Campion

It had been a very beautiful day with warm sunshine and no wind. The sky was clear and temperature over twenty degrees centigrade. The sun was still shining but it was already on its way down. We were sitting on the porch thinking if we were gonna make a short walk with the dogs. The evening was so late that the courtyard was in shadow but half of the trees still enjoyed the warmth of the last sunbeams. We decided to walk to a small lake near us called Lake of Winterroute . The road there is really narrow and growing long grass. It goes snaking along high rock where we climbed to watch the sunset.  The cliff is surrounded by woods but the highest part of it is bold. Dogs were running wild in the woods because there were really interesting odors in the air. I love to watch the dogs when you can see how happy their are, no worries, just good times in the pack. I had taken my camera with me, of course, just in case. You never know what´s gonna show up! It can always happen that you meet a bear or a wolf! Although more likely is maybe a fox or a deer, but anyway. And this time we didn’t run into anything so amazing.

While we were sitting there and admiring the awesome evening, dogs were minding their own businesses and Kati said: Look how beautiful flowers! There were really beautiful Campions in yellow evening sunlight. They were glowing! I photographed them in a strong backlight.

When I checked the pictures from camera display I wasn´t satisfied. I changed the shooting angle a little bit to have weaker backlight. Neither this gave the feeling to the picture that I was thinking about.

Some more pictures and sun had already gone behind the horizon.  The moment was somehow special, everything went by pretty fast, in five minutes.

Finally when I made some basic adjustments and looked at the pictures in large computer screen they were better than I expected. I also made a study about the power of black and white vs. colour.

They both have their sides as you can see?
                                                                               

  

















                                                                                                                                                                                   

Olli

Photo shooting trip to Kuusamo

I planned the whole winter a trip to Kuusamo in Northeastern Finland.  My plan was to photo shoot  lekking Cappercaillies and Smews in the first open water spots surrounded by ice.  I had a picture of partly unsharp top shots in my mind of fighting Cappercaillies with a lot of action!! And of smews sitting on ice edge in soft morning light!  During wintertime i called my friend Olli Lamminsalo many times and asked about lekking and ice situation. Couple last times Olli answered that the lek is going on and ice had started to melt, welcome!! Eventually i bought flight tickets for this many times delayed trip. Flight tickets nowadays are cheaper than travelling by car! After this i started getting excited of the trip and began checking the weather forecasts. First warm weather prognosis changed to an early spring heat wave.  When i arrived in Kuusamo the temperature was 24 degrees centigrade. Quite summerly and hot weather but the landscape was still springlike with no leaves in the trees. 

The first day we built platform for a Hawk owl hide to shoot the bird at nest. When that job was finished i took heading to Cappercaillie hide.  That was a beautiful night with changing weathers and late night sunlight, lot of birdsong in the air and distant thunderstorm.

Unfortunately no lekking, no fights or females that night. Only one male Cappercaillie had his pale one man show.

Because the lek was so bland i decided to observe and photograph the Hawk owl at nest. The day was really quiet and not much happened.  The female was brooding and left the nest twice and once the male took a mole to the female. I spent nine hours in the tent hide sitting on a very uncomfortable, hard and low chair in hot sunshine. But the day was still more than worth it, really interesting just watching the female and taking few photos.

Next night i spent in my friends house in Kuusamo. Wake up at 3am and 45 minute drive to Lämsänkylä, near Russian border, to meet Olli Lamminsalo. We planned to make a half day hike to Iivaara hill.  The target was to find Red-flanked bluetail.  We were hiking and listening to the early spring symphony and just when we reached first hill top we heard what we were looking for, Red-flanked bluetail.  There were four males and at least one female at that area. We stayed there hiding in the bushes when we saw it. That was like an award of hard climbing when it hopped from branch to branch, just few meters a way  from us.

That was a dream start for the day which was planned to continue with Smew photo shooting in late evening light. I was in the Smew hide already at 6.30 pm. The evening was really beautiful with clear skies and really light, almost calm winds. The heat wave had melted the ice and waters were totally open. Smews had already left that part of the shore, so that wasn’t a success. If you try to photograph something i am afraid you will have to see the object. That minimum requirement didn’t full fill this time but i was still satisfied. I photo shot Gulls, Goldeneyes and Common sandpipers.  

That was a real all-round trip with a lot of photographing in different surroundings. Because I didn’t get much sleep during these four days i was tired but happy! 

Big thanks to Olli Lamminsalo!  

Olli