The Quiet Picture

Compact cameras have quite awesome closest focusing distances. I mean, how many SLRs with macro lenses can brag with CFD of 1cm? So compact cameras must be really good at macro, right?

Pur-lease. Honestly, what’s the point of focusing at 1cm when you have to do it at wide angle? But I’m sure everyone who’s never shot macro with an SLR and a real macro lens are absolutely convinced that their compacts are far superior.

To be fair, the extreme focusing distance might be good for something. But to use a compact camera to create good macro pictures probably requires more from the photographer than using an SLR with a macro lens and I have to confess that I was lost with the G10 today. Try focusing to 1cm with a live toad – I didn’t.

I’ve just one thing to say – shallow DOF rules! I want my 40D back.

* * *

The 40D is actually already on the way back to me. It’s just that UPS are not able to deliver it to me at home and I haven’t found out how to tell them that I’m at work during the day so they can divert the package to Ljusdal. Frustrating.

It was a glorious day yesterday and seems to be almost as good today, so the motorbike season is well and firmly open now. The amazing thing was that when I uncovered the Tricker and fired it up for the first time, it started without a single hiccup – just like the winter break never happened. Almost as amazing was that I hadn’t forgotten how to ride the bike, so it was a wonderful first trip of the spring.

I also mounted the new package rack. At first I thought I have to paint it black or it will stick out too much, but it actually fits in really nicely, which figures because it was made for the Tricker anyway. The rack is not made by Yamaha directly, but by a Japanese company called YS Gear. The product leaflet is here (in Japanese), I don’t know if it can be ordered online but your local Yamaha dealer can get it for you.

Something new every day.

I just had three teenagers knock on the door (it’s 9.15pm) and ask if I have a tent I could borrow them.

No.

1. Well, actually I do, but it’s a one person tent and you’re three.
2. And even if I did have a bigger tent, I’d still not borrow it, because
3. I don’t have a freakin’ clue of who you are.

Earlier today I had this conversation with my neighbour and complained how perfect strangers stop and talk with me like they’ve known me for years. He said that the whole village knows me, I’m the Finnish photographer with a motorbike (which appears to make me a bit of a local celebrity – or freak). So I’m quite sure that the parents of these kids told them to come to me and ask for a tent because surely I have one, being an outdoorsy type of person and all.

That’s life on the countryside. Welcome to Loos.

Have I mentioned how I hate April? Yes I think I have. And I’ll probably do it again, next April.

We have a little bit of snow left, and all of it is ugly. Then the ground that has been revealed from under the snow, that’s all ugly as well. Months don’t get more in-between than April. But it’s spring alright, the crocuses and coltsfoot are blooming, I even saw the first hepatica last week and today I noticed that the glory-of-snow in the abandoned garden are budding. But none of that is really inviting me to photography (largely owing to the fact that all these flower spots are next to the main road). I’m gonna have to plant a new batch of crocuses this year… they seem to be happy enough under my kitchen window but they’re near impossible to photograph there. So I’ve picked a new spot which should provide better ops, but that won’t help me until next April.

In the meanwhile, I tried to photograph some moving water in sunlight. I suck at it. I need overcast weather, otherwise I’m all lost. I even wasted a frame of film on the water, how desperate is that?

One thing is for sure. When I said that April is a good month to send my 40D to service, I was absolutely right about that. Except, I have no idea when I’ll get it back. May would be nice.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was disappointed when I found that out of two locations, the better one was the one which was harder to get at. Is that really how lazy I am? That I’m disappointed because I have to walk an extra kilometre and climb a bit more? What’s really disappointing is that I was disappointed at all. Like I said, the best things in photography are not free.

If you look at the work of a nature photographer who is consistently producing stunning pictures, you can be sure that they have worked hard to create them. These are the people who are willing to wake up earlier, go to bed later, just simply walk the proverbial (and actual) extra mile to find the best locations. People who can sleep in a cold hide night after night in order to catch that unforgettable moment of animal behaviour. People who can hike for days in the wilderness with both survival and heavy photography gear to find that stunning landscape. And they do this time after time, they study their subject until they know when and how to best present it. You could say that they were lucky to get this and that light, but pure chance will only get you that far – the rest of your luck you have to make yourself.

