Tour highlights

  • Two days in the sensationally productive hides for the crazily handsome Arctic specialties King eider, Steller’s eider and Long-tailed duck – a true world attraction, where the birds very often come in really close and we are photographing from an angle right by the waterline. Other operators often offer only one day in these hides.
  • We make a visit right in the middle of one of Europe’s finest and most accessible seabird colonies, on Hornøya, for really close encounters with some of the 80,000 pairs of Arctic seabirds that nest here: Puffin, Shag, Brünnich’s guillemot, Common guillemot, Black guillemot, Razorbill, Kittiwake, and Great cormorant. The birds nest right by the path, as in the Galápagos Islands.
  • Good chance to see and with a little luck also photograph Gyrfalcon and Hawk owl.
  • Hoary redpoll, Siberian tit, Common redpoll, Pine grosbeak, Red squirrel and Siberian jay at well-run bird feeding sites. Sometimes also also Ermine and Willow Ptarmigan.
  • Fantastic opportunities for winter landscape photography, where the snow-covered and windswept Arctic tundra meets the rugged shores of the Arctic Ocean.
  • Transport by snowmobile sled in the tundra birch forest and in the taiga pine forest.
  • The typical small Arctic fishing port towns of Vadsø, Vardø and Båtsfjord.
  • The tour guide takes you to his favorite spots and you get your own photographic advice and top tips in a small group of like-minded people.
  • The trip also contributes directly to nature conservation through financial support to Birdlife International.

VARANGER
A unique Spring/Winter week, where we have selected some of the very best bird and landscape photo opportunities on the Varanger Peninsula in Norway. Up here, the taiga forest meets the windswept, snow-covered tundra and the dramatically rugged coastlines of the Arctic Ocean. Ancient agricultural lands dating from long before the Viking Age stretch in a thin border along the coast. Inside of that, after a narrow fringe of low birch forest, the open tundra stretches mile after mile within the Varanger Peninsula National Park. At this time of year, these are a snowy winter landscapes in sub-zero temperatures, in wonderful Arctic winter light that can offer strong pastel colors, long shadows, dramatic clouds, snowfall and brilliant photo opportunities of many different kinds. The snow-covered tundra landscape shows us the still reasonably undisturbed quality of the Arctic wilderness up here.

KING EIDER, STELLER´S EIDER, COMMON EIDER AND LONG-TAILED DUCK
We photograph the almost unbeliavably elegant Arctic ducks King eider, Steller’s eider, Common eider and Long-tailed duck from custom-built floating pontoon hides, where we lie, dry, safe and comfortable, right at birds’ eye level just above the waterline. These world-unique and world-famous floating hides give us phenomenal opportunities for close encounters with these truly picturesque High Arctic ducks, so we decided to invest two days in these hides, in order to maximize our chances of fine pictures of these charismatic birds, taking into account the always fickle factors of light and weather.

HORNØYA
With its handsome lighthouse and its charismatic location, right at the final outer skerries before the Arctic Ocean, this little island is one of Europe’s finest and most accessible seabird colonies and also Norway’s easternmost point, in line with Istanbul! Everyone with a passion for the natural world, should at some point in life treat themselves to visit a teeming and pulsating bird cliff, where there is action in all directions, all around the clock.

We step ashore in the intense and fabulously well-populated bird colony here, with its 80,000 pairs of Brünnichs guillemot, Shag, Puffin, Cormorant, Common guillemot, Black guillemots Razorbill and Kittiwake, just during the time when the Puffins usually arrive in large numbers for the breeding season. Hornøya is often considered having Norway’s finest bird cliffs. The seabirds here also usually make themselves very easily available for fantastic photo opportunities. The birds nest almost on the path and have very different things to think about, than about us, almost like in the Galápagos Islands. For those who shoot film, do not forget to bring the microphone, because the soundscape here is absolutely stunning and the din intense. Often a Gyrfalcon or White-tailed eagle comes by in search of prey in the slopes of the bird mountain and not infrequently they show up at fairly good photo distances, as long as you are quick and observant enough and have a little luck …

THE TUNDRA
We also meet the landscapes of the snow- and wind-shaped Arctic Tundra in several places up here, both in the mountains and down at the edge of the mountain birch forest. A snowmobile sled ride takes us to a bird feeding site near a mountain stream, where good chances are usually possible to photograph species such as Hoary redpoll, Common redpoll, Siberian tit and Willow tit. There is also often a Hawk owl or two around here and sometimes Ermine or Willow ptarmigan are seen here.

THE TAIGA FOREST
In Pasvik National Park we meet the wild Taiga forest with its Scots pines, plus some of its winter bird species. Here we go for a snowmobile sled ride out into the woods and take photos at a proven feeding site for squirrels and birds such as Siberian tit, Pine grosbeak, Willow tit, Siberian jay and sometimes a Hawk owl paying a visit. At times Willow grouse hang around here, in their snow-white winter dress.

This Varanger tour is simply an unusually complete Spring/Winter trip to one of Europe’s finest and wildest natural areas. Providing opportunities for close encounters with a number of our continent’s most spectacular and exotic bird species. During the evenings, the tour leader will show pictures, give workshop lectures and go through things like camera technology, settings and some important Top tips for the nature photographer. About everything from composition and how to best approach wild animals, over to how to most appropriately set camera functions such as autofocus and flash, or how to interpret the histogram for best exposure. We also look at the participants’ own best photos from the trip. The group is small, for there to be will be maximum time for everyone to discuss photography with the tour leader and so that we will have a enough space in the minibus.

