The Quiet Picture

Surprisingly, it wasn’t raining this morning. I didn’t care, I just simply wasn’t inspired to photograph anything or look for flowers, just wanted to go home. As usual when I make a hasty exit from Funäsdalen, I took the scenic route via Sörvattnet and Lofsdalen. I have been eyeing the old pine roots on one stretch of the road for a long time and shook myself out of the slump to finally photograph them. Even as I was walking around and framing the roots in different compositions, I was thinking about using the Orton technique on the images and even - gulp - converting them to B&W since the subject itself is very greyscale. I don’t think it’s all bad, but I can’t decide whether I prefer it to the colour version or not. I am so rooted in colour photography…

The law of diminishing returns… my holiday is drawing to an end, but the rainy days and photographic slump are not. We drove to Mittåkläppen with high hopes to hike up the mountain in search of exciting flowers. We had barely reached the tree line when it started raining, and then it started pouring, so we fell back on Plan B and went to Djupdalsvallen to eat waffles. The weather didn’t really improve, so I ate another waffle. And since the weather was unsteady even after that, we called it a day.In the evening the weather improved marginally, so much so that there was half a chance of sunlight and I knew exactly where I wanted to capture it. I managed to get a few shots, then the clouds moved in again. I waited patiently until I got some more sunlight, which lasted all of… well, a minute anyway. Then a big cloud shaded the sun and I got tired of the waiting game and headed back. I reckon the short walk helped me work out half of a waffle. Or maybe a quarter. I think I had too many waffles today…

Tomorrow is set out to be a rainy end to my rather rainy holiday. Somehow I’m not too bummed out about it though - at least I haven’t had to sit in the office, or even think about work. That’s always something!

Yes I know there’s convergence with the tree and background forest. By the time I found an angle without overlapping them, the sun was already gone.

We Finns seem to have an affinity for tar. Historically, tar was very important - together with the sauna it was a cure-all and it worked brilliantly for everything else, too. Tar was (is) naturally used elsewhere in the world as well, but nowhere has it remained as popular as in Finland. We even have tar flavoured salt liquorice candy (and it’s very good). I haven’t seen any tar flavoured ice cream yet but it’s only a matter of time - after all, the salt liquorice ice cream was introduced a few years ago. The reason I’m sharing this cultural tidbit with you is that the Finns also have tar scented mosquito repellant. I was delighted to find this the last time I was in Finland and I have to say that I love it. It does what it’s supposed to do - i.e. repel the mosquitos - while the scent doesn’t repel me in the process. The other repellants work as well, but not without offending my nose.Since I only have a small bottle of the tar scented bug oil and won’t be getting any more of it until next year, I’m using it only at special occasions. Like on holiday in the mountains - it’s such a great experience to be back here that I don’t want to ruin it with foul smelling insect repellant! I was surprised to find though that the mozzies weren’t out in the same numbers as back home, but it didn’t really matter… it was like wearing tar scented perfume, LOL!

The place was Ramundberget. It was such a contrast to the hustle and bustle of the winter when even the over-flow car park was filled. Now I had the whole place to myself and during my hike, I didn’t see another soul. I didn’t even see any footprints on the trail, just reindeer hooves everywhere and then finally the reindeer themselves, hundreds of them. I followed the Sveån creek up, caught some nice waterfalls on the way to the tree line and also a bit of snow. Now that I was clear of the forest and the ground had levelled, I wanted to see if I could find a view towards Skarsfjället. I headed to the Röstvålen peak nearby and got a closer look at the distinctive triangular peak of Skarsfjället than I had ever seen before. The weather was not too bad but there were a lot of clouds so the shadows were constantly changing the scenery, had to wait a while until the Skarsfjället peak was lit to photograph it. I would have wanted the whole mountain in the sun, but that was an impossible request - just simply too many clouds around.

Happy anyway, I followed the Pilgrim Trail back to Ramundberget and found the place even more deserted than it had been when I had arrived.

If I ever again decide to have the midsummer week as a holiday, please do me a favour and remind me that I’m an idiot. How many years has this happened now? June is statistically one of the rainiest months of the year… so I shouldn’t be surprised to find that days just get washed away. Like today. It was raining in the morning, pouring by afternoon and the whole thing finished off with a big thunder. In the evening it was finally dry enough to venture out. I am well prepared to photograph in rain, but there’s a limit. Add some wind and it’s a recipe for sitting in front of the computer instead!I was determined not to let a day pass without taking some pictures, and noticed that the ferns looked rather photogenic. I wanted to shoot the ferns last year, but somehow it never happened (after all, they are right behind my empty nextdoor garage so it’s such a stretch to get there with the camera). Maybe next year I can not shoot something else.

