Your Norwegian Nature

BLACK GROUSE PHOTO HIDES

 

When: from the 8th of April until the 10th of May. Until the 20th of April there will most likely be snow on the display area. 

Where: You will be staying in Deset, a small town surrounded by beautiful wilderness, about 25 km North from the city Rena in Hedmark county. 

Length: Optional, 3 mornings of photography advised for the best and diverse results.

Number of participants: 2-4

Price: 9.000,- NOK (+/- 925,- Euro) per person for 3 mornings of photography.

 

Included:

• Accommodation: You will have your own small apartment with bathroom,  small kitchen and Wi-Fi. Bed sheets will be provided.

• Transport: You will be picked up and dropped off at Hamar train station. Transport for during your stay is included in the price. Groups of 4 or more persons will be picked up at the airport.

• Food: Food and drinks for during the day will be provided for you, including a fresh cooked dinner every evening.

• Tips for photographing grouse during display.

• Hides: Each photographer will have his / her own tent to photograph from. The tents are rather large (2.10mx2.10m) to provide you as much comfort as possible.

 

Excluded:

• Flight: It is the easiest to fly to Oslo Gardermoen.

• Train: From Oslo Gardermoen there is a direct train connection to Hamar.

• Pick up at Gardermoen: It is possible to be picked up and dropped off at Oslo Gardermoen airport, for the extra price of 150,- euro per person (if 2 persons) or 100,- euro per person (if 3 persons)

• Alcohol: Alcohol is expensive in Norway. If you want to drink alcohol, I advise you to buy it at the airport before coming to Norway. 

• Travel insurance: All participants are responsible for their own travel insurance. 

 

Photographing the black grouse:

You can choose to be brought to your photo tent in the late evening or early morning (02:00). If you are in the tent from the late evening, you will sleep in the tent until you get woken up by the black grouse arriving on the display area (somewhere between 2:00 and 4:30). The birds will stay in front of the photo tents until somewhere between 8:00 and 10:00. We work with tents, so that we can change the position of the tents between the different days. In this way you can have different distances, positions or angle of light. This is perfect for making those special back light pictures!

 

Other things to photograph:

Capercaillie. Take a look here for more information regarding capercaillie photography.

 

About 100meters from the accommodation there is a river with quite many whooper swans, golden eyes and some other duck species. On the fields right next to the accommodation there are often cranes and roe deer and sometimes moose. Photo tents are available to use on day time to photograph the wildlife around the accommodation. From 2015 there will be photo hides close to the accommodation with bird feeders, which can be used on day time. On special request and additional payment, we can visit other areas to look for owls, moose, roe deer, willow grouse and mountain hare. However, take into account that you make short nights with the black grouse, so you need to take it easy on day time. If you wish to photograph more species, please book a week tour. Find more information about the week tours here.

 

Camera equipment needed:

Usage of objectives of 300mm or more is advised. A 500mm on a full frame body is enough. You need to bring your own tripod for in the hides. Please also bring enough memory cards and batteries! Batteries can be recharged in your accommodation.

 

Important things to bring:

High rubber boots, warm sleeping bag for in the hide (-10 / -5 comfort zone for mid-April, -5 / 0 comfort zone for May) and warm clothing. High quality winter sleeping bags can be rented for 10 euro per night. 

 

Important to know:

• For some of the display areas we have to walk about 20 minutes through the forest to get to the hides. There are display areas closer to roads, but there are fewer birds displaying.

• I guarantee that you will photograph black grouse, but the weather is not in my hands. Normally, around this time of the year the weather is fine. 

• It is possible to book black grouse photography in combination with capercaillie photography. A minimum of 2 photo sessions is advised for the capercaillie! 

 

Take a look at the results of the previous years:

    -2015

    -2014 and 2013

 

Contact me for bookings