Senja Experience is a company that was born from the friendship of two people, Rikki Martin Langnes (Norwegian) and André Bonotto (Brazilian), who had one thing in common: worshipping nature. We took more than 720 photo and tours together taking pictures of the Aurora Borealis, Midnight Sun, Wild Animals such as elk, whales, reindeer, foxes, eagles, a plethora of birds and mammals, boat trips and fishing, ice fishing and tours exploring the Senja Island and region where we live. After that, we decided to open the Senja Experience to share with people, who love nature, this fantastic and all our acquired knowledge throughout these years.
Our contact with nature is something extraordinary. After exploring the Island so far, we know which animals can be found on certain areas as well as their habits. We recognize their footprints in the snow, We know which birds migrate to Senja in the spring to mate and travel after summer.
Our company hás two vans, that seats 7 or 8 people, providing full transportation to our customers in all tours. We believe this means of transport will allow us to have a more personalized contact with our customers.
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André Garcia Bonotto jump in fantastic light
André Garcia Bonotto, 41, born in Porto Alegre - RS - Brazil. He studied physical education in Canoas -RS. It was in his last year of university when he went on an exchange programme to Spain (1 year) that the adventure began. After that, He travelled to Italy (1 year). Later on he spent two and a half years in Germany and then he went to live in Norway (8.5 years) where he lives at present. André has always been fascinated by nature and the phenomena of the Aurora Borealis and Midnight Sun.
André maintains that the magic of the aurora borealis is so great that even he has already taken more than 50,000 photos of the dawn and that he goes out every night of starry sky to contemplate and photograph that phenomenon.
Many of his friends and colleagues say that Andre knows Senja more than the native Norwegians who have lived their entire lives here.
In the photographic issue, it is not enough to study theory in school or in books. We have to put into practice everything we learned and it was here in my more than 8 years of Norway that I did this, André says
In the photographic issue André Bonotto began to take pictures when he was very Young. In fact, he did since he was in Brazil but it was during his time, here in Norway, that he considerably developed his vocation
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Rikki Martin Langnes, loocking Aurora Borealis dansing
Rikki Martin Langnes, 56, was born and raised in Northern Norway. At the age of 23 he received a job offer in Svalbard, where he planned to work there for a year. In Svalbard experiencing contact with nature was so great that in the end he ended up staying there for 10 years. Upon returning to his region he completed his studies as a teacher of child welfare and majoring in environmental therapy, behavioral therapy, cognitive and educational guidance.
He spent all his free time in direct contact with nature. Recently he has been focusing on several tours in the most diverse parts of the Senja Island of Norway. That made him become familiar with what the Island has to offer.
In recent years he had not only wanted to experience(the) incredible moments in Senja, (but also )started recording them. That is when taking photographs of Nature began to be part of his day-to-day life. Rikki takes his camera whereever he goes.
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André and Rikki
When André and his family came to live in northern Norway, they rented a house opposite Rikki’s . After a little while the two of them met and became friends.
One day Rikki was working on the freight of his house and André passed by and the two began to talk. It was nearly nine o'clock when Andre looked up at the sky and saw Aurora dancing above them. Andre said good-bye and said he was going to take pictures of the dawn. The following day he invited Rikki to go along. Rikki agreed. It was the milestone of their friendship.
André Bonotto had a lot of experience in photography while Rikki Martin Langnes had deep knowledge of wildlife and nature in northern Norway.
After the hallmark tour, Rikki became more interested in photography and when he invested in a camera and photographic equipment. From then on, both friends started an enriching knowledge exchange. André taught Rikki everything he knew about photography and Rikki taught Andre to look at nature in a different way.
André Bonotto says he remembers that before they met, he had already left several times to see if I found bugs to photograph. He drove miles and miles but saw no animal. It was not because there was no bug. The bugs were there ... the problem was that he was not prepared to see them.
Something similar happened to Rikki ... he had always been taking pictures but he had never thought about techniques or any other photographic aspect.
