ENTRY DESCRIPTION
It was a rough evening in the very far north of Norway (Varanger). Lots of snowfall, wind gusts and temperatures way below zero degrees Celscius. Not the ideal circumstances for a human being, however extremely favorable circumstances for photographing wildlife visiting a feeding area during the nighttime. I just had to go, was waiting quietly for hours, and oh I felt cold, chilled to the bone, just hoping, waiting and praying for a sign of life. Foxes and reindeer had already been seen in the area, it was however a Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus) that showed up first, and decided to sit down quietly in the storm, just as I did. It seemed I wasn’t the only one feeling cold. This hare seemed to have some form of piloerection or the goose bumps we humans get if we feel cold. To take this shot, I decided to use a slow shutter, 1/13s, to transform the snow into flashes of light, and to show that snow, wind gusts and freezing temperatures were all present.
AUTHOR
I was born in Sambeek, one of the smallest and quietest towns you can find in the Netherlands and live now in Sundsberg, Kirkkonummi in the south of Finland. I have been photographing nature and wildlife for over a decade, run photo tours in the Nordics on my own as well as for NatureTalks (NL) and am a public speaker. Published by various magazines in Europe and had an exhibition in Helsinki, named imaginature.
My style of photography is often referred to as imaginative, minimalistic, and 2-dimensional. For me, it is just important to respect nature and present the subject and surroundings in a manner of its simplest components, function over form. That is how I experience nature, that is how my photography has evolved over the last 4-5 years.
Less is more. I believe that is all what a minimalist style of photography should be about. In this context, minimalism using high- and low-key photography is about simplifying the reality by leaving elements and details out of a frame, removing them, or making them simply disappear, to a minimum that needed to get the focus directly on the subject. Isn’t there anything better than looking at a photo which triggers inner emotions?
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