I am just back from the field. For over 2 weeks I traveled out on the sea ice and the fjords of Svalbard, camping in Polar Bear country. As I am typing I feel my finger tips tingling, still half numb from the cold. I am completely exhausted for a lack of sleep and the constant cold coupled with wind. In my search of special light I stayed up with my guide throughout  many nights out on the ice.

Following fresh polar bear tracks, Svalbard.

A high pressure system provided us with good weather and magical sunlight during the midnight hours. During the night the soft rays of the sun changed from a light yellow orange to pastel colored purple. The white blanket of snow lend itself as a blank piece of canvas to an ever changing show of colors, all orchestrated by the sun.

While the wonderful light kept me from sleeping at night, it was the possibility of an unexpected polar bear visit, that kept us awake during the day. As much as we all wanted, we could not just crash into our tent and sleeping bags. The risk of a bear visit was just to high. The thin tent wall was only protection from the wind but not for a curious polar bear. So we had to take turns polar bear guarding if we wanted to get some sleep. And that bears were around, we were reminded constantly by tracks zigzagging the pack ice. So I had my share of turns sitting around camp armed with a “polar bear pistol” loaded with cracker shells.

Florian stands on a giant iceberg to scan for Polar Bears, Svalbard.

Next to the landscape it was especially the arctic wildlife that I was seeking to photograph. Many hours a day I spent high up on a giant iceberg that calved from one of the surrounding glaciers, hoping to spot a polar bear that would wonder in our direction. It was one of my favorite places as I enjoyed an incredible view of the “Negre” Glacier front that continues on for many miles. The gull-like Fulmars were using the little uplifting winds around the ice berg walls, gliding by my observation post.

While out waiting, one has a lot of time making up imaginary images. I was hoping for an encounter with a polar bear with the magic light of the late night hours. But soon the time at the East Coast Glacier came to an end without finding a bear in this magic light, non-the-less close by. To see a bear at all proofed to become quite a challenge. My patience was being tested but I planned to return to the same place a week later to try my luck again. I did not want to let my hopes down – and I had the feeling persistence would eventually pay off.

So we packed up camp and started to head back towards a track across the grand glaciers to head up towards the northern part of the Spitzbergen Island. In a matter of hours the weather deteriorated and icy wind blew down the glacier bringing dark heavy clouds with it. It began to snow as we started the trek.

Wrapped in layers of clothes I am laying on my stomach, watching a large group of longhaired beasts, that seemed to be from a prehistoric world. The wind has picked up in the course of the night to 40 miles and hour. It whips up the mountain sides and sweeps up small ice crystals that hit my skin like needles. In different areas blowing snow becomes thick and travels across the ground like a ghost of fog.

As parts of my face start to get colder and want to turn numb; and my hands can’t handle my camera anymore, I am thinking how lucky I am to be hit with this weather. It is these types of conditions, that I was hoping for. In my photography I really want to convey a sense of place – take people out into the field with me. For that, my images need to convey the harsh weather conditions, the powerful elements of the wind and the cold.

I am laying on the ground to get a unique perspective. The blowing snow creates this mystical atmosphere and ads to my interpretation of an animal that rather belongs to a children’s fairytale than to this world. I also have learned that the Muskoxen are much less mindful of my presence if I stay low to the ground. They often just eye me with curiosity.

As I am out there observing them many hours a day, I become ever more fascinated. What puzzles me the most is how they can live of a few lichen on the barren tundra, that they scratch up from underneath the snow. How can they possibly receive sufficient energy from this bit of vegetation to withstand constant arctic winter conditions?

What gets me even more, is that I seem to always find them on the most exposed and windy spots on the mountain sides and hilltops. They appear completely indifferent to the wind and the cold. It becomes obvious how well they have adapted to their environment. Their wool apparently has 6 times the insulating qualities of regular wool. No wonder they stay warm.

I am wrapped in several layers of underwear, polar fleece and outer shells that keep me warm. I had never paid much attention to high-tech clothes in the past. Part of that was probably the price tag: out of reach for a broke photographer who spends all of his money on camera gear. This time around however, I had received a sample of Patagonia´s winter clothes. I have to say I was totally impressed. The combination of inside layers and outer shells completely kept any wind from getting to me. It allowed me to hang out with the muskox patiently waiting for those special moments that make up a great image.

