The Quiet Picture

Weather-wise it looked like we were going to have a lot of luck. No rain, certainly no snow, and calm. The photographer in me would’ve wanted some sunshine, but this was a hiking trip so the most important thing was that we were going to have just the best possible conditions for hiking, couldn’t have asked for more!

The order of the day was to hike 16 km from Storulvån to Sylarna. My thighs were definitely hurting from yesterday’s descent from Getryggen, but otherwise I was feeling good. Even the backpack which was loaded heavy with the 40D, 24-105mm f4 and tripod felt ok on my shoulders, so I didn’t have to regret taking the tripod with me. Even so, it felt better after I got to actually use it so I didn’t carry it all for nothing.

What with the dull weather, photography became an excercise in finding compositions and lines. The glorious autumn colours were dull whichever way I looked at it, and including sky in any picture was really not an option. It kind of worked as a reflection on a calm mountain tarn though, but all in all, my mind was aching for all the missed opportunities. Say for example, we saw a lonely birch with lovely orange colours. I walked around it, without finding a single way of photographing it. So it’s either the weather, or lack of creativity. I can’t argue with either.

When we got to Sylstationen, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t really have any expectations of what it would be like, but finding the place warm and spacious with a grand view from the room and the dining area, we felt very pleased with ourselves and life in general. It didn’t hurt to see the latest weather forecast which promised some sunshine for tomorrow!

Seems like it has taken forever but my now almost traditional autumn holiday has arrived. Last year we tried a short return hike to Helags but now we’re ready for something a bit more meaty – the classic Jämtlandstriangel, or the Jämtland Triangle. It’s a 47 km trek between the mountain lodges of Storulvån, Sylarna and Blåhammaren and back to Storulvån. Because the trail is relatively easy and the accommodations are somewhat luxurious (considering that there are no roads that lead to Sylarna or Blåhammaren), the Triangle is often recommended as a first trip for beginner hikers.

Instead of hiking the 16 km to Sylarna on the same day as arriving to Storulvån, we had decided to do a short hike on the first day and then start the actual trek the morning after. A few years ago I had tried to get up to Getryggen but had to abandon the effort because of the weather, so now I was looking forward to finally getting up there and seeing the scenery that I only glimpsed back then between the snow gusts. This time the weather was a lot better, no snowflakes in sight and almost calm.

The way up to the peak of Getryggen is quite steep but not a problem if you’re the slightest bit determined and not completely out of shape. I was happy to notice that I wasn’t completely out of shape (but almost) and I sure was determined, and so we made it to the top of the 1382 metre mountain. At first we just took in the view and as I pulled out the camera for pictures, we saw a fog bank appear right out of nowhere. Before we even recovered from our surprise, the fog bank arrived to our peak and surrounded us so we wasted no time in getting back down below the fog. Maybe it was the sun that was starting to come out between the clouds that caused the fog but it sure was fast!

When we were back at Storulvån, I felt my thighs ache from the trek down the mountain. You’d think that going down is easy, but you do want to fight against the gravity a little bit so you don’t come down all too fast!

First of the “Micro Four Thirds” cameras is soon be released, Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. Although I’m a happy Canon EOS 40D user, I must admit that a smaller camera has its benefits. For one thing, I will go hiking next week – the 40D + lens + tripod + accessories gets a bit heavy after a kilometre or 50. Not a chance of bringing a collection of lenses, I’ll have just the zoom and that’ll have to do. And the 24-105mm zoom is no lightweight, either. A compact camera would be an alternative, of course, but I’m just loathe to use one. The image quality is probably a lot better than 5 years ago when I last had one, but otherwise the cameras just don’t behave like an SLR which I feel comfortable with.

So these new Micro Four Thirds cameras, they might be a viable alternative. If the image quality is up to any good, then it should make a much more hiker-friendly alternative with lenses and all. IDG says that the price is set to be 7995 SEK, which is a bit on the pricey side though for a 2nd camera. But again… if the IQ holds up, then it would make a nice companion on skiing and hiking trips!

I have installed a plugin to fight spam comments. I’ve been happy with Akismet, but it’s a tool for filtering spam after a comment is posted – reCAPTCHA is pro-active and prevents spam. It’s a standard word recognition thing that the spambots can’t figure out, but it does more than that – have a look on the reCAPTCHA website.

All this raining has been really good for the mushrooms. You can almost see them grow! For some reason the fly agarics really love the lawn (moss) behind my house. I’ve never seen them in such numbers, and I probably don’t even want to know exactly why they like this location so much. But there they are, I can see them from my window and I just had to see them through the viewfinder as well. Poisonous, but pretty.

Once for a change I thought that I would try to catch some morning light. I think I’ve mentioned before that I really really like a good night’s sleep, so you don’t often see me out and about at sunrise. This morning the sun came up 6am and my best effort was to be on site at 7.30, just in time to see the wind pick up and blow away the morning mist. The sun was a bit sluggish as well so there wasn’t any morning light to speak of anyway, but that mist would’ve been nice. I caught the dew instead, on this cobweb and then on my trousers as I hiked through the tall grass, they were so wet that it didn’t matter that I was wearing wellingtons, the water just trickled down on the inside. So even if I don’t want to sacrifice my sleep for morning photography, I take great comfort in that I occasionally manage to suffer for my art anyway, LOL!

But seriously, it turned out to be a great morning regardless. This was right next to the place where I’ve photographed the lady’s slippers and many other flowers, and now I got to do some landscape work as well. One of my favourite locations in Loos for sure!

There’s a new browser in town – Google Chrome. Google has built the browser from ground-up so it has some nice new features, while otherwise it is very bare-bones (at least in this first beta release version). All in all, something that made me curious so of course I had to install it. I am rather pleased with it, actually – all the pages I visit seem to work fine, the only broken page I’ve come across included a Java app, not sure why it doesn’t work… Java should work better in Chrome and all the other Java apps tried so far have also been fine. A reinstallation of Java perhaps, but it’s not urgent. Even Lotus Notes webmail was rendered adequately, despite the warning that this browser is not supported.

So will I ditch my beloved Firefox for Chrome? No I won’t – well, not yet anyway. For example, I really like the customisable search bar in FF. You can add search engines of your choice (including IMDb, Wikipedia and dictionaries) and while Chrome allows you to change your default search engine, it won’t allow a multiple choice. And even if Google will add more options to the browser, in the meanwhile Firefox will also evolve. Will be interesting to see what the future will hold though, considering how Google has supported Mozilla – a bit of a conflict of interests, methinks.

There’s only a Windows version available at the moment, but they are apparently working on Mac and Unix versions as well.

After a cool July, we were all hoping that August would turn out warm. Well, it didn’t. We didn’t even hit 20°C any day. On the bright side, we don’t have any problems with drought…

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Temperature (High): 18°C
Temperature (Low): 9°C
Temperature (Average): 13°C

Barometer (High): 1015 mbar
Barometer (Low): 988 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1001 mbar

Total of sunny days: 0

Rain: 130 mm
Days with rain: 17

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