Jukka Jantunen. photo: Mike Thomas - Yukon News

 

Bird Photographs by Jukka Jantunen & Al Woodhouse

Jukka Jantunen

Jukka was born in Finland in 1965.  He started birding at the age of ten and is still a keen birder.  He bought his first camera in the mid-80s, a secondhand Pentax.  At first the camera was just another piece of gear he carried on birding trips, used mainly to document sightings of uncommon species and on excursions abroad.  However, by the late-90s photography had become an important aspect of his birding.  Furthermore, Jukka has managed to turn his favourite hobby into a career and nowadays most of his time is divided between conducting bird-related fieldwork and wildlife photography. Most of his recent bird photographs have been taken with a Canon MkII body with 500/f4 and 300/f4 lenses.

Jukka moved to Canada in 1999 and has lived in Montreal, Whitehorse, and various places on the coast of British Columbia.  He currently calls Comox on Vancouver Island his home. Since coming to Canada he has travelled the country from coast to coast and the continent from the Arctic to the Tropics but he seconds the words of Jim Morrison, "The west is the best." His favourite places to bird and photograph include various places in the Yukon, coastal BC and California.

Al Woodhouse

Al's interest in photography began in 1999, when after graduating from university he had the opportunity to watch the events of spring unfold in spectacular chronology. Al's heightened realization of the beauty of nature awakened. A young man who had spent his summers as a Naturalist in Algonquin Provincial Park, Al, already a naturalist at heart, became even more inspired by the splendour of the ephemeral wildflowers and the emergence of the overwintering butterflies. The beauty of nature awakened his passion for photography.

Al's passion for the natural world was initially sparked by his parents, and in particular, the wilderness camping trips with his father that began some ten or fifteen years earlier. And, it continued. He worked as a Naturalist not just in Algonquin, but also at Presque'ile, and Rock Point Provincial Parks. And, since 1999, he has run an Environmental Education Centre for a local School Board. At the Centre, he teaches in an outdoor setting, sharing his passion for nature and using his photographs to compliment the learning experience. All who have ever taken a nature walk with Al marvel at his knowledge of nature and are inspired by his infectious enthusiasm.

Most of Al's photographs have been captured in Ontario, but trips to the East and West coasts have inspired some very special camera moments. His photographs have been published in books, magazines, and natural history guides, but as a hobby photographer, his interest is to capture the moments in nature that inspire him.

Al has always said, "Beauty in nature is everywhere. To me, the world is made up of millions of photographs and I just need to decide which ones to capture".