The Quiet Picture

Another long, boring weekend ahead. Looks like the only photo ops I can find these days is moving water, so I drove to the Österhocklan creek, armed with a Cokin Blue/Yellow varicolour filter (otherwise known as a Blue/Gold polarizer). I don’t normally like gimmick filters but it felt like a gimmick was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits while I wait for the winter to arrive. I’ve had the B/G filter for years, but I’ve hardly ever used it - seemed like a good idea at the time, but I never really found any application for it. But now I’ve discovered that it can be quite nice with water and ice images which otherwise would be very greyscale.

Here’s a little series to demonstrate the effect of polarizers. Image P is shot with a normal polarizer. N is “naked” - no filters. B is the B/G polarizer with a blue basis, and G is with the same filter rotated 90 degrees for a gold basis.

When I arrived at the creek, I was surprised to find it almost iced over. I guess we’ve had more below zero temperatures than I thought…

I quickly changed my plan to look for interesting ice formations instead of interesting white water formations, and ended up with a very nice photography session. A blue day with a golden lining!

The latest EOS Magazine features an interview with an architectural photographer, Timothy Soar. I’ve never heard of the bloke, but apparently he is very good at his chosen field. I’m not too keen on architectural photography myself, but some principles apply to any subject matter, so I found some of his quotes quite relevant. The words that most struck a chord with me:

I work hard on composition. I don’t like to make photographs which have tension or are unbalanced. I like them to look considered and well-mannered, so that they are easy to consume. I am a commercial photographer first and foremost, and I want people to understand my work very quickly. You’re not supposed to look at it and have half a dozen different readings.

The bit about being a commercial photographer obviously does not apply to me, but I do want my pictures to be easy to understand. Most of all, he hit the nail on the head with the balanced compositions. If the composition is all over the place, then it’s a thumbs down for me regardless of the subject. I also loath to crop pictures afterwards, so if it doesn’t work in the camera, it doesn’t work at all. Just about the only exception I make is when the 2×3 format is not suitable, or when the subject is moving (in which case I’m normally happy just to get the subject in the frame at all!). The small LCD display on the camera is a useful tool as it provides a compact overview of the composition. If I have the slightest doubt, I can fine-tune the composition and re-take the photo.

I am willing to bet that many other photographers - and people in general - yawn at my compositions. But in return, I find the more liberal, or “artistic” pictures just chaotic. Admittedly, sometimes the pictures require some tension and that’s easily achieved by breaking the rules of composition. But the strange thing is, if you break the rules right, so to speak, then the tension in the picture becomes self-supporting and you no longer consider the picture unbalanced. The bottom line for me is that in one way or another the image has to balance out without interpretation. If it doesn’t, I don’t like it. Simple as that.

Four days’ weekend… I’ll take it.

We have just the tiniest bit of snow, but the lakes are iced over. I don’t trust the ice cover, but the shoreline is enough for me anyway. I drove to Loossjön before sunrise, hoping that there would be enough colour for some nice pictures. There wasn’t. After waiting for an hour for some light to happen, I turned my camera 180 degrees and shot the shoreline instead, in an effort to try and salvage something from the session.

Just as well I bought the entire series (7 years) of Star Trek - The Next Generation. If the rest of the Christmas weekend is like today, I’ll have something to do…

So, having sent my reclamation to Dell, they finally conceded that the problem might not be fixed by replacing all the parts on the laptop. The whole is not always the sum of its parts…

I had an interesting conversation with them. Text is translated from Swedish and I have added some comments [in square brackets]:

Dell support person:
I now have a response from the Escalations department. We will replace the faulty computer with a corresponding new model, so we don’t need to continue with the troubleshooting [what troubleshooting? They never did any troubleshooting, they just replaced the parts!]. I would need your or your company’s approval for exchanging the computer to a better, working model. [does "better, working model" mean that it's better because it actually works?!]

Me:
Thank you for the reply! [observe that I didn't say "prompt reply". They always take a day to reply] This is alright for me. I only have one more question - if the new laptop fits in the same type of docking station that I already have, then I would also wish to have the docking station replaced. The docking station was involved in the original incident that triggered all the other problems, so I don’t really trust it any more.

Dell support person:
I can indeed confirm that the new laptop will work with the current docking station. [I had a real good laugh at this point]
I have forwarded your confirmation to our Escalations department, who will continue to process this issue.

Me:
In that case, could you please also send a new docking station? I don’t want to take the risk that the old docking station destroys the new laptop and the vicious circle starts again.

Dell support person:
I have forwarded your wish to our Escalations department and hope for a positive response from them. [apparently, Dell has no problems with re-starting the vicious circle then. Or else, they know something I don't know about the docking station, e.g. maybe the docking station is indestructible so it's impossible that it would be in any way responsible for any of the problems?]

Fast forward 2 weeks…

Me:
Any idea when the new laptop might arrive?

