The Quiet Picture

We were supposed to get a storm here last weekend, but it never happened. There was a stiff breeze at most, but otherwise just sunshine. The rest of the Sweden apparently suffered a lot worse weather… and now they get their vengeance, as we are hit by a snow storm. When I drove home, the snow ploughs had not yet cleared the roads and driving was difficult (but at least I had winter tyres now). By the time I got to my street, I got stuck - and I mean stuck. There had been no traffic at all and the snow was so deep that I literally had to plough my own way, and my little car couldn’t take it as the uphill got steeper. Nothing else to do than to park at my neighbour’s and then wade up home. It was so miserable it was funny… almost knee deep, I had snow going up my trouser sleeves and my legs didn’t exactly enjoy the experience. A few minutes after I had gotten home, the snow plough arrived. LOL!

Once I had changed into warm clothing I ventured out with the camera. Just can’t miss this weather! I had wanted to take bad weather pictures of the monument since last winter, so no time like present. You can’t really see it in this small picture, but in the original you can clearly make out the snowflake trails in the light as the wind is swirling them around.

Now, it’s just a matter of enjoying it while it lasts. It will get warmer on Friday.

I’ve been enjoying watching the birds on my feeder and most of the time, I can even identify them. Well, not that hard… I don’t get many different species, but this little fella is a mystery to me. First it paid a visit at the peanut stand, just sat there for a while and then flew away. A bit later I saw it foraging on the ground and by then I had the camera, so if anyone recognises this, please share! At first I thought it was a nuthatch with fluffed up feathers (yes, I’m that bad with bird IDs), but then a real nuthatch came over for lunch and I realised that they’re nothing alike. And how often do you see a nuthatch on the ground, anyway… It’s about the size of a great tit, maybe just a touch bigger.

So, there we go. Winter. It started snowing after lunchtime and I soon realised that I was in trouble - it was going to snow more in Loos and I had 60km to drive with summer tyres on the car. I left work early and initially it was quite ok, some wet snow on the road but nothing I couldn’t manage. Then it was time to turn to the Loos road, there’s a small uphill right after the crossroads and that’s where the problems started. No more wet snow - now it was packed snow! The anti-spin was working like crazy and carefully, carefully I made my way up. The conditions didn’t improve and after another spell of spinning wheels, I decided to give up driving, turned back and drove to the garage in Korskrogen. Some frantic telephone calls ensued and a friend came to my rescue, so I got a ride home. Looking at the road conditions, it probably was the best decision I’ve ever made - there is no way I could’ve kept the car on the road even if I had driven at a crawling speed.

So now I’m at home and my car is in Korskrogen, somewhere between Loos and Ljusdal. The good news is that my friend took the winter tyres back with them so they are now with the car. If I’m really lucky, they will have time to change the tyres tomorrow at the garage, but I’m not counting on it - for some reason, this is very busy time for them… Otherwise, I’m just waiting for the snow to turn to rain so I can fetch the car.

*sigh* It seems like I cut it close every year with the tyre change… but this is the worst ever!

There’s not much of it, but it’s white and it’s cold, so it qualifies. The first snow of the season!

I was sure that the thin layer of snow would evaporate by the time I got home, but there’s still a little bit left. More is being forecast by the end of the week… I think I need to book the tyre change soon or I’ll be stuck in Loos again!

Determined not to let the whole weekend pass by without pictures, I drove to my favourite creek for more water photography. It has been raining non-stop since Wednesday night but today it was just foggy and light drizzle at most. Rain or no rain, it sure was wet - the forest was absolutely soaked.

First I headed downstream, but I discovered very soon that it was a bad idea. The moss covered rocks were treacherous and the forest was thick, so it was not only difficult to get anywhere but also difficult to find a clean view of the creek. Grass is greener on the other side, so I went back, crossed the bridge and found out that the other side was only marginally easier. I was almost relieved to see the creek flow into a wetland area which forced me to turn back. Back on the bridge, I decided to go upstream on the left side (I had done right side last weekend) and again I found the going very tough indeed. Despite the rain gear, I was getting drenched but the camera was safe in the backpack so I headed on. When I had come far enough to see the opening to the lake where the creek starts, I decided to turn back. It was madness to have come this far - all the slippery rocks and the crevices between them, hidden by moss and leaves. The rotten tree branches that break when you grip them so you can’t trust anything for support. The water dripping down from the trees showering you with every touch. And only a fraction of the photo ops I had seen last weekend - too much water now!

