Friday morning before the Bank Holiday weekend saw us meeting up in Heathrow Terminal 1 to catch the Finnair flight to Helsinki. A couple of hours at Helsinki airport allowed us to have a light dinner before the flight up to Kajaani. We were picked up and asked if we wanted a good night's sleep or straight to one of the hides. We looked at each other, grinned and all agreed we were there to see bears so straight to the hide please. Just after midnight in pitch dark we made ourselves comfortable in the hide and settled down for a few hours sleep.
Next morning we sat looking into the mist at about 4.30am and suddenly saw a bear appearing from the trees straight across from us. 
High ISOs and we were snapping away .... then someone spotted something else ... although we continued snapping at the bear. Then we recognised the other animal. It was a wolf! Then another bear appeared from the left and we had to make some choices. The light was getting better and the sun was clearing the mist away and we had a fantastic first morning in the wilds of Finland. 
After about 8am the bears disappeared to go back to sleep and we were getting hungry. We were picked up and taken back to base camp where we had a great Finnish breakfast before heading for bed at about 10am! Up for a 4pm dinner (meatballs, cheese and and some great juices) and then taken to another hide. This evening proved to be madly busy. Bears were appearing left and right and more wolves! We were snapping away and all of us managed to get some great images. As the sun was setting the bears were walking right up to our hide and one looked right in. Scary! As we tried to sleep in our sleeping bags we would hear the bears splashing in the water but it was too dark to get any shots by then. 
Next morning Adam was up first at 4.30am and whispered "everyone up ... bears". It was still quite dark but right in front of the hide a bear was 'posing' then suddenly something spooked him and he raced across a shallow lake spray flying all over the place. More bears appeared and we managed to get some more shots as the light improved. Most of the time the bears were tolerant of each other and indeed of the wolves. Sometimes they would get aggressive and there would be some growling and teeth baring!
By 8.30am the bears had disappeared and we walked up to the road to be picked up for another fine breakfast. We were not so tired this time so we spent a little time photographing the mushrooms and berries which littered the forest floor around the cottage.
For our last evening we returned to the hide we were in on the first morning. More bear action all evening and we managed to get more shots than we expected. Lots of great bears until the light faded at about 9pm. Back to base for the luxury of sleeping in a bed! The base camp is an old logging cottage which is right by a beautiful lake. There was a sauna following which a few of the Finns jumped into the lake. We all wimped out and had hot showers!
A 4.15am wake-up call on our last day to get us back to Kajaani airport for our early morning flight. On the way home we managed to spend a few hours in Helsinki, tried the excellent tram system, fed some seagulls in the harbour until we were told off and then a spot of lunch before the flight home.
A plug for Finnair which was really excellent. No trouble with our rather extensive (and expensive) handluggage!
Great trip, short but lots of action. We will be returning in June 2009.
Julie and Adam
Finland: bears, wolves, mushrooms and berries! - 31 August 2008
Recovering pictures from corrupted flash cards - 30 August 2008
As we arrived back from Finland earlier this week (blog report soon to appear) I tripped up and fell flat on my face. Never mind the cuts, bruises or my face ... I dropped the camera bag! That evening we were downloading our cards and Julie's Sandisk extreme III 16Gb card showed NO photos on it. Not at all good. Two possible causes: first my having dropped it and secondly that most of the shots were taken on a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II and then the card was taken out and put into a Canon 5D. This seems to break the index and corrupt the card.
Julie tried to recover the images using Lexar's image rescue program which has serviced us well in the past. This took ages to review the card, (we're talking hours), and then told us it could recover only 135 images. This was hopeless as we knew that there were hundreds of bear and wolf shots on the card.
Quick research suggested that Sandisk's RescuePRO might do the trick. $34 later it was on our main Mac. Within an hour it had recovered 719 images from the card. That is 584 more than using Lexar's program. 
Lessons for us:
1. It was a short trip to Finland so we had opted not to back-up the photos as we went along. Never again.
2. Swapping cards between two different models of camera is not advisable.
Clearly, RescuePRO highly recommended!
Adam
India expedition 2009 - 8 August 2008
In March 2009 we will be returning to India for another Tiger special. But there will be more, temples, villages and fantastic opportunities for people shots. You will be able to find a description of the trip on the top left of our home page.
Why india? Rather then what we say, this is what the French scholar Romaine Rolland said: "If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India!"
