Autumn is approaching quickly here in Finland.
It is perhaps not considered quite as strong a season for wildlife photography as spring and summer. There are fewer species around, many birds are preparing to leave and nature gradually becomes quieter.
But photographically, autumn has something quite different to offer.
By September, the trees begin to turn yellow and the colours of ruska spread across the landscape. In the north, autumn colours are not only in the trees. The vegetation on the ground turns red, orange and yellow as well.
Misty mornings become more common. There is more rain. The days get shorter and the light changes.
For me, all of this makes autumn an interesting time to photograph.
A different landscape
One thing I like about autumn is how quickly a familiar place can change.
A location that was completely green a few weeks earlier suddenly has yellow and orange behind the subject. On a misty morning, the same landscape can almost disappear.
Rain brings another atmosphere again.
We often hope for good weather when planning photography, but good photography weather does not necessarily mean sunshine. Some of my favourite conditions are those where the weather itself becomes visible in the image.
Autumn gives plenty of opportunities for this.
It is also a short season. The best colours may last only a week or two before the leaves fall and the landscape begins its transition towards winter.
Birds in autumn
There are fewer birds than during spring and early summer, but there is still a surprising amount happening.
The golden eagle photography season begins around the middle of September and continues through the winter. At the beginning of the season, the eagles can still be photographed among autumn colours and on misty mornings.
Black grouse also return to their lekking sites in autumn. Their autumn lek is less well known than the spring lek, but for me it is a very interesting time to photograph them.
Other birds begin appearing around feeding sites as autumn progresses. Eagle owls and goshawks can be photographed, while sparrowhawks can provide plenty of action around eagle hides.
Away from hides, autumn migration creates completely different possibilities. Swans, cranes and geese gather before moving south, and in good berry years rowan trees can attract flocks of waxwings.
When feeding starts again in autumn, even the common small birds returning to the feeding stations become interesting subjects against the autumn colours.
There may be fewer species around, but there is certainly no shortage of subjects.
Mammals before winter
Autumn is also an interesting transition period for mammals.
Bear photography continues until around October. The bears are preparing for hibernation and feeding heavily before winter. As the season progresses, the animals still moving around are increasingly the large males.
For wolves and wolverines, autumn brings another change.
Their appearance becomes more winter-like as their coats grow thicker. At the same time, there is still much more usable light for photography than there will be during the darkest part of winter.
This makes autumn an interesting period between two very different seasons.
The bright summer nights are gone, but winter darkness has not taken over yet.
Dark nights return
The return of darkness also brings back something we have been missing during the Finnish summer: northern lights.
September is an interesting month for aurora photography. Around the autumn equinox, aurora activity can be good, while the lakes are normally still open.
For photography, open water makes a big difference.
On a calm night, the northern lights can be reflected on the surface of a lake. It is an autumn landscape that will disappear once winter freezes the water.
Aurora photography is of course less predictable than working from an established wildlife hide. There are no guarantees. Weather, cloud cover and aurora activity all have to come together.
But that uncertainty is part of photographing nature as well.
Between summer and winter
Autumn in Finland is a transition rather than a long, stable season. Its timing, and especially the timing of bird migration, can be difficult to predict.
That is probably one reason I find it so interesting.
The landscape is changing. Birds are gathering or leaving. Bears are preparing to disappear for winter. Wolves and wolverines are moving towards their winter appearance. Darkness returns and with it the possibility of northern lights.
At the same time, there is still enough daylight to work with.
For a few weeks, we have autumn colours, mist, rain, open water and dark nights all at once.
It is quite a lot for a season that is sometimes considered quiet.
And perhaps that is one of the things I like about photographing Finland in autumn. I see countless photographs from the Finnish summer and winter, but much fewer from autumn. It is a short and unpredictable season, and perhaps for that reason it still feels a little less photographed.
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