Just got back from a day in Even Hønsen Agerup goshawk hide.
Even had had a great day on Friday, with the goshawk spending the best part of 5 hours in front of the hide. However, when we awoke to strong winds this morning we both wondered if that might affect our chances of seeing the goshawk, which ultimately I believe it did but that’s nature photography.
The goshawk did show up briefly around 9am. I was able to grab only four frames, with only one worth keeping.
It was still great to meet Even, a really nice young man, who really loves being out in nature and in many ways reminded me of myself when I was his age. Wow, I must be getting old, that was 20 years ago 
!!!
Even was also generous enough to give me another day in the hide, since I didn’t get many opportunities today.
Cheers for that Even Looking forward to having another go!!
My first ever image of a Goshawk and at this stage my only one. Canon 1D Mark IV with the 500 mm f/4L IS. ISO 3200. 1/160 @ f/4. Click the image to see a much sharper and larger version.
Wow, I’ve been very quiet on here for the last few months.
On the 30th of November I flew back to New Zealand for a 7 week holiday; mainly to catch up with family and friends; it had been 2 years since I was last back there. My younger sister had had a baby earlier in the year, so I had become an uncle for the first time and I was really looking forward to getting home and spending sometime with the little one.
My originally plan was to keep a weekly blog going of my trip but my 8 year old PC decided it didn’t really want to work properly anymore and I of course had made the decision to leave my MacBook Pro at home in Norway, so that plan went out the window.
So over the next couple of weeks I’ll share some of the images from my trip, week by week. Keep in mind it wasn’t a photographic trip, although I did get away on a few ‘missions’ with the camera.
So lets get started…
WEEK ONE
Click on the image to see a larger, sharper version.
My cute little niece Evie
Mum (younger sister), Evie and Zeus
It was great to get a fly rod in my hand after two years and walk a few farourite streams and rivers. A nice 6 pounder before being released.
My father all camouflaged (except for the red pack) casting to a sighted trout
Dad and his beloved Cessna 180. Have had so many great flights in this plane over the last 18 odd years...will be sad to see it go.
Topaz - my father's dog and faithful companion.
Dad and Topaz enjoying a relax in the sun during a pretty difficult days fishing.
Releasing my best fish of the trip...a 6.75 pound rainbow trout. Trying out my new underwater housing...which is really just an overprice plastic bag but it did the job.
Another underwater release shot, better light in this one.
Some nice looking trout water. Friend Andrew 'I can't hold on to a trout' Stuart keeping tabs on a trout we had spotted.
A lovely day, on a lovely stream but not too many fish.
The best fish a saw caught during my 7 weeks...a beautifully conditioned female fish of just under 8 pounds.
The results for the final round of the Villmarksliv Photo Competition are out and can be seen here – Resultater, omgang 10/2011. My five entries for this round can be seen at the bottom of this post, with the points awarded.
With this being the last round the total scores have also been published, including the extra points awarded to any gold image/s a competitor may have had during the year. Not surprisingly Kjell Germeten won the overall competition (Photographer of the Year) very comfortably with a margin of 245 points to Robin Jenssen in 2nd place.
Congratulation to Kjell Germeten and his outstanding images.
I finished 3rd overall, which I’m happy with, an improvement over last years 5th place and considering I had one image disallowed; somewhat harshly in my opinion considering what the Jury did allow. But at the end of the day its the Jury’s decision, whether I agree with it or not. I just hope that they are more consistent and/or clearer with Rule No.6 in the future because it can have a big impacted on the final results, as it did last year and this year for a number of competitors.
Unbelievable there was only 1 point separating 2nd to 3rd and 1 point separating 3rd to 4th place – wonder what the probability of that happening is??
So here is how the top ten finished; with their total points, number of counting images in parentheses and number of gold images.
Top Ten (Click here to see the full list - Villmarkslivs NM i Naturfoto 2011)
1 – Kjell Germeten – 1976 (50) – 10 golds
2 – Robin Jenssen – 1722 (50) – 1 gold
3 – Andy Trowbridge – 1721 (49) – 2 golds
4 – Ruben Johnsen – 1720 (50) – 4 golds
5 – Helge Helland – 1709 (50) – 2 golds
6 – Magnar Lien – 1696 (50) – 2 golds
7 – Vegard Lødøen – 1694 (49) – 1 gold
8 – Odd Johan Lundberg – 1689 (50) – 2 golds
9 – Torbjørn R Haagensen – 1656 (49) – 2 golds
10 – Tilman Wischuf – 1565 – (50)
Photo of the Year
We still don’t know who won the ‘Photo of the Year’. All 41 gold images have been marked and ranked but the actual results won’t be know for sometime apparently. However, Terje Sylte’s image ‘Wolf attack‘ must certainly be one of the favourites with a total score of 55.7, which is 0.7 points higher than the winning image from last years competition received. Since it is the only image he entered in the competition this year is rather easy to work out the final score of his gold image. My two gold images combined received a further 14 points, just how those points are split between the two images will be interesting to see, maybe one can make the top ten with a bit of luck.
Personal my three favourite gold images from this years competition are:
1. Kvinandhunn i tørrfuru – Bjørn Aksel Bjerke
2. Minimalistiske pingviner – Kjell Germeten
3. Rådyrbukk – Odd Chr. Knutsen
Interestingly they all come from the last round!!
Round 10 Entries
Falcon Calling - 38
Strolling Leopard - 37
White-faced Heron - 32
Fighting Finches - 31
Jewelled Gecko - 29
Wow, I have been slack. Can’t believe its been over a month since my last blog post.
Two rounds of the Villmarksliv Photo Competition have been marked since my last post.
For those who haven’t seen the result, click on the link below.
Also remember to check out the competition blog (http://fotojakta.wordpress.com/) to see all the gold and silver images.
Round 8
Round 8 was a very good round for me, my five images were awarded 1 gold and 4 silvers which makes it my second best scoring (194) round of this years competition. It was a good time for me to have a good round with it being so close between 2nd and 8th place in the overall standings. I moved from 7th to 3rd place after this rounds results but there is very little between 2nd to 8th place – just 30 odd points separating the photographers.
It was also great to get my first gold image of this years competition. I had entered a couple of my red stag images last year and they did OK but not as good as I had hoped so I was unsure if I should enter anymore…I’m glad I did now.
My five images from Round 8 are below.
Red Stag Roaring - 45 Gold
Leopard with kill - 41
Capercaillie in flight - 37
Gannet Courtship - 36
Bear Cub - 35
Round 9
Wow, I decided to enter another red stag image, after last rounds success and surprise surprise it was also awarded a gold. Awesome!!
I was little disappointed that my other 4 images were only awarded bronze. But all in all another good solid round for me and with only one round left in the competition I’m still sitting in 3rd place overall, its still very close and the final placings from 2nd to 8th will not be known until the final round is marked and gold images are scored.
My five images from Round 9 follow…
Up Close - 45 Gold
GGO - 34
Brown Trout - 33
Young Beaver - 32
Crane Portrait - 29
'Limestone Arch' - Runner-up, Wilderness Landscape, ANZANG 2011
Well I’m very pleased to announce that my image ‘Limestone Arch’ was judge as the Runner-up in the Wilderness Landscape Category in this years ANZANG Nature Photography Competition.
This is the 6th year that I have entered the competition and I’m extremely proud that my work has made it into the ‘year book’ and exhibition every year. I had entered 13 images in this years competition with only one image making it through to the final round of judging, so I was thinking that this might be the first year I would miss out, so I was over the moon when I saw the results today!!
You can view all the Winners and Runner-ups here – Winners 2011 – ANZANG.
