Nikon Nordic is using some of Staffans images for their Christmas campaign. ”I am proud and happy for that!” says Staffan.

 

The authors explain their aim  “We want to see more of the wild coming back into our lives. We believe that almost all places can become one or several steps wilder. Often with surprisingly small efforts leading to great results. We ask ourselves what we could all do for the wild, in our daily lives, suggesting a number of possible actions. At the same time also demonstrating some of the latest successes within rewilding and nature conservation. It really works. Through emotional imagery from the Wild Wonders of Europe and Rewilding Europe initiatives, we showcase Europe’s amazing natural heritage. The powerful visuals underline how absolutely exciting and loveable nature is in our part of the world.”

 

Swedish WWF bring attention to Staffans image of the Palla’s cat in the latest issue of their magazine WWF Eko. The image was on the cover of the magazine earlier this year and has since been awarded in both China’s largest nature photo competition and in the Oasis photo competition. WWF Eko also highlight the book Ett Vildare Liv (A wilder life) by Magnus Lundgren and Staffan Widstrand, awarded Panda Book of the Year by WWF Sweden. Signed copies of the book can be ordered directly by contacting Staffan.

Nikon has made a few short films about Staffan where he talks about his equipment and give some advice on how to interact with animals and succeed as a wildlife Photographer.

 

 

 

 

WWF Sweden gives Widstrand & Lundgren The Panda Book of the Year Award 2018 for the book
”Ett vildare liv” (“A WILDER LIFE”)

A WILDER LIFE is a magnificent coffee-table book about the return of the wild, often called “rewilding”.

”We want to see more of the wild coming back into our lives. We believe that almost all places can become one or several steps wilder. Often with surprisingly small efforts leading to great results. We ask ourselves what we could all do for the wild, in our daily lives, suggesting a number of possible actions. At the same time also demonstrating some of the latest successes within rewilding and nature conservation. It really works. Through emotional imagery from the Wild Wonders of Europe and Rewilding Europe initiatives, we showcase Europe’s amazing natural heritage. The powerful visuals underline how absolutely exciting and loveable nature is in our part of the world.”

Staffan Widstrand and Magnus Lundgren

This first edition of “Ett vildare liv” is in Swedish. The book can be ordered already today through WWF Sweden (medlemsservice@wwf.se or phone 0046-8-624 74 14), or bought in a bookstore from early October onward.

A very special thanks to the brilliant Wild Wonders of Europe photographers Vincent Munier (the cover image), Grzegorz Leśniewski, Florian Möllers, Sandra Bartocha, Daniel Bergmann, Maurizio Biancarelli, Peter Cairns, Laurie Campbell, Cornelia Dörr, Martin Falklind, Erlend Haarberg, Ole Jørgen Liodden, Mireille de la Lez, David Maitland,Diego López, Verena Popp-Hackner, Iñaki Relanzon, Stefano Unterthiner, Markus Varesvuo, Konrad Wothe, Sven Zacek, Solvin Zankl and Christian Ziegler, whose pictures feature in the book, alongside Staffan’s and Magnus’s. Thanks of course to Nikon, Världsnaturfonden WWF and Rewilding Europe, Nokia and Epson, who have been solid partners over the years it took to produce this material. Finally, thanks also to Lotta Odelius, who is the design genius behind the graphic design of the book!

The book is printed on a 100% recycled paper called Cocoon Silk, from Antalis. Not one new tree has had to be cut for it.

