40 hours

Photographing has been my hobby for more than forty years. My starting time was very active but then little by little it waned... just to be started again some fifteen years ago. And maybe ten years ago it experienced a new renaissance. During these years I have been photographing  nature quite variously but however mostly birds and deers, also landscapes from time to time. Until now I have never been photo shooting wolves or bears. Then last summer I got an excellent opportunity for that since I met Niko Pekonen, a young photographer and nature entrepreneur, at breakfast during a trip to Kuusamo.  He has wolf hides in the middle of wilderness near Kuhmo in eastern Finland. We made a deal that I will visit his hide after midsummer or in the beginning of July. Finally I decided to go there in July after I had checked the weather forecasts and I had four days available for the visit. My plan was to stay in the hide for three days. Weather forecasts were really promising for that period, partly cloudy skies with few shovers and temperatures just below twenty degrees centigrade. Perfect.

I drove eight hours from Kirkkonummi in southern Finland to meet Niko ten kilometres from the hides. We met briefly and the last kilometres I followed Niko along the roads that were getting all the time smaller and smaller. They got so small and were in such bad condition that it was good to have a four wheel drive. Niko was even towing a trailer where he had his all-terrain vehicle and some slaughterhouse leftovers as bits for wolves. We parked our cars a kilometre and a half from the hide site. Last part of the journey we drove with his all-terrain vehicle through forests and swamps. Nice and warm weather had drawn millions of mosquitos and thousands of horseflies to the swamp. I have always said that there is no bad weather, only wrong kind of clothing. In this case to avoid insects, even it is not  the matter of weather, it worked well with long sleeves and pants with long legs and with a knit beanie. Disadvantage of this kind of clothing was that it made you sweat quite easily in the hot weather.

I settled down in the hide around three in the afternoon and Niko left with his vehicle. First couple of hours went fast chasing mosquitos and horseflies in the hide and same time watching the activity outside. The hide itself was not particularly comfortable, you can´t stand straight and the observer windows are really small and on inconvenient height. Luckily there was a bunk to lay down and straighten your body which helped a lot. After insect hunt I photographed ravens and a crane couple for a few hours until tiredness dragged me down to the bunk.

I was so tired due to the early morning wake up and the long drive. I didn´t fall in deep sleep and I woke up every fifteen minutes or so to take a look outside. Once again when I watched out I was totally awake in a fraction of a second with eyes wide open and heart beating.  A bear had showed up and it was sitting fifty meters from the hide in its own peace. My camera was ready for shooting and I followed the bear through it and photographed the magnificent animal in the dim night. That was an awesome experience to be alone with a bear in wilderness though in the hide.

The bear had its own activities for maybe half an hour and then moved on and went for a night swim. I stayed in the hide and watched carefully around to spot wolves. That night they didn´t show up but just before the sunrise the bear came back once more for a short visit.

The following day went by calmly, snoozing and sometimes photo shooting ravens and cranes. When the evening was getting darker I sharpened my vigilance and looked out almost continuously hoping to spot wolves. After a few hours of peace and quiet the same bear individual from  the previous night came back for one hour visit. It came well before the sunset. That was nice because when the sun goes down the light varies a lot. During the summer time in northern Finland when the sun barely goes below the horizon the angle of light is really gentle. Also the landscape was totally different in variable light which gave its special flavour.

I had intended to spend sixty hours in the hide but ended up being only forty hours because the temperature was rising so fast in the morning.  Because of the clear skies the temperature in the hide was going to be certainly fifty degrees centigrade. Even the partly cloudy and cooler previous day had risen the hide´s temperature way up.

I took my gears and other stuff and walked back to my car. Because of the early hours there were not so many mosquitos and horseflies. While walking I looked up to the sky and had thoughts over my session in the hide. I came for the wolves which I didn´t see, photographed the bear and spent hours in a tiny little hide in the middle of nowhere. That was an incredibly awesome experience. I felt that I was part of the nature watching wild animals in their natural habitat. I really hope that we will live so sustainably that it will last for generations!

Olli 

Summer night at a field

One beautiful, sunny and warm, afternoon I decided quite extempore to go to photograph deers and moose near my house. I took my tent hide, camera and a bottle of water and jumped in to my car. I drove a few kilometres south to an area called Böle. There I turned towards east on a gravel road which ends to the see shore. Before the road ends it passes a wide field area where snakes a brook surrounded by reeds. The bay is very shallow and the reeds grow all over the shore line too. The woods surrounded by these fields and the brook are mostly coniferous/evergreen but there are some verdant areas here and there. These leafy tree zones are mostly unmanaged and past the years heavier and heavier storms have ripped off the oldest trees with their roots or snapped them in the middle. I decided to check one of these areas before I´d choose the place and mount my hide. I turned to a partly overgrown old road and parked my car there. I grabbed my backpack and tripod and took heading to a verdant and dense area. I knew I could find fallen and decomposed trees there. I came across an animal pathway, along which I started sneaking closer to that area. I had only walked a short while when I heard a woodpecker knocking. That wasn´t the very loud noise that you can hear sometimes but much softer and more silent. When I approached the voice I noticed that it was a Black woodpecker working with a bark. What a pleasant surprise! I stayed  quite faraway and took some pictures, the light was a bit bad but I didn´t use my tripod not to frighten the bird away.

That was a good start for my photo shooting evening. The evening was just beginning, it was only 8.30 pm and I had well time to choose the next spot and set up my gears before deers and moose were on the move. Usually they come on open places like fields in twilight. I chose my place so that a hill behind the field and the setting sun shaded nicely the field. I hoped that the shadow and twilight would tempt the animals from forests. Unfortunately my hide was for quite a long time in the hot sunshine before the releasing shadow reached it. As long as the last sun beams warmed up my hide and its surface it was like sitting in a wasp nest.The buzzing was absolutely stunning. It was such a pleasure that all the hide openings were covered with insect nests. All the honeybees and bumblebees were enjoying the heat of the tent hide but luckily outside. While waiting the deers and moose to be photographed I heard some noise caused by breaking branches. I peeked through the back window and there it was, a handsome male moose staring behind me. Very carefully I released my camera from tripod and the insect net from the opening. To loosen the net made terrible noise and the moose noticed it.

I took that picture quickly and left it by it self and paid attention to the activity of the field in front of me. Pretty soon after that it started to happen there. Deers came first from their hides from the woods then the moose. And once again even it didn´t happen nothing special during the night it was so great just to watch. Those fine creatures were so beautiful when they were in the middle of their own bustle without any disturbances.

On my way back home I saw more moose on a field enjoying their dinner. The sun had already set down and the night was almost too dark to photo shoot, but anyway I tried and I think it was worth it.

Olli