The Quiet Picture

Another weekend has passed by, low on photography but high on outdoor activities. I skiied a loop - one I had not done before - yesterday, with camera in backbag but never taken out. And having thus gotten sick of skiing, I chose to walk today. I had a closer look at a couple of old fields and barns I had found hidden in the woods last week; they were not photogenic right now but there is some potential if the weather is right. It will also be interesting to see if they yield any flowers in the summer.

As a curiosity, it snowed the whole day. But it was a very light snowfall so that at the end of the day, the new snow only measured a few millimeters. We should get more snow in the coming days, here’s hoping (again).

As a child, the first star constellation I learned was the Big Dipper - I think if people know just one constellation here up north, then it’s the Big Dipper. After that, I learned Cassiopeia and then I was proud to find the Polar Star. I added more and more constellations to my casual astronomy observations until one dark winter evening… there he was, the hunter. Orion. Once you learn to recognise Orion, you can never forget it.

A few years ago on a trip to the south-west USA, we spent a night under the stars in Monument Valley. I was lying there in my sleeping bag and looked up… at Orion. It was magnificent. I felt regret for having to remove my glasses to finally go to sleep.

In order to catch Orion in the early winter, you have to stay up late. During the winter it keeps rising earlier and earlier though, so now it’s already in full view by the time I get home. Tonight it was clear skies so I headed to an opening where I could get a free view south-east with some treetops as foreground interest. I’m not an experienced night-time photographer so I had to do some testing, I think it’s safe to say that these are such photographs that I wouldn’t take if it weren’t for digital. I worked out the composition by half-guessing it at first, shooting the frame and then checking the preview to see which way I have to adjust! But even then, I had to reluctantly crop the image for a balanced presentation. Weather permitting, I have another date with Orion tomorrow…

The southern part of Sweden have been suffering from stormy conditions and snow. Up here, we were spared from all problems. We got some wind, just enough that it would blow the trees free from the little bit of snow that fell. But at least we haven’t lost the snow cover that we got last weekend and now that the thermometer finally (!) dipped under 10 below zero, it looks a lot like winter.

But, with what the bare trees and wind-blown debris on the snow, the scenery didn’t really inspire me to photograph. Instead, I’ve been skiing. Which was also good!

What did I say about the monsters in the forest? They have been culling the trees behind my house. I lost a spruce some 10 metres from my living room window. Oh well, I guess I have to admit that it wasn’t really “my” spruce to start with. Just like the house isn’t really my house… just renting. Anyway, at least they left the pine where my bird feeders are hanging. It’s just that the birds don’t seem to appreciate the new scenery, because I didn’t see any of them this weekend. Bummer.

Now we’re talking! Snow, snow, snow, snow… and more snow! We haven’t seen this much since early November. I’ll take it.

When I had made my way to Hembygdsgården, it looked like the weather would clear up and some blue sky started to appear between the clouds. But it was just a brief scare, because soon the clouds moved back in and the wind picked up, whipping the snow in my face as I walked back home. The entertainment value of my walk rapidly decreased when the cold started sneaking in through my clothes, but I’m sure that the people further down in the south are suffering considerably more with what the storm winds and power outages.

This weather doesn’t happen often so I wanted to make use of all of the daylight and took off for another walk. The wind was steadily increasing and the gusts ripped the snow off the trees and created momentary curtains with zero visibility. The air was just simply full of snow and the light was fading fast even though it wasn’t anywhere near sunset yet. The forest was most definitely not crowded and I got to blaze my own trail through the snow. In fact, just about the only people I’ve seen today were those who were ploughing the snow. Plenty of that…

As I was making my way, suddenly a foreign shape emerged through the snow. A forest machine - they have started cutting the forest near my house. A few hundred meters further I came across another, so it looks like they mean business. The monsters are loose.

The above picture may appear a bit dark, but I have left it like that on purpose. There really wasn’t much light to go around, in fact I was really struggling with the shutter speeds. At ISO 800 and F6.3, I only got a 1/40 shutter. I ended up with a sharp image thanks to the short focal length and image stabilisation, but ideally, I would prefer faster shutters. Usually when it’s snowing, I set out without the tripod because the idea is to catch the falling snowflakes, which requires fast shutters. I’d rather not go under 1/100, but it also depends on how fast the snow is falling. So in the above image, there isn’t a falling flake to be seen, although trust me there were plenty around. The first image in this blog entry on the other hand is showing plenty of flakes!

Now we’ll just wait and see if the winter 06/07 pattern repeats itself, i.e. snow followed by a warm spell and melt. SMHI is threatening with +5 degrees centigrade for tomorrow and Tuesday.

But next week aside, today was a great day!

