The Outdoor Gibbon
Join me on my journey through stories and interviews talking to like-minded individuals. It doesn’t matter who you are this podcast will hopefully educate and guide you through the world deerstalking, shooting and the outdoor world.
The information in these podcasts is for you to enjoy and develop you own opinions, if you take everyday as a school day you will see the bigger picture.
Thanks for listening and sharing in the journey
The Outdoor Gibbon
69 Hunting with Light: Magnus's Wildlife Photography Journey
How do you capture the perfect image of a white bird against a snowy landscape when you can barely see them with your own eyes? For Magnus, a wildlife photographer living at the edge of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, the answer lies in embracing both cutting-edge technology and ancient survival techniques.
Magnus's story begins with burnout. After devoting over a decade to his mining industry business, working 12-16 hour days, he reached a breaking point. "I realized I'm not growing as a person anymore," he shares with disarming honesty. A forced business setback became the catalyst for rediscovering his passion for photography and the natural world. What began as personal rehabilitation transformed into a thriving business offering guided photo tours through pristine wilderness areas virtually unknown to outsiders.
Unlike heavily promoted destinations in neighboring countries, northern Sweden's vast national parks—collectively larger than Belgium—remain largely undiscovered by international photographers. This offers Magnus and his clients the increasingly rare opportunity to capture truly unique images of untouched landscapes. "Everyone's searching for something that hasn't been taken yet," he explains, describing the photographer's ultimate quest.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Magnus reveals how thermal imaging technology has revolutionized wildlife photography. Originally developed for industrial applications and later adopted by hunters, thermal devices allow photographers to locate and approach animals without disturbance. In the challenging Arctic environment, where traditional optics fail against the blinding white landscape, thermal vision reveals hidden wildlife through their body heat. "With the thermals, you can look for hours if you want. You don't get tired in the eyes, and you have so much more easy to find the birds," Magnus explains.
Perhaps most thought-provoking is Magnus's nuanced perspective on using traditional fur gloves and clothing in extreme Arctic conditions. Facing criticism online, he thoughtfully explains how these materials come from sustainably hunted local animals used primarily for food. "The skin is a leftover product. We try to use everything from that animal," he notes, challenging simplistic views on this complex topic.
Ready to experience the Arctic through a different lens? Follow Magnus's photography journey and discover how he captures extraordinary images in one of the world's most extreme environments. Whether you're a dedicated photographer or simply fascinated by human adaptation and natural beauty, this conversation will transform how you see the wilderness.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Thinking about doing the PDS1 or PDS2 use the link below.
https://www.shootingandhuntingacademy.co.uk/link/6f1QuV
Using this link above you will get a Free PDS1 Shooting assessment with myself in scotland
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Outdoor Gibbon Podcast. Wow, where's the summer gone? It is now the end of July and I cannot believe how fast the months are flying by. We've been busy working on the pheasant pen last weekend. I think the English game fair's been and gone. Looking at social media, it seemed everybody had a good time time. Not sure it was quite as busy maybe as last year, but uh, it certainly it's. It's happened. The scottish game fairs been and gone. It's just been absolutely manic.
Peter Gibbon:I recorded this podcast that we're about to listen to with magnus back at the end of may. That's almost two months ago. I have no idea how fast time has flown by and everything we've done in between. What I do know is obviously now the nights are already drawing in. A couple of weeks back, just before well, that was what June you were able to be out until sort of gone 11 o'clock at night, stalking, and I was out this weekend and it's already getting sort of to that 10, 10.30ish. You need to be thinking about coming home. So we're on the downturn towards winter. I know, as I was just saying, we've been sorting out our pheasant pens and getting everything ready. All our feeders are over there and a message to say that my birds will be be turning up sort of mid to end of august. That really does bring it home.
Peter Gibbon:Got a busy season coming up as well, down on the hill, lots of guests coming for stags so stags, hinds, you name it got a lot of shooting. There's a lot of change within the deer industry within scotland at the moment pressure on wanting higher numbers taken to reduce the deer population and density on the estates and surrounding estates. So this year could be very interesting. So I would stay tuned and we'll keep you up to date. Still taking row bucks here, there and everywhere, and there's certainly some nice bucks about. We've cleared off a lot of the smaller stuff. I was just looking back at the trophies we've cleaned up for clients, guests, and I've been out to taking a few for myself as well. It's uh, but it's, it's still. It's that time thing. It just seems to be flying. Had a busy couple of weeks putting in a new larder. We've built all of that getting ready for um, getting ready for that winter season, but uh, yeah, just time is going by. Harvest has almost started as well. Remarkably, it's incredibly early, for for scotland it's almost two weeks ahead of where it normally is. So, uh, we'll be. We'll be able to get onto those stubble parks much sooner than we have last year.
Peter Gibbon:Obviously, with winter approaching, I'm going to draw your attention that we do have our hats and hoodies, uh, available still to purchase. If you are interested in any of that merch, let us know. Uh. Final couple of t-shirt designs have now been done, so watch this space. There will definitely be some t-shirts. I know the summer's come and gone, but we've got those autumn months when you might want to get a t-shirt on still, because it's still warm during the day. So there'll be a full range of merch. Obviously, don't forget the mugs and and I don't really have a website up and running yet, so we'll keep posting on social media sites and if you do want something, either DM me or drop me an email and we'll get something sorted out to you.
