Ole Martin and the sea gulls

The third post from my recent trip to Flatanger (after the white tail eagles and the sea gulls on a black sea) is about the great fun we had while looking for eagles.

Seagulls galore
Seagull following the boat

We had a constant stream of seagulls following the boat. They served as an alert to the eagles that we were around and to us as alerts that the eagles were inbound (the change in behaviour was noticeable when the eagles were inbound).

The seagulls did not hesitate in grabbing whatever they wanted…

Thief!!!

Watching Ole Martin of Norway Nature with the seagulls was very entertaining. He knew exactly what to do to get great shots, and he posed willingly with the seagulls.

Time for coffee!!
Stay away from my cup!!!
Cannot be just coffee in this cup…
Scouting

I didn’t know that seagulls could be such great photo opportunities… Check out the rest of the photos from Flatanger in my Flickr sets for eagles and seagulls

Seagulls on a black sea

While out photographing white tail eagles last weekend together with my friend Jon, we had some time in between the eagles. Our guide, Ole-Martin from Norway Nature, is also an experienced photographer, and he suggested that we took some photos of seagulls on a black sea.

Reflections

I was curious to see how we could do this, as most of the photos I had taken so far did not get the black sea I was looking for.

However, Ole Martin knew the perfect spot and soon we had the seagulls taking off and landing near the boat, making it possible to get that velvet-like black feel and with great reflections.

Reflections and bow wave

Also, as they landed, the seagulls got great bow waves that caught the light and made them stand out.

Reflections and bow wave 2
Reflections and bow wave 3

The take-offs also made for great photos

Take-off

 

White Tail Eagles

Last weekend, I got to photograph something other than horses. It was the third weekend in a row where I could really go out and enjoy my photo hobby 🙂 Together with my friend Jon Leirdal and some colleagues from work we travelled to Flatanger to spend the weekend photographing wildlife. We got to photograph a lot of different wild life and in this first blog post I will show some white tail eagles. I have photographed birds of prey earlier in a park, but it was something else to experience it in nature

We spent some hours in together with Ole Martin Dahle of Norway Nature where he took us around the habitats of the white tail eagle to see if we could catch them fishing. We got to see a lot of eagles, and they came quite close to the boat.

We would see the eagles soaring in the sky

Once in a while they would discover fish in the sea and dive in to retrieve it.

Discovering fish 1
Discovering fish 2

There was a lot of fishing to be seen, so I got a lot of practice. It was a technically difficult shooting, since the boat was constantly moving in the water and the eagle was unpredictable in its behaviour. So I have some thousand out of focus shots as well 🙂 Also, check out my flickr page for more eagle shots

Catching fish 1
Catching fish 2

For the technically minded people out there, these shots where taken with a Canon EOS 7D with a 70-200 lens, using mostly manuall settings (except focus).

Check back later for some photos of seagulls. Never thought they could be so photographically funny.