Posted by Florian – June 22, 2009
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.
Posted in: Adventure, Expeditions, wilderness | Tagged: Aerial, Alaska, Arctic, Conservation, Expedition, Freedom to Roam, nikon, Nikon D3x, Photography
Posted by Florian – June 13, 2009
A group of muskoxen in the Western Arctic
A few weeks ago I started to document America`s Western Arctic. Coming fresh from Mexico I had a few days in Seattle and then Anchorage to aclimate to the north. The Western Arctic is a huge wilderness area that not very many people know about. For most people it is a “blank spot on the map” with very little visual reference. In the past years the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has received a lot of attention, while the Western Arctic was forgotten about. During that time a lot of resource development projects went forward and oil leases were sold largely unnoticed.
It is very hard for people to care for a place that they don’t know, let alone they cannot picture. As part of my FREEDOM TO ROAM PROJECT I want to change that. I want people to be able to visualize this incredibly precious landscape of the Western Arctic. This becomes increasingly important as natural resource exploiting industries are finding their way into those very remote places. Red Dog Mine is one of such examples. There are so few people living in those areas, that there is very little local opposition. Next to Red Dog, there are new major mining projects in the works including a strip coal mine accessing one of the largest coal reserves on the planet. Over 10% – some 4 trillion tons, of the worlds coal reserve is located there.
If this project goes forward, it would not only be a climate disaster, but destroy one of the last true wilderness areas in America. It is a place that is home to to America`s biggest caribou herd: The Western Arctic Herd. Their annual migration route goes directly though the mining project areas. Last summer Emil and I worked extensively to document the Western Arctic Herd. It was one of the most memorable wilderness experiences of our lives. Read Emil’s story here >>
For several days I worked out of a MAUL bush plane to reach remote locations
Posted by Florian – June 13, 2009
A few days ago my friend Patricio Robles Gil asked me to write a few sentences about what wilderness means to me. I was based in Kotzebue at the time doing aerial work to document America`s Western Arctic. It is a huge wilderness area that not very many people know about – but let me get to that in another post……
Between the shoots and the editing I sat down and asked myself that very simple question. Coming up with an answer in a few sentences was not that easy. After-all Wilderness is the reason, why I became a nature photographer. Wilderness is the reason why I wanted to be an exchange student and come to America as a teenager. With over eighty million people in a country smaller than the state of Montana, there is little room for wilderness. As wilderness had disappeared in Germany, I longed to explore it in the American continent. The word wilderness envelops so many promises, feelings, memories and emotions for me, that is hard to define. But here is what I came up with:
WILDERNESS
“………… is a place, where my imagination can wonder into a world not dominated by mankind, where my eyes can rest over virgin landscapes and where wildlife has the freedom to roam. True wilderness is a window into an ancient world in balance. It serves as a reminder, that we humans are only one single species in this incredible web of life. Nowhere else but in wilderness do I feel more alive!”
WHAT DOES WILDERNESS MEAN TO YOU?
Posted by Emil – January 28, 2009
Florian Schulz was honored by the Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards and the National Wildlife Federation as the Conservation Photographer of the Year 2008
This Conservation Photographer of the Year Award was created to recognize a special individual who has used his or her skills as a nature photographer to implement meaningful and measurable conservation efforts and to inform and educate the public about environmental concerns. The CPY Award is presented in alliance with the National Wildlife Federation, the largest nonprofit conservation organization in North America.
Posted by Emil – January 28, 2009
While documenting one of the most amazing spectacles in the Arctic: The annual migration of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, we came across situations that confronted us with deep emotions. Spending long periods of time in the wild is certainly unveiling, it allows you to see the world from many different perspectives.
It is hard to imagine how wildlife is able to thrive in places where weather can be unforgiven or food seems scarce, like the Arctic. And yet, some of these unthinkable places, carry amazing histories of survival.
It was late afternoon and I had been walking along the river bank to set up my stereo recording system. Walking close to the river, I passed by several river cracks that were quite deep and slippery. From the corner of my eye I cached a slightly movement from the inside of the crack.
To my astonished eyes, what I came to encounter wasn’t a fox as I had thought, it was a young caribou calf that had been left behind. My heart felt cold to the ground.
He didn’t move, or called, or anything, he just sat there, looking at me. He was probably exhausted after crossing the freezing waters of the river and fighting the current to keep up with its mother.
After witnessing their struggle to cross the heavy waters of this river, one can only think, this little being should continue living after such an effort. He was so tiny, like most of his siblings, probably few days old.
And the thought of them already swimming across such waters, it really makes you wonder how amazing nature can be.
We as wildlife photographers, have never interfered with nature in any way. We are there to document. But I felt a strong need to help, at least to give him the chance to continue his journey.
So I went and got Florian from camp to see what to do. The Calf was there, siting still. Florian went down and helped him up the river bank. Then he passed it onto my arms to carry it over to the open.
He looked at me with his big brown eyes, and I could feel his heart beating really really fast! This tiny little calf had probably never seen a human before, and was wondering what we were doing. But he stayed calm, it was a truly peaceful moment.
We could see the mother on the other side of the willows, running franticly searching for its calf. So we carried it over to see if they would find each other. And they did!
As soon as the calf called out a few times - yelp yelp yelp - the mother immediately came over. They touched noses and ran off together.
At the end of the day, we realized how much this animals have to go through to keep up with the herd. And then we thought, if any other people would see what we saw, they would’ve want to do the same: save the little calf.
Later on, we realized that saving a calf from the crevasses is only a symbolic message. It is more important to make people aware that preserving their lands, will allow them to roam freely over the Tundra.
This specific area, the Utukok Uplands, has been proposed for future oil drilling. Efforts are being made to oppose this, but we still need your voice to help prevent further exploitation.
Would’ve you want the little caribou to survive the river crossing?
If we really want this animals to continue thriving across the beautiful landscapes of the Arctic, oil development should not happen in this pristine areas. We need new clean ways to produce energy.
Say no to oil development in the Arctic! For more information visit the following websites:
www.alaskawild.org
www.nrdc.org
www.nwf.org
Visions of the 