Photographer Ossi Saari is interested in wildlife, especially large beasts. His pictures have become a social media phenomenon.
Afield there were two young bears.
Soon they already ran away from the photographer From Ossi Saari27, and his photographer friend.
The two concluded from the tracks found in the field that the bears might return the next night, and hid in the field at the edge of the forest to wait.
Saarinen is a self-taught photographer and has been shooting professionally since 2019. Right now, he has 393,000 followers on Instagram under the nickname “Soosseli”.
It was summer 2020 in North Karelia. The duo's goal was to photograph bears without hiding stalls, i.e. a place where the cameraman can hide, and without waste or other feeding.
According to Saarinen, very few people in Finland have succeeded in this.
In the twilight the bears returned and, to Saarinen's and his friend's surprise, came within about 30 meters of the photographers. They watched the cameramen, but let them be.
Suddenly, Saarinen heard a rustle behind him.
The third bear had appeared behind the friends at close range.
“That's when my hands started shaking a little. At that moment, I wasn't quite sure if it contained the mother and the cubs, which we had ended up between.”
It later turned out that this was not the case. Soon all three bears disappeared into the darkness of the forest and were not seen again that night.
Ossi Saarinen has photographed bears at close range.
Meeting with bears is one of Saarinen's most memorable moments in nature. Saarinen reminds that bears are very rarely dangerous to humans, but admits that the summer situation was exciting.
The son of naturalist parents became interested in nature and wild animals as a child. Binoculars and a bird book went along on the trips.
Her father, who was also fond of photography, suggested to the then 18-year-old Saarinen that she should try how a SLR camera works.
Saarinen practiced by photographing a small bird on a bird board in the backyard.
“Actually, from that day on, I was hooked on filming.”
In 2019, Saarinen studied geography at the university for a year and a half. However, his career as a photographer began to drag, and he decided to put his studies on hold.
He is still on that break and has no plans to return to university.
Saarinen emphasizes that moving in nature is an absolute value for him.
“For me, nature itself has always been much more interesting than the filming aspect. Filming has only been a way to record those moments. And now, later, a way to make a living.”
In the wild Islands are particularly fascinated by what is hidden. Everything you can't notice until you actually spend time in nature.
The best thing about photographing wild animals is the challenge. The most challenging to photograph is the lynx, which is difficult to find.
For Saarinen, seeing and photographing a lynx is a dream that he has been able to fulfill a few times already, and has been able to film very rare video footage of the lynx.
However, he is hungry for more opportunities.
Filming the lynx has been a dream come true for Ossi Saarinen.
in Espoo for Saarinen, the most important thing is the nearby nature. He also wants to film there.
“Surprisingly many animals can be found here, even in the center of Helsinki. It's nice to shoot close to home, you get to know certain areas really well.”
Saarinen always has an idea in advance of what to pick up from a photo shoot. There is a lot of background work and clarification to be done.
Filming trips are often short trips to nearby nature in the morning or evening twilight.
Longer trips can take several weeks. These include, for example, filming trips abroad.
Saarinen has gained filming experience from places like Norway and Poland. In Norway, the target was musk oxen, in Poland, wolves and bison.
Next up is a two-week photography trip to Switzerland to look for lynxes and wolves.
Abroad, there is often a local photographer familiar with the area. It is necessary especially if you want to find more special animals.
Saarinen shoot both alone and with friends.
“Going alone has its own atmosphere and the advantage is that the more timid animals are not scared.”
He is not afraid in nature, although he often moves in search of large game.
“They also usually avoid humans.”
Once he was indeed chased by a “crazy thunderbolt” who was defending his territory.
Exciting, but not really dangerous, Saarinen acknowledges.
The best time to photograph wildlife is at dawn or dusk.
Today Saarinen mainly shoots videos. It started from the need to get new angles to my own work.
“A great video is somehow even more rewarding than a single image, because it also has movement and sound, everything.”
Social media also prefers video material.
“It's not really worth posting photos on Instagram these days if you want to grow there. It's starting to be a very video-focused channel.”
As a dream is to photograph Finnish nature as much as possible, especially on video, and to find rare animals. And that lynx, describe especially the more.
Next, the plans would be to compile the material obtained so far into, for example, a document.
The photographer gets to witness great moments in his work. Saarinen remembers one such from last summer.
Then the thick fog of an early summer morning rested over the field. In the middle of Sanka's haze, several male deer could be distinguished.
Soon the sun rose behind them.
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