The Quiet Picture

I shouldn’t have complained about the light yesterday. Today was worse. And the wind was bad, too. Just the dullest circumstances possible for photographing the autumn colours, but I tried. Just needed to avoid having sky in the composition, or large areas of water. But one thing that works fine on days like these is  long shutter speeds. So on with the polariser and ND64 and watch the 20 sec exposures smooth our those nasty wind movement details!

Today I found a new route for my local hikes in Loos. There’s a new road which provides me with a shortcut to Österhocklan east from the Eagle Mountain, I used the route already late last winter actually but I had no idea that it was passable during the other seasons. The road ends kinda in the middle of nowhere, but then you just have to cross over to the snowmobile trail, the trail is not all pleasant to walk on but it’s only a few hundred meters before you reach the bridge over the creek. And by bridge I mean the new bridge which is very solid under the foot, not this old bridge which has finally given in and split in two. And after that, you can take the road which leads back home via Loossjön. A nice 9 km trip in all, took me 4 hours today but it did include quite a few photo stops despite the less-than-photographic weather.

The best part of the whole thing was that I found a new tarn, it’s very close to the road but it’s kinda hidden behind a small hill so it’s not visible from the road. It was a total surprise, it felt like an oasis of wilderness with dead trees lining up the little lake and then forest all around that almost looked natural (=no obvious signs of logging). I’ll be back, light permitting!

A few weeks ago we drove along the Voxnan river north from Rullbo. I thought the place had fabulous potential and planned to get back in the autumn with all the colours. And that’s what I did today. Only problem was that the light was awful – that disgusting thin veil of clouds across the sky so it’s not really overcast but it’s not sunny either. There were a few moments of good light and I was able to use them, but then the bad light returned and made me walk away from so many wonderful opportunities that I’m nowhere near done with the place.

I also visited two new places today. The first one was a result of some detective work and I’m well pleased with myself. You see, I’ve heard that there are some waterfalls in the Björnån river downstream from the bridge over E45. The problem is that there isn’t any road that follows the river and it’s impossible to follow the river on foot. But thanks to the wonderful new satellite pictures on hitta.se, I was able to see a couple of places which were white and that can only mean one thing – falling water. Out of those two spots I found, I chose to visit the easy one today and reaching it was easy indeed, just over 400 metres from the road and you can hear it when you park the car so I didn’t even need my GPS to get there. I was happy to find out that it was indeed a real waterfall, the light on the other hand was impossible so I’m only showing the picture to given an idea of the place. If you’re going there, just a word of warning – if it’s sunny, then the falls will be backlit at noon. But who wants to shoot at noon anyway? Except me, because it was noon when I got there…

The other new place I visited was a lucky coincidence. At one point, the Ormsjövägen road (the one that follows the Voxnan river) goes through an area which is dotted with big rocks and small tarns and bogs. Just the kind of landscape I like, so I parked the car and was going to follow the road on foot to cover that interesting stretch. What I hadn’t counted on was a small brook that runs through the area and in the end, I forgot all about the tarns and bogs because the brook had me totally spellbound! It’s just like the rapids at Svartån except a bit smaller and more open. It took me almost two hours to cover about 200 metres of it and it wouldn’t have been over even then, either, if it hadn’t been for my very empty stomach. Looking at the map, the brook continues to fall steadily for about a km from the spot where I was until it joins Voxnan. If the rest of the brook is as interesting as the part where I was, then will be a full day job to cover all of it! And trust me, I will be back.

The day definitely turned out to be longer than I had anticipated – which is pretty good, considering how disappointed I was with the light at first!

I was reading the latest Suomen Luonto (Finnish Nature) magazine that I brought with me from Finland. They had polled a number of Finns to find out what Finnish landscape they think is most beautiful, and the landscapes on offer ranged from seascapes to mountains and old industrial towns to farming. The winner was a winter landscape from Oulanka with the river still running open while the forest around was covered with snow. The only human trace in the picture was a bridge across the river in the distance.

While I don’t disagree with the results, the photographer in me started to wonder how much the people’s choices were affected by the pictures themselves and not the landscape as such. Some of the pictures were good, and others weren’t, but at least they were all taken by the same photographer. The winner was a good picture. Maybe it would’ve been would’ve been more fair for the sake of the landscape to present four pictures of each, from each season? Or show the same landscape but pictures taken by different photographers?

And some of the pictures weren’t representative of the place at all, for example the picture from Punkaharju showed a trail going through a pine forest. Yes there’s a lot of pine forest in Punkaharju, but the place is really known for the narrow strip of land that runs between lakes. Not to show any water in a Punkaharju picture is letting it down a little bit, especially when the viewer has to use the picture to decide if the landscape is beautiful or not. Likewise, Olavinlinna was photographed from a strange angle. The picture shows the entire castle, but it’s the view from the lake that most people never see when they visit the castle or drive by. The towers have to be prominent in the picture, otherwise it just isn’t Olavinlinna as we know and love it!

