The Quiet Picture

Random rants and occasional photographs

Archive for April, 2007

Finally, hepatica

April 14th, 2007 | Category: cycling, flower, spring, weather
In the past years I’ve sworn not to show any of my hepatica pictures, because I was so fed up with all the hepatica crap that people posted on Fotosidan. Well, that problem is easily cured - I stopped visiting Fotosidan. Thus, I can now finally post a hepatica picture of my own. Not saying that this is necessarily any better than the aforementioned crap on the forums, but it’s my blog!

Canon 100mm f2.8 USM Macro at almost closest focusing distance

It’s been a while since I’ve used the 100mm macro, have done most of my closeup work with the 300mm f4 since I got it two years ago. I’ve all but forgotten the results the 100mm lens produces… it is one painfully sharp lens! I can count the pollen grains in this picture. The 300mm is not a dud either, but it is very unforgiving with any mistakes in closeup focusing. Not that any lens can compensate for such, but it feels like it’s easier to get the focus right with the 100mm lens than the 300 ditto. My project for the summer is to do more macro and explore flowers in detail, instead of doing “mugshots” with the 300mm lens like I’ve done in recent years. Other than that, I just want to learn to know the flowers a little better!

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It’s an incredibly warm weekend with temperatures closing up on 20 degrees centigrade in the shade. Perfect weather for cycling, this sure feels like May! Just had a look at the long forecast and by Thursday we could already be having temperatures close to zero. That would be more normal for the season…

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Flowertime

April 13th, 2007 | Category: flower, spring

April Friday the 13th turned out to be the day I opened my flower season this year!

A couple of passers-by who stopped to chat with me revealed the story behind these crocuses. They should not grow in the wild up here, so I’ve been wondering what’s the deal with them. Back in the 80’s, a group of school children had a project to plant crocuses, but they buried the corms too deep. They were disappointed when no crocuses bloomed in the following spring, but since then, the flowers started to come up year after year to the delight of the passers-by (and the occasional photographer)!

This is hard for me to say, but… thank you children, whoever you were.

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The light of spring

April 09th, 2007 | Category: creek, spring
Cancel Easter. It has got to be the most wasted holiday of the year… especially when it falls late enough to miss the spring snow and it will obviously never be early enough to benefit from the spring growth. Well, “never” as in a decade or so, with what’s going on with the climate. *sigh*

Anyway, I made an effort to shoot the crocuses in Färila yesterday. The wind seems to have beaten them into submission and I only found a couple of flowers that were borderline photogenic but not enough to bother to make a spectacle out of myself by the busy road so I gave up before I even started. And the hepatica behind my garage are taking their time to bloom properly… they probably don’t quite appreciate the cold weather, but I reckon they’ll be just fine for the next weekend.

So what happened? I ended up by the same small creek I photographed to death in December and January while waiting for the snow.

I hate April.

*sigh*

But, as some wise photographer once said, if you can see the light - then shoot it!

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Hepatica

April 06th, 2007 | Category: spring, weather
The first hepatica is now blooming behind my garage, with plenty of buds around. I checked my hepatica pics from the past two years, and they are dated May 6 and 7. I might be getting some hepatica photos dated a bit earlier this year… Just can’t get over how early spring is. Even if it started snowing now that I write this. April weather for sure… the cold is made worse by the hard winds, and yesterday we even had storm-force gusts. I found a place with at least a dozen spruces felled by the wind (roots up) and the “three pines” spot that became “two pines” last autumn is now “one pine”.
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Weather - March 2007

April 01st, 2007 | Category: weather
It’s the March weather, but it might as well be April. We’ll see which month April turns out to be…

* * *

Temperature (High): 8°C
Temperature (Low): -3°C
Temperature (Average): 1°C

Barometer (High): 1033 mbar
Barometer (Low): 958 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1009 mbar

Total of sunny days: 10

Snow cover (High): 47 cm *
Snow cover (Low): 21 cm **
Snow cover (Avg): 36 cm
New snow: 22 cm
Days with snowfall: 9

Rain: 2 mm ***
Days with rain: 2

* 47.5 cm on the morning of the 20th - the highest snow cover of the winter.
** SMHI defines snow cover as snow that covers at least 50% of the land. We are getting close to it - in some places it’s still deep snow, but other places are bare. For example, I can see only small patches of snow in the forest behind my house, but there’s plenty of snow on my front lawn.
*** Estimate

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January 2007
February 2007
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