It was about 10 years ago, when I bought myself the first Canon DSLR. Knowing nothing about photography and with just the kit lens, there were few moments and occasions to use the camera. Even by that time people were surprised by the excellent quality of the photos I took during a few birthday parties and weddings for example, I didn’t dive deeper into the hobby of being a photographer. Other things came to my mind and daily duties like concentrating on my job and the happy occasions like becoming a dad fulfilled my days.
I‘m always looking for gear on a budget. So I don’t like spending a lot of money for things like mobile phones. So about two years ago, because of the fact that my low budget mobile phone produces crappy photos, I decided to get a small DSLM camera to take nice pictures of my little son and my girlfriend. I liked the pictures so much that I started to take the camera on trips to the mountains and into the wood. Then one day I was lucky to have a small telephoto lens with me – even I was just thinking about taking some good landscape photos for my homepage – I saw two deers in the woods and followed them quietly. The decided to take a bath in a little lake. I was so nervous putting on the telephoto lens and I was so impressed by this rare moment, that I failed to concentrate on the settings. Lucky me that they stayed so long in the water, that even nervous me was capable of taking a few useful shots.
The photos and videos haven’t been published yet. And I am not sure if I should do so. I showed the pictures around to a few people in my village that I like and they were concerned about how people will react to the photos when published. In times of Social Media it takes only a good picture and a geo tag on platforms like Instagram or YouTube and tourists overcrowd our beautiful nature. We already have a lot of tourists hiking and biking around in our wildlife areas.
Don’t get me wrong I appreciate it if people from all over the world come to those areas, behave and enjoy the nature like we do. But in fact a lot of them bring garbage to the woods, they scream around and they cruise around with their E-Bikes and don’t even think about what they do to those awesome places. Making them just another overcrowded tourist area.
People should enjoy those awesome places quietly and with a lot of respect. Different countries, different habits, or even people from this area running around with their selfie sticks and scaring wildlife animals. That’s just not right.
So my purpose with this project is to create great content for everybody, who loves wildlife and animals. We can’t be sure how long we can still be able to enjoy all those beautiful moments and those animals. Hopefully for a very long time. If that isn’t the case I hope this content will show my son and future generations how beautiful it was around here.
But I‘m getting to sentimental here so just enjoy the conent of Wildlife Viking and share it with the people You like and peoPle who have a lot of respect for nature and wildlife animals
All the best and stay wild
Your Wildlife Viking
Franz