Close to deadline...

First an update...

The past two months have been hard work trying to finish my latest project on wildlife and conservation in India. It has been a lot of late nights working hard at the computer and now I am finally near deadline. But will this mean some much needed vacation? No, not for now - This summer has turned out to become very busy indeed...

Greenland and Finland
Unfortunatlythe deadline of my India project mean that I had to cancel a trip to Iceland but shortly after my deadline i will be going to Greenland. I have'nt been to Greenland since march last year and i thorougly miss it. I am still working on my Arctic Fox Project and I have decided to visit a spot in Greenland which I know is rich in foxes. 
This place is way out of reach of the cellular network and i will spend 7 days there alone in a tent with my camera, coocking gear and a sattelite phone to keep in touch with my family.
Hopefully the foxes will be collaborative and the weather will be good. I will have good light almost 24 hours a day so I foresee quite a lot of working hours and very little sleep. But just photographing in Greenalnd again will feel like a vacation after all.

After that I will be going back home to celebrate the birthday of my oldest daughter and then it is off to Finland where I will be leading a tourgroup to see the wild brown bears near the Russian border. Here we will be spending 5 nights in hides looking for these cuddly brown teddies.

So July looks to be all set and after spending almost two months in front of the computer I really look forward to getting some time back in the wild.

I will be posting some more articles to this blog as soon as I have news from the trips and some photos to show.

I wish you all the very best summer.

Volcano Video on National Geographic Nordic

Hello everybody,

When I was in Iceland I spend most of my time working with the new Canon 1D Mk IV. I had just received it a few days before my trip but did not have time to test i thoroughly  before leaving. So naturally i was quite excited to test the video capabilities of the camera at the site of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

After arriving there i quickly mounted my 1D Mk IV on a tripod together with the EF 70-200mm 2.8 lens. Switched of the IS and had a quick read in the instructions manual. I adjusted the settings to full HD video and started shooting my first film. Naturally i did not have the time to check out the quality before being back at my hotel room. I sorted out a few pics and decided to check the video...

Now the only thing that bugs me is that i did'nt shoot some more :o)

Well - Have a look for yourself and see what you think. The video is up on National Geographic Nordic in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland and the music is a beautiful piece called Lightin made by Antony Raijekov from Bulgaria.

But let me hear what you think about it?
Just click on the title of this post and you should be able to add a comment.

All my best,

Uri

Volcano slideshow on National Geographic Nordic

Hello everybody,

Wow - what a fun and busy week this one have been.

I started out giving a 3 hour talk to a danish photoclub and had to make a brand new slideshow for the occation. I have sorted trough most of my images from Iceland and India and at the same time i have done some serious layout on my new book that will go to print in june/july.

It has been a lot of long nights working at the computer listening to good music on the Ipod and let my creativity run freely.
Then, today i decided to take a day off and found out that Politiken (One of Denmarks largest papers) had run one of my images from iceland on the frontcover. To top it all off, I had a call from National Geographic Nordic that wanted to run a slideshow on their webpage http://natgeo.dk/ with 10 of my images from Iceland as well.

What a great way to end the week.

Snow – Finally…

The last couple of weeks have been busy to say the least… I have been working on getting the whole Arctic Fox Project (AFP) up and running. It has been a lot of writing, emailing and phone talking. The project is growing bigger and bigger and I am constantly in contact with other photographers, biologists, researchers, editors and possible supporters. What started out as a small idea is now growing in size and starting to make sense? The whole idea of the project is to raise awareness about some important issues happening up north. But more on that in my next post…

Meanwhile I have got some great news – I have been in contact with Canon and National Geographic Nordic and both have agreed to support the project. National geographic Nordic will be the project main Media Partner and Canon will be Image Partner. I am really happy that two such great partners have joined in the efforts of telling this important story.

But while all this has been happening, there has been no snow on Iceland. The place I am going is close to the Arctic Circle and let me say it again… “THERE HAS BEEN NO SNOW” Incredible, what is happening? Down south here in Denmark we have had more snow than for decades and temperatures have plummeted way below zero. Some people have even started debating the reality of global warming. But way up north in Iceland, Greenland and Canada, the winter has been warmer than ever. In the Disko Bay area snow conditions has been so poor that it has not been possible to go out with the dogsledge and we are talking about a place 400 km north of the Arctic Circle. My friend even joked about going on winter holiday to Denmark.
But then yesterday I got an email from Ester at the Arctic Fox Centre. They had just had a snowstorm for some days and now the whole landscape is covered in beautiful white snow. So now I hope that it will last until end march so that I can go to photograph the foxes in a proper winter landscape. So, I for one do not hope for an early spring. At least not in Iceland…