Peter Gibbon:So today's guest is Magnus, and he is a wildlife photographer who lives in the very north of Sweden, right on the edge of the Arctic Circle. If you don't follow him on social media, go and have a look. His photos are absolutely stunning. The guy sits out for hours on the tundra to get mind-blowing images. I met him through the Pulsar Pro Staff group and he brings a completely different spin to what we all do with our thermal devices. He uses it kind of for hunting, but hunting to take a picture. So I'm not going to waffle on any longer, let's just get on and have a listen to my chat with Magnus. The Outdoor Given podcast is proudly sponsored by the Shooting and Hunting Academy, an online training platform and UK registered learning provider that provides a host of accredited and nationally available courses and masterclasses delivered by leading industry experts. Hello and welcome to another episode of the outdoor given podcast. Today I am joined by magnus. Now he is a wildlife photographer up in pretty much the Arctic Circle north of Sweden. How are you doing, magnus?
Magnus Windjork:Hello, Thank you for letting me in here. I'm fine and it feels really good to be here. I mean, we have planned this for such a long time, but I have been quite busy during the high season here and finally we find a day and time where we can, maybe could make it absolutely.
Peter Gibbon:It's um, it's, but it's always fantastic to watch, uh, your social media feed and everything you've had, and I think you've you've made the most of the snow. I think you've been up in the in the high ground just getting the last, uh, last few bits of snow and photos. You could haven't, you recently.
Magnus Windjork:Yes, I actually came home from there only two days ago and I mean there is four seasons every year, but when you're living around the Arctic Circle we used to say that you have six or eight seasons because, for example, you have winter, you have spring and then you have summer. But we also have different kind of winters and and now is that part of the time, part of the year when you have a, it's more or less start to be summer. Down in the lowland, like in the forest, all the snow is gone and the sun is heating, so much of it's like summer feeling, but only driving one hour with the car so you put yourself on a higher altitude, uh, then it's still winter there, so you can drive in snowmobile, you can skiing, so you have like two seasons at the same time and that's uh, that's only during a short, very intense time frame. So we really want to get everything out from it. You really want to enjoy the last part of winter when you can I was going to say it, it has looked absolutely fantastic.
Peter Gibbon:I know that over here in scotland we've had the weirdest weather because it's been so hot and dry for almost two months, and yet today I look out the window and it's just tipping it down with rain, which I think most of the uk is experiencing. So to still see photos of you enjoying the snow, I'm very jealous. So so let's sort of dive back in. Obviously, how did you get into your? I talked to a lot of people and hunters and things like that, and you're kind of a hunter, but a different type of hunter. You hunt with a camera to take a photo that that you can then share with everybody, whereas obviously, a lot of the the chats I've had, it's a hunter that's out to harvest meat, but they take a picture of of what they've harvested, whereas your sort of harvest is is a beautiful photograph that you can share with the world. How did you get started in in photography, um?
Magnus Windjork:it's a.
Magnus Windjork:It's actually a quite long story, but if I try to make it short, it's um, uh, I have run in my own business in the mining industry, uh, before right, uh, we've been making, uh, welding works and we've been making some service and maintain work in the mines, and what happened for me was that everything went actually really well.
Magnus Windjork:I got a lot of work and I also, of course, put my whole heart and soul into it, so of course, then it's also going well, and it sounds like that everything going well cannot be a bad thing, and it isn't, of course, a bad thing there and then. But when it, when it's going well, you can easily work 12, 14, 16 hours a day, because, yes, it's not, it's not the pressure on you, it's just fun. It's uh, you wake up in the morning with a smile on your face and you're working and everything going well. But when you have done that in 11 years, 12 years, and then you start to think that, wow, I have worked like 12, 14 hours a day in 12 years. I have actually like throw away my whole life for doing this. Yeah, yeah, like throw away my whole life for doing this.
Magnus Windjork:Yeah yeah, yeah. Then you get a little bit different kind of how to say perspective on it, because I start to feel that I'm not growing as a person anymore. Now I do this only because this is what I should do and what I used to do and this is giving me an income, because this is what I should do and what I used to do and this is giving me an income. And if you start to thinking in that way, what kind of income is big enough for make it worth to put your whole life away? And then you start to realize that no, it is not worth it.
Peter Gibbon:No no.
Magnus Windjork:So the thing was that everything went so well so I managed to put like a little bit too much hour into it, because it was only fun and and it's going well. And then one day I realized that I need, maybe want to scale down a little bit. Uh, we was around 20 employers. Uh, I maybe want to scale down a little bit. Uh, try to get a little bit like free time back a little bit, my life back again yep and, uh, during those years I have never been into photography.
Magnus Windjork:I have. I have been interested in photography my whole life, but more in a documentary like photographic way. I have always been in beautiful places and I have feel that it's lovely to have some kind of camera with you for show to the planet earth where you have been. Yeah, yeah, um, but I have. I haven't been more interesting than that. But when I try to scale down the company, I try to take some steps back. Then I will also, at the same time sadly running into a small problem. I have a subcontractor that make a huge mistake, like a safety mistake in the mine. So I didn't do anything wrong. So I didn't do anything wrong, my company didn't do anything wrong. But we have hire another company for make a small part of the work.
Magnus Windjork:So this responsibility is still on on me yep so, uh, when that accident happened, uh, I get the fine, and then I was sadly also not able to do work to the mine for the coming six months, right, so then it was like a really really sad thing. But now, when I'm looking back on it, that was maybe the thing that helped me to scale down and take a step back, because I was forced to do it?
Peter Gibbon:Yes, it's the force of hand, isn't it? That maybe helped you. It was the change of fate that actually was the thing you needed to be able to change.
Magnus Windjork:And that thing was coming exactly at the same time when I had started to plan by myself to do something like that. So it was maybe some kind of help from somewhere. And after that, everything ends well and we had three, four employers left and I started to get my life back again. And then I also took my first time off from work for 11, 12 years or something, so I started to be a lot out in the nature. I started to take a lot of photos. Um, now when I'm looking back on it, I can clearly see that it was maybe some kind of rehab for for coming back to life again. And when I spend that much time out in the nature taking photos, I also open my instagram account and start to publish a lot of photos from from the area around here.
