its kind) is that the dates have been chosen, specifically, to coincide with a full moon so should we be presented with clear skies, moonlight landscape photography is very much a possibility as is a rising, or setting moon above a winter-wonderland landscape. 

Tykky: Frozen forests of the north
Due to the proximity to the Baltic, freezing temperatures and extreme snowfall, each year fell-top trees take on frozen, mysterious shapes known by the Finns as tykky. A sight-to-behold phenomenon, you will be escorted by a snowmobile to the top of Kuntivaara fell which lies just 1 km from the Russian border.  

Conditions permitting, we hope to also visit another exceptional location for tykky which we will access on foot and, perhaps, take snowshoes enabling us to fully explore without the fear of falling up to our waists in the deep snow!  

As this is both a wildlife and landscape tour, from large, heated (and they are very warm - trust me!) hides we will capture the iconic golden eagle and while waiting for this magnificent bird to appear, smaller birds including siberian jay, siberian tit, woodpeckers and squirrels which we will tempt in to within just a few metres of our telephotos.  

Highlights
All-inclusive
Image review sessions
Experienced guides and tuition from two professional photographers
Small group size of just 6
Winter wonderland landscapes
Full-moon opportunities
Tykky: Frozen sculpture-like trees
(As featured in David Attenborough's Green Planet!)
Golden eagle from heated hides
Dipper and forest birds
Reindeer
Accommodation in a spacious log cabin
Delicious 2-course dinners

To be confirmed nearer the time, we'll endeavour to visit a nearby traditional reindeer farm where portraits and action photos can be obtained. It's a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to get close to and photograph this iconic animal of the north. 

We will, also, visit a river set in a beautiful landscape to photograph the numerous, and very confiding dippers that frequent this stretch of water. This is great fun where amazing pictures can be captured. In 2019 we even photographed otters from a distance of fewer than 20 metres!  

Dippers are creatures of habit and will return time and again to a favourite rock or stretch of river enabling us to experiment with long exposures. 

And, while there, should you wish to have a break from wildlife, wherever you look there are numerous intimate landscape opportunities. 

Finally…
Thank you very much indeed for considering this tour and should you have any questions - however small or insignificant you think they might be - then do drop me a line. I’m here to help and provide you with an incredible experience!

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Workshop info

Thank you for dropping by and considering attending a workshop. I love nothing more than to pass on to others the knowledge I have gained over the last 30 years as a professional photographer and 15 as a workshop and tour leader. My group sizes are always small ensuring a fun and friendly group dynamic, lots of 'personal space' in which to photograph without too much fear of others getting in your way and as much tuition as you would like or feel that you need. I hope you can join me!

Although under the 'umbrella' of Workshops, please note there is a difference between the three types that I offer. To avoid any confusion, please see below.

Workshops

Those taking place in the UK are classed as Workshops where learning is the primary aim, and in the case of those which are multi-day residential, very often include image critique and post-processing sessions.

Tours

Overseas trips are classed as Tours where the logistics are all taken care of and where the emphasis is on getting you to great locations at the best time of the day. Since these may include hide photography and working in cold, windy conditions where one-on-one tuition isn't practical, these are less hands-on. However, prior to the hide session or upon arriving at a location, I will give advice and suggestions on composition, lens selection and exposure.

Creative Visions

Creative Visions is a new concept that I have designed to specifically nurture your artistic growth. They can take place in either the UK or abroad combining both workshop and tour principles. There will be critique and post-processing tutorials and, most importantly, you will be encouraged to go beyond the record and representational and instead produce more intimate creative interpretations.

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