Fun with snowmobiles

A couple of days ago me and brother went out with snowmobile's for a ride on snowmobile trails and then on to places where it was untouched powder, the goal was of course to play and joyriding. It was really fun but really hard especially when we was driving actively in the powder snow because u haft to move your body all the time if you want the snowmobile to get it where u want.
The day after I had lots of muscle soreness in my back and arms, something else that is hard it is when you get stuck in the snow, then you have to dig around the snowmobile to free it from the snow and it is very tough and sweaty .
Afterwards, we went to a lake and there we grilled hamburgers at a shelter, that kind of places u can find pretty easy and it is a nice break. All in all, we drove probably  90km in 4-5 hours. This a very nice way to get out in the nature and many does this kind of adventure every weekende up here in northern Sweden or places where there is snow.

Photo break

Nice wintry forest

Brother driving powder snow

Barbeque

Mmm, tastes good

Brother driving in the deep powder snow

And a picture of me driving and playing in the powder snow

Some pictures from a wintry Kalix

Here are some pictures from the first few days here in Kalix.
Me and  brother went to some places to check if the dipper were in place but unfortunately it has been cold with -22 degrees so all the little streams had frozen and the dippers had fled to larger rivers like Kalix river where we later found them.
But the river is big and wide so it was impossible to get close to them.  
The weather has been very good so far with cool nights and a little warmer in the day when the sun appears.
Today I went out into the forest with wooden skis because it's impossible to get around otherwise in the meter-deep snow, it's a great feeling to glide almost silently in the woods looking for wildlife. Today I managed to see squirrel and Hazel grouse but I only had the wide angle lens with me, so no pictures today I
will try again some other day.

  -22 in the morning

Frosty birch

Fishing lures hanging from a power line above the Kalix river

Ice which comes off from pine trunk in the heat of the sun

Dipper

Tomorrow I will go to Sweden for 2 weeks and to visit my brother up in  Kalix (Norrbotten). Should be great with real winter, and with 1 meter of snow, the plan is that we'll try to shoot a bit of everything but I really hope that we get the opportunity to photograph the northern lights, but much depends on the weather.
We will also drive snowmobile's and maybe go out to fish, fishing  is not so funny now because of that you have to first dig through the thick snow cover and then maybe it is about 70cm ice on it, a sweaty job in other words.
Well, it will be fun anyway to visit the northern part of Sweden again.
I will try to blog from there as well but it may not be as frequent.
But in the meantime here are some more pictures of the dipper that I managed to get right close last time a was down to Rivelin. Managed to even see goosander down there in one of the small ponds and that is not happening so often, I also saw a Kingfisher but it wasnt so cooperative this time.

Camera Equipment: Nikon D90 and Nikon 200-400mm f4 lens.

Logde moor to Hathersage

As it was such a lovely morning, off we went for a walk through the Peak District NP. This time we took a path from Logde moor past the Redmires Reservoirs, Stanage Edge and ended up in Hathersage. Took the opportunity to look for water voles and any new coming birds, but only black headed gulls and ducks were there.
The walk along the Stanage Edge is always awesome and today full of rock climbers. Amazing how they can climb on some seemingly impossible walls. After that it was straight down to Hathersage for coffee and bus home.
Until today I thought that the distance was 6km but according to Mr Google Maps it's 9, which didnt matter as it was perfectly easy and short as my periosteum hurts.

Stanage  edge, rock formations

Rock climbers, Stanage edge

I liked the colours on these rock walls

Dipper

At last, the dipper has arrived to the little river, down in the Rivelin Valley, I've always liked this tough bird, do not really know why but I think because it is so small and seems to be so tough. It is so fun to watch it when it searches for food in the river either diving or walking on the bottom of the river.
And for the first time, I got both the female and male in the same picture, they tend otherwise keep some distance from each other, I dont know why but thats how I experience it.
Now I think they are close to each other because it is time for mating soon, especially considering how much they sing to each other.
I also think it is the same couple who were there last year, will see if they choose their old nesting location.
Since I usually spend a lot of time to try to shoot them in the spring and summer they usually get used to me after a while and sometimes I can get quite close, but right now they are still a little shy.

Camera equipment: Nikon D90 and nikon 200-400mm f4 lens.

Male on the left, a little bit more colorful :)

Do u see it under the water

Searching



Ready to dive

Signs of spring and more..

Spring flowers are really trying to coming out now, but every now and then the winter comes back for short periods. But spring flowers are tough and they are fighting on despite the snow and freezing temperatures.
It is mainly snowdrops and some yellow flower do not know the name of that one who is steadfast, but  I'm also a little surprised when I see that some rhododendrons already begun to bloom,  isn't that a bit too early but they seem to do well. Even magnolia is starting to get big buds but it will probably take some months for them to bloom.
I Saw a nice dove that I not have seen before, it is called Collared Dove, they have a very nice song  and also a creepy red eye :))

Collared Dove/ Turkduva

 

Ångra ändringarna

Alpha

The Beautiful Mandarin Duck

As I wrote in the previous blog post, I then went down to Endcliff park and there was the beautiful Mandarin duck in place.
I'm Always happy to see the nice colorful duck, so it was just to take out the camera and take pictures.
I managed to get pretty close to the Mandarin, which has not happened before, but maybe it's the cold / winter which makes them less shy of humans.
Since the birds surely need more to eat, they know well that people usually will feed them with bread  and for that reason they cant resist to eat easily earn food.

camera equipment: nikon D90 and nikon 200-400mm f4 lens

Squirrel and wide angle lens

Today I was to the botanical garden in an attempt to shoot squirrels with a wide angle lens, it can be really fun images with wide angle especially if you get really close.
And squirrels in the botanical is not so timid, so you will get really close especially if you have some peanuts to feed them with.
Unfortunately, it was quite sunny and with a wide angle lens you get  a lot of sky, too, so the contrast between the dark ground and bright sky makes it impossible to get a good exposure.
So I have tried to correct the exposure in Lightroom, which is a software for digital images but even that can not save everything.
It was really fun to shoot them so close, and they're so sweet :))
Then I passed Endcliff park and there I had the opportunity to shoot Mandarin Duck but it will be the next blog post.

Camera equipment: D90 and nikon wide angle lens 10-24mm f3,5-4,5.

Something completely diffirent!

This weekend there was a dance competition here in Sheffield, and a friend of mine was going there to take pictures of some of his talented dance friends (not including me ;) ). He arrange for me to join him and practice on movement pics.

As expected, it was not easy to capture fast dancers, actually a real challenge. It didn't make it better that it was poor lighting in the sports hall, which forced me to increase ISO to 3200. Even if that sounds much, and it does effect the quality, the camera can handle ISO 102 400.

The dance competition contained salsa, foxtrot, cha cha, mambo etc, and it was a lot of fun to follow the movements behind the camera.
Since it was the first time I did something like this, I didn't really know where to start. What looks best; whole body, half body or very tight..??.. Looking at them afterwards it seems that some were successful :)) Judge your self.
We were there for 3 hours, and afterwards my back was hurting after constantly holding 3.5kg camera. At the time you do not think much of it though :))
Thank you Krystian for letting me join you.

Camera eguipment: Nikon 3Ds and nikon 70-200mm f2.8 lens.