Magnus Windjork:Yeah, and this was in the end of, uh, of the summer, beginning of the autumn, and I start to get a lot of questions from people, not only from here and from sweden, also from abroad, like, wow, where is this place? How can we go here? Can you send one gps location? Where is nearest airport? You know? A lot of questions coming and, uh, I get, of course, glad about that. So I, I did everything I I could for, uh, for answer those questions. And then I just start to think that maybe I can do some, some business out of this. Maybe I can start to offer like guided photo tours or or something. So in end august, beginning september, something I decided, yeah, I will, I will make, I will give it a try and see what, what I can do. So totally changed to do something, something else. So, um, it start in that way that I was searching on facebook for different kind of facebook groups. I mean, there is groups for everything. There is groups for people that only want to photograph eyes, only want to photograph white animals.
Magnus Windjork:There is there is million kind of groups wow and I I did such a big work finding those groups and posting pictures. So before the first snow was coming in November, the whole winter was fully booked. Wow, that's fantastic. And then of course, I was maybe a little bit I maybe have the price a little bit too low because it was just in the start and so on, but that that was when everything started and that winter was fully booked. And now I have do this for six years and it's still always fully booked.
Peter Gibbon:I was going to say, but we'll, we'll put a link to your insta instagram feed, but if anybody doesn't hasn't seen it or wants to see some, absolutely the photos are stunning and you do little videos now and stuff like that, um, yeah, it's, the area you live is like that winter wonderland, paradise. You look at, you look at it and it's just even during the summer. The photos, the lake and everything else, it's, it's absolutely stunning up there. It's, um, it's a different world. And then it you really sort of you rub that rub the oil in the wounds is is when you put up the pictures of the northern lights and it's, it's again, it's stunning, yeah, and what make this area quite unique is that I mean our neighbors, norway, finland, for example.
Magnus Windjork:They also have amazing landscape. It's, it's really beautiful places, but they have also do quite much promotion. They have working quite hard for get people coming to those places. But here, because of or thanks to, I don't know how to say but we have the big iron ore mines.
Peter Gibbon:Okay, ore mines okay.
Magnus Windjork:So, uh, the government or the people that living here or the city have never been in, been in any need of bringing tourism here, right? So, uh, we have huge area. I mean we have national parks that when you put them together, the area is bigger than belgium, and, uh, I mean, we know about them, but if you're checking worldwide, if you're checking in europe, no one know about them. But if you're checking worldwide, if you're checking in Europe, no one knows about them because there is no commercial made about them. So if you are a photographer, those areas is really unique because everyone's searching for something that haven't been taken yet.
Peter Gibbon:You want to have a picture of something that you can feel that, ok, the whole planet Earth haven't been here already and and take this kind of pictures a hundred percent, and I think that comes across so well when, whenever you you've started a youtube channel talking about things like hides and stuff like that and and and chasing the elusive, that elusive fox that was that was causing you bother. Every time you were, you left the hide, the fox would appear on the camera. But it's, it's as you say, it's things like that, it's the. It's sort of the place that not everybody's been to, it's that untouched nature and and you offer that sort of special package that allows people to actually to come there and experience your lifestyle in some ways yeah, and then to be honest, I mean the word uh, the word wildlife is a little bit misleading nowadays because there is not like real untouched wild.
Magnus Windjork:Also sorry, not wildlife wilderness wilderness yeah, there is no like real wilderness left on planet earth. I mean, there is a civilization everywhere, but at least this is those areas. Here is as close as you can come to real wilderness.
Peter Gibbon:I was gonna say it, from from looking, looking in from a, from an outside view, looking in on what you, what you do. It's not like you can see cities, houses or things like that. It when you've got a snow machine up it up on the sort of the, the open plane of nothingness there is it doesn't seem to be anybody about you, around you, and no, no no, it really does give you that feeling of you are remote and and you're, you're in the middle of nowhere and that's what?
Magnus Windjork:what? Um, that's what the most of the guests are so impressed about that we can. We can be the snowmobile, for example. We can driving in hours, we can go 80, 100 kilometer and you don't see tracks from another human being there. You are like in the middle of nowhere, that there is so huge areas where there is no yeah, there is actually nothing and that's fantastic and and that just puts you to that bit.
Peter Gibbon:It's that little bit of exposure, I suppose. And then all of a sudden, you, uh, you see something and you manage to capture it on on on camera, uh, and and I think that probably, just, you know, blow most people's minds because the beauty of it is, it's the you probably get the same dopamine release that the hunter would get seeing the animal coming across.
Peter Gibbon:It's the same for you because, at the end of the day, your tool is the camera. The camera lens is doing exactly what it is, except there's no bang at the end of it, luckily and your animal can be taken again tomorrow, fantastic.
Peter Gibbon:Now that leads me on to the next bit, because obviously we met because of of pulsar and I think you're one of the first non-hunters to have been brought into the, the sort of the pro staff team and it was really interesting to, to, to hear your perspective and to and to see it from a from a different angle. How has sort of of that technology helped you with what you do now?
Magnus Windjork:It has helped a lot, really, really a lot, because I mean, I have a lot in common with a hunter, because the whole time frame until from you start go out in the forest until you find the animal, that is like more or less the same as as you do when you're out hunting yes but the difference is that I need to be next to the animal for quite a long time because I want to have good photos of them.