And here I am, frustrated that I found a nice view but there’s no option to stop the car, but I have park some 500m further off and walk back to the view. How lazy can you get? And how can you ever hope to take your photography to a higher level if you require that you can park your car next to your subject? I’m ashamed.

So I got to thinking. Which picture in my catalogue has required the hardest work – and how hard was it, anyway?

Maybe my fullmoon mountain pictures… individually, they haven’t required that much effort, but collectively, a bit more. So far I’ve made four trips in order to catch the full moon in the mountains, and although I’ve managed to create some nice pictures, the one that I have envisioned is still eluding me. My white whale. I’ve done a lot of planning and scouting and travelling but the hunt is still on.

But an individual picture… hmm. The only one I can think of is that early snowstorm in September 2005 when I nearly got stuck in StorulvÃ¥n. It had been raining all through my holiday so far and I was desperate to do something creative. Bad weather makes good pictures so I set off on Getryggen despite the wind driving around the snow crystals like small needles. I got higher and higher and the visibility got worse and worse… I don’t know what I was thinking about, there weren’t even any pictures to be taken in those conditions, I could hardly stand up in the wind and all I could see among all the white was the next rock I could run to in between the wind gusts. But stubbornly, I just had to reach 1300m which for whatever random reason was my target (at least I had had the reason to give up on the peak by then). When I got back down a bit, the snowing stopped and revealed the landscape around, the wind remained though and whipped up these whirls of snow. It was tough, it was stupid, but I came back with some memorable pictures, whether they were good or not is not essential anymore!

Still, that’s not a lot of effort. It was crazy and I got lucky. – How many times have I woken up at 3am to catch a sunrise at some beautiful location? Never. Instead, I’ve been happy that the sun rises so late in the winter so I can sleep until 7am and still catch it. – How many times have I been to the Njupeskär waterfall after sunrise in the midsummer to catch it in sunlight? Never, although I found out about it 4 years ago (normally the waterfall is always shaded). – How many times I have a witnessed a sunset from a mountain top? Never. Going down in darkness just freaks me out!

Maybe it’s time I start going the extra mile. Be the first one to arrive, and the last to leave, and have the patience.

I have a bit of a tradition to do a day trip to the mountains in the springtime. When the snow is disappearing at home, there’s still plenty of it in the mountains for skiing – or snowshoeing, as the case may be.

I had some concerns about the snow though, because it has been very warm in the mountains as well. The soft wet snow doesn’t carry a person even on snowshoes, so I was completely depending on the trails. The thing was that I wanted to see two places where there weren’t any officially maintained winter trails, so it was a bit of a pot luck if these trails were used or not. If they were sufficiently used, the snow crust should hold even in these warm temperatures… I hoped.

When I got to Lofsdalen, I first went to the tourist information to ask about the status of these trails. The first one was probably used but not maintained, but the second trail was prepared – great! So I drove up to the trailhead and found that half of Härjedalen had the same idea and parking space was hard to come by. After some driving around I found a spot and hit the heavily used trail towards Solgropen (“sun hole”), a meteor crater on a southern slope (thus the name). Solgropen was filled to the brim by families enjoying the sun so I just speeded past and continued up to my first goal. This was the unprepared trail and at first it was easy to follow the old snowmobile and ski tracks but when I got up around the tree line, the snow started occasionally caving in under my snowshoes. That’s really the worst… if you sink all the time, it’s very hard going but at least you’re prepared for it. When it happens sporadically, it always catches you unawares and in the end you get very nervous about the whole thing. The higher I climbed, the worse the snow got and the wind picked up. I had wanted to reach the nearest peak, but the wind and treacherous snow were driving me crazy so I settled with the pass so I could at least achieve my goal which was to see Sonfjället. The idea of this whole trip, besides enjoying the wonderful weather, was to scout for new locations and I had now found one.

