During the last years I visited most of the arctic or subantarctic countries in Europe during winter. Iceland and Greenland many times, twice northern Norway and Spitzbergen once. Sweden und Finland was still on my list to extend my scandinavian stock collection. My first plan was to do a road trip from northern Finland to Sweden and back. But due to many reasons, I changed the plan after returning from the southern hemisphere. It should be Finland only, with as little driving as possible. I needed more peace and Finland only looked very promising on its own without covering huge distances.

The main focus was the winter landscape and the snow covered, ice clad arctic spruces on the tops of the Fjells of Finland. Finnish wildlife and of course the northern lights should be included in the plan as well. After returning from Antarctica I needed some time at home, in the offce to catch up with everything and to get some rest. Therefore we decided to go during the last three weeks of March!

After some research I made an itinerary which included 4 National Parks, some nature reserves, the Ranua Arctic Wildlife Park and some days in Helsinki at the end of the trip. We flew to Rovaniemi, drove south east towards the Russian border and Kuusamo/Ruka and returned to Rovaniemi by doing a more northerly loop back. I do not think I would change much in hindsight. But I would try to go earlier in the year. Due to some storms and the already quite strong sun, the trees had already lost some of their snow cover. Still ok, but I guess I have to come back for more. We still had temperatures of around -10 C during the days, but the sun melted the snow nevertheless!

The Park, which is a bit like a Zoo with some really big enclosures, is specialized on arctic wildlife and has some interesting species like wolverine, arctic foxes and wolves. For photographic purposes the enclosures range from very good to poor, it is really a very mixed bag. It is definitly worth while and the animals are good to watch, but not always good to photograph due to fences, viewing angles and walls. Sometimes you have to be creative...... We had splendid weather (but unfortunately no northern lights...), blue sky and lots of sun. Most animals had been quite active, which was sometimes really demanding and good for practicing.

A highlight was definitly the pair of wolverines, most of the time they run, digged caves in the deep snow, jumped up and down and played. It was very demanding, but lots of fun. I did not have much experience with wolverines and no picture at all. I guess they had a good time, at least it looked like it.

The enclosure of the Wolverines was not really good, but still ok for photography, for viewing however it was extraordinary. As active as the wolverines had been as lazy were the lynxes. It is a good enclosure for taking pictures, but all we saw was this lazy and super relaxed lynx......

Of course it is not only about predators, but I hoped for better locations of Reindeer and Moose later during the trip. I was right with Reindeer but later on we did not see a single moose..... The sibirian musk deer however was a nice surprise. I did not know this species and I guess I will never watch it in the wild. It is a cute little deer with fangs or dracula like teeth, very interesting and strange. Wiki says they grow the fangs for display instead of antlers. Having antlers in the dense forests of the taiga may have been an disadvantage.

Back to the predators. As "exotic" as the sibrian musk deer was the Dhole to me. The Dhole is a wild dog like canid and native to Asia. Other names are red dog, red wolf, indian wild dog and many more. In german it is called Rothund, asiatischer Wildhund, Alpenwolf (it never ever had a population in the eruopean Alps!) or Asiatischer Rotwolf. It is a critcally endangered species.

A visit to Ranua is rewarding, expecially if you are keen to watch arctic wildlife at least sometimes in larger enclosures. You should know that Ranua Wildlife Park, as remote as the village of Ranua might be, can be a very busy place. Rovaniemi is close and during the day you sometimes will have busloads of visitors from Rovaniemi. If I am around I always would stay some hours in the Park! If you come for photography, bring the longest lens you have, some enclousures are huge and some have a fences with a dense mesh. For both situations you need a long lens!

I never got tired of the sheer unlimited forms and shapes of the arctic spruces in the snow. And I know I have to come back, as I said a bit earlier in the year. Photography always includes hikes of 1 to 4 hours to reach the top of the hills. The use of snowshoes is essential, if you want to leave the main tracks. I am used to snow in the Alps, but finnish snow on the Fjells is different. The snow is just powder. One step from the trampled track and you will find yourself hip-deep in the snow. Even with my alpine sized snowshoes it was just ok.