Magnus Windjork:So when I find the animal I push the button and I get the picture. Then I cannot go home after that. I need to get one more, one more, because if you're coming home with thousands of pictures and you're going to choose one, that one is going to be better than if you're coming home with 10 pictures, of course, of course. So there is where the Pulsar thermodevices have helped me so much, because I can go out and searching for the animals a little bit earlier. I can start to go out when I don't have the light good enough for taking picture. It's quite dark still.
Magnus Windjork:So then I can find the animal without going too close to them. So I scare them away. And after I have find them I can put myself in a good position. So I find a good composition, I find everything I want to have in the frame and I can also approach the animal from a more, in a more controlled way. So when the sun is start to rising, or a little bit, some half an hour, one hour before that, when you start to be enough light for taking photos, then I'm already in a good position and I can start to take photos immediately yeah, you're not having to use a pair of binoculars to kind of try and find something and and always have that approach with daylight.
Peter Gibbon:But yeah, as you say, you having to use a pair of binoculars to kind of try and find something and always have that approach with daylight. But yeah, as you say, you now have the power of moving in the darkness and I think some of the footage you've put up and the distances, because of the temperature and the climate, you can see things probably a lot further than most of us because you get such a good thermal differential than most of us because you get such a good thermal differential.
Magnus Windjork:Yeah, yeah, and I can see also. I think I can see it more clear also than most people can because of the difference in temperature.
Magnus Windjork:Yeah, yeah yeah, and then I mostly also use the thermal devices in daylight. Yes, yeah, and that is something that many people, if they are not into thermal, they haven't used them. They have a little bit hard to understand why and what's the benefit of that. But the thing is that if you are up in the high mountain area where everything is white, you don't have not even one single tree. In some areas you don't even see a rock, everything is just white. Yes, and if you then have a super strong sun, uh, you, you cannot be without sunglasses, for example, you get, you get so much pain in your eyes because it's so bright. And if you then take one pair of, or like a traditional binocular and try to scouting, for example, for, uh, rock pit armigans you know a white bird in this white snow, when everything is white, it's a, it's, it's a question about maybe 10, 15 minutes you can looking in the binoculars then you're going to be too tired in your eyes yes, of course, and it's.
Magnus Windjork:It's also hard to find those white birds on the white snow because it's so bright and you have like no contrast. But with the thermals you can look in for hours if you want you, you don't get tired in the ice and you have also so much more easy to to find the birds. Because for me, one typical scenario is uh, I'm moving around with skis or with the snowmobile and I see one bird, maybe sitting on a stone, because when they are on the snow they are more hard to see, but if they're sitting on the stone you can easily see them. Yes, so I I see a bird and I say, oh, wow, I will try to go closer and get a good photo here. But when I approach the bird, there's going to be some other birds that I haven't seen, and they're because they're sitting in the snow. And when I come in close to them they fly away and then all the birds are flying away and then I don't get any photos. So I have to make a new try, new try.
Magnus Windjork:And now, when I moving around and I see a bird, then I take the thermal binocular and see that, okay, it's 12 birds. One is sitting there and two is there on the snow. So, um it, it helped me, uh, to get um a better overall like view of the situation. So I don't I don't going to go too close to some bird without knowing it, so they fly away. I I will. I will have more easy to to um get close to them in a controlled way so I actually get the good photo before they are flying away you, you kind of get the tactical advantage, a massive tactical advantage because you can see in a spectrum that, uh, hopefully they they've got.
Peter Gibbon:Nature is any, any wild animal potentially has better eyesight than the human being.
Peter Gibbon:We we developed other skills and other other things, whereas obviously, yeah, you're trying to approach into a, to an animal whose whole life is to survive, they're designed to see predators coming from a long way away.
Peter Gibbon:So, yeah, absolutely the thermal gives you that, um, that edge that allows you to get in and get your photos. Is is that the outdoor given podcast is proudly sponsored by the shooting and hunting academy. Through the academy, shooters, hunters and those involved in the use of firearms can gain an in-depth and unique level of training that enables them to shoot better, behave more effectively in the field, up their strike rates, as well as learning new skills, crucially those new to deer stalking. The academy also offers the proficient deer stalker certificate level one, the pds1, a deer management certificate that is nationally recognized and accredited both by lantra and uk rural skills. Visit the shooting and hunting academy to find more. Let's get back to the show. Do you think this is becoming because obviously you're doing a lot with it do you think this is going to become one of those things that a lot more people that are into the outdoor world, the wildlife photography, will start to move over to using a thermal device to allow them to achieve better photography.
Magnus Windjork:I'm really sure about that. The only thing is that most of the people like photographers. They don't know what they're missing because they don't know what they can get. They don't know all the benefits with it. But when they're going to find out the benefits, I think a lot of people want to start using thermos. I mean, there is things also that it's so hard to explain to people that haven't tried it. But, for example, when you are in environments when everything is covered with snow and everything is cold, uh, if there is a group of moves, for example two or three moves, standing somewhere in in in in the area, if I'm looking on them with the termo, uh, if they have just came to the area and they have the the last like couple of hundred meters when they're walking there, they have also poop.
Magnus Windjork:Yeah, then, you, then you can see that, okay, they're coming from from the left, because you see that there is poop laying in the snow from the left. So then you know in what way they are most likely going to move when they start moving again so then.
Magnus Windjork:So then you can also looking on the landscape. Okay, it's quite likely that they go into the right. What do I have to the right? Okay, there, I have this mountain. I can line up this mountain with this tree or whatever, so then you can put yourself in in a position and then you're sitting there and wait and, okay, now they start to move and then when they're coming where you want to have them in the frame, you take a picture and everything is like so controlled.
Peter Gibbon:Yeah, it's kind of giving you the the advantage to actually allow you to, to almost set the shots up before and, and, and just hoping that the animal is is going to do what you want it to do. Almost walk through the trap for you, isn't it? It's like a, it's like setting a camera trap up, but you actually are there to experience it, rather than just leaving one of those trail cams out.
