Chile 1.12.2011 – 29.02.2012

To be three months in Chile is and will be fantastic, but very busy. When not photographing or driving car the rest of the time is spent eating and sleeping (more or less).

The first leg on this trip is ended. 5 weeks in the north of Chile resulted in more photos than I like to think about when it comes to post processing. In addtion we drove 8000 kms on this trip – oh, yes, Chile is really a long country with a lot of ups and downs if you visit the Altiplano (the plains between the Andes mountains) a lot.

The last vist to the Altiplano was a short one. Arriving at about 4500 and overlooking Laguna Legia hell broke loose. Hale, snow and several lightnings per minute close by was terrifying considering the 20 liters of gasoline on the roof of the car. Well, everything ended good as you can understand .

But do not drive eagerly into the desert to look for owls and forget about the dead cacti lying on the ground as we did. Two of our brand new Toyo all terrain tyres got a lot of holes. But they were leaking air very slowly so we made it back to Santiago by filling air at a gas station every 4 hours. Later all four were checked and the two bad ones fixed for NOK 240 .

After about a week in Santiago we are leaving on Tuesday for the south of Chile. Especially along the 1000 kms of Carretera Austral includiing a trip to Argentina for some days. Bought a Nikon AW100 to be used in the extremely beautiful and exciting marble caves filled partially with freshwater in  one of the lakes down there

Here are some photos from the trip (will be updated now and then if time permits and connection excists):

Overlooking Argentina from Air France's flight Paris - Santiago. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Overlooking Argentina from Air France's flight Paris - Santiago. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Burrowing Owl, The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Burrowing Owls, The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Burrowing Owl, The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Burrowing Owl, The Flowering Desert, Huasco Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Burrowing Owl, The Flowering Desert, Paposo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Atacama, Chile: Flowering desert – Desierto florido – Blomstrende ørken 2010

October and part of September 2010 was spent in the flowers of the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile. 2011 is an even better year with flowers and will last for some more weeks probably quite a while into December at least in some places. My wife and I will arrive 1st of December in Santiago and will immediately go to the north to look for the flowers.

In Spanish: Octubre y parte de septiembre de 2010 fue el tiempo ocupado para ver las flores del desierto de Atacama en el norte de Chile. El año 2011 se ve aún mejor y la floración perdurará por algunas semanas más, probablemente en algunos lugares hasta diciembre. Mi esposa y yo llegaremos el 1 de diciembre a Santiago e inmediatamente nos dirigiremos al norte a ver las flores.

Here are some flowers from 2010/Aquí hay algunas imagenes tomadas el 2010:

Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Between Carrizal Bajo and Caldera. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Btw. Paposo and Tal Tal. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Btw Huasco and Carrizal Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Hierba de Agua. Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Garra de Leon. Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Carrizal Bajo. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Btw Carrizal Bajo and Tal Tal. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Paposo NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Caldera. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Flowering desert, Atacama, Chile, 2010. Pan de Azucar NP. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Saturday October 15th – visiting Tisleidalen, Norway

Together with Helge Eek I paid a rather short visit to an area i Valdres called Tisleidalen situated about a 1000 m asl. This was during the annual fall meeting of Norsk Naturfotografer (Norwegian Nature Photographers). The mountains were very beautiful with their zebra stripes of black and white. The marshes around the lakes were rather dangerous to approach because they were not properly frozen, but anyway we tried and at least I got very wet on my feet as a result of that.

My friend Helge Eek in front of the mountain Skogshorn. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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View from Nøsen towards the mountains. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Detail from the river Flyaelva. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Detail from the river Flyaelva. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Detail from the river Flyaelva. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Detail from the river Flyaelva. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Detail from the river Flyaelva. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

All photos taken by Nikon D3s, Nikon 200-400mm/4.

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Ulv og bjørn, wolves and bears – Finland, september 2011

Incredible 3 weeks were spent in September at the Finnish-Russian border in Kuhmo, Finland. Lassi Rautiainen and his family and staff hosted nearly 40 Norwegian photographers during this time - and like always it was a very pleasant stay. As their  guide I like to thank all these photographers for the very good time we had together. The same goes for all the other friendly people I met there – thank you to you all!

 The main items on the menu for this time were the wolves and bears even though a few paticipants also had interest in wolverines. And as always in this place, the experience of seeing and hearing these wild and free-ranging animals was fantastic. And most of the photograpers were also very satisfied with the photos they got.

After 18 nights in the hides I have to admit that I got quite a nice addition to the photos I already had from there. Like to share some of my shots from these three weeks even though I am far from having processed all the photos…

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A full moon (burned out, though) in No Man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear in moonlight, No Man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear at sunset, No Man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear at sunset, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear and fall colors, by the "Lake", Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear by the "Lake", Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear by the "Lake", Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear by the "Lake", Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Bear and wolf, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolf, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolf, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolves, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolves, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Crow and wolf in awesome light, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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3 wolves, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolves, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolf, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolves, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolves, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolves, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Wolf, No man's Land, Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Tree and startrailes by the "Lake", Kuhmo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights, Kuusamo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Aurora Borealis - Northern Lights, Kuusamo, Finland, sept. 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

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Feeling tempted to go there some time – just contact me

 

Northern Lights – Aurora Borealis – Nordlys 26.09.2011

Last night between 21.00 and 02.00 local time the Aurora Borealis performed a magical show at the Mosjøen lake which is only a 5 minutes drive away from home.

All these 4 photos were taken with Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm/2.8 @ 2.8, mostly on ISO 800.

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Aurora Borealis 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

Aurora Borealis 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

Aurora Borealis 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

 

Aurora Borealis 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN

 

Thanks for stopping by :-)

On a rainy Saturday morning…

It is the 20th of August 2011 and a rainy Saturday morning when a Bullfinch family comes  to visit a Lilac by the porch. During the summer a couple of these birds have been regular visitors, but this family is new acquaintance. They were attracted to the place by some seeds of sunflower left here and there by others. The father was soon eagerly feeding the youngsters. In addition some rather young Chaffinches were flying around this morning. Here are a couple of shots from the visits.

Chaffinch in rain. Nikon D3s, 200-400mm/4 @ 400mm, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN.

Male Bullfinch feeding youngster. Nikon D3s, 200-400mm/4 at 310mm, 1/200 sec, f/4, ISO 2000. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN.

Naturfotografering – tips og råd

De nordiske jakt og fiskedager går av stabelen i slutten av denne uken på Skogmuseet i Elverum. Fredag 12. august kan du da se mitt bildeforedrag “Naturfotografering – tips og råd” kl. 14.00 i Auditoriet.

Her er link til programmet for hele arrangementet:

http://www.skogmus.no/jaktfiskedager/Program_2011_DNJFD.pdf

Vel møtt!

Amerikasaksenebber i Pan de Azucar NP i Chile jan 2011. © Asle Hjellbrekke/NN