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An awarded image in the Nordic Nature Photo Contest 2019!

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Happy to announce that a photo of my was awarded in the Nordic Nature Photo Contest.

www.nnpc.no/en/winners/191-2019

 

The Norwegian Natur & Foto Magazine organized for the 9th time the largest, likely most prestigious, Nordic nature and wildlife photography competition.

With its fantastic nature, unique light, magnificent wildlife and plant life, Nordic nature is in a class of its own and the magazine wants to promote that via the Nordic Nature Photo Contest, which is international and open to everyone. All images must be shot in one of the Nordic countries, Norway including Svalbard, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, the Faeroe Islands and/or Greenland.

 

One of the images I sent was a high key image of an Apollo (Parnassius apollo).

 

In Finland, this beautiful, elusive, though vulnerable Apollo (Parnassius apollo) was one of the first species of insects declared endangered and protected by law in 1976, as the population decreased drastically commonly thought to be because of a disease, acid rains and climate change.

 

This year’s northern-hemisphere summer, including Finland’s, has seen a succession of heat waves and lack of rain. June through August of 2018 were about 2 degrees warmer than usual and it was drier in areas from the Åland islands to central Finland. The South-West were the Apollo roams was especially hard-hit, with some areas getting no precipitation for months.

 

The presence of Sedum telephium, the host plant for the caterpillars, is critical. The plant needs a fairly humid environment to flourish, so the lack of precipitation means fewer hosts for caterpillars to feed on and does therefore not do any good for the species. I am very worried about this vulnerable population in an area I visit every summer in the South-West of Finland.

 

I photographed this individual after a short, cold, night (8°C) warming up on heath, which is, due to that dry summer, already turning into its autumn colors in June. Overexposed by +8/3 EV to create a high-key image, which makes its iconic red eyes stand out.

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Uploaded on February 4, 2019
Taken on June 24, 2018