(a mini-) TRIP REPORT: Svalbard, Norway, June/July 2016
THE PORTRAIT GALLERY. While processing the images from this trip I noticed some images that gave a little more personal insight into the animals I had photographed, so I decided to crop out some of the extranous parts of the image to concentrate more on the animal's face, details, expression, etc. Keep in mind that although some of these are dangerous animals, I was a safe distance away and was only able to get such close-ups with a telephoto lens and then cropping the image down to the portrait.
In summary, a great trip! One I wouldn't mind making again. One disappointment was not finding polar bears on the ice flows; because of the previous mild winter, the Arctic Ocean ice was much thinner and had broken up earlier than usual, and the southerly winds had pushed the remaining ice further northward than usual. In this age of global warming, I might have to make the trip in March to photograph polar bears on ice...