This nature photographer shoots from an deserted outdated cabin within the woods – the outcomes he will get are unimaginable

Whenever Martin Steenhaut is outdoors in his ‘garden’ in north-east Finland, he retains his eyes open for a specific pair of animals. “I’m very lucky to be able to see wolverines here,” he says. “In the whole of Finland, there are only 300 wolverines. When you have two of them in your garden, from such a big territory as Finland, it’s quite cool. We see them every day here. We’re in their territory and they accept us.”

While many individuals throughout Europe would possibly see roaming hedgehogs, foxes or home cats outdoors their homes, Steenhaut doesn’t have a typical backyard. Originally from Belgium, the wildlife photographer noticed a distant home on the market in 2020 within the wilderness space of Hossa in Finland’s Kainuu area, throughout the taiga (boreal forest) zone, 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle. Despite the actual fact he’d by no means stepped foot in Finland, he determined to go all-in. “It was like a child’s dream come true,” he tells me. “It popped up somewhere, on Facebook, that there was a house for sale, three kilometres from the Russian border. It looked like a crazy place to live, especially for a nature photographer, so I jumped on it. It’s not an easy living but nature-wise it’s fantastic. It was just something I wanted to try. I said “Why not?””

Despite the journey restrictions brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, Steenhaut was capable of journey as a result of his “professional activity as a tour operator”, so he went to test the home out. “It was at the start of Covid, a very strange period,” he recollects. “I flew here in empty planes and empty airports. The house was in pretty bad shape but I knew that upfront. I was, like, “Ok, it’s a renovation project.” It’s like an outdated rustic cabin within the woods. But my backyard is on the Russian border, in order that’s fairly cool. It reaches what they name the ‘border zone’, which isn’t any man’s land, about one kilometre vast, earlier than the precise bodily border. It’s completely off limits and entry is strictly forbidden.”

The home got here with 10 hectares (25 acres) of land. Having purchased different parcels for the reason that unique buy, the property now stands at 100 hectares (250 acres). “Being a wildlife photographer, it’s always been something that was quite fascinating when you see all these pictures of bears and wolves and wolverines. I was always like “Yes, I’d like to see that one day” however I used to be by no means doing journeys to those areas. Then all of the sudden you personal a home there, and that’s while you begin to actually uncover all this stuff. It’s a really distant space, with countless forests, plenty of swamps… typical Finnish wilderness. The loopy thought is that from right here, simply 500-600 kilometres away, into Russia, there’s nothing anymore: no cities, no roads, simply pure wilderness.”

Steenhaut’s plan from the beginning was to construct wildlife hides to benefit from the wild residents that share his backyard. As properly as wolverines, different animals within the space embody brown bears, wolves and moose, which Steenhaut sees commonly on his land. “There is a ‘Big 5’ here, but Number 5 is the lynx,” he explains. “They are here. We find tracks all the time. In the winter time with the snow, the first thing we do is look for lynx tracks. You find them everywhere, but they are ghosts of the forest. They’re so complicated to see. But I’m still hoping it will work.”

Bears are extra generally sighted, together with at fairly shut quarters. “Whenever you walk into the forest and see a bear, that’s very powerful,” Steenhaut tells me. “I wouldn’t say it’s intimidating. A lot of people ask me “Are you not afraid of walking in the woods, with all these bears and stuff?” But while you see them up-close, it’s form of peaceable. You simply have a look at one another and assume “Ok, I’m in your territory and you’re in mine”, and we simply let one another go on. It’s not these loopy tales, like within the United States, the place bears assault folks.”

From the hides, Steenhaut sees not solely animals however a spread of birds, together with “black grouse and capercaillie. They’re very beautiful. When they do their mating displays in the Spring time, it’s an absolute show. We also have golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, and a lot of smaller birds.”

Steenhaut rents out his hides to visiting photographers, in addition to guiding his personal workshops on his land. There are at present 4 on the property, with extra on the best way. The hides convey apparent advantages for photographers. “The main thing is that they don’t disturb the animals in front of you at all,” he explains. The animals are very assured. They don’t see you, they don’t hear you, they don’t scent you. They’re very calm and so they method in a method that you’d by no means be capable of see within the discipline. That means you may get genuine photos.” 

“Also, as a photographer, you can decide, whenever you build the hides, what kind of background or setting you want,” he provides. “We build hides especially according to light situations, where, for example, the light in the morning is coming from one side, or if you want a backlight hide. You can do that right from the start. When you’re in charge of building your own hides, you can take all these factors into account.”

Steenhaut believes hides produce other advantages, together with as conservation instruments. Buying or renting land for photographic tourism, he suggests, may also help shield forest areas from bushes being minimize down for timber or from looking. It additionally reduces the variety of photographers operating round and disturbing animals. “The forest industry is huge in Finland,” he says. It’s the nation’s main financial income, as they don’t have any oil or no matter. The slicing of the forest could be very, very intense. If you purchase the land, you’re capable of do no matter you need. For instance, after I purchased this forest, I finished all of the slicing, stopped all of the looking. Of course, you probably have a rental contract, it may be ended by one of many events. Land continues to be low-cost right here in Finland. The worth of terrain is measured within the variety of bushes that you’ve on it, and if they’ve an financial worth. When I purchased this land, very near the Russian border, with swamps and the whole lot, it didn’t price a lot as a result of no person desires that. It’s an attention-grabbing method to hold land protected.”

