Category: Animals

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.

Beauty Camp

Grooming

My girls are attending a summer camp at the local riding school this week, and yesterday they had a beauty camp for the horses…

Stars, but no stripes

A lot of planning had gone into deciding the styling, and they were full of anticipation before camp started yesterday morning.

Grid

Together with all the other girls (and one boy) they spent the day grooming their horses and making sure that they did look their best….

Roses

The horses were patient throughout the whole ordeal…

Patience

As usual, more photos can be found on my Flickr set

Dressage training

The last post about Reppe Riding school activities are about the internal dressage training event.

The Dutch Frieser Lars van de Zuiderwaard in action

I got there a bit late so I didn’t get photos of everyone, but as always it was fun to watch riders and horses in action. The pace was much slower, so I had better time to select good vantage points for photos.

Lars van de Zuiderwaard and his rider in action….

The rest of the photos are found at my Flickr account

I hope that next time, I’ll something else than horse photography to write about…

Getting that shot

After the spring jumping competition, the girls at the local riding school found out that I could take quite nice photos. And apparently there is no limit to how many photos of themselves and their horses they can have, so we agreed to meet in the field on a sunny day to take some photos and have some fun.

Now, as any observant viewer may notice, the girls are riding without helmets and saddles. This was to get better photos, and I had not thought through the risks involved in riding like this.

Fortunately, the horses behaved properly…

Of course, I could say to myself that this was not my problem. In fact, I think I did… However, I also think that as photographers (amateurs and professionals alike) we have a responsibility to not encourage people into taking unneccessary risks just to get better photos, nor allow them to push themselves. And I know that I would never have forgiven myself for taking those photos if one of them had been hurt during the shoot.

On the other hand, I am not sure that I totally understand the real risks involved. Just as with the photos of Sigrid, I have seen a lot of photos taken where the riders are without helmet in far more risky circumstances than the soft field we were using… At least I have learned to review the risks next time so that I (and the subjects) don’t take unconscious risks.

We also found the time for some non-action shots. I noticed that one of the girls had the name of her horse tattooed on her neck, and it made for a striking image together with the horse.

And to see the connection that these girls had with their horses was touching….

And of course the mandatory portrait(s)…

Sigrid

One of the girls at the local riding school approached me some time ago to ask me if I could take some photos of her and her favorite horse. She is also a budding amateur photographer and I can see her improving almost from week to week. Therefore we agreed to meet at the riding school and take some photos. She even brought her father along to help me hold reflectors, flashes and the like.

We started of with some horseback photos:

By moving around on the fields, we found several nice places to grab photos.

After the fields, it was time for some other portraits.

Knowing the school well, she also had some great locations in the stable for photos

This shows that knowledge of the location is just as important as technical photography skills…

Captivity….

A loooong time ago, I wrote about my visit to the Kristiansand Zoo. I promised to write more about the visit behind the scenes, and here goes.

We got to visit the Siberian tigers in their cages where they spend their nights (well not into the actual cages, but at least inside the caretakers rooms. The tigers are part of a preservation project, where the tigers are mated according to strict plans to make sure the long-term health and survival of the tigers. There are about 350-400 tigers in the wild, and a few hundred in captivity.

A siberian female tiger
Sad...

When I posted these to my Flickr account I thought that was the best tiger photo, since the cage was not visible. A friend of mine however felt quite strongly that another of the photos were much better, since it captured the captivity better….

Captivity
Captivity

And looking through them both, I found that I agree. The second photo is more moody and captures the tiger in captivity far better… It just shows that the first impressions are not always the right ones, and that different interpretations leads to new ways of viewing…

To round it off I managed to capture a common squirrel monkey (most known in Norway for being the monkey of Pippi Longstocking. The monkey is a known thief and steals wallets, cameras and other goods from the tourists. We were warned to keep our pockets thoroughly closed 🙂

A master thief
A master thief

Vårspretten 2012

To all my English readers; my most sincere apologies. This post is for the horse jumping competition at the local riding school. It will be written in Norwegian only.

Oppdatering 06.05 kl. 20:10: Da er bildene fra dag 2 også ferdig og på vei ut. Regner med at alle bildene er lagt ut ca kl 21:00 (212 stykker). De finner dere her

Oppdatering 21:00: Da er alle bildene ferdig redigert og er i ferd med å legges ut her. Alle bildene vil være lagt ut ca. 21:30 (228 stykker). Enjoy!!!

Oppdatering kl. 16.45: Dagens stevne er nå ferdig, og jeg har begynt å sortere alle de 3000 bildene jeg tok i dag.

Hei alle!

Her kommer bildene fra Vårspretten 2012 ved Reppe Ridesenter.

Mens dere venter, kan dere jo kose dere med bildene fra i fjor: Dag 1 og Dag 2

Eventuelle spørsmål kan dere stille til meg på harald.wesenberg@gmail.com

 

Behind the scenes

A few weeks ago, I visited Kristiansand, Norway for a project kick-off. The evening activity was a visit to Dyreparken, or Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park. Since this was a private tour, we were allowed into some of the animal enclosures, especially in the tropical house.

One of the animals we could visit was the ring tailed lemur, a sweet little animal from the south end of Madagascar. Very curious and trusting, we soon had them eating out of our hands.

Got any food?
Ah, food

We also saw some rainbow lorikeets that flew free inside the tropical house. Watching them was a real display of sweet love 🙂

Colorfowl Couple

We also got to go backstage to the Siberian Tigers, more on that in a later post…