I have been a keen photographer for many years and changed from film to digital in 2004. By profession I am a professor of geography at the University of Bergen, Norway, and as a photographer I benefit from my professional interests in cultural landscapes, nature management, biogeography, and other related fields.
I have a special interest in all kinds of plants (angiosperms and cryptogams alike) but also in all aspects of nature and natural history, including birds, insects, and mammals, as well as ecosystems and environmental change. Through my pictures I try to mediate the diversity of nature as reflected in specific landscapes, including the human impact. Most of my pictures are of Norwegian landscapes. Norway is a country with a long coastline, deep fiords, extensive alpine areas, glaciers, and waterfalls, all of which are often considered natural or close to natural. However, the land has been used by Man for thousands of years, who has produced cultural landscapes such as coastal heathlands, peatlands, mountain summer-farming areas, and traditional pastures and meadows. These landscape types have their own special character, regional variation, history, land use, and biodiversity. It is these patterns and processes that I try to reflect in my pictures.
I use FX-format whenever possible. The D5 and D850 cameras produce remarkable images, even when almost no light is available, as when I photographed the eagle owl in the middle of the night. The D850 has a stunning resolution. The D500 is typically used in combination with the 200-500mm, mostly for hand-held flight pictures of birds. I often use a remote cord (MC-30) to trigger the camera when mounted on a tripod, to avoid possible shaking from pushing the camera’s shutter-release button manually. If needed, I use the combination FX-format camera/AF400/600mm/extender/Gitzo tripod/MC-30, producing cutting edge, sharp images.
I use the speedlights SB-900 and 910 for portraits as well as nature photography, often all three at a time, using SU-800 as a master unit. I also use them in the middle of the night to take pictures of nocturnal mammals, using the focus-trap function of the D5. The camera is then pre-focused and fixed at a certain distance by using the MC-30 cord. The shutter and flashes are triggered as soon as any moving object comes into the focus field. This worked fine with the red fox in the mountains, as well as with hedgehogs in the forest close to my house.
If you don’t have a steady tripod, buy one! If you have a steady tripod, use it! Having an expensive tele lens and no steady tripod is waste of money.