Birds Gallery - Image of the Year

This image was captured in Finnmark in arctic Norway at 71 degrees north. This area, surrounded by the the cold and nutritious waters of the Barents Sea, has a very large seabird population. As the Puffins and other cliff breeding birds return to their breeding sites, the weather is still very harsh. As an ongoing project of photographing Norwegian seabirds, I spent a week at these bird cliffs in late March 2011. On this particular day the sun was shining, resulting in very uninspiring light, but 11pm a fast moving snowstorm came in from the sea. I had photographed a small group of puffins earlier in the day, and knew that fore and background would be perfect with blowing snow. As the dark clouds moved in, and with the sun still shining, I got a few minutes with magic light. Lying with my lens on the ground I was able to capture a nice series of these puffins. With cover-shots in mind, I always try to capture a few vertical frames as well.

Equipment Used: I used the Nikon D3s with a Nikon 400 2.8 VR for this particular shot, techs were ISO200, 1/3200 sec at f/2.8. While gear is not that important to me, the Nikon 2.8 VR sometimes give painting-like images when shot wide open.

About the Photographer: I am a 35 year old Norwegian nature photographer. My passion for nature was sparked very early by my parents and older brother, who often took me out to search for wildlife around our home. I got my first camera when I was ten years old, and even though I got a broad interest in photography, birds are my favorite subjects.