Frozen Warriors: Capturing the mighty musk ox in its natural habitat

One wonders if the term could mean anything but large. I certainly didn’t read it as descriptive of an animal larger than an elephant but of an animal that has to adapt to freezing temperatures, migrate, and survive in specific not widely distributed environments.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

falconeyes

I don't. Mammoth were the largest animal on land of their times, and lived everywhere, not just in the cold. If anything, both are quite hairy. But then why not call them "bison-like"?

Mar 26, 2018permalink

haiiyaa

Never knew they had musk ox in Norway I always thought they only existed in Greenland and Canada. They are the most ice-age looking creatures and they smell terrible.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

ram62

The species was prevalent in Norway until the last ice age, then disappeared. When railway workers in the early 1900s found fossils, the idea of reintroduction was introduced and animals from Greenland were imported. The number now is approx. 300 individuals.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

David610

Frozen Warriors? I thought this was an article about Nikon product designers?

Mar 25, 2018permalink

CaPi

The videography is great but the text is just preposterous.
As if these impressive animals live by fighting and killing,
As if only that has worth.
BS

Mar 25, 2018permalink

visualenvy

Nikon is doing just great. D850 and 180-400 are fine products... do you even own a camera?

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Sometimes the word ‘warrior’ takes on a non-violent meaning. Of course, you can strap the word to a single meaning, and blind yourself to literary language.

But what do I know, I’m just a keyboard warrior.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

David610

shigzeo On this site you are a Samurai.
visualenvy Yes and before you were thought of. Nikon were much stronger when it was the world's leading producer of semiconductor lithography systems before the Dutch company, ASML, grabbed over 80 percent of the global market. Relevance to those with no concentration span ... a strong company spends on R&D and THEN put it into production. Show me the Df and D610 replacements.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhaCTxO_PAo

David610:

I should have put an @ to Capi. I was not responding to you.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

visualenvy

I'd rather not see those (Df, D6xx) product lines ever again.

Stick with D7xxx, D5xx, D7xx, D8xx and Dx lines. Improve them with better AF and sensor readout for proper live view capabilities. Basically close the gap with mirrorless capabilities without the EVF, yet. Don't care about IBIS in these bodies.

The rest of the R&D should go to Z mount and whatever mirrorless camera that will end up being attached to.

Instead of Df as the niche product, develop a landscape camera system that detaches the sensor from the screen and controls. I want to place my big 45MP sensor on a tripod (motorized head) and then be able to view and control my shot from a detached controller with a screen. Wired or wireless is to be determined but it has to be robust just like a pro DSLR and not just a tablet with an app.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

Paul B Jones

Very nice, but a bit of an over the top narrative.

Check out this lower key 50 year old effort from Canada:

Mar 25, 2018permalink

nilanjanray

Very nice shots

Mar 25, 2018permalink

David Mantripp

Vincent Munier did this years ago, and a lot better. And with a lot more empathy for the setting, i.e. no fscking drones.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

thenoilif

I don’t understand the drone comment.

Drones are a lot less impactful on an environment than humans.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

Docno

Images are impressive and I actually don’t mind the music. Doesn’t get in the way for me. The problem for me is that the script is amateurish, as if written by a well-meaning college freshmen. I kept hearing awkward phrases that MS Word would want to correct (“long period of time” etc.)... very distracting. As for the narrator’s voice .... well, it was a little try-too-hard, but fix the script first....

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Damon Lynch

The imagery is fantastic but the way the film was turned into a story is simply awful. The corporate PR firm responsible for crafting the story was way out of its depth. The PR person credited in for the film's story has a background in promoting "sports and lifestyle" industries, and it shows.

The film would have been in much more capable hands had it been crafted by a scientist who knows how to tell a good story, not a corporate PR hack.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

cosinaphile

stirring images ... but something missing ... or too much narration?

Mar 25, 2018permalink

agrek

The rabbits were better...

