About moments and the unrepeatable feeling that pulls you under your power / Article

The photography started with bees

Maris has been working with bees for 25 years. His farm is located in Zvārde parish of Saldus county. In the forest bordering the nature reserve.

“I came to live here. The previous one who lived here had left the bee colonies. That’s how I started. Something had to be done with them,” recalls Māris.

Now he already has a thousand bee colonies. Hives are located in 45 places, and the apiary will last the whole summer.

“Continuously near nature. Outside in the fresh air from morning until late at night. From a business point of view, it is already becoming more difficult, because honey is difficult to sell in bulk. Let’s see how things will go forward,” says Māris.

Mari always has a camera with her when she goes to the bees. You never know what you will meet.

“Photography started purely from bees.

In the spring I work on bees. I’m watching – little foxes are coming. Of course, there was no camera.

A fox comes, looks funny, then the little foxes immediately run to her. Logically, all of this should be photographed sometime. And it started slowly,” says Māris about the beginnings of passion.

Maris has been photographing for almost 20 years. He learned all the skills of professional photography by self-learning: “Magazines. When I started, there was no Internet in the forest. And I read purely from magazines… There were certain people you look at… when the Internet appeared, you could do more.”

I would like to take a photo of the silk hands

“I would like to take a picture of silk, I’ve never taken a picture, I’ve never even seen one, it’s like there’s nothing rare. But I haven’t been able to,” Māris reveals his photo dream.

“Of the animals living in Latvia, the bear has not been photographed yet. All the others have been. I have been ready to go to Limbaži several times, when that bear was walking there, but I didn’t go. There isn’t one on this side? Footprints have been seen, and there are also on cameras now and then gone. But it’s like going through somewhere,” Maris says.

Māris grew up with nature from an early age. He went to the forests with his father, a forester. Always wanted to go from the city to the countryside.

In order to get beautiful shots, he gets up early. Sometimes even at three in the morning.

“Destrum, no one else has woken up yet. There are only animals and nature. No cars and other unnecessary distractions. Fog, wait for the sunrise. All that life is already in the morning. During the day, there is nothing left,” he explains.

“For deer, I go to the deer pen. It’s autumn, September. The density is high, there are many deer. In the pen, the bulls themselves, the biggest one I’ve photographed is 120. Individual, different bulls. Each one is different, of course. Around winter, they all disappear. Only cows with calves remain. Bulls are rarely seen, they go somewhere else, no idea,” says Maris.

In order to access the animals, years of experience, observations and the ability to blend in with the environment are useful.

“Like me. Deer too. If he sees you, everything doesn’t move. Usually I’m already taking a picture. If he’s looking. Everything, zero movement. As soon as he does something, you can step to the right, step to the left. The animal doesn’t distinguish between colors, you can be bright green, blue, whatever color the bird sees,” explains Māris.

Sitting in a hide all day is not as satisfying as walking

“I like to walk in the forest. I walk a lot. I can walk 20 kilometers, and I have a camera with me, and you can take pictures of everything you see. Because sitting in such a hide… Well, with foxes, yes, there is no other option. But it’s not that satisfying to sit there all day. But when you walk through the forest, you can sneak up on something. You try to get closer to him adrenaline in that moment .. photo hunting, yes,” admits Māris.

During his career as a photographer, Māris Kreutzberg has not had a single experience with sharp sensations.

“I’m walking through the forest and I see two cats. It’s winter outside, – 20. I’m dressed in a white winter outfit. I think I’ll take a picture right away, I look, suddenly both jump away. I think – I noticed. I hear the snow rustling. I turn around… The wolf rushed over Of course, I didn’t manage to take a picture of him, but that’s the situation. [Smejas] At five meters he saw me, I immediately turned and braked and went back…” Māris remembers one of the situations.

Meeting a wolf face to face is far from dangerous. The wolf is afraid, even very afraid – says Maris.

“Spring, the snow hadn’t melted yet. I’m looking. Suddenly something walks ahead. You can’t understand. A dog, not a dog. In the end – a big lynx. Then I walked 150 meters behind the lynx while taking pictures, while he noticed me. And then he suddenly Disappeared. And then I look for where he’s gone. I look, he’s sitting under the tree, looking at me. That’s the only time I took a picture of him. Almost normal,” Maris says.

“There was one time when I was photographing the same moose. I hear – it starts to bark. I see – the deer cows are running, and the bull is madly chasing. It’s mad. And it comes at me. Right where I’m standing. At the last moment he saw that I was standing there, and then pulled him to the side, but he could run over them. There was nowhere to run in those bushes,” Māris describes.

He shares his best moments on the Internet to show how beautiful Latvian nature is.

He also participates in photo contests now and then. His nature photographs can also be seen in a traveling exhibition. Currently – in the Auces city library.

Capture a wonderful moment in a hundredth of a second, in one frame that will last forever. It is an unrepeatable feeling, which, like an addiction, draws you into its power – admits Māris Kreitzbergs, waiting for what will come out of the forest for the photo session this time.