NikonGear'23

Images => Nature, Flora, Fauna & Landscapes => Topic started by: Patrick Berg-Pedersen on September 16, 2015, 17:53:24

Title: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Patrick Berg-Pedersen on September 16, 2015, 17:53:24

While Bjørn was to travel the opposite direction, to South Africa, I was to travel to the far north, to Svalbard, the arctic parts of Norway. We said goodbye and Godspeed in Oslo a few days before Bjørn left for his departure.
(As said I envy you the trip Bjørn, but not the 12 hours on flight..)


I had never been to Svalbard and was exited to get a few days at Longyearbyen to see what I had missed out on. Unfortunately I had only three days to spend and as I wasn't in charge of the weather, I had to be happy for what I would get, as was almost two days of heavy wind and rain...


Shot nr 1; Polar Fox In Winter Fur, shot with a D3X and 300 2.8 VR I with a TC 20 E III.
Shot nr 2; Overview of the new coal mine nr2, which stood on fire for some twenty years..


As I still have some problems posting here I will settle for a first post of only two images.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: elsa hoffmann on September 16, 2015, 17:57:39

Patrick, I am absolutely green with envy.
Bjørn probably told you that Svalbard is at the top of my photographic bucket list.
I love these two images - and hope to see LOTS more.
Please tell us all about the trip - not only the photos

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Bjørn J on September 16, 2015, 17:59:34

The first one is very good, Patrick!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Frank Fremerey on September 16, 2015, 18:00:53

The polar fox just blows me away, Patrick. You captured the eagerness of this animal so well I feel I can read his plans from his brain. What a great image. Thank you!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Andrea B. on September 16, 2015, 19:07:43

oh I do love the Arctic Fox foto!! (I would so much like to see an Arctic Fox for real.)
That is wonderful how you have the head in focus and the body in motion.

Please let me know how I can help if you have problems posting fotos?

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Anthony on September 16, 2015, 19:35:40

I was there last year.

Wonderful place.

I love your Arctic Fox.

Here is one of mine.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: John Geerts on September 16, 2015, 19:40:35

The fox is great indeed, but that coalmine I like too. It shows an extremely desolated place.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Erik Lund on September 16, 2015, 19:49:43

That first shot is just unbelievably good. So well executed the motion and framing! Spectacular.

Best I've see in a long while!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: elsa hoffmann on September 16, 2015, 20:17:12

Anthony - that is a really beautiful image!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: afx on September 16, 2015, 21:22:15

Wowow, that polar fox on the move is extremely good!

cheers
afx

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Akira on September 16, 2015, 21:58:22

Patrick, I wonder how you could keep the eye in focus!  Stunning capture!

I also like the landscape.  The distant mountain is, along with the foreground, very well detailed.  Well worth viewing large.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Bruno Schroder on September 16, 2015, 22:59:58

Great polar fox image. Same question as Akira: how do you have the eye clear while everything else of the fox is blurred? Is it the fur moving?

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Jacques Pochoy on September 17, 2015, 00:14:31

I love the arctic fox "in a hurry"... :-) The old mine scenery is fantastic you could easily imagine a viking village next to the fjord !!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Anthony on September 17, 2015, 10:57:43

Thanks, Elsa, the cub was clearly enjoying posing for us.  Much easier to capture than Patrick's great action shot.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: golunvolo on September 17, 2015, 11:02:40

That artic fox image is spactacular!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: armando_m on September 17, 2015, 17:02:46

Wonderful image of the arctic Fox !

a bit puzzled how the face is sharp and the rest is motion blurred , well done !

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Patrick Berg-Pedersen on September 19, 2015, 13:17:11

Thanks a lot everybody!
The Polar Fox in motion is actually one of my own favorites for quite some time, an image I'm very happy with myself.
The motion blur is just from me panning the camera at the right moment (and a little luck), I had to take about 25-30 pictures to finally get what I wanted.