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Charlie boots

Has great potential but misses any point entirely. Over dramatic and really no message. All we see are a few oxen standing around and close ups of icy fur. If one goes to this length to get there and photograph them with great gear then there must be much more of a story to tell. As already mentioned, what is climate change doing to them? Nice stills but somehow an empty message. Does not convey enough feeling.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Sometimes there needs no ulterior motive. Sometimes the subject in its milieu is the story.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

JEROME NOLAS

Great job! I am not sure about the voice...just my opinion.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Whois

Unfortunately it's all very overdramatized (voice over and music) and we also end up having no idea of why they are threatened. Very nice images though.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

OzRay

You must have missed it: '...whose already dwindling numbers are increasingly threatened by climate change.'

And another small list of things threatened by climate change (though it's getting a bit old now): http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Whois

I'll rephrase then: "we also end up having no idea of why they are threatened by climate change" Better?

Mar 26, 2018permalink

OzRay

I was being sarcastic. The link I added should have been a giveaway.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

JT26

The feature image is one of the best I’ve ever seen, congrats

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Terry Breedlove

Fantastic images

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Wurzle

I too think this is well filmed and put together. The issue I have with it is the statement that they live in four moths of total darkness and don't see the sun for that time too. The Dovre fjell is not actually inside the Arctic circle so it has sun shine all year round. I live 250 kms North of the Arctic circle. We here in the Vesterålen islands do not see the sun for two months. It is not completely dark at all since the sun is just below the horizon we still have 5-7 hrs of the most beautiful light during this time.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

(unknown member)

nice, I checked your gallery and it is indeed magical light

Mar 26, 2018*permalink

piratejabez

Good point! Maybe it's just north of some large mountain or something...

Mar 26, 2018permalink

Wurzle

More of this wonderful place can be seen here
https://www.viewbug.com/member/ianrobins

Mar 30, 2018permalink

shmn

Although the images and video are beautifully captured, I find the hyperbole of the narration (most likely necessitated due to our culture's desensitization of the extreme) off-putting. And the ending message could use some elaboration. What effects of climate change are harming the musk ox? Is it getting colder? Is their food source dwindling? The message felt like a cheap appropriation of climate change to give the video legitimacy. The video was beautifully shot...why not let it stand on those merits rather than trying to send a muddled message?

Mar 25, 2018*permalink

plpowell

It was clearly stated in the captions. The warming climate is creating more rain (instead of snow) which is encasing their food sources in ice during winter months. Ice that they cannot break through. It was simple and to the point.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

dgumshu

Those stills are not very impressive at all. I know the weather had a lot to do with it, but so did the focal length. I know he wanted to combine the landscape, but it didn't work very well.

Mar 25, 2018*permalink

(unknown member)

He is a Sony ambassador. He did the best with what he had !

Mar 25, 2018permalink

sts2

I actually think the stills look impressive, partially _because_ of the weather... opinions vary, apparently.
These are wild animals in extremely harsh conditions. This is exactly the sort of image you should produce to convey that feeling.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Wild animals should only be shot in zoos.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

Wild animals should never be kept in zoos. Zoos are a relic of an unfortunate past when "civilised" nations sought to build empires, destroy foreign cultures and bring home dead or living animals to satisfy their compulsive "collecting" desires.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

NOWHITELENS - the fact that the Sony a7Riii and a9 cameras survived in such harsh conditions tends to indicate that they are tougher than I and many others had previously thought.

Mar 25, 2018*permalink

DubMaster21

Wild animals should not never be shot! ; )

Mar 25, 2018permalink

dqnielg

"Wild animals should never be kept in zoos. Zoos are a relic of an unfortunate past when "civilised" nations sought to build empires, destroy foreign cultures and bring home dead or living animals to satisfy their compulsive "collecting" desires."

Good zoos have changed in their methods and objectives since then. The best zoos are why some animals have avoided anthropogenic extinction.

But yes, many "zoos" are still in it for the wrong reasons.

