The Quiet Picture

Läste i DN att “astronomer har tagit de hittills skarpaste bilderna på Betelgeuse” och var förstås jättenyfiken på att se bilderna. Och det visade sig att allt är relativt i rymden – tittar man på bilden i artikeln så förstår man att det finns nog ganska så många sätt att definiera “knivskarp”, LOL!

Some wise photographer once said that if your pictures are not good enough, then you’re not close enough. I wholeheartedly subscribe to that, so when it was time to photograph the creeping lady’s-tresses orchids (Goodyera repens), I focused as close as the macro lens allowed and now I finally have some pictures of this orchid that I’m reasonably happy with. The previous effort is from three years ago when I used the 300mm lens, which is too big a tool for small flower.

I found an individual which was growing a little bit bent, while another orchid was filling the background. Then I noticed that I could also focus in on the background orchid with the foreground individual partially hiding it. So this version is not as close as it gets, but least it’s a little bit different. Well, I haven’t seen a picture like this of a creeping lady’s-tresses orchid anyway!

The flower season is starting to wind down, but there are still some interesting flowers left. Orchid-wise, the only thing to look forward to is the ghost orchid, but then again, that’s plenty to look forward to. It’s just an amazing flower! Twayblade is still in bloom, so are some late heath spotted orchids and we even found one very late blooming early marsh orchid, and I know that the creeping lady’s-tresses should be at their best right now (note to self: photograph them!). One exciting flower we visited today is the moor-king lousewort (Pedicularis sceptrum-carolinum). In my mind I always see it as an alpine plant, but it does grow in the low-land as well and we have it. And then the bog star is up and coming, I definitely hope to explore that beautiful flower in more detail this year.

But the best discovery today was not a plant at all, but a place. I’m always keen on some waterfalls, so my guide took me to a stretch of the Svartån creek which turned out to be pure photographic heaven for me. Because of the big rains in the past days the creek was nearly flooding (and the colour wasn’t very nice because the creek is mainly fed by run-off from the bogs) so it wasn’t showing its best side for me today, but there is absolutely no denying the potential. I’m already dreaming of October and all the colours…

When we were making our way back, it suddenly dawned on me that this was part of the Hamra National Park now, as it was extended in May. It made me even more happy, knowing that this fabulous place is protected. The landscape may not be spectacular, the plants may not be rare, but in my eyes this place is as special as it gets!

I missed the white waterlilies last year and I didn’t want to repeat the mistake this year. So I took off after work, ignoring the rain, and drove to my favourite white waterlily tarn. I was disappointed to find that the lilies were over bloom or not open or just plain too far away from the shore, but then I came across this one individual which was still pretty, and better yet, it was surrounded by pads which had not been half eaten up by insects. I had to do a lot of cloning and healing to get rid of some debris though and the pads are still not as clean as I’d like, but it will have to do.

The shutter speeds were very slow (this one at 1/25) because I insisted on using a polariser filter. Without it, everything becomes just a grey mass and the worst part is that the pads lose the colour. So if you’re going waterlily shooting, make sure to take a polariser with you!

I had more waterfalls in store today. I drove to Ramundberget and took the lift up the mountain (the aching leg was a perfect excuse) and then walked around a bit, checked out a lovely view across and along the valley. I wasn’t interested in going any further, the leg was not killing me but I’m not masochistic enough to enjoy it either. So I found my way to the stream that falls down from the Kvarnsjön lake. The waterfall was a disappointment – kinda like the Lillrånden waterfall earlier, this one also falls in a ravine so at best you can only get glimpses of it. I found only one photographic spot, but it was a sunny day and the scene was backlit so I could forget all about it. Ironically, the best view you get to the falls is from the road – far away, but at least you see the whole thing.

So I was hoping that my next waterfall was going to be better. Something I had come across on a Fotosidan forum, I couldn’t find any pictures of the actual fall so I didn’t have any expectations, I just assumed that it would be small-ish. The Sångbäckfallet (Song Creek Fall – nice!) is close to Klövsjö, it’s easy to find (when you know that the parking is opposite to the road towards Storhågna) and the hike there is only 400m. The very last bit to the foot of the fall is steep though, the kinda steep where you’ll happily grab hold of anything to keep you from tumbling down. Once you’re down there, getting a clean view of the falls is difficult but it doesn’t really matter because there are really nice photo ops both downstream and upstream from the falls. The waterfall was bigger than I expected, but size doens’t matter, it’s what’s around the actual waterfall that makes or breaks the place for me. And Sångbäckfallet is definitely among my favourites!