Magnus Windjork:That gives you not the best quality of photo but tells you there was something there yeah, and and in in january february also beginning Mars in January we don't have the sun here. The sun is never going over the horizon, it's always below the horizon, right. But when the sun starts coming back, like the whole February beginning of Mars, it's really bright, but the sun is not strong enough for heat up the ground. Okay, so then I can use the thermal for scanning the whole side of a mountain slope, for example, because most of the mountains are covered with snow, but it can be, for example, 600 stones on the whole mountain side.
Magnus Windjork:And if one of those stones is not a stone, it's an animal, then we will see it so clearly with the thermal device because the stones are also cold, because the sun is not strong enough for heat up the stones in in january, february, mars yeah so. So, um, with a traditional binocular you really need to focus and really need to, like, exactly know what you're looking for.
Peter Gibbon:But with the, with the thermal, you can scanning the whole mountainside and you see immediately if there is an animal laying next to a stone no, I I agree with you there, because it's it's one of the biggest problems we have is is you're out and you've got the thermal and you're, and you're looking on a hillside or something like that and you've just you've just raised a very good topic there. It's, the sun's been shining most of the day on a load of rocks and all of a sudden you look and it's like, oh, there's a herd of 600 animals.
Peter Gibbon:But it's not, it's a herd of 600 rocks, so they're all glowing very hot so so having that advantage of being able to scan the hillside where you've not got, not got the heat, heating everything up and and, and then the beauty of it is anybody that hasn't ever looked through a thermal obviously yeah, what you're looking at glows. Basically, if it's in white hot, for example, it glows as a great white object on your screen.
Magnus Windjork:So you can uh, you can then hone in and work on going over to whatever that object is yeah, and also if, if animals are are hiding behind branches, for example, um, and it can be also in the middle of the day when you have strong sun, so everything that is in the shadow gets quite black because it gets so much contrast for your eyes. So also with a traditional binocular it's impossible to find them. But with a termo, even if they are behind the branches, there is always some leaking in the branches where you're going to see that, okay, there is, you don't maybe see what kind of animal, but to see that there is something there behind the branches that's it, because pulsar have now have now launched their pulsar wildlife um sort of part of the company, haven't they?
Peter Gibbon:which is which is coming out soon, and I think you're one of sort of the. The key now, the key pro staff for that so is this is obviously trying to get to say that thermal just doesn't have a an advantage to. Well, thermal originally came from sort of the, the safety aspect and the, the world of of um, of heavy industry looking at high temperature leaks. Then it moved into the hunting world and now it's kind of taken that full swing where it's actually now going out to the wildlife enthusiast. And how do you think that's going to change the way that people see the world?
Peter Gibbon:It's obviously it's a whole new skill to to take a thermal device and and go out, but do you think it's going to unlock? It's going to unlock the um, say, for a bird watcher that's down on a on a an open plane. Do you think they'll be able to? Still, they'll start to have the ability to see more and and be able to understand more about the nature that's going on around them.
Magnus Windjork:I suppose yeah, absolutely, and then, and then I also hope that, uh, I mean term will give you the benefit of making everything around the animal with a bit more of respect for the animal and in a way that you don't disturb the animal and so on. But it can also be sadly the opposite, because you have easier to find animals. So so I I hope there that people also going to use it with with the respect, but I, I, I, I think so. I think, because for photographers, the last thing you want to do is to disturb the animal or scare the animal, because then you don't get any photos. They're running away. So as long as you're using thermos in the way that you can put yourself in more controlled situations so you can approach the animal without scare them, then it's also a better thing for the animal.
Peter Gibbon:100 I, I agree with you and it's like everything I think, whatever, whatever world you go into, there's always people that will misuse it. But if, if it, if it's a benefit to to more people that actually opens up the environment and allows them to see things, then it can. Hopefully it means there'll be less disturbance to to nature because you can, you can step back and you don't have to go trudging across somewhere and and disturb five things to just get the photo of the one thing you wanted. So what? Um, let's, let's just talk about obviously we've covered a bit on thermal there and how it's been helping you. Let's talk about your typical year up in the Arctic Circle. We've obviously just covered winter, but the summer comes around, and how does it work up there? Is it inundated with bugs and insects or is it a fairly nice place to be?
Magnus Windjork:The biggest thing with summer is that the day summer come, you start right, okay no, no, the summer here is actually a really, really lovely time of the year, especially the beginning of the summer and the end of the summer, you know, when everything is changing, uh, and the mosquitoes, it's, it's. It's a hard question to answer, like in general, because it's so. It's so different from place to place and from year to year. Okay, where I living, it's it's quite okay conditions. But if you're living a little bit more south or a little bit more to the closer to the coast, or you're living close to a river, for example, that gets floated every year when the snow is melting, then it can be a huge thing with the mosquitoes. It can be plenty of them some years yeah, that that's.
Peter Gibbon:It's kind of like over on the east coast of scotland, it's everybody's, oh, you must be inundated with midges and things and mosquitoes. It's like, well, it's not too bad, but then you'll get a a really damp, warm day and all of a sudden it's horrendous. But uh, just one of those things. So your summer time is that a bit of a down time from having to take lots of people out guiding, or is that? Is that still just as busy, or is that the time of year that you have the ability to make new hides and and find new trails and get yourself sorted out for the winter season again?
Magnus Windjork:yes, summer is low season for me and the the reason, I think, is because, I mean, I I have people here from more or less the whole world. I have people here from India, from Dubai, from Tahiti. I have also people from US, a lot of people coming here. Most of the guests are coming from Belgium, netherlands, germany, uk.