Mar 25, 2018*permalink

dqnielg - Zoos have change very slightly for the better due to public pressure, but most are still apalling. Some zoos genuinely try to care for the animals and to breed them for "conservation" but virtually all of these programs fail, and really serve little purpose other than to attract customers to the zoo.

Breeding programs fail time and time again for a very obvious reason - the animals are not in their natural environment so will not act in a natural manner.

Even if eventually released into the wild (which rarely happens) the offspring are inevitably doomed to die because they have been reared in artificial conditions where carnivores have no experience of hunting for food, and herbivores have no parental training in avoiding predators.

When breeding rare or endangered animals for conservation purposes, the only successful method is to keep them in semi-captive conditions within their own habitats, such as the conservancy reserves in Kenya.

Mar 25, 2018*permalink

Read about the desert onyx or Przewalski's horse please before spouting off (San Diego Zoo). My original comment was in reference to not perfect shots...these were exceptional environmental photos.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

lilBuddha

@entoman
Actually that description of zoos is also a relic of the past. Zoos today are at the forefront of conservation. Without them, more species would be extinct.
This does not erase the harm of the past and there are still problems with keeping animals in unnatural settings. But the reality is not black and white.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

steelhead - As I stated, "some zoos genuinely try to care for the animals and to breed them for conservation", but with occasional exceptions such as those you mention, the vast majority end in failure, for the reasons I stated.

Keeping wild animals in captivity, for what are primarily entertainment purposes is fundamentally wrong.

Regarding the quailty of photography, I'd describe it as typical of that of a good wildlife photographer - some shots are "average" but others are quite exceptional, as I noted in my reply to ShaiKhukud below:

Mar 25, 2018*permalink

The Portland Oregon Zoo is raising a local endangered species of frog with prison help (Oregon Spotted Frog) and the Oregon silver spot buttery fly...local Zoos are doing all they can with dual mission of entertaining the public. These small overlooked species are probably more important than the mega fauna which grab the headlines. All negative nannies should get your hands dirty and see where you can help.

Mar 25, 2018permalink

steelhead - If you are referring to me as a "negative nanny" I can assure you that I'm an active conservationist.

Among other things, I've produced management plans for nature reserves in the UK and provided professional advice regarding insect conservation to NGOs in UK and Europe. My work in Malaysia led to the banning of imports of endangered butterflies into the EU. I also raise funds for rainforest conservation and promote conservation activities on my own websites.

So I think it's fair to say that I've "got my hands dirty and seen where I can help".

How about you?

Mar 26, 2018*permalink

Good...my expertise is with native fish conservation, wolf recovery, and helping with the Oregon Spotted Frog (not in prison LOL). We must all all do our part, even if writing a letter. My latest project is placing nest boxes for owls and kestrals in our parks for rodent control (a lot better than rodentcide).

Mar 26, 2018permalink

steelhead - That's good to hear!

Mar 26, 2018permalink

dqnielg

As somebody who is active in conservationism you should know that many zoos are significantly different than the "relics of the past" you describe.

I just think you're painting with too broad a brush. The motivations you ascribe to all zoos is a generalization that was more fitting for the past.

As for reintroduction failing--again, you're generalizing far too much and glossing over the many success. Many species have been taken from the brink of extinction to successful re-population. Obviously, there have been failings. Especially with the "big name" species like pandas and such. However, a lot of the lesser-reported species (especially avian) have been very successful.

There's too much good work being done by zoos to lump them all into the same unethical, profit-motivated boat.

Mar 26, 2018*permalink

piratejabez

The purpose of most zoos I've been to is to educate people (especially youths) about the beauty and diversity in nature, and inspire them to support conservation efforts (such as those already covered in this thread, but also a wider spirit of caring that extends far beyond a zoo's walls). Also, many animals in zoos have some injury or limitation that would prevent them from thriving in the wild.

Mar 26, 2018permalink

ShaiKhulud

The last photo is insane. Wallpaper-worthy.

Mar 25, 2018permalink