It has been several years now that I have worked on my second Freedom to Roam project. During the project I had the incredible chance to focus a lot of my energy on the Alaskan Arctic. Through the project I was able to document areas in great depth for months. For me the Arctic has such a draw, because it is such a vast open landscape that has very little human presence. Many places are true wilderness areas.

Besides Alaska I had the chance to travel to several other arctic locations throughout Canada. I had the secret wish to sometime do a project that would allow me to spend a lot more time in different Arctic and Sub-Arctic locations. There is just so much drama up north. From the winter skies filled with the Aurora Borealis, to the eternal sun of summer. From desolate frozen landscapes where polar bears thrive even in the midst of winter to the arctic tundra in summer which is teaming with life with the bodies of hundreds of thousands of Caribou and migratory birds.

It looks like there is a very good chance that this dream of expanding my work in the arctic dramatically may come true this year. I would be focusing 150% of my energy shooting locations between Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Svalbard. Together with my publisher Braided River books we have been talking about the possibility to collaborate with a fantastic partner to create a book on the Arctic. This partnership would allow us to reach a very broad general public and give insights into Arctic ecosystems and the threat they are facing due to global warming. This is specially important during a time, where vast part of the population is questioning the role humans play in the climate change crises.

So please stay tuned and check in for updates. We should know for sure here in a couple o days. As I am counting on this to go through, I have already continues my work in the Alaskan Arctic this year and am catching a plane to Svalbard, high up in the European Arctic, in a few hours. So if this goes through, you should be able to follow me around to some of the most spectacular locations in the circumpolar arctic.

Even though I have continued my work on F2R – B2B this year already, we would be pushing the book and the project out one more year, as we do not want to cut the documentation of some of important missing locations short.

By the hundreds of thousands members of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd fill valley after valley, Nikon D3x, 24-70mm f2.8

Barren Ground Grizzly wandering the edge of the Arctic Refuge. Nikon D3x, 600mm f4 VR lens

Far away from the centers of our civilization lies a land of wonder, where hundreds of thousands of caribou roam the plains, where myriads of birds migrate to rear their chicks and where the kingdoms of grizzly and polar bears meet. It is America’s vast Arctic, far removed from the rest of the world, but heavily affected by humankind.

Thousands of murres gather on pools on the ice awaiting the nesting season on the nearby cliffs; Nikon D3x, 70-200mm f2.8

A large lead opens in the Chuckchi Sea between Pt. Hope and Cape Lisburne; Nikon D3x, 24-70mm f2.8

For many years environmental organizations have fought for the protection of the Alaskan arctic, but as the energy crisis worsens, pressure is driving Congress to open this wilderness sanctuary to oil drilling and mining operations. As part of my Freedom to Roam project in connection with the Blue Earth Alliance and Braided River Books, I am  working to produce photographic material in support of the Arctic Conservation Campaign. With compelling imagery I hope we can reach Congress and the general public by showing a true portrait of a land often called a “barren wasteland”.

Sea ice landscape at the edge of the lead. Nikon D3x, 14-24mm f2.8

A polar bear roams the edge of the packice in the Chuckchi Sea. Nikon D300, 200-400mm f4 + TC/E 1.4

After spending many months on the ground amongst hundreds of thousands of caribou, nesting birds and barren ground grizzlies in 2008, I realize, that the only way to cover this massive expanse of land is the aerial perspective. So in 2008 I started to plan a major “Arctic Aerial Expedition”, as part of the 2009 work on the Freedom to Roam project. The goal was to show wildlife in their environment, offering a true representation of the way animals depend on this interconnected ecosystem. My goal was to document the retreating sea ice, the platform for seals, walrus, birds and the polar bear as well as to document the 3 major caribou herds of the arctic slope.

I want to invite you to follow my blog as I am going to share with you some of the amazing experiences I had over the last weeks photographing Alaska`s Arctic. Please pass the info on to friends who are interested in wildlife, conservation, Alaska and photography.