One of Staffans images is awarded in the Bird Photographer of the Year competition. A close-up of a male King eider duck, from Varanger in Norway. Staffan says ”Nice, this is the first time I took part in that competition. I heard the good news from Markus Varesvuo, who himself by the way, won the most prestigious and most difficult to get of all awards in the competition, the Best Portfolio Award. Congratulations Markus, hats off!” All the winning images can be viewed here

Staffan is awarded in the Oasis photo competition in Italy. He says ”It is with great pride I can tell you that my picture of a stalking Pallas’s Cat was awarded in the Mammals category in the Oasis photo competition in Italy 2017.” Please view more of Staffans images of the Pallas’s cat in the Qinghai, China gallery.

https://oasisphotocontest.it/staffan-widstrand-honorary-mention/

The well-known award-winning nature photographers, authors, tour- and workshop leaders Brutus Östling and Staffan Widstrand have now joined as partners/shareholders in Wild Nature Photo Tours, Sweden’s maybe most ambitious nature photo tour operator. Together with its founders Henrik Karlsson and Jan Pedersen they will now expand its offer to the nature travelers with a bouquet of new, exciting travel destinations, workshops and training courses, both near and far afield.
– ”Together with our existing tour leaders our strong team has now become a real Dream Team” says Jan and Henrik. ”The tour and workshop leadership knowledge we now have gathered, with over a hundred years of total field experience, is of world class”.
– ”We are looking forward to guiding Wild Nature’s enthusiastic travelers to a number of our own, carefully selected favourite spots. We really like the company’s principle that all tours shall be lead by someone who has actually been there before, and that it also supports local nature conservation actions financially.” says Brutus and Staffan. Please follow www.wildnaturefotoresor.se as they will soon be presenting most of these tour products also in English, so stay tuned!

Artist William Tam recently created this wonderful painting/drawing inspired by one of Staffans photographs of a Golden Eagle in Norway, from Wild Wonders of Europe. Staffan says ”Thanks William, Well done! And thanks for asking my permission to use it, very professional and friendly attitude!”

Check out the latest issue of WWF Sweden’s magazine WWF EKO 2/2017: a big interview with Staffan about the Wild Wonders of China and about the many successful steps for nature conservation in China, lots of images and a cover shot with Staffans awarded image of a Pallas’s Cat from Qinghai, China.

 

A long interview with Staffan and a nice portfolio of his images, in the Norwegian nature photography magazine ”Natur & Foto”.

 

On February 4, 2017, Staffan will do a presentation at Natur&Foto-dagen in Oslo called ”Don’t think Big, think Bigger”. ”Would be fun to see you there!” says Staffan. This is how they describe it in Norwegian:

 

«Don’t think big, think bigger»
Et ”Best Of” av Staffan Widstrand, der han tar oss med gjennom sine ulike valg som fotograf og kommunikatør, via sine store prosjekter (Ajunngilaq, De 5 Stora, Wild Sweden,
Wild Wonders of Europe, Rewilding Europe og nå til sist Wild Wonders of China).
Staffan er listet opp som en av verdens 40 mest innflytelsesrike naturfotografer.”

https://www.naturogfoto.no/magasin/magasin-ekstra/564-natur-foto-dagen
https://www.oslokonserthus.no/program/natur-foto-dagen/

Staffan was invited to join ”Science et Images” expedition by the Fondation Iris to the rainforests and coral reefs of Raja Ampat, New Guinea, one of the World’s most biodiverse places. Aboard the ship Cahaya Mandiri for 4 weeks with the selected team of super-artists and super-scientists described by Staffan as amazingly capable and knowledgeable ”I feel humbled by their inspiring company”, says Staffan ”Thanks Fondation Iris for arranging the Papua Expedition and for inviting me for it! Thanks all Dream Team members and staff for all help carrying gear and bags through the bush for me!”

 

The team worked hard snorkeling daily and exploring the rainforest, the humidity being over 100%, air temperatures around 32 C and water temperatures about 31 C. ”A bit warmer than the -40 C in Lapland, where I was this time last year…” Staffan recalls.

 

He describes the diversity of talents in their team ”Stephanie Ledoux, incredibly talented painter and artist. Christophe Gruault, wonderful drone pilot and filmmaker. Christophe Thébaud, professor in Evolutionary Biology and one of the sharpest field ornithologists I have ever met. Magnus Lundgren, one of the World’s very best underwater photographers. Emilia d’Avack, marine biologist, coral conservationist and fearless diver. And the organizers of it all: Jean-Marie Hullot, IT genius and Françoise Brenckmann, Botany expert. And of course Jonathan Hullot, the main provider of the latest in French music and a lot of youthful energy to the team mix.”