Now I’m looking forward to spending a day in front of the computer, sorting through 3.3 GB of pictures. I kinda like my aching foot… it’s not so bad, but it’s enough to give me an excuse to rest!

The reason why my summer vacation is split like this is that I wanted to find the alpine chamorchis (Chamorchis alpina). I think I still made a mistake, it felt like this week would be too early for it, but I had to try anyway. If I can’t find it now, I can take a weekend in August to come back for another try (does that sound obsessed?).

I knew that the orchid was very small, so I was getting a bit daunted by my task… Torkilstöten may not be big, but everything is relative. So I hiked up to the pass and starting searching. Very soon I came across a small thing growing next to a small-white orchid and I stopped to take a closer look at this what I thought was an unusually stunted, withered small-white orchid. Except it wasn’t stunted, it wasn’t withered, and it sure wasn’t a small-white orchid! Can you believe it, I had found my alpine chamorchis!!! After letting out a cry of joy, I got down to photograph it. Not so easy because the wind was really hard, it kept moving even this tiniest of orchids. I knew I wasn’t getting any good pictures but you know I really couldn’t have cared less.

Close to this first alpine chamorchis that I saw was another, even smaller – this was definitely early season for them. So that was two individuals and when I looked around me at the mountain landscape, I was wondering if I could find any more. It is certainly hard to spot it if it grows among anything green, this one I found was growing in a “bald” spot so it caught my eye just enough to be curious to take another look. I continued my way towards the peak of Torkilstöten, now that I didn’t have the pressure of finding any orchids I just wanted to see the view from the top; this is as close as you can get to Helags by car and then it’s just the short hike up. The clouds had cleared a bit so I took a series of pictures for a panorama stitch. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work though, the wind was really hard so I suspected that it would cause enough vibration in the rig to blur the shots. But wind is not all bad. No bugs!

When I started my way down, almost immediately I saw something…. alpine chamorchis? Oh yes it is! This time I took a shot with my bubble level next to it, to give an idea of the size. And close by, yet another orchid. So the grand total of alpine chamorchis I found today was four. But still… I can’t believe I found it at all. I’m telling you, it’s small, the tiniest orchid I’ve ever seen.

When I was walking down, I was becoming increasingly aware that my left foot was hurting. The leg had felt a bit stiff this morning but the morning’s short hike seems to have aggravated it. But as long as I can walk, no worries! All this worrying I did about the car… and then I injured myself, LOL!

I was supposed to have vacation the whole week, but I couldn’t come up with anything to do so I shortened it to two days.

I had done some research and found a waterfall south-west from Sonfjället, Lillråndafallet. From Rånddalen, there’s a forest road towards the canyon where the Lill-Rånden creek falls. The road wasn’t very good to start with, and soon it got worse – much worse. All the raining in the past days had left a big puddle across the whole road so I stopped the car to take a closer look. It wasn’t the water that worried me – it was the muddy bottom. I poked at it and it felt soft, so I didn’t dare to drive through it. If I couldn’t go forward, then the only was back. Except that there was no place to turn. The closest turnaround was 5-600 metres behind me. On that rough road that was bumpy enough driving forward when I could see the obstacles. Oh dear me… And then of course, since I couldn’t drive to the trailhead I had to walk instead, I figured I had stopped about 2 km short. But now I got a little bit lucky, after reversing only about a 100 metres I came to a wider section of the road, not possible to turn the car around but certainly possible to park it without blocking the road. Ironically, just after the mudhole the road got better, no big rocks to drive around like it was before it.

From the trailhead, the sign said it’s 2.5 km to the falls. The trail follows the east side of the canyon and the sound of the falling water could be heard somewhere beneath all the way to the actual falls. When I got down to my photo shoot, I heard a thunder rumble right after I had taken the first picture! Very lucky that there’s a shelter next to the falls, so I quickly made my way to it because it had also started raining – a lot. While I was sitting there and waiting for the rain to pass, I was trying to figure out why I was feeling so uneasy. Although I really liked the place, I wasn’t as eager to photograph it as I should’ve been. Something was nagging my mind… the car. I was worrying about having to reverse 500m on that rocky road, and I was worrying about the tyres for all the punishment they’ve been getting today, first the Fågelsjö road which is under construction… then the gravel road from Linsell to Rånddalen… and finally the rocky road towards the trailhead. Having something like that nagging my mind prevents me from being inspired to photograph. But it’s not all bad. Having to worry about flat tyres, mudholes and thunderstorms takes the mind off work, very quickly! Instant vacation mode.

