Hungary Winter 2028

SPECIAL TRIP, the first week can be the very best of winter. Don't miss out, we're running a regular tour with six nights this time. We don't think many people want to travel on New Year's Day, but we want to run this particular week when we finally got the chance. If anyone wants 7 nights and arrive already on January 1st, we'll try to arrange it, but then the price will be a bit higher. We will ask everyone who books about this shortly.

Photographing from the winter hides here at Bence's is an exclusive opportunity. We now invite you to experience Bence Máté's fantastic hides during winter. Here you can really get images that stand out, and there's only room for six photographers plus Brutus who has visited Bence in winter six or seven times before.

In February it's usually winter even in Hungary, since the country is far from the sea, temperatures in the countryside can drop to minus 10 degrees or lower.

Pusztaszer is a village with just over a thousand inhabitants, located four to five miles from the border to Serbia. From Budapest airport it takes only 1.5 hours to drive.

The small village is probably best known today for being the hometown of world-renowned photographer Bence Máté. Here the still young photographer grew up, and it's here he built his now world-famous hides for photographing bird life. Brutus was the very first foreign photographer to visit a then twenty-year-old Bence Máté, that was sixteen years ago. For a week they traveled around the Hungarian countryside in an old Lada, bringing hide tents or photographing from the five hides Bence had already built when he was barely twenty years old.

One day Bence showed off an old shack where he said he planned to build a house to accommodate visiting photographers. Already the following year, the dilapidated shack had been transformed into accommodation for five photographers, and since then photographers from all over the world have come to photograph from Bence's now nearly thirty hides.

During the covid period, the accommodation has expanded as well as the number of hides. Today there are twelve guest rooms, kitchen and dining area. Here you live comfortably and it's close to most of the hides.

The normal season has been from the end of April to mid-July.

But now Bence offers a few small groups to come during the winter season, the season when he himself more or less settles in a couple of the hides from time to time.

For it to work and be comfortable, we need to be a small group. Photography is concentrated to a handful of top-class hides. But the bird and animal life is all the more intense. Outside the hide called "The Theater" life is teeming, the birds are fed fish during winter. Photography takes place around the clock, especially when night darkness has fallen. This is what creates the fantastic images with the help of spotlights that illuminate the ice and open water. Yes, you can sleep, after midnight activity usually decreases until dawn, then you can take the opportunity to get a few hours of rest. For the sea eagles, bait is put out, and this contributes to their survival during a time when resources are scarce. The birds of prey come during daytime, especially when it's cold. But even the occasional fox tends to sneak up.

When night darkness falls, spotlights illuminate the area in front of the hide. We photograph in backlight, and the photographic effects when herons shake fish with water splashing in all directions are striking. Some herons think "this place ain't big enough for both of us," and then there can be skirmishes with wings flapping in all directions whose contours are lit up by the light from behind. The water that splashes becomes effectively backlit.

In recent years, cormorants also appear, but only as long as there's some daylight. It becomes chaotic when fish is available. When dusk falls and we get backlight from the spotlight, water splashes. Photographically absolutely fantastic.

We have a schedule where we're assigned different hides each day and night. We spend three nights in "The Theater." Here there's a bedroom for each person and a kitchen. Everything comfortably arranged, here we have electricity, wifi and everything else we need. From the kitchen we go through a 14-meter long tunnel out to the actual hide with space for three photographers at a time. We sit in comfortable swivel chairs with a suspension device that allows us to use two cameras with different focal lengths simultaneously. We actually sit below water level and thus photograph at ice or water surface level. If you haven't visited The Theater before, you will be amazed.

From the hide "The Cinema" just 300 meters from this year's rebuilt "lodge" we also photograph during daytime and nighttime. Here we concentrate at night on the otters that hang around outside the hide in the reed area. The lighting is above the hide but we can also create a backlight that gives water splashes and animal contours that fantastic glow. Besides the otters, herons are night active. The grey heron comes and fishes right in front of the hide.

Both The Cinema and The Theater are heated, as are the other hides by the way. We never need to freeze even if in extreme cases it can be 10-15° minus outside. Should we unexpectedly fall asleep, a small alarm sounds if otters should appear. With everything in order, you just lean against the camera and start "shooting."

