Duck pond
I was a little worried that photographing the mandarin ducks in the evening would be difficult, and I found out that it is in fact nearly impossible. The pond is man-made and square in shape and only two of the sides are accessible – both of them providing back-lit conditions in the evening. 
And it figures that the all the duck food seems to be in the furthest, shadiest, most inaccessible corner so the ducks headed straight there! There was a very brief moment where I got some side-lighting and that’s when I took this picture, but it turned out that it doesn’t help if the ducks are approachable when there’s nothing but cold water between you and your subject. So the picture is an approx. 50% crop of the original.
The odds are definitely stacked against evening photography at the duck pond. In the morning however, the opposite applies and this leaves me hoping that the ducks will still be there on Saturday. Because on weekday mornings, there’s this little thing called work which apparently is more important than hobby. Even when we have gorgeous mandarin ducks in Loos!
3 commentsHamra National Park
All the excitement about the mandarin ducks yesterday almost made me forget that I had a productive trip to the Hamra National Park as well. Hamra National Park is currently the smallest national park in Sweden, but it will multiply in size next year when the Svartåmyran bog and the Svartån creek valley will be added to the park. 2009 is also a special year for the park, as it is 100 years now when the park was introduced as one of the first national parks in Sweden. 
The celebrations will take place on the 24th of May, I’m actually half considering of joining in even if I normally want to avoid the crowds. I just want to take an opportunity to walk around the park with a guide, because one thing that is currently woefully inadequate in the park is information – not a single information board anywhere along the trail to explain anything that makes the park so special.
But you don’t need to know anything about the park to enjoy it. 
I love old growth forests, it’s just nature being left on its own and it’s absolutely fascinating to see the circle of life, from rotten old tree trunks to fresh new sprouts. Photographically however, old growth forests are a nightmare for me. Too much information! I just can’t control all the detail to make any sensible pictures out of the forest, so this time I didn’t even bring a wideangle with me. 
I figured I could use the macro to isolate detail from the forest, and it turned out to be the right choice of equipment because this trip was more productive than all the previous visits put together. Having said that, it was still a very frustrating experience. I was looking around, absolutely convinced that there are countless pictures here but they just weren’t coming to me. I wish I could one day go to a chaotic forest with a skilled wideangle photographer and look through their viewfinder. Or maybe I need to go there with the fish-eye and film camera, maybe the extreme angle will jolt my vision!
It’s still early in the season so the park wasn’t at its best yet. I think I spotted a few ops for a normal wide-angle as well, so a new visit will be in order in the summer. The Hamra National Park is not there for great landscapes or exciting animal life, but that shouldn’t discourage anyone from visiting – you can’t find many of these untamed forests anymore so I’m happy to have one just around the corner!
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