We had a little bit of snow overnight, but unfortunately we also had a lot of wind so the trees are bare. And the little bit means that dry flower stems and grasses are sticking out through the snow, so we are still not talking about the snowscapes I’ve been waiting for. But, one has to be grateful for the little things, so I happily shoveled the snow from the driveway and then set out with the camera.

And so it happened that my only photos from today were from the small nameless creek I have visited many times before. Argh! There has got to be some other pictures to take than water all the time! I just can’t find them…

Speaking of water, I ventured out on the ice at the Kyrkbytjärnen lake. I’ve seen that the ice has been building up steadily despite the weather, and I’ve also seen people on the lake so the ice should hold for sure. I kept close to the shore though… and then I heard it crack under my foot. A few more steps, and more cracking. I didn’t waste any time in turning back. I have this thing about falling through ice - I don’t like it. I’m funny that way.

I got my replacement notebook yesterday and to my great surprise, I also got a new docking station! I’m a happy bunny, even if the new docking station (combination of monitor stand and port replicator) feels less stable than the old one. But the notebook hasn’t crashed (yet), so I’m not complaining. Thank you to whoever it was at Dell who handled the replacement order!

As a curiosity, the packages included thick manuals for the monitor stand and port replicator, respectively, and no manual whatsoever for the laptop itself. 250+ pages for the solid monitor stand with one connector and two buttons… no I didn’t RTFM. Maybe that’s why the last one got broken, LOL!

Another cold (relatively speaking) day and I didn’t want to drive to the same old creek again, so I drove to another creek - river, even. I was driving on the small forest roads, it was sometimes icy but the snow wasn’t a problem for sure…

My first stop was at the Högforsen rapids (or waterfall) at the river Voxnan, but it turned out to be impossible to get to the whitewater. The water meanders through rocks and now that there was some ice and snow, I had no way of telling which would be a safe route to the open water so I turned back and continued driving. I stopped at some other rapids but I didn’t find anything to suite my taste so the camera stayed in the bag, until I got to Storlugnet (translates to “great calm”). There’s actually a dam and a power station at Storlugnet, with signs telling me that I shouldn’t be there. I figured that the risk of getting caught was next to nothing (please don’t tell anyone I was there!), so I happily set up shop by one of the many small waterfalls. So it turned out to be another photo shoot by water… I’ve always liked shooting moving water, but I don’t think I’ve ever really done it quite as much as I’m doing this winter!

I thought about the polariser thing and I can only say that the use of a polariser depends… on a lot of things. A straightforward water scene like the one above works better when polarised, in my opinion anyway. And if in doubt, use the B/G filter, LOL!

Oh and I obviously have a lot of problems with colour balance in these images. You’d think it’s easy to set the levels when there’s snow in the picture, but I struggle!

Oh (2) and by the way, the picture is not leaning. It’s dead straight, but the pine is tilted.

Just about the only thing I seem to photograph these days is water. We are still waiting for proper snow (half of what we got on Monday is now gone) so the scenery is not looking photogenic by any means - unless grey and dreary is your cup of tea, that is. So once again, I drove to Österhocklan and expected to see even more ice than last weekend, and got it. It was a sunny day and the sun was shining on the creek, but instead of lifting up the scenery it just made it worse (for me, anyway). The contrast between the dark water and sunlit snow is a nightmare to handle, so I didn’t even try, just looked for the shaded spots and/or waited for a moment for the sun to disappear behind the trees. And when I found a subject, on with the B/G filter and colorise. At least I’m finally getting value for money with the filter… I tried with the normal polariser as well, but there really is such a thing as too much polarisation - the contrast was once again too much between the snow and the water. Since the B/G filter doesn’t remove the glare like the normal polariser does (it just colours it), the contrast is much easier to handle. It’s a fair question to ask why I insist on using a polariser at all, and I don’t really have any reasonable answer. I just simply don’t like glare, unless it contributes to the image. And I rarely think glare contributes to the image. To be honest, I think I’m close to over-using polarisers, so I will have to make a concious effort to cut back a little. But as long as we don’t have a lot of snow, my only consolation is playing with the B/G filter!

Would you believe it, snow? It’s white everywhere and snowing, so I rushed out soon after sunrise because if there’s one thing I’ve learned this “winter”, it’s to enjoy the snow while it’s here. By tomorrow, it might be gone. Normally I am happy to be out in snowfall, but now I was sad to discover that this season has me beaten - it was great that it was snowing, but I couldn’t help but think about the rain that SMHI has already forecast. After a while of pulsing through the snow though, I decided that I should live in the now, don’t worry and be happy. So I was, briefly. Seeing temperatures hover at the zero mark does not inspire confidence in what should be the coldest month of the year!