One of the nice things about the Arctic (at least on Spitsbergen) is that most animals are not afraid of humans. They walk towards you and if they don’t you can slowly approach them. This makes photography a lot easier. You only have to make sure not to scare the animal, so he won’t get afraid of humans. This is also why it’s better to take pictures on your own. An animal will always be more wary of a whole group of people as to just one photographer laying on his belly in front of him. Taking pictures of wildlife is nice of course, but it should not be at the cost of the subjects well-being.

In this case the Reindeer was photographed (and filmed) right on the campsite, as you can also see in this short movie. Apart from Reindeer, I’ve also seen Arctic Fox and Arctic Skua right next to my tent. And this summer there was even a Polar Bear at only 50 meters from the campsite, though I don’t know if that’s such a good thing….

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/28785146 w=540]