Nature
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Deer in Danish Winter
Most of the winters in Denmark isn’t powdered with white dunes of snow. Temperature wise they then to move en the area just above freezing, but whit a lot of rain and heavy clouds. The combination is rather damp and unpleasant, bu we have to live with and so does the animals around us – unless the are hibernating, but few are. So most just adapts. Here I spotted a few deer in the nearby Dyrehaven.
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Winter in the Forrest
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Spring has arrived
As expected from looking at the calendar, it’s spring. But now you can see it clearly in the garden and nature
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Whale watching
To me whales have always been exotic animals, I cannot reach the and see them during my daily life. Sometimes with a good portion of luck I can see their smaller cousins the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in Danish coastal waters, but bigger whales are very rarely visitors to Danish sea. So getting to a place like Peninsula Valdes where real big whales sometimes can be spotted from the coast or from a boat is amazing. So we got us places on a boat that could take us out into the Golfo Nuevo, where female and cubs of the Southern Right Whale should be spending the late spring in November.…
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Peninsula Valdez, walking along the beach
My trip to Argentina have taken me to Peninsula Valdez, which is located at the Atlantic coast of Argentina around 42 degrees south and 64 degrees west of Greenwich. So in the middle of November the time of year is at late spring. This means weather can be a little cold but also nice & warm and rather hot, in our 4 days at the peninsula we experienced all. The main attraction for Peninsula Valdez is it’s wildlife and especially the whales. I took a stroll along the beach on the first morning. Starting out about high tide, where everything was covered with water, and the beach was narrow –…
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Summer in the garden
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Meet the new deer
Again this year, June means that the red deer in Dyrehaven presents their new off-spring. Took a hike through the area and was happy to see some of the new born deer, they are a bit shaky when walking and running about. Then suddenly they – like any other young mammal – gets tired and must have a nap. They just lie down and almost disappear in the tall grass, but the older deer walks around them eating and resting. All pictures was taking with my Nikon D850 fitted on a Tamron 150-600 mm G1 lens. Setting have been 350-600 mm for the images shown here, aperture f/8 with 1/400…
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No doubt, it’s spring
Did a hike through a nearby forest – Jægersborg Hegn north of Copenhagen – and got some proof that spring is here.
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Spring is hesitating?
The calendar has shown spring for a month now, some days have been warm and sunny. But some days the morning are cold and frosty, yesterday it even snowed a little, is spring hesitating this year?
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Winter is ending
Measured by the calendar last day of winter is the coming Monday, Tuesday will be spring. Today’s bright sky allow the sun to shine and provide a warming feeling. I was convinced, spring will be here soon. But winter still have a little grip, can smear some frost and ice on the ground, puddles and lakes. Hit a few moments by the rays of the sun, the ice melts. So be out early to document the last days of winter.
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Malik, the Storm
The worst storm in Denmark in 5 years was named Malik. It ended up being classified as a category 2 storm, big media fuss and closed traffic services all over the country. In many other places around the world a category 2 storm would hardly raise an eyebrow. But OK, as you see the worst since October 2016. We don’t have a nature around us that presents many extremes. The highest hill (don’t have mountains) is almost 180.5 meters high, the deepest spot in our seas are 130-140 meters deep, we only have moderate temperatures compared to other places. Coldest measured temperature is -31.2 Celsius, bloody cold but not compared…
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Malik the storm is approaching
As mentioned above, the wind will increase during the night peaking just between night and dawn. So think I’ll go back and see how it looks at the verge of a hurricane.
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A hike in North Zeeland
Jægerspris castle is situated in a forest close to the Roskilde fjord, it provides public access to the path ways. The terrain is rather flat so it’s an easy hike you’ll get there, however it’s possible to plan some rather long walks, especially if you start by the castle an walk all the way up to the old oak trees – here the Kings oak. My hike started from the castle and was 9.5 km long and as we spent time to take photos it took us about 2.5 hours.
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Red Deer in the Rutting Season
I spent a couple of hours in Jægersborg dyrehave to photograph the Red deer. Started the tour 1.5 hours before sunset and headed home about half an hour after sunset. This time of day provides the best chance to meet the deer, can also do it around sunrise.
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A photo trip into the garden
A nice thing about having a garden is that i provides opportunities an easy way to go on a photo shoot. Especially during the summer when flowers are in full bloom and is attracting insects. So equipped with my camera, macro lens and tripod I walked the 10 meter long journey into the flowerbed. A sunny day with lot’s of flowers and insects provides several opportunities within a few minutes. I just set up my camera aiming at a flower, wait a few minutes and then the flower has a visitor, adjust focus and fire away. Next I’ll try to do focus stacking to get an image that is sharp…
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Busy bees
Have you ever wonder over the name busy bee? I was sitting next to the flowerbed in the garden and I could absolutely understand why it’s named that way. I had my 105 mm macro lens on the camera and was trying to get a good shot of one of the buzzing fellows. I had the camera on a tripod, with the ball head loose. So I could get the nearby flowers into the frame rather fast, the lens was approximately in focus, so it could also focus correctly fast. I counted seconds, it took about 2-3 seconds from I spotted a bee until it was perfectly in focus. But…
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Summer among deer
Summer in the Nordics means long light evenings, so we get an extra opportunity to get photos of our surroundings. I went to Dyrehaven for an evening hike, but bringing camera and a long lens made it take a bit longer. There is a big chance to see the deer on an evening hike, but we have developed a saying that camera proximity keeps the deer away, as we often has experience that when we bring cameras we meet very few and when not bringing the cameras a lot. This Monday evening was quite different. Here on the evening of solstice the calves was born some weeks ago and are…
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Squirrel
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Spring in Dyrehaven
Spring is definitely here, fresh leaves are all over and animals are presenting their new off-spring. I went to Dyrehaven north of Copenhagen the last couple of hours before sunset, hoping to get a few pictures of deer in the spring. Think I did, just browse through the gallery.