Magnus Windjork:Okay of the guests they are coming from belgium, netherlands, uh, germany, uk, okay, uh. And if you're coming from some part of europe like central europe, uh, if you're coming here in january or if you're coming here in the summer, uh, the difference between what you have at home and what you're coming to, that difference is so much bigger in winter time of course I mean it's like coming to another planet, but when?
Magnus Windjork:if you're coming here during summertime, of course it's a different kind of landscape, but it's still. Everything is green, the lake is blue, the sky is blue and, you know, sun is shining, so so it's it's little bit. Uh, the contrast between what you have and what you got.
Magnus Windjork:This is smaller in summertime yeah, whereas you go for that winter extreme, it's, it's completely different yeah and then it's also, of course, more easy to move around by yourself in in in the area during summertime, so so people don't have the same need to have a guide with them. Of course, photographers prefer to have a guide um get faster access to waterfalls, lovely places. They don't need to search by themselves for days or weeks. They, they, they can, they can make a shortcut and they can find stuff during a um, uh, how to say a?
Peter Gibbon:sort of an adventure, a day out, kind of thing yeah yeah yeah, but, but.
Magnus Windjork:But but for answer your question. So so, yes, summertime is is low season for me, uh, so I used to have june, july, beginning august.
Magnus Windjork:Then I have some guided tours booked, but there is not so so many during summertime right then in in autumn, when we start to get, uh, the darkness back so you can see the aurora, then then it's start to be rushed again, because a lot of people want to come here and take photos of the aurora before you get eyes on the lakes, because they want to have the reflection in the water okay, yeah, because your aurora photos are absolutely stunning, you?
Peter Gibbon:um, obviously it's, it's the skill of the photographer, it's the equipment you use, but you also show. I think you've got where you can see almost the movement and the shimmering of the aurora. So, yeah, again, anybody that's out there that wants to see the best aurora photos, they're the ones to look at, see what, see what magnus is producing. Because when I have a go, I end up with like, yeah, a bit of a greeny, red blur, but that's about it, whereas I look at yours it's like that's, that's phenomenal thank you, really glad to to hear that but and so so because you have um, so obviously people come up there pretty much.
Peter Gibbon:They'd come up pretty much all year round, but I suppose the winter, the having the guy just gives them that ed, that piece of safety, especially out in the snow, because it is it's a pretty desolate wilderness, isn't it?
Magnus Windjork:when there's snow on the ground and it's accessed via a snow machine yeah, and I mean in summertime, the worst thing that can happen is that it starts raining, but in yes, I mean in winter time it can get totally white out. So you don't know, you have no idea where you are, you cannot find the way back, uh. So so people don't want to come here and, like, go out in the wilderness by themselves. It's too, it's too too big risk.
Magnus Windjork:I was going to say the temperature extremes for you in the winter, I think it can be also like minus 30, minus 40 degrees sometimes, and it's hard to predict what the temperature is going to be because it's changing all the time up and down. So wintertime you really need a guide to go out in the areas if you haven't experienced something like that before. Absolutely.
Peter Gibbon:So you've just led led onto a really nice topic there. Now, in some of the photos that you've posted, we see you obviously out in these extreme temperature conditions, and it's probably one of the questions that people bring up, because as soon as you mentioned the words fur and using animal products and all the rest of it, a lot of people are like, oh, you can't do that, but I think you've got a fur hat and using animal products and all the rest of it. A lot of people are like, oh, you can't do that, but I think you've got a fur hat and fur gloves and without them, life would virtually be impossible in those conditions yeah, can you tell us, tell us about those yeah, but I mean it is that cold there is.
Magnus Windjork:I mean, there is so much about the clothes. There is also very important about nutrition, like what you are used to eat. There is a lot of things that have a big impact in how you're going to be able to handle that cold and yeah, I mean it. Coming to to clothes, for example, I mean I have my gloves. Um, they are made of moose and fox and, uh, I I have honestly get a a lot of like, bad like comments and people like contact me on instagram that, hey, you are a bad person on planet earth. You shouldn't have gloves from made from animals and so on. But what people don't know, that is that there is no one that have go out to the forest for kill a moose or kill a fox for making those gloves yes because when it's, for example, moose hunting, that is the biggest kind of hunting here.
Magnus Windjork:It's the time of the year, the weeks during the autumn, when the locals are out hunting moose, and when you get a moose you're filling your fridge at home. So you have meat for like the whole year until it's time to hunt again next time. So we haven't get meat from you know big farms where animals have terrible conditions. We haven't transported around the planet Earth three times. We have go out in the forest. We have taken moose that are breathing the same air as ourselves. Bring it to home and make sure that we have food on the table for like one year. And I mean then the skin is a leftover product, so instead of just throwing it away, we try to use that also. We try to use everything you can from from that animal. So when you see it that way, I mean, if you feel that it's bad killing an animal, but you must do it for get food on the table, I mean then it's of course better to try to use everything from that animal, don't just throw away something from it.
Peter Gibbon:Well, what you've just said there is absolutely fantastic. It's the whole. You've used everything, and actually probably man that's how man has survived, or the human race has survived until now is that we did use everything from the animal and the furs and the hides and the bones. It was all part of the process to to keep you alive, especially in the conditions that that you live in from the summer is lovely and warm to the winter is minus 30 you kind of need something to keep you warm. And if, if a moose can survive in it, if you're wearing some moose skin and and and yeah, it gives you that, gives you that advantage, doesn't it?
Peter Gibbon:yeah, yeah and and so it, because it's really interesting to see that you have it's not a synthetic product as well. It is a natural product that that you're using, because obviously, yeah, you could buy synthetic gloves, but a lot of people have said to me that they just don't seem to have the same ability to insulate in those temperature conditions.
