The Quiet Picture

Newsflash: I bought myself a motorcycle! It’s a Yamaha XG250 Tricker, like this one here. I’ll try to get around to snapping a shot of my own Tricker, even if it’s just standing in the garage waiting for spring right now…

I guess you could say that this is my ultimate camera accessory. The Tricker will get me further from home than my bicycle, and it will get me to places where the car can’t go. Plus, it’s infinitely more fun than a car! Until I break my bones, anyway…

I’ve wanted a motorbike since I was a teenager. Most of the time the bike dream has been dormant, but every once in a while something would happen that makes it surface, only to be dismissed again. But since one of my new neighbours turned out to be an experienced biker, I figured that this is the best chance I will ever get. He can teach me everything I need to know about motorbikes, and most importantly – he can teach me how to ride one!

Got plenty of sunshine today, but not so many squirrels. For a while I thought that they would be a complete no-show, just a reminder to me why I gave up my wildlife photographer dreams years ago. Landscapes and flowers don’t have feet!

Ironically, this is the time of the year I’ve been waiting for with the squirrels. All those pictures I’ve taken so far, it’s just been preparation for these sunny mornings… find the best perches, best angles, learn their behaviour… So I hope that they won’t be all too busy with procreation to come for a quick snack every once in a while on a sunny Saturday or Sunday morning!

Jackie with blue sky in the background (cropped a little bit from bottom and right)

It’s been a sunny week, but it figures that the clouds arrive for the weekend. We got just a little bit of sunlight yesterday morning, it’s all gone today. The good news is that now that the sun comes up a bit higher in the sky, there’s a fair amount of light even when it’s overcast. Consolation prize…

Jackie in sunlight (cropped from left and right)

Blackie in overcast light (cropped from left and right)

I don’t know what title to give to my squirrel posts anymore… squirrels, squirrels and more squirrels. Well, I’ve got nothing else to shoot when the weather is like this!

The first furry visitor to the feeder was Jackie, but it was still too dark for photography. When it got a bit better with light, Blackie showed up and now I was able to confirm that Blackie indeed is a girl, and really is a lot bigger than the other squirrels (males included), it’s easy to see even when there’s no other squirrel sitting next to her for comparison.

Blackie (slight crop from left and bottom)

Shortly after Blackie left, Stubby-Tail showed up. If you compare Stubby-Tail’s tail to Blackie’s, you’ll see that it’s shorter and the tip is oddly-shaped. Stubby-Tail’s ears are also a bit worn and he has a scar in the left ear (can be seen here), so he seems to be the veteran of the pack.

Stubby-Tail

And finally, Freddie came along. I must say that Freddie is the prettiest squirrel of the lot (together with Jackie), mostly thanks to that beautiful red fur of his. But I’m not quite sure how these frontal shots work…!

Freddie (cropped from left and right)

The other day I was listening to a discussion that started with Pirate Bay and ended up as a defense of illegal downloading of music and films. All of them were doing it, along with most of the rest of the world it seems. The last time I listened to the same discussion I had butted in and said that I pay for all my music and films, but I was left with a feeling that the others thought that I was rather stupid in doing that. So this time I didn’t say a word.

Has Internet changed our moral code so fundamentally that it has now become acceptable to acquire other people’s property without paying for it? And by acquire, I mean steal. I know that most people wouldn’t steal a CD or DVD from a shop. But when the contents of the CD or DVD are made so easily available, the concept of “other people’s property” gets a bit blurry and suddenly it becomes perfectly justifiable to download and enjoy the media – without paying an öre. The risk of getting caught for downloading is negligible compared to stealing a physical CD from a physical shop. Just because it’s easy, it doesn’t make it right. It’s a classic case of opportunity making the thief.

A few years ago I must admit that I was guilty of the same (so there goes my moral ground to stand on, I’m not a saint). Before the download age, I could sometimes borrow a CD from a friend and copy it for myself. Then later, I downloaded the occasional song that had caught my fancy. Then I got to a point in my photography where selling my pictures became a realistic option, and I finally came to realise the meaning of intellectual property. My photos are mine – if someone wants to use them, I expect to be compensated for it. I have given away photos for free a lot more often than I’ve gotten paid for them, but it has always been my choice. Someone has been nice enough to ask me, and that’s good enough for me. It’s the thought of someone taking one of my pictures without asking and then using it for whatever purpose that gets me. The copyright notice in my pictures it not just for decoration.

So if I’m so particular about my own intellectual property, then the least I can do is to respect others’ ditto. Thus, I now buy my films on DVD and download my music from iTunes. (Silly me?) I think it is also a way of showing my appreciation for their work – voting with my wallet, if you will. “Create some more of this good stuff!”

No, the entertainment industry definitely has a big problem. Most people would pay for their downloads if only they had a viable option for it. And every year that goes by without that viable option is one more year for people to learn to expect that intellectual property is not worth an öre – because that’s exactly what they are (not) paying for it.

Now that the squirrel mating season is approaching, I’ve been able to determine the sex of the squirrels. Reddie (which I renamed Freddie) and Stubby-Tail are most definitely boys, there’s no hiding the fact, if you know what I mean… By that definition, the squirrel in the picture is a girl. Initially I thought that this is Blackie, but after closer inspection, I think it’s not – Blackie is even darker, and the ear tufts are longer. But light can play tricks… we’ll see what they look like in sunlight (which would already hit the perch, if only it wasn’t overcast every weekend).

I’m not complaining, we got more snow. But I am just a little bit disappointed about the wind, so the beautiful new powder is spoiled by the wind blown debris. I guess that’s what they call a luxury problem…

Not that it matters that much anyway, at the moment. I’m still fighting the remains of a cold I caught on that memorable day on Flatruet last week. It’s been two years since my last cold and I got off easy again, I’m definitely not complaining!

But it all means that I settled for just a small walk in the forest, concentrating on small landscapes and then playing in Lightroom, blowing out the whites for a semi-high key image (and cloned out some debris on the snow).

January can be described with one word – snow. The word should be “cold”, but this was just about the warmest January on record so snow will do. It snowed on no less than on 22 days – sometimes just a little, but it qualifies. In the between the snowing, there was some rain and warm spells, so the snow cover didn’t get to grow quite as much as all the snowing would imply. My snow meter also suffers a bit from its location so I reckon it’s currently showing some 15 cm less snow than elsewhere, mostly due to the winds.

Now that my weather observations enter their second year, it’s interesting to compare the month to the previous year. Yes, it was warmer this year. And yes, we have more snow. I’ll take it!

Observations missing for 2 days.

* * *

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

Barometer (High): 1036 mbar
Barometer (Low): 975 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1001 mbar

Total of sunny days: 3

Snow cover (High): 60 cm
Snow cover (Low): 33 cm
Snow cover (Avg): 46 cm
New snow: 84 cm
Days with snowfall: 22

Rain: 14 mm
Days with rain: 3

* * *

January 2007
2007