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Gribskov hike
Lock down might be gone, but currently everything has gotten complicated and planning requiring. You need to have a negative test – not more than 72 hours old – to enter a bar, restaurant, cinema, theater, museum. So don’t go by sudden impulse, only go if you have carefully planned. My wife and I are planners for the work life, but there it seems to end. We love to have a vague plan for the week-end and then in the last minute decide what to do. It does not correspond with regulation these days. So we have decided to do what we can do without planning. A hike in a…
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A few shots from the garden
Sometimes when working in by home office I am distracted by a movement outside the window. It might be a bird or a falling leave. Today it was what I have come to think of as my little red friend – the squirrel. Got the camera and had the luck of squeezing the window open and get a few nice shots at it. Would have liked to have used a longer lens, but could no afford the time to change. When the squirrel had left I went out and shot this mornings build of stone piles. Even though it’s just in my garden I put into nature, because even a…
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Spring is folding out
Every day you can see a development in the signs of spring. I been watching the trees and bushes in my garden the latest days, and it’s quite clear that we are on the move towards brighter times.
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Spring is here, life is coming back
This week temperature has risen to almost comfortable levels – 10-15 degrees Celsius. This means that insects and flowers are emerging i larger numbers, so I grabbed the camera with the Sigma 105 f/2.8 Macro lens and spent an hour on the ground in the garden. Even though photos here are taken on f/10 to provide a large depth of field ( it’s not that large. I get a very small Even though photos here are taken on f/10 to provide a large depth of field (DoF) it’s not that large. I get a very small DoF because I’m using 105 mm focal length and because my focus distance is…
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Litter in Covid-19 times
Lock-down has changed my habits, I don’t ride the bike to-from work because I only go down the stairs to my basement office. But I need some regular exercise, so I’m up for a daily walk with my wife. We have always been visiting the parks and forests in our local area, but now it’s changed from once or twice per month to once a day. Others has made similar shifts in habits, so a lot of new visitor to the areas can be met. We met those newcomers, can spot them from far away. They walk slowly, deeply engaged in either conversations or listening to their device, many has…
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Reersoe, it used to be an Island
At the west side of Zealand (Sjæland in Danish) you find a small peninsula called Reersø. Ending with an Ø indicates that it was named as an island. And sure enough it has been an island, but during the 17 century sediments in the bay between the island and Zealand made a connection and in 1852 a road was established on the isthmus. Now the island had become a peninsula. The attraction to my wife and I was that the area provides wandering routes – the clover paths – which can take you around the island and it can provide some nice scenery for a photo. So to entertain us…
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Squirrel in the rain
Today I have been working in my home office 10 months and 1 day, so I have settled some routines for the day. First thing in the morning is to get in some fresh air and have a look outside into the garden behind the house. Today I was surprised to hear a rather loud scratching noise. It was easy to locate it to one of the fence poles, and in the dark I could see the squirrel. I sneaked back in to the basement to get my camera, first I mounted the 150-600 mm lens, then I pointed it out from of the window. Got a few shots (f/6,…
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First real sunshine in December
December in 2020 has been almost record breaking grey and dark in Denmark. On the 21st only 1 hour of sunshine has been registered! So when the weather report for the 23rd announced possibility of a clear sky and sunlight I was happy not to have meeting or activities fixed in the calendar for that day. Instead of being tied to the computer I could grab my camera and take a hike in the nearby Jægersborg Dyrehave. Temperature was about 1-2 degrees Celsius and only little wind, so a fine day for a photo hike. During a 1.5 hour and 6.5 Km I got a lot of good opportunities to…
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Distraction when working from home
Usually I used to complain about disturbances in the open office. You know, someone tapping you shoulder for a chat (both private and professional) , listening to passerby conversation, talking somewhere etc. breaks your concentration on the task you are about to. To be honest I have praised working from home during Covid-19 as it has allowed me to concentrate on my tasks and being a lot more efficient. Some tasks that I know would take 2-3 days in the office is done within half a day. But of course there is distractions in my home. Mailman rings the door bell, wife wants to talk, dish washer is finished a…
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Red Deer in the Rutting season
Close to my home is Dyrehaven, a closed area but more nature than park. It’s home for 3 species of deer, in all more than 2.000 deer. Of those 2.000 3-400 are Red deer, and they have their Rutting season during September and October. As the area is quite small you can experience the deer at close distance, and everywhere you go you can hear the males call to gather the hinds for his harem and to show other stags how big and strong he is. I spent a couple of hours photographing.
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Blackberries III
Here in the start of September my early blackberry bush is almost empty of berries. I have had the success to harvest the most of them, maybe due to the green net put on top of the bush. Or the birds had chosen to go for other foods. But unfortunately a blackberry bush grows quite a bit when it stops to produce berries, some days it has added almost 10 cm to the branches. This means that branches has grown through the net and beyond. As there was almost no more berries on the bush I decided to take down the net. It took me almost an hour, mostly on…