We will visit four reserves, three specifically to maximise the chances of photographing and watching one of these:
If you want any further details, give us a call or send an email ... we cannot wait!
Julie and Adam
Printing on the HP Designjet Z3100 - 26 July 2008
Prints from the HP Z3100 have proved very popular. In our recent trip to Uganda and Rwanda Wendy won the competition to print off 20 feet of shots. She was round a few weeks ago and produced some absolutely stunning prints on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper. This has a matt finish with a textured surface and is now our standard for most of our commercial work.
Shortly after Julie came back from Svalbard she was asked to assist with an office renovation, The owner of the business wanted some coooool matching prints of the cold north to suit the company's own coolness! We ran off a set of trial prints, the owners loved them and we went into full scale production. The results are really stunning. Few monitors are able to match the quality of a professionally produced print. We do wonder if some people miss out on some of the magic from their shots simply because they only look at them on an iPod, their blog or on a computer screen.
This is the one the owner liked best:
All our clients can use our printers to produce stunning prints and indeed we encourage this.
Adam and Julie
Svalbard - Spitsberg: Polar Bears and Ice - June 2008
Just back from a week on the good ship Origo, breaking ice and exploring Svalbard's waters. In search of Polar Bears of course, and yes, we were successful. We had two separate viewings, the first from a distance, a mother and young one near their Seal kill from the evening before. We attempted to get closer through the ice but the ice started to close around us and the captain wasn't happy so regrettably we had to back out of the ice, but not after firing off some shots at least. A bird flew over and the mother, ever alert, looked up and sideways and then, with the noise of Origo in reverse, the two took off across the ice and we were unable to find them later.
Our second viewing was during breakfast a few days later. The bridge had called us up out of bed earlier, around 6.30am, and we all rushed up on board but were unable to find the captain's Polar Bear. We gave up and sat down to breakfast at 8am, but part way through breakfast someone saw our Polar Bear coming up out of the water and onto the ice. Of course no-one caught that on camera, but we were all up on deck pretty quickly and had a great session, firing away as the Polar Bear, probably a two year old male, advanced toward the ship. It looked as if we were going to get a paws on the side of the ship shot, but one of our group accidently banged their tripod on the railing and our Bear ran off in alarm, occasionally rolling in the snow when it was further away. Needless to say, everyone was disappointed and one person very embarassed, but it was pure magic while it lasted!
The sea ice stopped us from heading around the top of the islands and exploring the eastern side but we spent the week exploring the fjords on the western side. The ice landscape was enchanting and it was impossible not to try your hand at landscape photography. Having said that, we didn't see as impressive ice sculptures as we have seen in Antarctica but we believe it is possible to see these in some of the fjords further north. There were many sea and migratory birds, fabulous Walrus and Seals and it's a very impressive one week trip, we saw a lot, compared to Antarctica for which you need three weeks.
Please keep an eye out for a full trip report plus additional photos which will be on this website within the next 10 days and we are researching a return trip for June 2009 or 2010 in a small vessel, either to Svalbard or to Greenland or both so please let us know if you are interested in principle, as we will only be taking a very small group.
All the best.
Julie and Adam
Bears in Finland; 2nd recce! - 18 May 2008
Just back from a second recce to northern Finland, Bear watching of
course. I have to say I am very impressed with the warm hospitality,
great food and of course wildlife opportunities in Finland.
The airfare to get there is a bit of a stumbler given it's so close -
you can fly to Dubai for about the same price! But once you're
there, everything is affordable.
On this trip we sampled a reindeer burger which was cooked on an
outdoor grill, Finnish style and we ate around the grill outdoors in
+2C but it was one of those memorable meals, a bit like a picnic
lunch in the African bush, right up there with life's magical
moments. We spent two nights in two different hides, both were
excellent in their own way and you will see from the following
photographs, the light conditions are quite variable. The hides were
delightfully warm and well set up for photographers and artists,
(more on that later), and people just wanting to view the Bears. 
On the first evening we only saw a couple of Bears and from some
distance but it was quite a special viewing - the setting was great
and I was in a two person hide with a Dutch artist called Erik Van
Ommen. Quite a magical, cold arena for the Bears to come into and a
bit of a wait, keeping really quiet of course because Bears are
incredibly shy and this is the start of the season. By the end of
the season, in August, just before they start thinking about
hibernating again, they are pretty brash and come much closer to the
hides. 