When the sun came out, my mood improved. I just tried to be positive; I can drive in reverse, it’s never been a problem for me, so what if the road is bad, I’ll just take it slow! I took some more pictures but I kept feeling that I had not made the most of my visit. It’s like I just wanted to get done with the car and get out of there. It’s a real shame though, because the place definitely deserves more attention, the big fall itself is un-photographable as it falls in the ravine, but the falls upstream and the side-falls are fine. I think this is the part where it sucks to be alone. You get too trapped in your own thoughts and can’t find a way out so your worries take the better of you. So I don’t think that I’ll ever go back there, not alone. Consider this an invitation – if you want to see the Lillrändåfallet falls, just drop me a line. I know the way!

On the way back, I saw two guys standing a way down from the trail. They asked me if there’s a shelter, I said yes… just follow the trail. “What trail?” Huh? How did they get here? “The trail I’m standing on…” They happily made their way up to the trail and continued towards the falls. When I got to the trailhead, I found a car there. Those guys had driven a car – a normal car, with ground clearance no bigger than in my little Yaris! If they had made it through the mudhole, then for sure I can do that, too. That would certainly spare me all the reversing. When I passed the mudhole, I took a stick and poked at the mud all the way through. And for sure, it didn’t feel as bad as it had done at first, most of the bottom was hard and the softer mud only covered small areas, not big enough for a tyre to sink in. So I drove through, no problems!

When I was back at the tarmac road, it was such a relief! And it wasn’t just the joy of a proper road, but I also found out that the summer cafe at Nysätern was still open, so I could go there and have a cup of coffee and a waffle. All I had eaten since breakfast was a few peanut M&M’s… I was starving! I had a sandwich with me but I hadn’t felt like eating with what all the worrying I was doing instead. Stupid I know, but it’s a very hard habit to break. Anyway, the crispy waffle, whipped cream and cloudberry jam hardly fulfills the nutrional requirements of a meal, but I couldn’t care less. When I was back on the road, I was euphoric. No worries! I couldn’t stop smiling, it was such a great feeling that everything had turned out ok. Yes!

I checked in at the hostel and then drove to Ljusnedal to photograph the Tevåfallet waterfall. It’s not a big waterfall by any means, but it’s the way there that’s nice. Small falls all the time, so it was just stop shoot and go. And the best part – no hiking required to get there. If you take the “back door”, it’s something like 50m to the bridge and you can start shooting right there. And then follow upstream as far as you feel like.

I took a lot of pictures today, but nothing that feels special. The special feeling I have from the today is my car surviving the ordeal unscathed… well, unless I have a slow puncture and a flat tyre in the morning…

Last week I finally got my first roll of film back – it wasn’t the developing that took time (in fact, it was a really quick turnaround) but just simply completing the roll in the first place. Spring wasn’t a good time to start… it’s the summer greens and Velvia I dreamed about. Except that now the summer greens are here and I’m just taking flower pictures, so on a monthly basis I’m not always taking one film roll worth of landscape pictures with digital, either. But now I have Velvia in the camera and I dream of green!

The biggest problem I had with the slides was to find the light table. I had packed all my film stuff in a box in the storage room and of course it was furthest back, so I very nearly had to turn the room upside down until I got to it! Having been doing digital such a long time, it was such a pleasure to be looking at new pictures which were complete as they came. I mean, with digital you upload the RAWs to the computer and then have to start adjusting WB and other settings before the picture pops. It kind of dilutes the experience. It’s not that the pictures are worse, but the first impression definitely is. The slide on the light table is the final product – and even when you notice that the exposure or colours aren’t quite what they should be, there’s nothing you can do to it anyway, LOL! What you see is what you get. But of course, the slides can be scanned and the colours can be fixed in the digital file, which is what I had to do with some of these. I used the 40D and macro lens to digitise the slides and I’m actually pretty happy with the result, the film scanner I used to use didn’t give me anything better as I recall. If I need a bigger file size, I can “scan” the slide in two parts and stitch them. But for now, I didn’t feel the need for it so I even included the perforation.