We visited the fjells Riisitunturi (the most famous), Konttainen, Salla, Pyhätunturi and Kuntivaara. Most of these hills are either reserves or national parks and some have ski resorts close to them. It is difficult to describe a hike in these forests, you have to experience it on your own. But one thing is for sure, you need good and suitable weather. On Kuntivaara, which can be reached in a long day trip on snowmobile from Ruka, it was cloudy with some snow, the day before in Salla it was as blue as it can be. A boring cloud cover kills the atmosphere....
The hills are very exposed and avoid to go there if it is windy, even with face masks it is not easy to bear the wind chill!

The Finns call these trees and this phenomenon Tykky/Tykkylumi. We do not have a word for it in german and I do not think, that there is one in english. A similar noun I know is the bavarian word Schneemandl (Schneemännchen, snowman). Anyway it is a very unique experience and highly recommended. Earlier in the year, when the anlge of the sun is even lower than in March, you get endless sunsets and dawns with reddish to purple skies. Another reason to come back!

Reindeer belong to Lapland and Lapland belonged to the Reindeer. Reindeer is the only species of deer, which was domesticated. In Europe there is only one Reindeer population, which was never domesticated, it is the Svalbard Reindeer (check out my Svalbard blog). We had perfect days on a Reindeer farm, which are common in northern Finland and often can be visited. Some of them are very commercial and can accomodate busloads of visitors. Only towards the end of the journey I found a farm, which looked right for photography and was open to visitors. It was near Phyae-Luosto NP, the most northerly park we visited. And I picked a perfect day for a visit and we even came back the day after as it was really productive.

It snowed all night and it kept on snowing during the morning, when we visited the farm. -8 C, lots of snow, very atmospheric and in the end my equipment and the photographer was as coverd in snow as much as the model rendeer had been. Rule number one under these conditions, keep your equipment as cold as possible, to avoid the snow from melting...... Sometimes the ocular was full of snow and viewing started to be more a guessing. But it simply was great photography.

As all top models do, the Reindeer asked for a compensation, which was supplied by the farmer in some wooden boxes near the fence. Some had been very greedy! Overall it was such a good experience, that I decided to come back the next morning, when the weather was a bit sunny and reshooted everything in different conditions.

It is good material, was a great experience and a test of man and material. Sometimes the snowfall was so thick, that the AF system of the body was not able to focus on the deers. Very surprising was the ability of the AF AI object recognition to find the object and focus on it. I tried without and there was no way the AF would find anything but snowflakes. Sometimes technology helps in very surpising shooting situations.

Oulanka Naitional Park is one of the most famous and most visited National Parks in Finland. It is located close to Kuusamo/Ruka avery popular town/ski resort. I was very surprised to see, that during winter it was not crowded at all, the cafeteria in the Visitor Center was closed. Even in this place you could enjoy the tranquility of the finish taiga!

I found photography in Oulanka more difficult than on the arctic hilltops, maybe I missed the snowcovered trees.....  Oulanka is a huge park compared to the hilltop National Parks and we entered at three different sites.

It was still quite cold with temperatures hovering between -6C and -12C but somehow I felt the spring approaching. No snow on the trees, hoarfrost melted as soon as the sun was up, some paths iced over. It was great winter hiking in the park, as some of the tracks are always trampeled and a long distance hiking path was kept open. It is highly recommeded, but for me it was not as fascinating as the hill tops. Would I return? Definitly, but a bit earlier in the year! Oulanka is located between Ruka and Salla and it can be a base for both destinations, if you do not mind a bit of driving. I had lots of fun in the park, the hiking was great. Perhaps I would have needed more time to understand a "Taiga and river National Park" better.

Karelia is quite well known among photographers as there are many hides, especially for bears, even wolverines and wolf hides exist. Right at the border of the NP is a well established and well maintained hide for golden eagles. I tried my luck and booked a slot on short notice. The eagles showed up, the light was ok, but there was not much activity among the pair of eagles. I have some shots, but somehow, the technical quality aka "sharpness" of the files had been dissapointing. I must have made a mistake or changed settings without realizing. These things should not happen but sometimes Mr. Murphy is an unwanted companion.   Next time I will be much more careful and check everything from time to time! Anyway, it was a great experience to watch the eagles and even more to watch the busy woodpeckers around some feeders!