It is the worst trying to hold the lens still, when you feel the mosquitos landing on your hand starting to sting

Remember this moment, when you peacefully lay in bed on a warm summer evening, you close your eyes and want to finally relax and slip off into dream world……. and then suddenly you hear this single little mosquito flying around your head. You hear the ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ziiiiiiiiii coming closer to your face and you try to feel where this damn mosquito lands, so you can hit yourself over the head and hopefully smash the little bugger. Most of the time however your face may flinch in anticipation of the oncoming hand, giving this mosquito just enough time to escape its fate.

Well now multiply this mosquito by a thousand, NO! by tenthousand and you may be able to imagnine the kind of  hell you might find yourself in on an arctic river in summer. The noise level of mosquitoes resembles a concert of dog wissles that are just within the realm of the human ear.

So you are still with me? – ok; then you imagine my idea to wade through a river and sit patiently in the tundra near a wolf den to see if I might get lucky to get a photograph. Well yeah, this is the thing with me. If I have a glimpse of hope, my will can be pretty strong. ( Read about my story on PATIENCE )

So what was I after? I had know about this wolf den the year before. Together with my pilot we checked the location this year again to confirm that the wolves were actually still present. We did one round over the den and saw a grey wolf peacefully resting on the river bank. I got one image and this observation gave me reason to come back. When we planned to come back in July we thought about mosquitoes; I bought a mosquito net last minute, because I had forgotten mine. Thank god! As we arrived at the river and flow over the den site we still saw a black wolf nearby. That wolf never even looked up but just shook his fir. It was a sign. As soon as we landed, we know what was going on. This poor creature was so miserable, it could care less what we were all about. Aerial wolf-hunters? Who cares! Put me out of this misery!

Grey Wolf watching the den. Nikon D3x, 70-200mm/f2.8

Good thing we were of the other kind! Longer story short: After crossing the river, I sat down near the den for a couple of hours. For some reason the mosquitoes always found away to work their ways to my skin. I tried to stay calm and the dream of the wolf images kept me pretty upbeat. The bigger problem for me was that I saw not much sign of activity on the river bank. The sand seemed not disturbed from tracks of playing wolf pups, nor was there an obvious path where they would emerge. I checked out different angles but I just could not convince myself that these wolves would ever appear in the open, if they were there at all. So I decided to leave, one of the many times where a hope for an image did not result in success.

Maybe it saved my life, that there were no fresh signs! With my stubbornness I may have stayed out there until the mosquitoes would have sucked the last drop of blood out of me and just left my dried up outer shell – mummified; of course with camera in hand.

Anyway, this is the long story behind the reason why I have a few minutes of internet in the middle of nowhere – at Point Lonely. And it is the same story of just having a few moments. Over night the fog rolled in. Now I have to be on “standby” to be ready to jump into the plane any moment the fog will give us the chance to take off. If we cannot, I might have the chance to write for the coming hours (or days) about my experiences.

What I want to share with you in short: I have seen a Arctic landscape come alive with hundreds of thousands of caribou, watched wolves chase across the tundra, thousands of seals on the ice-sheet and a lonely polar bear wonder the pack ice. As we were buzzing along with the plane it sometimes was hard to absorb and process all the impressions right that very second. I am so glad to have the images to come back to, where a single moment is frozen in time. It will give me a chance to understand what ALL I have seen. My expedition is coming to an end in a few days and after a quick edit, I will share with you some of the incredible moments I have witnessed. For now I better step outside and see what the fog does ……..

.. is undoubtably one of the most important tools in wildlife photography. While sometimes it seems one may be waisting ones time, I have learned that if one give into the waiting game, animals start to present themselves: You discover a little birds nest nearby, you observe a fox that does its daily round to mark its territory – and if you are lucky the moment you are waiting for may come true. Some of the best images in my career happened after such long hours of waiting. 

Snowy Owl returns to the nest to feed the female and chicks. Nikon D3, 500mm/f4 AF-I

After 72 hours this was won of the “golden” moments that made all the waiting worth while. Emil and I had scoped out a good nesting location of the snowy owls. It was a great Lemming year and there were many active nests near the town of Barrow in the northern most tip of Alaska. After acquiring permission to set up a blind the waiting game began. 

Wishful thinking

While I can loose my patience quickly with stuff that “unnecessarily” takes a long time, I can have the patience of an elephant after I get “hocked” on the idea of an image. Often I make different scenarios up in my mind. It becomes a collection of imaginary moments of whishful thinking. These thoughts nourish my desire to wait for those moments to materialize. 