 

You will soon be able to view Staffans images, like this Bird of Paradise, in a gallery here but in the meantime please feel free to have a look at the videos and images produced during the Papua Expedition by Fondation Iris, at https://vimeo.com/fondationiris. Plenty of turquoise waters, steaming rainforests and lush mangroves, plus a sprinkling of whale sharks, reef sharks, jellyfish lakes and manta rays…

Naturfotograferna celebrates their 50 year anniversary with a series of exhibitions, the next one opening at Abecita Art Museum in Borås on March 16, 2017. One of Staffans images of a moose in winter blue light, called  ”The blue hour”, is part of the exhibition. Please view more images from the series in the Nordic Light gallery

 

”l’Or Vert” or the ”Green Gold – Festival International de la Photo Animalière et de Nature” is Europe’s largest nature photography festival, with some 35 000 visitors. It takes place in Montier-en-Der, Haute-Marne, France November 17-20 2016. Staffan has been invited as a ”Invitee d’Honneur de l´Etranger”, while the festival celebrates its first 20 years of existence. Staffan has exhibited there three times before and now offers  a new exhibition together with Mr. Chen Jianwei, called ”Wild Wonders of China – the first frames”. Staffan and Mr Chen will hold a lecture together on Saturday 19 November, at 16-16.45 at the Chapiteau venue. https://www.photo-montier.org/

 

Staffan is interviewed in Effekt magazine about how it all started with Wild Wonders of Europe and where it’s going now with Wild Wonders of China. Please view the article (text in Swedish) here and visit the Tangjiahe Nature reserve gallery where you will find images from the Wild Wonders of China Pioneer expedition.

On November 11 and 12 Staffan will be at Fotomässan, The Photofair in Stockholm. He joins Nikon at their stand on Friday November 11 at 14.00-14.30 and again on Saturday November 12 at 16.00-16.30. Staffan has been a Nikon ambassador since 1997.

The Chinese photography website Global Photography has selected Staffan as one of their overseas Photographers.

 

An interview with Staffan at the first Chinese Nature Photo Festival in Yichun, Heilongjiang is available in English here https://en.g-photography.net/news/photo/news_12165.html The festival had no less than three exhibitions with Staffans images from Wild Wonders of Europe, Wild Wonders of China and Tangjiahe Nature Reserve. Please view images from the Tangjiahe Nature Reserve in this online gallery.

Staffan was selected one of the Photographers, together with Vincent Munier, Art Wolfe, Stefano Unterthiner and others, to feature the 30 year anniversary issue of Terre Sauvage. The image is of the Meili snow mountain in the Yunnan province, China. Please view more images in the Yunnan gallery.

A selection of Staffans images are exhibited in Fotosofia International, an online exhibition featuring international photographers from different fields of photography. Please view the gallery

Staffans images are featured in an extensive online article about Rewilding Europe. Please visit the National Geographic Netherlands to view the article and to see more Rewilding images please visit the Rewilding galleries

Water colour artist Peter Nilsson, from Öland in Sweden is world famous for his emotional aquarelles of birds. For this one he was inspired by one of Staffans golden eagle images. Staffan says ”I think the photo is good, but the painting is really smashing! Well done Peter, and thanks for using my image! Thanks also for asking my permission beforehand, very professional and friendly!”

The Swedish Association of Professional Photographers pays attention to the fifty year celebrations of /Naturfotograferna, which Staffan has been a member of since 2006. Staffans images are featured in relation to the articles about Naturfotograferna both in the January issue of their magazine Fotografisk tidsskrift and on their website. Please go to the Staffan Widstrand in press page to read the article (in Swedish). For more information about the 50 years celebrations of /Naturfotograferna, which includes an exhibition at the Swedish Museum of Natural History later this year, please visit /Naturfotograferna.