A Few Images from Svalbard and Northern Norway with Muench Workshops June 2016

pathfinder

I recently spent a week in the high Arctic, from Svalbard north to the Arctic ice pack, and around northern Norway near Vardo and HORNØYA ( http://www.hornoya.com/about/ ).

As I begin editing my images I will post some of them here for comments and suggestions for improvement.

We had few days of some sunshine initially, but we also had a number of grey, overcast, foggy days typical of the high arctic summer.

We saw poplar bears, walruses, several varieties of seals, blue whales, and puffins, arctic terns, and kittiwakes galore.

Since exploration of Svalbard is ship based, you don't sneak up on polar bears, you park the boat near an ice field, and wait for them to come near the boat, sniffing and exploring. They did this several times for us, initially first visible with 10X binoculars, but if one was patient and a bit lucky, they would come much closer to the boat. There are lots of videos on Youtube of polar bears crawling aboard 30-40 foot sailboats and exploring the deck and doorways. Our ship was too large for them to crawl aboard, but they did come down for a look at us just the same.

Far off - at least a kilometer away or more


Closer


Closer, from a zodiac, of a female bear tagged by researchers



Some auklets flying low in the late arctic sunlight. The sun never sets in the summer time at 80 degrees N latitude' indeed, it never was lower than 2 fists above the horizon all night long. We frequently slept during the high noon hours and were up and out all night long.


There is a pristine beauty to the high arctic, that is quite alluring. I really love the beauty of the light when the sun is shining through thin clouds onto arctic ice and mountains.

This is a 13 fr pano of a glacier in Svalbard to illustrate what I am referring to


I love catching arctic terns in the air as well


I have more images here - https://pathfinder.smugmug.com/Travel/Svalbard-and-Northern-Norway/ - and I may add more in this thread as I continue to edit frames if folks are interested.

Andy was our Muench Workshop guide and things were done to his usual excellent designs. Our Norwegian guides included Ole Jørgen Linden and Eirik Grønningsæter on shipboard, and Bjarne Riesto at Hornøya - all were superb, knowledgeable, helpful, and quite skilled photographers.. I recommend them highly.

Tony Britton

Congratulations on these technically and artistically superb photographs. Extremely well done.

Tony

Stumblebum

Great set Jim! bow
How fortunate to be able to experience something like this! Congrats!
My 2 small nits would be that on first one, I would have got rid of bottom 25% and crop above the first horizontal gash. Those foreground lines are getting lots of attention but not sure if they are contributing positively and the bear is reduced to a spec.
On second one I would crop just below the sky as it is so small, that only creating distraction in my mind.
Cheers!

pathfinder

Hey Taz, thanks for the comments.

Regarding the first image, I specifically chose to include most of the frame as I wanted to emphasize just how small the bear looked in the landscape. Indeed, one had to actively study the landscape at 400mm to even see the bear that the folks with the 10x42mm binoculars were describing. Ole would sit up on the bridge and he could see ( he said ) several bears moving about, but they were literally more than 2 clicks away, and not a photo subject.

I do agree that the bear gets lost in the first image, and that was indeed my intent.

Cropping out the sky in the second image does not let one see the upper edge of the glacier clearly identified. I can go either way there I think. Thanks you for your comments, I truly appreciate the time and effort for you to make them.

I found this trip to have some pretty challenging conditions for shooting - frequently the light was very low - I was shooting arctic foxes at ISO 6400-10000, and my lens was only f5.6 at 400mm and was way too short and way too dark, and we were in a pitching zodiac shooting handheld of a running subject just barely visible to the naked eye. I loved the few sunny days we had, but most were foggy and dark and forbidding.

I would really have liked to have a 500 f4, or maybe my 400 f4 DO, but airline travel, arctic clothing, and everything conspired to make me take my 100-400 f4.5->5.6 V II - a very nice sharp lens, but not the best tool for shooting in very dark conditions - at least in my hands.

Andy

Brilliant, Jim! It was great shooting and traveling with you on another adventure! Next stop: Grizzlys

pathfinder

I'm already packed!

pathfinder

I have a few more images processed now, mostly of birds from Svalbard or Hornøya


gannet in flight



Cormorant grooming
[img]https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/Svalbard-and-Northern-Norway/i-FPRSN5D/0/X2/cormorant eye on Hornøya -9954-X2.jpg[/img]


Eiders on the ice



Oystercatcher in the late sun




Cormorant again
[img]https://photos.smugmug.com/Travel/Svalbard-and-Northern-Norway/i-w6sgWtJ/0/X2/cormorant portrait on Hornøya -0512-X2.jpg[/img]

tshaddick

Great images, love the birds.

pathfinder

Hey thanks, I just got back from British Columbia where I was photographing a few Grizzlies. You have some great images on your website.

I have a few puffins from Hornøya also