We had two Bears come into view, initially we were training
our binoculars to find them and then we switched to looking through
our lenses. I'd start firing off some shots and behind me I could
hear Eric's pencil working furiously. There was another Bear
appearance after a couple of hours waiting so in between viewings I
took a look at Eric's drawings which are impressive. You can see
these on his website:
http://www.erik-van-ommen.nl/
The second hide produced quite a lot of Bears coming and going and
they were closer. Even though they were closer, they were still
quite difficult to shoot because they are so large and brown and the
light is a bit tricky. Their behaviour is interesting as they seem
to saunter mindlessly most of the time and then become quite intent
with their foraging for food. They then scurry off quite quickly,
rarely looking back so it's a bit of work getting eye contact and an
interesting shot. 
Anyway, here are some of the shots taken, some snow still on the
ground. Let me know what you think and please keep in mind our next
trip to the Bears in August, our last Bear trip for the year. The
details for the trip are at:
http://www.shutterspeedtravel.com/finlandaug2008.asp
The conditions will be different then - much
warmer with brighter light, almost 24/7 so lots of viewing hours over
three nights. There will also be time for beers and laughs and some
photo viewing and workshops so please let us know ASAP if you want to
join us. The dates are August 22-25.
Getting ready for Spitsbergen and Polar Bears in June now! Watch
this space...
Hope all is well with you all.
Julie
2009 Expeditions - 27 April
We hope you are out there enjoying your photography. We have been spending some time planning our 2009 Expeditions and wanted to share them with you. If you have an interest in any of the following and would like to be sent the details as soon as we have finalised them, and before the itineraries go up on the website, you may want to send us an email to register your interest (without commitment). Some of the trips will be for 4-5 clients only so this is our way of giving you the heads up.
Bears in Finland
We will be returning to Finland to photograph wild bears for 3 days. We stay overnight in hides within 700 meters of the Russian border. The bears are attracted by carcasses that we arrange to be placed in front of the hide. The bears come in the early evening and can stay until the morning. At this time of year of course it does not really get completely dark and so this is a good chance to photograph and just observe some of Europe's largest wild animals up close and personal.
Dates are being finalised but it is likely to be in May. If you like the sound of a short trip over a long weekend to a wild part of Europe to shoot Bears, this is for you! There is still availability for this trip in August 2008 as well, the itinerary was posted last week and can be seen at the Current Expeditions section.
Bonobos in the Congo
Over the 2007/08 Christmas period we led a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC"} with the sole intention of photographing Bonobos for a week. As many of you know, Bonobos are one of the five species of great apes and are only found in the DRC. Bonobos are similar to Chimpanzees, but have a very different social model as well as some distinctive differences. We will be leading another expedition in 2009 when we intend to spend most of our time in a reserve managed by an excellent charity which should give members of the Expedition five full days of shooting these fantastic animals. We are one of the very few tour companies to travel to the Congo to see these amazing primates and we know anyone who joins the trip will enjoy the photogenic nature of the Bonobos and their accessability, ie there's no hard trekking or restriction to an hour's viewing on this trip!
Dates are being finalised but it's likely to be sometime between July and September. If you want a unique portfolio of an animal very few photographers have seen, let along photographed, this is for you!
Polar Bears in the Arctic
We are still finalising the ship arrangements and dates here but in the early Summer we will be leading our group to explore the pack ice and the ice cap of the Arctic in search of Polar Bears, Walrus, Seals, Seabirds and Whales. Traveling with people really in the know and on a small ice strengthened ship, we will be focusing on getting in to where we can get the best wildlife experiences the region has to offer. The atmosphere will of course be relaxed, the food superb and informative lectures will be held whilst we are at sea. Availability will go quickly so if you are interested in seeing Polar Bears we'd encourage you to register your interest early, before the itinerary goes up on the site.
Orangutans in Sumatra
The only great ape to be found in Asia is the Orangutan. Wild Orangutans only live on the Islands of Sumatra and Borneo. We will be running a recce trip to Sumatra to check out the viewing, accommodation and transport. We have already been speaking to our contacts and cannot wait to see these creatures from within two yards! We will be offering our existing clients the chance to come on this reconnaissance trip as we know they will not mind roughing it or the occasional blip.
Some of these trips will fill up very quickly. If you would like to express an interest and ensure your name is on top of the list, please email Julie on: julie.calvert@shutterspeedtravel.com
Happy shooting!
Julie and Adam