The Covid Collection

As the Covid-19 broke out in March 2020 and halted my travel plans I decided to make the most of the combination of social distancing and working remotely. Therefore, I self-isolated for three weeks in Stockholm Archipelago before I moved to my dad's place in southern Sweden for 5 weeks, there the spring is earlier. On May 6th, I moved back home and kept on birding in central Sweden for a couple of weeks before rounding off in the mountain ranges in northern Sweden. I've probably never spent this much time in the field in Sweden before, putting in the hours to fully understand the birds and how they behave at various locations and what's needed to create the best possible images. What you don't see are countless kilometers of driving, missed opportunites, all the wet and muddy equipment and amount of the time waiting for the right conditions to appear. For most of these shots, I've used a groundpod, monopod or tripod, waders or a drysuit and some sort of blind or camouflage. Photographing in Sweden is usually hard work, much harder than it is in North America for example, and requires a lot more preparation.