Magnus Windjork:Yeah, no, they are not even close to give you the same heat.
Peter Gibbon:Right, right, so yeah. So again, it's not cruel. It's basically, if you want to survive in these conditions and do the stuff, stuff that you're doing, it's kind of it's kind of a necessary thing to have yeah fantastic.
Peter Gibbon:Well, but that that's really interesting and it hopefully it will help the the non-hunters that listen to this understand that actually, yeah it, it goes to show it's um, it's a process that is used wherever and it's every part of the act. There's no wastage and, exactly as you said, that animal isn't traveling halfway around the world to get to your dinner plate.
Magnus Windjork:And I think also it's in the world we are living in today where there is, sadly, quite much hate about things, and I mean eating meat, killing animals is one of those things, and I I used to get some negative feedback on social media about it. So I I use I really used to think that people should really like take a break for some second, try to zoom out, try to see the whole picture before you're sending some negative feedback to, to uh, to someone, because it's it's not black or white. There is always some kind of um, there is always a a bigger aspect, a bigger, a bigger view yeah, yes, so that's.
Peter Gibbon:That's just just diving into that, because you just touched on something there about social media. As a photographer, do you, you, do you get? Do you get problems with people giving you grief for for what you're doing? Or is it because they've looked in and they've seen that you've got the, the fur gloves on or the fur hat is that? Is that where you get your hatred from?
Magnus Windjork:but but I, I think in general there is always no matter if you're a photographer or what you are in in all categories there is always people that I don't know. They have a little bit too less to do, a little bit too much hate inside them of or some. Somehow they need to get it out. I mean, um, there was one example I, I, I had the we have, we have a swedish master in photography you know like a huge competition, and I was the judge a part of the judge there last year.
Magnus Windjork:So in the morning I make an instagram story that I need to give food to the birds before I go into this competition. And then there was some people write that, hey, you shouldn't feed the birds, it's not ethical. Okay, to to feeding birds. Okay, I can understand that in somehow. And then I make an instagram story that I was on the way to the airport for go to the competition. Then it was like you are a big photographer, you shouldn't support competitions that need you to travel to there. Why, why don't they do that online? And OK, there is also a point in that. I mean, there is that I can always understand, but still it's not that easy.
Magnus Windjork:And then when I came to the airport, I did fly from north of Sweden to middle of Sweden, to Stockholm. Then in the airport in Stockholm they were in a shop. They were selling, you know, like a small market. They were selling bottles with water, and that water is coming from my home because we have a company here that's producing water. So I took a picture of that and say that it's quite lovely to come to the airport in the middle of Sweden and you can drink your water from home.
Magnus Windjork:And so I just took a picture of the bottle. Then it was someone that write me that, hey, you shouldn't support drinking water from bottles.
Peter Gibbon:And I was like you know, it doesn't matter what, what you, what, even I do doing, there is always, you know, someone that can figure out something it's really, it's really interesting that actually, because I know from the hunting community we get we obviously we're, we're the lot we're sort of the front for for being attacked by by the, the world of the ante and all the rest of it but it's really interesting to hear that somebody that that takes beautiful photographs and and and shares their life with the world gets so much, gets the same sort of issues that it might not be directed that you've killed something, but actually you're still getting somebody coming on and and telling you you're doing something wrong and you're supporting this and supporting that. It's just like, as you say, it's people who obviously they must be very bored in their life and have far too much free time if they can spend all day thinking of things to send you messages about.
Magnus Windjork:And at the same time, many times I can get the point, what they're trying to say. But if you have an opinion about something and you feel that this is wrong, you want the whole world to change in one direction.
Magnus Windjork:We can never be able to do it by hating each other no we need to educate each other, we need to teach each other, we need to share different kind of like ideas with each other, and so on, but just standing in each corner and call our each other for idiots, we're never going to be able to move forward like that. So if those people that for some reason feel that hey, this photographer here, he do something wrong, I'm I'm very open to hear about it, but don't just throw out some kind of hate. I mean we need to. I'm very open to hear about it, but don't just throw out some kind of hate. I mean we need to be able to I mean speak to each other in a different way. We are not team A, team B, team C, and then we're going to hate each other. We need to see it in a little bit bigger way than that.
Peter Gibbon:I think that's where social media has had a. It has a massive advantage and it has. It has wonderful things, but it also has a. It has a real negative line that runs through it and I think that do you get. Well, you obviously you've talked about that, but do you get any jealousy from other photographers about your, the life you lead and where you live, because obviously they might not have that, the same access? Do you find any of that comes through on social media?
Magnus Windjork:no, no, actually I, I don't think even once I have get something that's really good yeah, it's, it's more like photographers, more like supporting each other, like, like, like, in that way that's good, because then, of course, people sometimes you know I'm posting some stories with a lovely, then someone can say me that hey, I don't know if I'm going to love you or hate you or unfollow you or what I should done. But I mean, then it's in another way.
Peter Gibbon:It's it's, you know, with a funny touch on it yes, yes, of course, of course, absolutely, because, obviously, yeah, you're now. I think you've judged, you've been over to. You were over in london not that long ago, uh, with I think. I think you're a big fan of sony products, aren't you? So you're over yeah, it was sony world photography awards right, yeah, and and is that something that, uh, you're sort of you you've won awards for the work you do now, or are you sort of moving in that circle of people?
Magnus Windjork:uh, I have actually never sent some of my picture to some kind of competition because I I it's hard to explain, but I mean it's. It's some one kind of creative process that you're going through, and for me, when I had take a photo and I feel that, wow, this is the best photo I ever have take when I coming home, I want to edit it immediately right it doesn't matter if I feel that I might maybe need to go to p, I do it later.
