A long boat ride from Longyearbyen, Svalbard sits an abandoned city that was once a thriving Russian coal mine. I have visited this location on just about every visit I have made to Svalbard. It’s an incredible place and is a ton of fun to photograph in. This is an image from the community center’s music room. I’ll have more images from this amazing place in the coming weeks.
Wow, what a trip. I’m now home from Greenland. I leave again on Monday for another trip but today I wanted to post some photos from our first day of the trip. Before we left Svalbard we had a day to explore. I photographed Walrus and Arctic Fox. These images are just two from an amazing session shooting these fox. There were five of them and one caught a bird and took off from the others. These little guys are amazingly fast. I shot these with the new Sony a9 and 100-400mm GM lens. Auto-focus was amazing and I set the camera on manual at 1000th sec. the ISO was set on auto. This method allowed me to freeze action and allowed the ISO to vary for the light.
On a visit to Svalbard in the northern Polar circle is a giant ice cap and during the summer there is melting and run off. Sometimes the run off opens a hole in the face of the ice pack and you get these giant waterfalls. Called Austfonnain case you want to look it up. This was made with a long lens from a moving ship. Nikon 810 with 80-400mm lens.
I have had the chance to photograph Polar Bears several times and they are just magnificent animals. On one trip we pushed way far into the ice, turned the engines off and drifted for a few days and let the bears come to us. Sometimes we had a few bears around the ship. They were as curious as we were. This is a bear who was quite active. He was jumping between chunks of ice. Shot with a Nikon D800.
A few years ago I made my first journey to the Svalbard area in the Artic Circle. It was my first opportunity to photograph Polar Bears. And, it was an experience I won’t forget. I have been back several times and have loved photographing these incredible animals. The Polar Bear though is in trouble for numerous reason. I have spent time learning about this and making friends with a number of experts on the topic. This image I think tells a story. It expresses well what is happening. The bear is at the edge of the ice looking off and this symbolizes what the bears are facing. Shrinking ice packs and with it a challenge for them to survive. I call this image Polar Bear On The Edge. I think the bird at the top really adds to the image.
I have been playing wit this image for a while. This a shot of a ship that was wrecked or beached in Svalbard, Norway. It has all the things I like, decay and rust in a beautiful setting. I shot it at the angle I did to utilize the lines of the boat in the composition. This was made with a Nikon d*00e and a 24-70mm lens.
When visiting what I cal big sky locations I find myself enjoying shooting panoramas. These are multiple images that are blended (stitched) together in Photoshop. This image was made just about ten days ago in Svalbad. It was shot handheld and was 14 images that were stitched together. Made with Nikon D800E and 24-70mm lens.
Hard to believe that a week ago I was in winter clothing exploring the northern polar regions of Svalbard, Norway. What an amazing trip and I worked with two different groups of the nicest people on the the trip. I was an instructor along with Peter Cox for the Luminous-landscape – Rockhopper Workshops my day job. We saw amazing sights as well as some real up close encounters with wildlife. On our last day we found 2 Arctic foxes playing and we were able to shoot hundreds of images. This is one of my favorites. It just draws you in. Shot with a Nikon D800e and the new Tamron 150-600mm lens. I can’t wait to make a print of this one.
Walrus are incredible animals. We hear about these creatures in story books and such. To see these animals up close is a real privilege. We were lucky on one of our encounters with the walrus to have a curious group. They provided many photo opportunities . This shot is of one walrus as he surfaces to check me out. Only a few feet away.
This is sight that one doesn’t get a chance to see everyday. Some people may be disturbed by it, but it is nature at work. This was shot just about 10 days ago on our Svlabard Photography Workshop. The location of the shot can be viewed on a hap HERE. This bear was quite content with letting us take pictures. I like the Arctic Gull in the shot too. They say if you can see these gulls then there must be a bear close by.