When I was back down to the trees, the wind eased up a little bit and I dug myself a personal sun hole to have lunch. But I’ve never been good at sitting idle in the sun, so I packed up as soon as I had finished. It was still only early afternoon and I had plenty of time, so I decided to drive some more and check out a waterfall I had read about. I knew that there was a very small chance that a) the road there would be open and b) the waterfall would be free of ice but what the heck, it’s a beautiful day, the road is dry and I have time to waste. I found that b) was moot because a) the road was closed.

Back in Lofsdalen, I drove to the trailhead again and by now there was plenty of parking space. I took the second trail and sure enough, it was prepared and the snow held well. When I got to the pass so I could get a view towards Sonfjället, I was a little bit disappointed. The first view was much better, and it figures that it’s the one with the longer hike. The best things in photography are not free. Speaking of photography, there was very little of it today. I bothered to pick up the film camera a grand total of one (1) time. Maybe the weather was too good? But there was also a lot of haze in the air and that’s a real spoiler for great mountain vistas.

Although my feet were starting to complain by now (wet socks are never much fun), I still decided to get back to Solgropen because the afternoon sun was too good to abandon yet. Solgropen was almost deserted but it was protected from the wind, so I took off my boots and hoped that my socks would dry in the sun. Well, I still hadn’t learned how to sit idle in the sun so my socks didn’t have a chance.

It was such a wonderful day… wet socks and all. The pictures are nothing to brag about, but I honestly don’t care. The best things in life are free.

The other day a friend of mine asked if I could take a look at his dSLR because it was having some exposure issues. We went outside to the parking lot and I took some test pictures of the sky because it was an easy and neutral subject. Suddenly this guy comes along and is well impressed by the prosumer camera and the 70-300mm zoom attached to it – never seen such, he says.

Umm, ok then.

So I point the camera at the sky again to take some more test shots. Unfazed by our lack of interest in his show of interest, he asks if I’m using a sky filter.

Sky filter? Umm… no. (He was speaking English so it really was “sky filter”, not skylight filter.)

Yes, well I just thought since…

Well, you know you don’t really need a sky filter for photographing the sky. In fact, you don’t need a skylight or UV filter at all – as a protection for the lens at most, but otherwise it’s not really much use.

Yes well ok… (guy fades in the background)

I turned to my friend in amazement and couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I know it’s very rude because the poor guy was probably still within hearing distance… but honestly…?

April is my least favourite month for photography so I had no expectations when I went for a walk, only took the G10 with me just in case. The 40D is in service now anyway and no way am I going to waste film on dirty snow. Sure enough, I wasn’t seeing anything interesting at all until I came across this spruce covered with beard lichen. Beard lichen is very common  over here, which is comforting knowing that it’s an indication of good air quality. So it’s not that it was so unusual to see beard lichen, but it was sure was unusual to see colour! Not the grassy green of summer, but it will do for now.

More colour is around the corner anyway, I saw the first crocus buds yesterday. On Friday evening there wasn’t a sign of life in the crocus patch, but the sunny and warm day yesterday did wonders. There’s still plenty of snow left, but I planted my crocuses close to the house so they benefit from the early melt. I was so glad to see them!

Spring is inevitable, but it sure takes its time. The problem is not with the temperature – it’s hasn’t been that cold – but it’s all the snow. Just to give you an idea, the lowest snow cover this month was higher than the highest snowcover last winter. But I was encouraged last night when I noticed that the snowcover was reduced by 3 cm. At this rate, it will only take 24 days for the snow to disappear… last year, the snow was gone on the 24th of April, delayed for all the snowing that month. So here’s hoping for a snow-less April 2009!

Temperature (High): 2 °C
Temperature (Low): -9 °C
Temperature (Average): -3 °C

Barometer (High): 1031 mbar
Barometer (Low): 996 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1010 mbar

Total of sunny days: 1

Snow cover (High): 80 cm
Snow cover (Low): 67 cm
Snow cover (Avg): 73 cm
New snow: 29 cm
Days with snowfall: 20

2007
2008
January 2009
February 2009