Magnus Windjork:I need to edit now because if you are like in the creative flow and when you have edited photo, you want to show it on social media to the whole world like immediately.
Peter Gibbon:Yeah, no, absolutely, and it is so, it's so nice to to open it on social media to the whole world like immediately. Yeah, no, absolutely, and and it is so. It's so nice to to open my feed and there to be a picture oh, magnus has been out again and has got a photo of this or that and it's just like yeah, wow, wow, it's a, it's a piece of something different and and then when I have post a photo, then it's like okay, now I'm done with this.
Magnus Windjork:Now I I start to think about what photo to take next. So that make it a little bit hard for me to feel that I want to send the photo to a competition, because the photo that in that case I would like to send that photo is not taken yet, because you always want to take something better, something better. But the Sony Photography Awards it's more because I do a lot's more, because, um, uh, I do a lot of cooperations with with the sony we have. We have a really good like a relation, so so I do a lot of work for them and and we do some kind of like yearly cooperations also. So I, I'm a I'm a more as a part of the sony team. I'm not the sony ambassador, but I'm a part of the Sona team. I'm not the Sona ambassador, but I'm a part of their team.
Peter Gibbon:Oh, fantastic, fantastic. So wrapping this to sort of the close now, what does the 2025 winter season, 2026 winter season have in store for you? Is there any massive plans? Is there anything new coming up?
Magnus Windjork:there any any massive plans is there? Anything new coming up? Uh, more or like, or more, more. It's more like the same as it have always been. I mean, I'm running my guided photo tours, uh, but one new thing that's coming that I have started already now that I also going to start to do uh educations, like for people that want to learn more about taking photography oh, fantastic okay so those, those photo tours that I'm doing, uh, all of them is private and all of them is customized, uh, depending on what goals and wishes the photographers that coming here having.
Magnus Windjork:Yes, some people only want to photograph ice, frozen waterfalls, things like that. Some people want to photograph all the white animals mountain, hare rock, pitarmigan, so on. Some people only want to photograph aurora. So, I mean, everybody have different wishes and different goals, so I make specific packages for them when they are coming, okay, and then I also going to start to offer, like, education packages oh fantastic where I have a red line, what I'm going to teach about.
Magnus Windjork:But because it's it's not for big groups, it's for smaller group. It's like I used to call it private, but that means that it can be one person, but it can also be five person if there is like five friends that contact and I'm not going to mix people from from different yeah yeah, they don't know each other, and and if they feel that they want to learn more about one specific topic, okay, then I make one education just on that topic that sounds.
Peter Gibbon:That sounds really good and I think that would be really popular, I think. I think there seems to be a very much a thirst for knowledge and lots of people they they used to use the internet and youtube to do it, but I think people actually are now going back to the, the personal touch. They actually want to learn from somebody. I've seen, I found it I get more people wanting to actually come and and spend time and learn the hands-on part of it, rather than just watching a youtube video or something like that and here I also have some good opportunities.
Magnus Windjork:I mean we can sitting in the cabin uh half of the day and have like theory lesson, learning things in theory, having a lunch, and then we can, immediately after that, going out, for example, to the high that is like 100 meter away from here and and we can try to implement what we have learned by shooting squirrels, birds, you know, those easy kind of animals yeah, yeah and then during the stay we also make one day up to the national park for for, for do, like a real full adventure outdoor, uh, and then we can also like learning on site or out in the field, or or how to say no, I and I think I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, 100 percent, I, yeah, my plan is at some point is to actually come up and see you, because it's yeah, it's just that wilderness.
Peter Gibbon:And again, it's more about just the experience and actually seeing it. It's, it's just, yeah, it just looks absolutely outstanding. I will make sure that there are links that people can find your socials and find your website. There are links that people can find your socials and find your website. So, if anybody is interested, uh, they can, they can definitely get that information to come and find you and, uh, and, and yeah, just keep following along with what you do, really yeah so I think we've covered quite a lot there, so I think we'll draw it to a close.
Magnus Windjork:So thank you ever so much for for spending the time this morning um having a chat with me yeah, and thank you for for letting me coming here and, um, I mean I speaking about something that I'm so passionate about so I could easily do this hour to three, four hours. So so if you, if you get good feedback, then if there is someone that is interesting, listen to this. So I mean we can gladly make a part two, part three or or whatever 100.
Peter Gibbon:We can, we can tailor, we could, we could even work out, uh, some hot topics that people want to know more about, and uh, and, and bring them part exactly. Part two, part three, but I think for an overview as to as to what you do and how technology is helping you and things like that. I think we've, we've, we've touched quite a lot this morning already. Superb, thank you very much.
Magnus Windjork:Thank you.
Peter Gibbon:Well, I hope you enjoyed that episode. It was certainly really fun chatting with Magnus. I have a lot of time to enjoy having conversations with him. I know when I catch up in Lithuania it's always great asking him questions of what he's up to and just following him on social media. Whether he's out on a canoe, sailing around in the midnight sun that they get up there in the early season. Sailing round in the midnight sun, that they get up there in the early season or in the depths of the snow, absolutely freezing in sort of minus whatever temperatures I think he was talking about minus 27 or something like that sitting in a shed trying to get a picture of a fox.
Peter Gibbon:The guy's a machine. He just keeps going. So, as I say, go follow him on social media and have a look at what he does. The photos are absolutely stunning and what the work that he has to put in to get them is totally amazing, and his use of modern technology and thermals and stuff like that really does make it worthwhile having a look. So my last note before I leave is if there's any of that merch you want, please, please, get in touch. We'll get something sorted for you and we'll catch you on the next one.