In February I visited Utajärvi situated in the Oulo region of Finland. The aim of the trip was to photograph Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) at a winter feeding site.
The hide photography sessions lasted from before sunrise untill after sunset for three days, which meant sitting on my flat bottom for about 11 hours a day. The first day was a bit long with no eagles visiting
the bait, however the following two days gave great photoopportunities with 3 different golden eagles and some ravens.
During the hide photography the wheather was cloudy, however due to the snowcover the light was fairly good. Most of my images were taken with the new Canon 5D mark II with a Canon 500 mm/4 L IS USM lens. The 5D mark II delivers
a very high resolution of 21 megapixels and gives a good image quality even at high ISO-settings. This made it ideal for the Finnish winter conditions.
Besides the eagles the trip also gave opportunities to photograph siberian jay at a forest feeder near Vaala. That particular morning the thermometer showed -28 degrees centigrade, which meant that standing still
in a forest felt a bit chilly.
The trip was arranged by the Finnish nature travel agency Finnature, and I was guided along with a british photographer by Harri Taavetti, who is a good naturephotographer.
Below you will find a selection of the images from Finland.