Travelling in Finland is easy and straigtforward. As an independent photographer you have to hire a car, especially in winter. The roads are well maintained, but very often snow covered and with bare ice. During winter you normally get only cars with studded tyres, therefore this poses only a little challange. But if you are not used to snow and ice on a road, it will be a new experience to drive 100km on a snow surface with patches of ice. A 4WD is not essential, as this part of Finland is only hilly and real "alpine" roads are rare, but it will give you more safety in challenging situations.
Around the ski resorts accomodation is easy to get, in the countryside between the resorts it is more sparse. Most accomodation are self catering cottages often in cottage camps consisting of between 10 to 40 cottages. It is a good way to travel and it will give you lots of flexibility.

Right now we are in a very good period for northern lights, therefore I had big hopes. But this time I was not lucky. Northern lights showed up not as often as I wanted and in the wrong locations as well. Moreover after a full day on snowshoes I was a bit to lazy to scout for the best place for aurora photography. Another challenge was the soft pulver as it was impossible to walk without snowshoes, tripod legs just vanished in 1 m of soft snow and so on. It would have been necessary to prepare everything much better, trample a path and so on during daylight. Moreover our area was a bit to far south in Finland, the best places are a bit further north compared to Norway, Iceland or Greenland. We had one nice night and again Murphy struck, as some scienties fired rockets into the atmosphere for whatever experiment and the sky was blueish around the test site..... Next time I will be more lucky.

The last destination I want to talk about is Korouma nature reservere, the first location we visited. It is famous and even for day trips accessible from Rovaniemi. It is a long gorge which can be entered from both sides. At the main parking near Posio we expected some cars especially as the weather was really poor, heavy wet snowfall. I could have not been more wrong. There had been several buses from Rovaniemi with mostly asian tourists, which probably had nevers seen snow before and crowded the hiking paths. At the bottom of the gorge there are several very typical wooden shelters with fireplaces. The guides prepared finnish sausage over open fire for the asian tourists. It must have been a package tour from Rovaniemi. A bit further downstream the path was still busy, but at least not crowded.... Be prepared for this, when hiking in Korouma!

Finland is famous for its lakes and so far you have only seen one picture of a frozen winter lake! Lakes are abundant, but I never was happy with the composition, very difficult at least for me! Korouma has a second parking place, which is farther away from Posio and we gave the nature reserve a second try. The area downstream is very different with lots of lakes and hills.This area is hardly visited at all, hiking was hard, as we could not use tracks all the time. But it was finnish solitude! I tried my skills on the lakes and I think the results are okish.

This hike was a great experience, physical quite demanding and the orientation was difficult (we had no real gps, nearly all track markings had been buried by snow...).

I think that's it from the countryside. What is left - Helsinki, the capital!

Helsinki is a young city, compared to other european capitals a very young city. Since the 16th century there was a small village nearby, but only  beginning of the 19th century it was founded as a city and capital by the then ruling russian empire. What you see today as the city center was rebuilt from scratch in the neoclassical style of the first half of the 19th century. We stayed just 2 days to get an idea of Helsinki. It was a good change after nearly three weeks of countryside and Helsinki has a good atmosphere. Even if you are not into city trips, consider Helsinki. We liked it and I am sure it is even better, if you do not need to dress up for winter!

Yes, that is all for the moment. My next plans? Office, postprocessing, marketing and some smaller trips in the vicinity. The long trip to Falkland, South Georgia and Antarctica is on the horizon and wants to be prepared. Lots of things to do......

And Finland during winter will stay on my list, but about 3 weeks earlier......

Wir sind jetzt wieder regelmäßig auf den Fototagen und Reisemessen unterwegs. Wenn Ihr wollt besucht uns! Die nächsten Messen sind in Duisburg, Darmstadt, Bremen, Wien oder Erlangen.

Für Falkland 2024 sind noch wenige Plätze frei, wer (sub) antarktische Tiere fotografieren will, ohne auf eine Expeditionskreuzfahrt zu gehen, für den ist Falkland genau das richtige! Die Kacheln bringen Euch immer zur Beschreibung der Reise!

Thats it for the moment! Stay tuned and healthy!

Munich, May 2023