As for the exposures, it seems like I have a slight tendency to underexpose. I think I also had it to some degree back when I was mainly doing film, but it’s probably worse now when I’ve forgotten how film behaves. Need to re-learn the latitude and dial in +1/3 stops, because not one of the slides were overexposed! But having mentioned the latitude, that’s the biggest handicap with slides as I see it. Just trying to find the correct exposure for bright clouds and dark forest is hard enough, take for example the top left slide. I swear the exposure is as close to correct as it gets, the cloud is just on the right side of hot but I still lost the shadows in the trees. There’s no shadow fill or curve adjustment that will get them back! I’m not complaining though, just comparing. Film is fun!

It was time for another excursion to find some local rarities. There’s a place near by with both narrow-leaved marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza traunsteineri) and hairy butterwort (Pinguicula villosa), so that’s where we headed. When we got closer to the location, we started seeing a lot of early marsh orchids. Soon the early marsh orchids started taking on some strange characteristics, like spots on the leaves. And soon after that we found individuals that couldn’t possible be early marsh orchids, so that’s when we had found our narrow-leaved marsh orchids! And pretty soon after that – a lot of them. And I do mean a lot! I have never seen orchids here in Loos in such numbers as we were witnessing now. There’s no way a picture can make justice to the scene, I tried but it was hopeless, you just simply have see it yourself to appreciate the full glory. Narrow-leaved marsh orchids and fragrant orchids were the dominant species and their purple and pink colours provided a wonderful contrast to the white and fluffy cotton deergrass (Trichophorum alpinum). The larger white blobs in the picture are broad-leaved cottongrass (Eriophorum latifolium).

We then walked around this corner of the marsh (it was a big marsh, but only part of it is botanically interesting) to see what else we could find, mostly we just came up with young bog orchids. After a well deserved coffee break, we tried to look for the hairy butterwort but had to conclude that we were out too late – all the common butterworts were way over bloom and the hairy butterwort probably shares the timing. And then when we heard the thunder, and it started raining – pouring – it was time to call it a day. We had already been out for 7 hours and enjoyed every minute of it!

* * *

A few weeks ago when we found the early marsh orchid ssp. cruenta here, I mentioned that I had now seen all the orchids that grow in the Loos region locally. Which obviously wasn’t entirely true, because I had forgotten all about the narrow-leaved marsh orchid!

Time to wrap up this holiday, but I had plenty in store for today. First, I drove to Ramundberget and hiked the 3 km to Klinken. The black vanilla orchid (Gymnanedia nigra, or Nigritella nigra) should be in bloom and I was very curious to see how it was doing this year, last year I had only found four individuals. It was certainly more than four this year – I counted 29! Maybe I counted 2-4 of them twice, maybe I covered a slightly bigger area than last year, maybe they were blooming earlier this year… but whatever way you look at it, the vanilla orchid had multiplied in numbers. What have I said about 2009 being a good orchid year?

After Klinken, I drove to Rockvallen. For two reasons, first, to have a waffle at Knallen, and second, take a look around the marshland because this is normally a good place for orchids and other flowers. For the hike up to Knallen I decided to travel light and left the camera bag in the car, only had the G10 with me. It was such a liberation to be walking without that heavy pack on my back! All my photo excursions would be so much nicer if I could shave off a few kilos from the bag. But it means leaving behind the camera and tripod, which doesn’t make much of a photo excursion… Anyway, I took the shortcut to the Knallen cabin which means that the trail was a bit steep in the end, but the view was magnificent so I was only too happy to stop for a breather so I could take in the sights as well. The hike up there is well worth it, not just for the waffles but really just for the view. 360 degrees of mountains, it’s hard to beat – I can really recommend it if you’re ever around Bruksvallarna!

The marshland starts right from the parking lot, so when I got back down I swapped my hiking boots for wellingtons and G10 for the heavy gear and started zigzagging around the marsh. At a risk of repeating myself, there were plenty of orchids – mostly early marsh orchid ssp. cruenta and fragrant orchids, but also heath spotted and lapland marsh orchids. Seemed like it was a bit early in the season though, I didn’t see much else in bloom yet… or it could also be that I was so blinded by the orchids that I didn’t have eyes for anything else. I have another week of holiday in the middle of July so I will visit Rockvallen again, it’s hard to beat it for ease of access anyway so you don’t have to kill your feet to find the flowers!