When I got back to the car, the backpack was a big mess. I had to remove a couple of small slugs from my jacket sleeve and bits of spruce that had gotten under my collar. Water, mud, needles, branches… wet as I was, I was sure looking forward to soaking myself in a warm bath!

So, it was one of those dull and grey days that only brightened up at sunset. Except, I think that days just don’t get more wonderful than today!

I had found this creek some way south from Loos and was itching do waterfall photography. I think that overcast days are by far the best time to shoot whitewater. I was also lucky in that it was relatively calm, so I was all set up for long exposures. When I started following the creek upstream, it became quickly obvious that it was not going to be easy. Going upstream, I mean. The moss covered rocks were slippery and the forest was thick and it seemed like half the time when I used a branch for support, it either had sharp thorns or was so rotten that it broke off when I gripped it.

I had seen on the map that it was only a few hundred meters until the lake were the creek starts, but there is enough height difference to create a steady series of small waterfalls, providing me with endless opportunities for different compositions. I was having an absolute blast, this creek is a goldmine!

When I got to the lake, I saw some swans. Unfortunately, they also saw me, so they started to swim away from me. But I was still quite a way off and they didn’t take to flight, so I changed the lens (grateful that I had the 300mm with me!) and started crawling closer. Not that it helped, the swans were clearly aware of me the whole time.

I was able to get off a few frames when I decided to boost up the ISO to get a faster shutter speed to make sure that I’d get some sharp shots (I was at 1/200 and IS worked well, but I don’t trust my hands). So up to ISO 400, change shutter speed… oh no, the birds are taking off! I started shooting before I had finished with the shutter speed change. Thus, I got a beautiful series of a swan family taking off on a calm autumn lake - OVEREXPOSED! I’m crying inside. There’s no post-editing in the world that will help me, the whites are hopelessly blown.

Now that I didn’t have to hide in the bush anymore, I had a look around the lakeside and found yellow birches, marsh, pine forest, lichen covered rocks… I shot everything. I was stunned to notice that the memory card was getting full. When was the last time I filled a memory card shooting locally? Err… never!

I drove home feeling elated and the overexposed swans were just a bump in the road, because I knew that I surely had to have some other keepers on the card. I love that creek… already looking forward to following it downstream some other day. Or upstream on the other side, it will yield me keepers for some time to come!

As I was editing the pictures, I noticed that the cloud cover had lifted enough to allow the setting sun paint the sky gold. I promptly packed the camera back in the bag and started scouting for a sunset spot. I found it, and watched the sun set and light up the clouds from behind the horizon. The gold turned to red, and the light faded, but nothing could take away the warm happy glow inside me.

Today as I was sitting on the bus home, I was looking at the colours of the sunset. Then at one point I glanced behind me and saw the top of the moon just edging out from behind a distant hill. Awesome! It took me a moment to realise it was waning gibbous (go to my homepage for too see what that means!), that’s how big it was. It’s always special to catch the moon just as it appears above the horizon. It has a beautiful colour and it’s just simply larger than life. When moonrise takes place around sunset, there’s enough light to go around for fantastic scenic shots with a large moon in the sky. And if the moon happens to be full, it’s worth every effort and frozen fingers to photograph it!

If you want to find out when moonrise occurs, I can warmly recommend Stig’s Sky Calendar. The link takes you directly to the download page because the online version doesn’t seem to work too well (not on my computer, anyway). So it’s an old piece of software and it talks about Pentium 4, but don’t be put off by this - it will work just fine when you follow the instructions. It’s also easy to add custom locations, it’s just a text file where you add the location coordinates. Of course, there are also plenty of online astronomy calendars, but Stig’s SkyCal offline version is my favourite for the customisation and ease of use. And it’s free!