This is all a world away from the place Steenhaut began out. Born in 1977 in Brussels, the Belgian capital, he grew up in Antwerp, the place, he says, there wasn’t an excessive amount of thrilling wildlife. “Belgium is such a crowded place. When you live there, you look for the small, small patches of nature. But my story started with my older brother, Daniel, who was 15 years older than me. When I was a small kid, he took me with him into the woods, and taught me everything about nature and wildlife. He was a photographer as well, so after we went on a walk in the forest, we’d go into his dark room and started developing the films and the pictures. I just found that such a magic thing: to see an image appear on a white paper. We’d photograph simple things, like roe deer, foxes, birds… But to see an animal and then being able, after two or three hours, to have that on paper and put it on your wall… That was a completely crazy thing for me. It never left me. That’s why I’m still doing what I’m doing.”

Steenhaut accomplished a four-year Masters diploma in Photography in Antwerp earlier than beginning work as a photographer. “The dream was to only focus on wildlife, but that isn’t always completely possible,” he says. “So I did a lot of commercial photography: weddings, events, studio photography… Everything.”  

With his firm, Wild Pix Travel, he now runs photographic excursions and workshops to places together with Botswana, Spain and Sri Lanka, in addition to Finland. Every 12 months, he additionally goes off on his personal expeditions – this 12 months, he plans to discover Panama and Brazil. 

In any location, new or acquainted, he likes to unleash his creativity, which, he says, shouldn’t be solely very important for standing out as a wildlife photographer but additionally, merely, a part of the enjoyable. “It is very important. For me, there’s no point in just doing photography for no creative reason. It gives such a joy when you see through your camera something out of the ordinary. Just having a simple picture of an animal is cool, but my first reaction is always “Ok, how can I do it differently? What if I move this way or that way?”. I get pleasure from taking a look at issues in a different way. That’s why I really like utilizing backlighting and silhouettes: it provides a very totally different really feel to an animal that we’re used to seeing.” 

To that finish, he typically units himself long-term tasks. During the early days of Covid, for instance, earlier than he moved to Finland, he hung out photographing foxes at night time in a discipline near his house. “At the time, we were stuck in Belgium. We couldn’t travel. I couldn’t work or do anything. I knew a field where foxes are regularly seen. I wanted to make different photos of foxes. I thought “Why not at night?”, after which “Why not at night but with backlight?” That grew to become a complete course of. I wished to make a complete collection. It took about eight months.” 

In his Finnish backyard, too, he set about engaged on a artistic collection of photographs for an under-appreciated species. “Here, under my house in Finland, is an ermine [stoat]. I saw it every day, walking around the garden. It becomes a challenge, like, “Ok, how can I make this an interesting photography subject?” It’s a cool animal, so I created a particular conceal. I moved 10 tonnes of stone to make a particular setting for the animal, hoping it will settle for it. That entire mission took me about one 12 months, however now I’ve super-special, backlit, ermine photos. It all simply got here from seeing it from the window on daily basis. You have to begin considering “What can I do with that?””

Steenhaut prefers his creativity to happen out within the discipline, in-camera, relatively than counting on Photoshop modifying or any trickery. “My rule on editing is very simple: as little as possible,” he tells me. “That’s something I learned when I was in photography school. At that time, I was still working with film, so you didn’t have all these options. Film was expensive and you couldn’t afford mistakes. The shot had to be made in the moment. That’s still the rule I use every day: make your shot as perfectly as possible in the moment you push the button. I’m trying to teach that to other people as well. So many photographers right now say “Yes, but I’ll fix that afterwards.” But, for me, the kick of creating nice photos is having it nice within the second.”

As properly as his personal hides in Finland, Steenhaut’s helped construct two hides within the Spanish area of Andalusia, prime territory for the Iberian lynx. He’s additionally suggested or been concerned with others, together with in Hungary, Belgium and the Netherlands. 

There’s an extended pause after I ask him the place on the earth can be a dream location to construct a brand new conceal. “My list is so long,” he chuckles. “We had a project where we started to build hides in the jungle of Guatemala, for cats, especially ocelots and jaguars. But, unfortunately, that didn’t work out with the guy there. But I’d like to go back and build something there, in the jungle of Guatemala or somewhere in Central America.”

He’s simply as excited, although, concerning the prospects again house, in his backyard. “One of my dreams here in Finland is to build a moose hide,” he explains. “That’s something I’m going to try next year in the forest. That’s why I bought a particular piece of land because I knew there are a lot of moose there. I’m always thinking ahead. I think this moose hide will be one of the only ones in the world and the first in Finland. It’s an extremely shy animal. To be able to get up-close to moose would be very special.” 

To get to know extra about Steenhaut’s images tasks and excursions go to his web sites at www.martinsnature.com and www.wildpixtravel.com .

Related studying:

Do you need to win some nice prizes in your images? Enter your photographs in our International Amateur Photographer of the Year competition. Free entry for photographers aged 13-21.

Follow AP on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Irys.