In The Theater and at The Cinema you also have wifi connection. Of course. It's not just grey herons and little egrets that are active. At The Theater, common cormorants gather to get fish. There are enormous water cascades (photographically exciting) when the birds try to get the fish and keep it for themselves.

At the hide called The Cinema, the water rail is a daily guest, but also the little bittern and the common bittern pose in front of the hide during winter, though no guarantees exist naturally for the latter. At night it's mainly the otters that catch fish and splash water. Images of otters you can hardly get anywhere else.

New is the kingfisher hide. With constant lighting from two directions that allows us to capture the kingfisher diving into the water and coming up with 1/4000th of a second and with ISO 4000, this gives images we've only dreamed of. In winter this can mean 30 dives during a day's sitting (with a lunch break 200 meters away, in the lodge). A four-thousandth of a second gives sharp images, if you want the water drops sharp you can go with 1/8000th of a second. And raise the ISO number a bit too.

Another novelty is the renovation of the forest hide, where we photograph both during daytime and in darkness in the evening. Daytime small birds, woodpeckers, jay. And not least one or more buzzards. Good place for action between buzzards. Roe deer also pass with a beautiful forest background.

During the dark hours we use lighting, not least exciting are silhouette images of roe deer with backlighting and dark background. Photographically fantastically exciting, when the cold strikes at night. In the evening, the marten can also appear.

Some nights we stay in The Theater, other days and nights we operate from Bence's "lodge," where all amenities are available. And it's never far to walk to the hides. At most it's 500 meters to walk.

Everyone stays in single rooms in the newly built modern lodge. The rooms have direct access to bathrooms in the room. Through the windows on the ground floor you can photograph herons right outside.

The winter season is for an exclusive group and with accommodation in the new lodge. What's new is that those who want can travel by minibus from Skåne to Bence's farm and back. Then no one needs to worry about carry-on baggage weights, on this trip you don't want to miss bringing everything you might want to use. You can park your own car at Brutus's farm.

This week in January is about creative opportunities that aren't otherwise given. This is an exclusive opportunity to experience Bence Máté's fantastic hides during winter. Here you can really get images that stand out. This is for hardcore photographers.

There's only room on the trip for six photographers. Everyone gets a single room in the newly built modern lodge. Since we are so few and extra operational power is needed to maintain the hides during winter, this trip costs about a thousand kronor more than spring and summer trips.

Outside the hide called "The Theater" life is teeming, various types of herons, sea eagles, cormorants, also pygmy cormorants and many other species.

Take the images you've dreamed of in the new kingfisher hide!

The lighting both from the front and back guarantees a shutter speed of 1/4000th second with ISO 4000. And unlike with flashes, the specially constructed lighting enables series of 20-30 images per second without interruption.

The Cinema is specially built for photographing otters, but it gets competition from herons at night too. During daytime the grey heron, little egret are common guests, the water rail is usually seen in front of the hide most days and especially during winter the bittern can occasionally show up. Even the little bittern is among the guests.

Photography takes place around the clock both in The Theater and in The Cinema, largely when night darkness has fallen. It's spotlights that help create the fantastic backlit images in the dark.

We sleep and eat three of the days in the residence with kitchen and several bedrooms that's arranged with a tunnel out to the fantastic hide in the wetland.

It's always 18 degrees in the two large hides, The Theater and The Cinema and also now in the other hides we use. So no one needs to freeze.

Everything is arranged for fantastic photo opportunities, but why should you freeze?

We photograph along ice and water level, the lowest angle gives awesome perspectives.

The winter period requires a lot of preparation of hides and more. This fact as well as that Bence and the guides can only receive a limited group makes the trip cost a little more than usual. However, we have tried to keep the price down anyway. And it's our idea that it should be cheaper to book into our groups than to book directly yourself - which isn't always possible either.

The trip from and to the airport is included in the price. Note!

Just the drive from the airport to the farm and then back normally costs 300 € in each direction for bookings elsewhere. Taxi transport round trip is included in our price.