On the other hand, maybe I missed the point. Maybe the emphasis wasn’t as much on the geographic location than the landscape for the sake of itself. Pine forest is pine forest is pine forest. But in that case, why pick out the 27 “national landscapes” and take unfavourable pictures of them?

As for myself, I would say that the most beautiful Finnish landscape is the alpine tundra in Lapland in the autumn, even if I don’t have any personal experience of it and it doesn’t really even represent typical Finnish landscape. What is typical Finnish landscape for me is forest and lakes and the particular landscape that I mostly identify with is the above lake scenery as seen from my parents’ cabin. Every time I talk about growing up by a lake, this is the scenery I’m thinking of. It is not grand or out of the ordinary, but it is forever etched in my mind from all those summers I spent at the cabin as a child…

I’ve finally finished processing the pictures from my trip. Some of them worked out better than I expected, and some turned out to be not as good as I had hoped for. An acceptable average! The pictures in this blog post are not related to the text, other than that everything is related to my vacation trip.

As a Finn living in Sweden, it’s inevitable to make comparisons between the countries. As it’s been 15 years since I moved from Finland, a lot has changed and in many ways the country is not the same as the one I remember. So now when I visit, I can look at Finland with the eyes of a tourist and some of the things I’ve seen are quite surprising. The following “comparison” is very subjective and based on a limited sample (northern Sweden, central/eastern Finland), and even if I keep saying that this or that is better in the other, please do not count the votes in either direction. All in all, I’m happy to be a Finn and I’m happy to live in Sweden so I wouldn’t seriously complain about either!

• Roads are better in Finland. Much better. Much, much better! *
• There are more people in Finland. In Sweden you can drive 50km with hardly any signs of human activity. Apart from the road, obviously. In Finland you always see something, if nothing else then speed cameras (see the point below).
• There are more speed cameras in Finland (a lot more – I didn’t see any from Gäddede to Haparanda, but in Finland I lost the count of them by Oulu).
• There is more birch forest in Finland.
• Finland is flat. I was relieved to reach the inner country because the flatlands in near the coast were driving me crazy. It’s unnatural not to have any hills.
• There are more lakes in Sweden. Finland is supposed to be “the land of thousand lakes” but there was very little water in sight. The roadside scenery in Sweden on the other hand is dotted with lakes, creeks and wetlands.
• Commercial (pop) radio is better in Finland. My car radio picked up Radio Nova before Haparanda and never had to re-tune during the trip. Is there a law in Sweden that forbids commercial radio to broadcast outside urban areas? I’d be fooled to think so because the signal fades as soon as you leave any major city.
• There are more bypass roads in Finland. You hardly ever need to drive through a town or a village. Until you come to Savonlinna, of course!

* * *

* Swedish roads. I imagine a Vägverket boss say something like this:

“Hi Sven, we need to patch up the Loos road. Why don’t you take this coin and toss it to see which holes to fix? And Sven, take care to do a sloppy job at it so we can go there next year and patch the same holes all over again.”

Now, it’s possible that the work order isn’t exactly like that. But the result sure is! I can understand that they don’t have the money to fix the whole road, but instead of fixing all of it badly, why not use the little money they have to fix one part of the road well? And then next year, fix the next hole. And then next. Instead of coming there every year and fill a hole there and a hole here and not even bother to even out the tarmac for a smooth surface. So the car jolts over the new tarmac edges instead of the hole that used to be there. Same difference, just money wasted.

The same thing applies for a lot of other roads. The Loos road is small, but I know a lot of highways which are only marginally better than the Loos road.

I’m not a war buff but every Finn should know that war is part of their history. Finland had to fight for its independence and I’m not sure if people in countries like Sweden always appreciate their independence  the same way Finns do. My parents’ generation experienced the war first hand, and my generation grew up during the cold war so we know that independence is not something you can take for granted.

Thus it was that today when I drove to Punkaharju to photograph the beautiful ridge of Salpausselkä, I ended up in the trenches of the Salpa Line which had been partly restored. Apparently they had only restored them a few years ago, so I had never seen them before although we would drive this way every weekend in the summer when I was a kid on our way to the cabin.

Finland lost a lot of territory (and military installations with it) to the Soviet in the Winter War which was fought during the early years of World War II. Thus they needed to build a new line of defence along the new border, and the Salpausselkä ridge (part of which runs in Punkaharju) was a natural place for the trenches and fortifications. The Continuation War never reached Punkaharju though, so after the war they partly covered the trenches which thus became just a footnote in the history books.

Walking around in the narrow trenches got me thinking that the war is part of my history, as well. Not first hand, or even second hand, but I remember the stories my parents have told me and I remember having the Soviet Union as a neighbour and I remember the highway 6 curving so close to the border that I could see the Russian watch tower from the car, and back in the 70′s they even had signs by the road that forbid photography there. And most of all, I remember a visit to Vyborg in 1992 after the Soviet had broken up and Russia had opened the border so you could do a day trip without a visa. On approaching Vyborg, there was this big and sinister building on top of a hill and I asked my parents if it was a prison. No it’s not a prison, it’s the hospital. Seeing Vyborg in the dilapidated condition that it was came as a shock to me – I was innerly grateful for all the brave Finns who fought to keep our independence and saved the country from the same rot that had destroyed the Soviet Union. Donating money to the WWII veterans was a priviledge after that visit.

