As you can probably tell from all my posts, I’m a polar guy. I love the Polar regions and feel right at home in these locations. This image was made by a number of fellow photographers, and I was waiting like a patient fisherman for this gigantic glacier to calve. After a short time, we heard a boom and saw this calving happening. I shot a dozen or show images quickly, and this was the best shot. Some of those pieces of ice are the size of a car. This was made on one of my trips to Svalbard.
This is an image I made while on one of my many trips to Svalbard. If you don’t know, Svalbard is located in the Polar Circle. It’s an amazing set of islands teaming with wildlife and amazing beauty.
On one of my trips to Svalbard, our group was following polar bear along the shores and some rocks. He was moving slowly and just wandering around while smelling. Eventually, he just got tired and decide to sit on some rocks. Doesn’t look very comfortable but he eventually fell asleep. I have made prints of this image and converted it to gold leaf. It.’s been a popular seller.
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If you are interested in seeing more work by Kevin Raber and purchasing his work for your own, please visit RaberEYES.com
Kevin also runs workshops for photographers all over the world at Rockhopper Workshops.
Kevin also has. A major website for all photography enthusiasts with articles, forums, tutorials, community, and more at photoPXL.com
Svalbard is another of those happy places for me. It’s located above the Northern Polar Circle. I have traveled to Svalbard every year except for a few during the pandemic. It is a group of Islands that team with wildlife and spectacular landscapes. I usually take a small ship with 12 passengers on this trip. However, things may be changing. I think 2022 may have been the last trip for me to Svalbard. It’s getting crowded. It was a few years back a place that only the hearty would visit. There were only a few ships doing cruises there, and life was fine, and the wildlife encounters were really special.
Now there are large cruise ships, hundreds of passengers thinking they are doing an expedition in floating palaces. All these extra people have stressed the wildlife as well as the eco-system. Because of this the country of Norwary is about to impose somemstrict regualtions on the Svlabrd Tourist Industry. These new rules will limit how many people can visit the region, how close to wildlife people can get and shut down certain areas that have been popular to visit. And, a few polar bears have been killed that got too close to tourists. That is not right!
In the past we had incredible wildlife encounters with wildlife that came to us. Now running a photo tour there is pointless as we have to be hundreds of yards away from the Polar Bear and Walrus. Like Iceland which once was unknown it is wall to wall tourists and big buses today. I haven’t been back to Iceland in years. This kind of thing might be good for the economy but it comes with a lot of issues.
What were once gravel parking lots are paved with room for tourist buses. There is litter everywhere, and vendors have food trailers there. Places that had didt paths now have steel graeted walkways. Places you used to be able to access are blcked off with ropes and no treaspssing signs. ANnd, even with all that people ignore the signs and go where they aren’t supposed to go.
Deaths among toruists have been numerous from falls and drownings as it seems many touirists don’t have an ounce of common sense.
I could go on and on but times are chagning, My workshop business will change too. I won’t be visiting these locations. The same for National Parks in America which seem to have the dumbest people visiting them. I’m sure you have seen in the news videos of stupid people trying to have their picture with buffalo and bisen only to get gored or trampled. So, I am going to change things up moving forward and doing less workshiop and thiose that I do will be far away from the crazies.
Stay tuned as I work this out and in the meantime enjoy these images from my last visit to Svalbard.
Please Visit . . .
If you are interested in seeing more work by Kevin Raber and purchasing his work for your own, please visit RaberEYES.com
Kevin also runs workshops for photographers all over the world at Rockhopper Workshops
Kevin also has. a major website for all photography enthusiasts with articles, forums, tutorials, community, and more at photoPXL.com
Svalbard has its own reindeer known as Svalbard Reindeer. They are smaller and have shorter legs. They are strange animals with big building eyes. Here’s one that was staring me down.
Please Visit . . .
If you are interested in seeing more work by Kevin Raber and purchasing his work for your own, please visit RaberEYES.com
Kevin also runs workshops for photographers all over the world at Rockhopper Workshops
Kevin also has. a major website for all photography enthusiasts with articles, forums, tutorials, community, and more at photoPXL.com
This was shot a few weeks ago as we traveled along the Austfonna Glacier. This Glacier is huge and goes on for hundreds of kilometers. Our plan was to travel along the whole edge of the glacier but we had to turn around. The glacier had progressed out by quite a bit and the tracks needed for navigation would have taken us through the glacier. It was good to see this glacier growing while so many others have been retreating.
This really is a site to behold and I felt privileged to photograph this magnificent wonder.
Please Visit . . .
If you are interested in seeing more work by Kevin Raber and purchasing his work for your own, please visit RaberEYES.com
Kevin also runs workshops for photographers all over the world at Rockhopper Workshops
Kevin also has. a major website for all photography enthusiasts with articles, forums, tutorials, community, and more at photoPXL.com
Seems that all animals like to take naps. They might have something going in that department. Who doesn’t like a nap? My cats and dog as nap specialists. Seems that Polar Bears are pretty good at napping, too. This napping Polar Bear was found in Svalbard on one of my many trips there. I was in a zodiac (rubber boat) and was safe. These guys are big though and as always when tracking any kind of wildlife, being quiet is so very important. Shot with a 400mm lens with a Nikon D810. I have a ton of Polar Bear images from numerous trips there. I have a sold out trip in September to do this trip again.
On every trip I make to Svalbard, I make a point to visit a place called Pyramiden. It’s an abandoned Russian Coal Mine City. The place is fascinating as it looks like one day they just closed the place and everyone left. I am working on a book and portfolio of this place. This image was one of those compositions that caught my eye. As you may know if you follow my posts I am very big into rust and abandoned things. The Russians are trying to clean up this place and they are tearing out pipes, wires, and such and all of this has just been left to rust in giant piles. Look for more from this place in the future.
I have made at least six trips to Svalbard. Svalbard is a territory of Norway in the polar circle. We normally board a ship there and spend at least ten days exploring the area. Part of the mission on the trip is to photograph polar bears. This is one Polar Bear we tracked for a while. You can search this site for Polar Bear and find more photographs of thse magnificent creatures.
Ice and more Ice. why do I like ice so much? This little ice formation I gound three years ago while photographing in Svalbard, Norway. We were cruising in our Zodiacs shooting glaciers when we came upon this piece of ice which was most likely from the glacier itself. I used a wide-angle lens and lower the camera close to the water to capture this image. I was supposed to go back to Svalbard this August for a workshop but that has now been canceled due to COVID.
Please Visit . . .
If you are interested in seeing more work by Kevin Raber and purchasing his work for your own, please visit RaberEYES.com
Kevin also runs workshops for photographers all over the world at Rockhopper Workshops
Kevin also has. a major website for all photography enthusiasts with articles, forums, tutorials, community and more at photoPXL.com