Next up is a Polar Fox which is not quite that white yet, in other words; he has some of his summer fur intact.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Patrick Berg-Pedersen on September 19, 2015, 13:24:22

Next up is a pano made out of three shots, taken with the D3X and a 70-200 2.8 VR II. It's a view from over Isfjorden, Oscar II Land and The Protektormountain.
As this still is one of my first pano's I still have a long way to go before I'm able to stitch an image seamlessly.. (done in Lr CC)

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Tersn on September 19, 2015, 19:49:01

Excellent (in particular the first fox)! Was it easy to find the Arctic Foxes?  Hope to visit Svalbard myself soon. Arctic foxes happen to be among my favourite animals, but they are not so easy to localize in  southern Norway (like Dovre).

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Björn Carlén on September 19, 2015, 20:46:05

Very nice pictures!
Was Svalbard ever viking-land, as someone suggested?

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Bjørn Rørslett on September 19, 2015, 20:47:59

No. It wasn't. Iceland and Greenland and Orkney and Shetland and .... were.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Anirban Halder on September 20, 2015, 08:42:02

Patrick - the running fox and the polar fox, both the photos are mind-blowing. The colours in the second fox image is magical. Looking forward to see more! Just wondering at what distance you took these shots?

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: elsa hoffmann on September 20, 2015, 08:50:56

I really am enjoying this thread - please keep sharing more images

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Bjørn J on September 20, 2015, 12:55:53

I wonder if the arctic fox on Svalbard is the same species as the arctic fox ("mountain fox") on mainland Norway? In my youth I once saw one in the mountains in the Swedish border area north of the arctic circle. It was summertime, so it had darker fur.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Bjørn Rørslett on September 20, 2015, 13:08:36

Same species. This fox has several recognised subspecies, but there is no mention of a specific Svalbard race in the literature I skimmed though. However, the fur has a colour variation from genetic diversity and the "blue" furs are avidly sought after and specimens with this kind of furs have been breed for their furs.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Jørgen Ramskov on October 01, 2015, 21:28:32

That first shot is unbelievable! The rest of the shot are really great too, the second one shows how isolated a place it seems to be and the colors in the third is just wonderful. Thanks for sharing, more to come?

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Patrick Berg-Pedersen on October 01, 2015, 22:58:50

Just to mention a few words about distances and how hard it is to actually comprehend how large the landscape are on Svalbard, this picture is shoot right to the river Adventfjorden's outlet, one of Longyearbyens harbours and main"beachline" (if we can call it so). From Adventfjorden and straight over, there's more or less 3 Km at its shortest, to Adventtoppen which is the mountain ridge we have to the left in the pic, the distance is approximately 5.22Km, while the neighbour mountain Hjortfjellet (or Deermountain literally translated) is 5.69Km.

In the background next to Hjortfjellet with the most snow on it we can glimpse Birkafjellet with the longest distance of 9.34Km, all the way to the right we have Dirigenten with a distance of 8.74Km from where I stood and took the picture.

So, in other words, without a reference point like a cabin or anything to scale the surroundings by it is pretty hard to understand and comprehend how majestic and enormous the nature and landscape around us actually is.

Have a nice evening everybody!

(I'll be posting more in the coming weekend on the topic!)

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Patrick Berg-Pedersen on October 01, 2015, 23:00:57

Mountains, Mountains and more Mountains..

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Jakov Minić on October 01, 2015, 23:19:34

Patrick, these two are fascinating. Out of this world.

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Björn Carlén on October 02, 2015, 19:25:38

Magic beauty!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: charlie on October 03, 2015, 07:28:11

Great set of photographs, Patrick! I'm impressed with your attention to the highlights and shadows in that your landscapes have a good amount of contrast yet there is still detail to be found most everywhere. They start to look otherworldly, almost animated.

And that fox!

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Erik Lund on January 22, 2016, 11:37:09

Makes you want to go there big time! Wow ;)

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: elsa hoffmann on January 22, 2016, 11:41:19

there isnt even a question about wanting to go there - love your images

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Peter Connan on January 22, 2016, 15:39:06

Each and every image you have posted is absolutely stunning, but that running fox! Wow!.

What shutter speed did you use for the second-last image? Quite long, or was the see very calm?

Title: Re: Spitsbergen Svalbard, Arctic Norway, 2015, part 1.
Post by: Andrew on February 01, 2016, 11:38:18

Yes, this running fox...