This trip was one of many firsts for me. I had never been to Finland before, only a few change overs in Helsinki airport, nor had I ever done a proper dedicated wildlife holiday before, especially one that involved spending 3 nights in a bear hide. The location for this trip was in northern Finland, in the woods about 300 meters away from the Russian border, somewhere that isn't the easiest of places to reach. Landing from Singapore in the early hours of the morning I had then had a 7 hour drive north from Helsinki to the location.
One of the reasons for going in September was for the autumn colours, there wasn't really any other benefits for going this late in the season other than that the trees would hopefully make for a nice backdrop behind the bears. The further north I drove, more and more orange and red trees started to line the roads, this is proper autumnal colours. With the days getting shorter and shorter the window to actually see the bears is short, something I hadn't; fully appreciated whilst organising this trip. After the long drive I finally arrived at the location, with 15 minutes to spare before having to head off into the woods to find the hide for the night. By this point I haven't slept in nearly 30 hours, bar nodding off a couple of times on the plane over from Singapore. It's at this point I'm actually quite glad that the sunsets because I can't keep my eyes open for much longer!
A quick change of clothes and we're off into the woods at around 4pm for the night ahead. The light was stunning, a lovely autumn evening ahead with a gold glow in the air. I arrived in the hide and made myself comfy and set up my equipment. With it being the first time doing anything like this, I wasn't 100% sure what to expect, so the first night, and to some extent the whole trip, is an experiment for me, a learning curve that hopefully delivers some pictures at the end of it. Wildlife photography is the direction I want to move into so I need to learn as much as possible, it also helps when the subject is also something you are interested in, like bears.
With my eyes peeled out onto the horizon, scouting the tree line for any sort of movement I start to wonder if I will ever actually see a bear. I have no idea how frequently I can expect to see them, am I even looking in the right direction. Then out the corner of my eye there is a bit of movement, it's not a bear however, instead a fox. If nothing else it let me take a couple of photos to get my eye in and practice before the headline act turns up. By this point it's 6pm and the light is slowly starting to fade away. Already I'm seeing the challenges of shooting this late in the season, I'm already at 2000ISO and around 125/1 second. I haven't really tested my Fuji XT-2 all that much in low light before, so again this is another challenge for me. I must say I was worried when shooting, but having got the photos onto my laptop I'm pretty impressed. The second picture in this post was shot
around 20 minutes after the sun had properly set, handheld, at 1/60 second and 10000ISO! Now don't get me wrong, there is obviously a fair amount of noise, but these photos aren't exactly going to be blown up and posted on the side of a building, for a computer screen they are okay. One of the things that really struck me whilst listening to a well respected wildlife photographer do a speech recently was about how the important thing is to get the shot. It doesn't; matter if the settings you are shooting aren't optimal, getting the shot should be your main priority. I'm glad I had that fresh in my mind as I probably wouldn't have taken half the shots I did over this trip without that as I would have been fed up with how dark it was and just given up!
Finally a bear appeared in the distance, with having just purchased a new toy in the form of a teleconverter I was a bit to keen to be using it, great if there was more light, but having to shoot at F8 meant I was compromising myself, in hindsight I should have taken it off, it wasn't really needed. A lesson learnt. There was good bear activity for the remaining 30 mins, and I even got my first glimpse of the mother and her 3 cubs I had hoped to see. Unfortunately, for a combination of errors, none of the photos from the first evening are really usable, or atleast to the standard I have set myself.
Having 3 nights there gave me the chance to move around a little and try out different hides that offered various vantage points. I have the intention of going back next year, so it also offered a good insight into what I should look to book for then, when I should have light for most of the evening.
The remaining 2 nights offered again good bear sighting, with the final night being the best. Infact, all the photos in this post came from that last night in the hide. The first one appearing a little before 6pm meant there was still enough light to get good shots, and taking onboard all I had learnt from the previous 2 nights failures meant I have come away with what I was hoping for. There is no super close ups, something I love to do when doing wildlife, but this trip wasn't about that, it was about incorporating the wonderful autumnal colours. I can get close up portraits another time, when the conditions suit. Overall I learnt a hell of a lot over the 3 nights, and in reality what was only a handful of hours actually shooting, it was a great experience and I'm going to have to start planning the next one soon. I wouldn't have thought I'd have enjoyed sleeping in a little shed in the middle of the woods, wearing every available layer to sleep just to stay warm as much as I did. Infact I even slept 10 hours one night in the hide, perhaps I should do it more often! But when you look out the windows and you can spot bears until it's too dark to even see 2 meters in front of you it's hard not to get excited. Until next time Finland.
zacharytknowles
September 2018
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