As is my tradition, I escaped the festivities again last Christmas (sorry, family!). This time, I went to Spain with my friend Bas to photograph some eagles. The perfect country for nature photographers in search of peace and quiet during these overly celebrated days.
Very happy to announce that my picture of the red-breasted geese was selected as a Commended Picture in the prestigious Veolia BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition! The image was taken with a Nikon D3x and a 600mm F 4 VR lens at the Black Sea Coast in February of 2012. Here’s the story behind the picture.
Presenting today: a colourfull collection of images I took in Hungary in June, mainly taken from fixed hides. June isn’t really the best time to shoot birds. The temperatures can rise very quickly in the morning, causing hard light and making the birds inactive during the biggest part of the day. It got really hot, and sleeping wasn’t on the menu!
Working on the great snipes in Poland kept me very busy in the evenings and most mornings. But during the day I had a lot of ‘free’ time. I’d go for a long walk in the big forests nearby, mainly looking for beautiful landscapes. On these kinds of walks, I usually leave the long lens behind, because ‘snapshots’ of wildlife aren’t really my thing. But this time I decided to carry the heavy 600 mm anyway.
Imagine you’re sitting in a small, low hide, with your knees up to your neck. You’re on a flooded bog that’s sinking deeper into the water every hour and sunset kicks in. You’re alone in an open river valley, far away from civilisation. All alone, except for some elks and roe deer splashing around in the marshes and a background choir of stunning bird species: river warblers, corncrakes, whinchats, rosefinches, woodcocks and wood-warblers …
This Little bustard gave a wonderful performance, just in front of my hide in the drylands of Spain. At the climax point of their display, they seem to explode, and lift of for one meter in the air, making some strange prrrt noises…
Springtime! It’s like a daily party for us nature-photographers. But springtime in Scandinavia must be the biggest party! Two elusive birds start to show up and perform a spectacular display in the midst of ancient forests and bogs: the huge capercaillie and the noisy black grouse.
Years ago, when I was camping alone in a big forest in Sweden to photograph black grouses, some deep whooo’s woke me up in the middle of the night. I had never seen great grey owls in the wild before, but knowing there was one not far from my tent made me shiver. These are the moments in nature you never forget. I happily fell back asleep and tried to find the owl in the morning, but without any success. It would take me until last week to finally see this bird, when I travelled to northern Finland.
With great company from Norway, France and Belgium, I guided a photo-tour to Portugal to photograph the great bustard and many other birds. The group endured the 15-hours sessions in the hides very well, entering one hour before sunrise and leaving an hour after sunset. What a view we had from those little wooden boxes!
Centuries ago, the sea and the river Scheldt were flowing freely on the coastline and penetrated deep into the lowlands. Floods created streams in the land, which remained there long after the sea was controlled and closed off by dikes. One area in Flanders is particularly known because of its many big and long creeks: Meetjesland. Here are some aerial pictures I took there last week.