It has been a really windy day. I tried some flower photography and I succeeded surprisingly well, helped by the relatively protected site and then just simply waiting for a lull in the wind. But it is also possible to use wind to your advantage and produce motion blur on purpose. I even experimented with second curtain flash but I guess the built-in flash is not made for the job. I think I will stick with natural light photography… I’m only posting this to illustrate how bad I am with the flash. LOL!
This gave me an idea though, so at editing stage I took one of the worst motion blur images plus a sharp, un-flashed image, then cut the sharp flower and layered it on top of the blurred one, applied multiply on the flower layer and now it looks a bit better… well, marginally. Just don’t look too close, I did a quick job with the selection and didn’t bother to tidy it up:

Playing with the flash is only fun so long and I was tired of the wind as well. Buildings and rocks were just about the only things that didn’t move in the wind, so I headed to the hembygdsgården and set up shop in front of my favourite building there - with wind blown ferns in the foreground. Out came the polarizer again and I stopped down to get an exposure of 1 second to produce motion blur in the ferns. I’m glad to say that this approach worked a whole lot better than my flash experiments! When I was editing the images, I decided to try the Orton technique to enhance the effect and I must say that I like it. As long as the weather continues windy like this, I will be doing more experiments - digitally!

Today is the first day of my summer holiday (of one week). It figures that the sky is overcast. I don’t really mind that, but I do mind the heavy wind that is being forecast for the whole week. The overcast conditions are favourable for flower photography, but the wind is anything but. We’ll see how I manage. With a lot of patience, presumably!

I have mentioned before that I don’t particularly like the sea - I prefer the lakes. But I make exceptions, and one of the most notable ones is Hornslandet, east from Hudiksvall. The shoreline is stunning - very barren with mostly stone beaches. I have nothing but admiration for the vegetation that survives under these harsh conditions. A day is easily spent exploring the shores and forests and marvelling at how nature adapts to the life on the edge. And when you get tired of that, visit the old fishing villages of Hölick and Kuggören, have lunch in one of the many picnic spots or just lie down on the sun soaked sandy beach. With places like this, I don’t even mind the distant horizon.

Cypripedium calceolus

• English: Lady’s slipper
• Swedish: Guckusko
• Finnish: Tikankontti

I discovered orchids last year. I’ve photographed them before, but never thought they were anything more than any other flowers I shot. But after I discovered the lady’s slipper, I became hooked on orchids - I looked for them all summer last year, and will do so this year as well. The lady’s slipper is a rare flower but the Los region is a bit of an orchid hotspot, but still, you need to know where to look. And so it was that I discovered the lady’s slippers thanks to a tip from a friendly bypasser. I was shooting flowers in Furuberget, when a woman walked by and asked if have already been to photograph the lady’s slippers. Say what?! She was kind enough to give me instructions where to find them, and sure enough, there they were. I don’t think I have ever been as much in awe of a flower as I was when I saw them for the first time. Sure I’ve seen pictures… but to see a flower like this, growing wild, was an experience like no other.Last week I went to check what the flowering status is. I saw a few buds and lots of leaves, so I figured that this weekend would be just right. I was not entirely correct. Some of the flowers were already past they sell by date but I also found plenty that were in their prime. The mosquitos and gnats were out in force but I was safe from them in my rain trousers (had to wear them because the lady’s slippers grow in wet places) and my Bugshirt. The downside: I was sweating buckets in the warm sunshine. But I’ll rather take that than the bites, and I’m talking serious bites here. The mosquito concert around me was deafening and I’m surprised I didn’t get flying insects in more than just a few frames! No pain no gain as they say, and the lady’s slippers are worth every bit of trouble you have to go through just to see them. To photograph them is a privilege.

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Image specs: ISO 200, f5.6, 1/320, Canon 300mm f4L

Convallaria majalis

• English: Lily of the valley
• Swedish: Liljekonvalj
• Finnish: Kielo

Lily of the valley is the national flower of Finland. It was voted such back in the 60s and it’s no surprise - it is a truly elegant flower with a scent that is hardly surpassed in the natural world. I don’t know why I only had one picture of the lily in my photo database because it is a fairly common flower, but I was determined to fix the issue after I found several places where the flower grows abundant. So much so that I became a little bit overconfident - I had an idea in my head and I thought that the photo would pretty much take itself if I just pointed the camera in the right direction. Well, I crash landed in that respect and the photos seem to be hard work but I have a few days left to improve my efforts, until the short blooming season of the lily of the valley comes to an end.As for the light, it doesn’t really matter - this is one of those subjects which looks equally good in the sun and in shade. In this case, the patchy light in the forest provided a spotlight on the flower itself, while shading the leaves around. It’s just a matter of waiting for the right moment.

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Image specs: ISO 200, f5.0, 1/1250, Canon 300mm f4L w/ 31mm ext. tube

We had an unusually warm early May, then it got cold and it was an unusually cold early June. But now it’s summer, with sunshine all around and plenty warm enough for me. In fact, too hot - photography becomes less fun when you can’t decide what’s bothering you more, the mosquitos buzzing around you or the sweat running down your face.So I re-started my cycling season. Warm as it is, it’s a great feeling to roll down a hill at 40 kph with the breeze providing a momentary relief from the heat, then pedal down to the lake and soak your feet in the cool water, watch the gentle waves and listen to the birds singing… Summer indeed!