Believe me. There are many times when I have waited for nothing. But the times when a wonderful image came out of it make the wait all worth it. In my career some of the best images came out of such stubbornness, where I just did not want to give up on the image. 

I loved the many hours out on the tundra with the owls. There was so much to see and listen to.

Observations

Owl mother settling her downs around the chicks

I quickly learned about the hunting pattern of the male, that would sit guard some 150 yards from the nest. He occasionally would fly from mount to mount to switch out his perches from where he would hunt the lemmings.
The female would have the responsibility over the nest. She needed to keep the chicks and the last remaining egg warm.

But even she did get anxious once in a while. She had been sitting on this nest for  many weeks, through rain and snow and the daily harassment of the jaegers.
If a long time had passed where the male had not brought in any food, she seemed to try to motive him for the hunt with longing calls. Then when the male finally arrived after a successful hunt, she would change her calls to a kind of ongoing “purring” sound to encourage him to pass over the food. 

Male arrives at the nest with a lemming

It was her job to feed the chicks. I watched the male try once in an helpless effort to stuff a whole lemming into the mouth of a chick. He quickly gave up though, just dropped the little rodent and took off for its perch again.

WHAT IS YOUR PATIENCE REWARD STORY ?

 Strong winds and dense fog did not allow us to set up a base-camp at Teshekpuk Lake. I had hoped to cover the area around the lake because of plans to open up vast parts of the lake to oil drilling. In 2006 the Department of the Interior  sold leases to 500 000 acres in and around Teshekpuk Lake. 

It already is late in the afternoon and the fog sealing is slowly lowering.  We decide to fly out towards Prodhoe Bay. Because of the strong wind we fly extremely low over the ground to where we gain a few miles an hour in speed. It does not take long and we see the first man-made structure: a test well. This is only the beginning. For the next 60 miles we see one industrial structure after  another. 

People often only envision a small developed spot in the arctic landscape around the Prudhoe Bay area. The truth is, that the Prodhoe Bay Oilfield is the biggest oilfield in North America. The main operating companies are PB, Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil.

Most of the activity happens in the midst of winter while it is easier to move equipment across the frozen tundra. While the industry is using special tires to keep down the damages, I see long tracks in “vergin” landscapes made by the heavy machinery. Those tracks are encrouching on the Teshekpuk Lake area, one of the most important arctic bird habitat in the world.

I will try to cover more of the habitat and wildlife at Teshekpuk Lake over the next weeks as the weather gives us a break. Teshekpuk Lake is such an important ecological gem, that oil development simply must not go forward. Stay tuned!

After flying hours below the layer of fog we see a silver lining at the horizon. We need to put the plane down on a gravel bar and set up camp for the night. My pilot Ken wants to look for a spot where we can get out of the wind. We are fighting a stiff breeze of 20 – 30 nots on the nose of the plane.

As we are flying further inland, the sun finally breaks through the layers of fog. In the far distance I see the brooks range. Dark clouds are hugging the mountains and create a dramatic backdrop for photographs. We follow a river drainage south as I see a group of caribou in the riverbed heading to climb a steep snowbank  to join their group up on the extended plains, where food is plentiful.

We swing around with the plane while I keep an eye on the group running up the step snowbank seemingly without effort. I am trying to caputre the images struggling to keep the horizon straight in the viewfinder while the pilot goes into  a steep bank and balances out the gusts of wind. After hours of flying through bad weather, there it is: A few seconds of action in wonderful golden arctic light.

Rainshowers over the Brooks Range - Nikon D3x, 24-70mm f2.8 lens

We started our aerial expeditions heading north beyond the Arctic Circle. Coming from Fairbanks I met my pilots in Coldfoot and we flew west towards the National Petroleum Reserve. It is a vast landscape of open valleys soon turning into treeless tundra. Only willow bushes remain. Beneath us I see the trails that caribous have carved into the ground over decades and centuries. On the riverbeds we also see the tracks of grizzly bears and wolves.

Midnight on the Nigu River in the National Petroleum Reserve - Nikon D3x, 24-70mm f2.8 lens

On the gravel bars of the Nigu we find a spot to set down the bushplanes. It is a wonderful arctic night on the Nigu River. The sun never sets, but colors the mountaintops at the edge of the valley.