Dell support person:
I have checked the status of the case. Dell is trying to complete the replacement, but since the laptop was originally purchased in Germany [our company HQ], it will take a bit longer than if the laptop was bought in Sweden.
I should also inform you (blushing with shame for having forgotten to mention this earlier) [yes, he actually wrote that himself] that we are only going to exchange the laptop at this point, and not the docking station. If it turns out later that the docking station causes problems with the new laptop, we will replace it. But at this moment in time, there is nothing that would indicate that the docking station is the source of the problems.

I think it’s best I don’t say anything more.

Since skiing is obviously not an option these days, I went sightseeing instead and drove to the Hylströmmen waterfall, part of the Voxnan river. The information sign at the parking lot proudly proclaimed that Hylströmmen is 23 metres high and that makes it the highest waterfall in the Southern Norrland. I have to find how “Southern Norrland” is defined and while I’m at it, I also need to find out how “waterfall” is defined… I would almost rather call Hylströmmen rapids than waterfall because it’s really just a series of small falls. But then again, I think we had this discussion in Canada as well. Are we counting single drop or total vertical height?

Whichever, I did enjoy my time there. I spent almost 3 hours walking up and down the rapids (sorry, falls), and was able to explore both sides, thanks to the suspension bridge across at the top of the rapids (falls). The whole area is very nice, the river is surrounded by open pine forest with moss and lichen covered rocks. The river flows in an easterly direction here so you could catch the morning light on the sparkling water in the summer. Someone had done just that, there was a photo competition for Hälsingland where the 2nd prize went to a sunrise image from Hylströmmen. The place is considered classic Hälsingland scenery and is a protected nature reserve.

The weather was nice today, sunshine and a couple of degrees below freezing. The low lying winter sun doesn’t reach the rapids so the cliffs surrounding the water were frosty and icy, which made the going quite slippery - I had to get low and literally glide down at some places.

The light display wasn’t quite as good as it was last night. As I was looking at the faint glow in the north, I realised that yesterday was actually not the first time I’ve ever seen the aurora - I’ve seen this same kind of glow before, but I’ve always just assumed that it’s light reflected on clouds. I guess my expectations have been too high, I’ve always just expected to see the glorious shifting of lights and when that doesn’t happen, I haven’t made the connection between the steady glow and aurora. But having said that, nothing takes away the feeling I had last night. In my mind, I will always remember that moment!

Anyways, this time I had the camera with me. I’m on a steep learning curve… I’ve never done night sky photography before. To start with, how do you compose in the dark?! I could hardly see where the viewfinder was, let alone seeing anything through it… I ended up using my flashlight on the FG tree, aimed the camera at it, and hoped that the Big Dipper would fit in the frame. Lucky me, it did! My mission for tonight - weather permitting - is to expose correctly, as well…

I’ve lived the first 25 years of my life in Finland, and the past 6 years in Sweden. It may sound odd, but I have never seen the northern lights in those 31 years. It has really started to bother me, so I was determined to finally see the light show this year. I knew that tonight was a great chance because of the big solar flare, and the weather was clear, even if the wind was blowing heavy.

There I stood, at my viewpoint, my eyes wide with amazement when I looked at the pale green aurora arch across the northern sky, with the stars of the Big Dipper shining brightly above. Just when I thought that it couldn’t get any more beautiful, a shooting star flashed below the ‘Dipper. I didn’t even make a wish - I didn’t have to. My dream had just come true.

Remember that big rain we had in August? I paid a visit to the small creek that had caused the road cave-in back then. I followed the creek downstream and was amazed at all the evidence of the flooding that were still scattered around the forest floor. The grass was flattened out in the flow direction. The rocks were bare (normally they’d be moss covered). The banks were eroded with big caves under some tree roots close to the water (just a matter of time before the roots give in and the trees fall). And the most telling evidence, the gravel and small rocks that used to be part of the road - they were scattered along the creek a couple of hundred meters down. I tried to imagine what it had looked like on that day… a roaring current, washing away everything in its path… now it was just a tiny creek. Never underestimate the power of nature, especially in these changing times.

So this miserable and warm December drags on. It’s been a while since I’ve done any serious photography, so I decided to check out a creek close to home. I don’t know why I haven’t been there before - it would be a walking distance away, as the crow flies. But I can’t fly over the dense forest, marsh and steep cliff, so I drove around the obstacles and then walked up and down the creek; it was relatively easy actually compared to the jungle I had to get through at Nätsjöbäcken. The dark day felt brighter when I happily viewed the whitewater and snapped my pictures. Not that any of them turned out to be particularly good, but the real kicker was the potential - this is the kind of place where you’ll always find something interesting, so I’ll be back.

I think a snowmobile trail crosses the creek at one place, or used to do anyway. There is another bridge a few hundred meters upstream, and that one is a whole lot sturdier. My self preservation instinct took over and I used the other bridge.