Itinerary

More information

Staffan Widstrand, born in 1959 is a photographer and writer. Sony Imaging Ambassador.

Staffan is one of Sweden’s internationally most recognized photographers. In 2011, Outdoor Photography Magazine called him ”one of the most influential photographers in the world”. Appointed ”Wildlife photographer of the year” in Sweden and a winner of international photo competitions, such as:

Wildlife Photographer of the Year
European Nature Photographer of the Year
Emirates Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Årets Bild i Sverige
PGB Awards

Staffan has been on the jury of several international photo competitions and was one of the main jury members in World Press Photo 2013.

Published in most of the major magazines in the world, such as National Geographic Magazine, GEO, Stern, Der Spiegel, Le Figaro, La Repubblica, El Mundo, El País, Natur, Terre Sauvage, Animan, Veja Brazil, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, FOCUS, Yomiuri Shimbun och Shanghaibaserade The Bund Pictorial.

Staffan has had international solo or group exhibitions in Toronto, at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo, at Tromsø Museum, at Bodø Museum, at the Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle in Bonn, Oslo City Hall, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, the Swedish Embassy in Washington, in Mérida, Mexico, in Mexico City, in Salamanca, Spain, at the National Zoological Museum in Beijing, in Chengdu, Tianjin, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China, at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, the museum of Torino, Italy as well as major outdoor exhibitions in The Hague, Prague, Berlin, Madrid, Copenhagen and Stockholm. In Sweden, he has had exhibits at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, the regional museums in Kristianstad, Luleå and Malmö, at Fotomässan in Gothenburg and in Stockholm, as well as at the Skansen, Kolmården and Borås Zoos, at Hornborgasjöns Konsthall and at Bränneriet Art in Österlen.

Staffan has published 18 books, four of which have been winners of the WWF Panda book award.
A picture editor at Natur & Kultur publishers in Stockholm for 5 years, a nature tour guide and tour production manager all across the world for many years. Appointed as Visiting Professor at the Beijing Ministry of Culture Old University, and he is also one of the founders of a possible ”Wild Wonders of China” initiative.

Staffan is a member of the Swedish Nature Photographers Association (Naturfotograferna/N)

Webpage: www.staffanwidstrand.se

www.wild-wonders.com
www.rewildingeurope.com
www.de5stora.com
www.wildwondersofchina.com

Since we will have opportunities of many different kinds of motifs – everything from hide  photography of birds, to magnificent landscapes – it is a good idea to bring everything from wide-angle lens to telephoto lenses. A wide-angle zoom lens with f ex focal length 24-70 mm is excellent not only for landscape photography but can also come in handy in the hides. A telephoto / zoom lens, e.g. 80-400mm, 200-500mm or the like provides good conditions for taking varied pictures of birds from the hides and can also be useful for different motifs within landscape photography. Telephoto lenses with fixed focal length, e.g. 400 mm, 500 mm or 600 mm are very useful for bird photography. To “increase” the focal length if you have a shorter telephoto or a zoom, you can use a teleconverter or use a camera with a DX-format sensor.

If you have access to two camera bodies, it is a good idea to bring both, it is much easier to operate two different camera bodies during the hide sessions.

A tripod is very useful in connection with hide photography, especially if you use longer telephoto lenses.

The temperature on the Varanger Peninsula can in March vary between a few degrees above the freezing point and several degrees under. Real winter clothing and, above all, spacious, warm shoes are recommended! A good idea is to bring clothes in different layers. Closest to the body, preferably clothes in Merino wool material, such as delivered by brands Woolpower or Aklima.

We stay in hotels of middle standard.

The accommodations are reasonably accessible, with a bit of help. The nature of the trip means that the hides and certain environments may be less accessible in case of reduced mobility. If you have any questions or doubts, please contact us first so we can discuss what the possibilities look like.

Shared double room, meals according to trip schedule, all hides, local guides, boat transfers, photo lectures, all local transport (minibus and snowmobile sled).

Return flights to Kirkenes (NOTE! Please contact us for information on airline tickets before you book your flights), travel insurance, cancellation protection, drinks, eventual gratuities and items of a personal nature.

Kirkenes Airport (KKN). The journey begins and ends here.

The registration fee shall be paid after an invoice from us, right after your booking. The remaining amount shall be paid no later than 60 days before the trip. Payment will be in Swedish crowns (SEK).

If you are an EU citizen travel within the EU or to the Schengen countries Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Lichtenstein, you must always bring your passport or national ID card issued by the police. When checking in for a flight, a passport is required. With reservation for that government decisions because of the somewhat unclear Covid-19 situation may mean various limitations that we do not know of today.

For citizens outside of the EU please check if you need a visa to enter Norway.

Contact your insurance company to see that you are properly covered for travel insurance and cancellation protection.

Please check with your doctor.

Our tours are open to all nationalities, which means that the group is often international.

Our tour guides speak both Swedish and English, and sometimes also more languages.

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