People sometimes ask me if I’m going to change my nationality now that I’ve lived in Sweden for such a long time. I’ve never even considered it, for one thing the nationality doesn’t make any practical difference and secondly, because I’m proud to be a Finn.

This is my history and I won’t give it away lightly.

I arrived to my parents’ cabin in the evening on Friday. As I was driving, I had the sunset behind me and it was one of the most amazing sunsets I had ever seen. I don’t mean the setting sun itself, but I mean the sight I had in front of me – heavy rainclouds and the most amazing rainbow. Even though I was way under the raincloud, the low lying sun was able to light up the landscape so quite incredible, I had the rainbow in front of me for about an hour of driving. The rain cloud seemed to be moving the same direction as me. I didn’t stop to take any pictures, it was almost impossible because the rain was really heavy and it was made worse by the wind, so even if I could’ve kept the camera dry, there is no protection for the lens. So I didn’t bother cursing about the missed opportunitues, but just enjoyed the sight.

After three days of intensive driving, Saturday was all the more lazy. I’ve no idea what I did all day, took out the camera in the evening for a few lame frames.

I put a bit more effort into today’s photo session. It was a glorious day anyway, a calm morning with mist and a warm sunshine after that. I didn’t make full use of that though, I was more interested in macro – but calm weather and morning dew is never wasted on macro, either.

I had a long drive ahead of me, so I started early. I was looking forward to the Wilderness Road as it goes above the treeline, so the scenery should be good.

Initially it was a bit cloudy and the wind was only marginally lighter than yesterday. It wasn’t particularly warm either – my fingers were numb after a very short hike to a waterfall. It’s not the temperature as such, but the wind chill…

Already as I was approaching the tree line, the photo ops were appearing one better than the other. I drove past most of them, shame on me, but like I said, time was an issue so I wanted to use all I could spare on the tundra. Unfortunately the sun still hadn’t come out by the time I reached the tree line, so I didn’t see the scenery in all its glory. Because glorious it was for sure – you could stop every 100 meters and find something interesting, a small brook, or a different angle to a mountain, or a new bend or rapids in the big creek… even waterfalls. And reindeer. At first I stopped the car and turned off the engine, got out and took pictures. Then I stopped the car at a lay-by and got out. And then I just opened the window and shot from the car… without even bothering to pull over to the shoulder. I didn’t see any other cars as I was driving through the tundra so it’s not like I was blocking the traffic!

I was half expecting the beautiful scenery to end when I descended from the tundra. But I couldn’t have been more wrong – it was just simply gorgeous, driving through Klimpfjäll (the place is much nicer than its name), then Saxnäs, and I was surprised to see that the road was still photogenic as I turned north from Stalon towards Dikanäs. I only had two problems – no time, and a lot of wind. It had taken me over 3 hours to drive the first 100 km and I still had 500 km left until Luleå. In that respect, I should be grateful for the wind because it was spoiling most of the opportunities. Still water was anything but still, so all those beautiful lakes with mountain views were wasted today.

My original plan was to visit Storforsen before getting to Luleå. But after spending so much time on the Wilderness Road, I had to drop Storforsen. Better to use the little time I had one on the photo opportunities I had in front of me, than chance on something I had no idea if it would work or not. And I still didn’t have enough time to shoot everything I wanted to. The Wilderness Road really made an impression on me, it’s by far the most photogenic 200 km I’ve ever seen in Sweden. It’s easy to find some photogenic roads, but solid 200 km of beautiful mountains, lakes and creeks… it’s hard to beat! It was a constant waterfall there, rapids here, probably impossible to squeeze it in a whole day let alone a few hours as I had. I’m just simply going to have to drive it again, but then I’ll make it the goal of the trip instead of a de-tour on my way somewhere. And September is probably the right time for it, too. The days are shorter, but you can keep shooting through all through the day and still get good light. And the autumn colours are never wrong!

I have a vacation again – the last of my summer vacation. When I left, the weather was actually nice and summery, but when I got to Strömsund and turned west towards Gäddede, I was met by increasing wind and dark clouds. I don’t mind the rain, but the wind was really bad – there were times I was sure the trees would snap at any moment.

The vacation plan is to stay overnight in Gäddede, drive north via Stekenjokk (Vildmarksvägen, the Wilderness Road) and then turn east and cross over to Luleå for the night. And on Friday, all the way from Luleå to Savonlinna in Finland. A lot of driving and quite a de-tour to get to Finland, but I’ve never been in this corner of Sweden so I figured that now was to time to drive the Wilderness Road.

Photographically speaking, the today’s main target was the Hällingsåfallet waterfall near Gäddede. Initially when I got there and saw the falls, I was disappointed. Now matter which viewpoint I checked, there absolutely no way at all get the falls in the frame without getting the bridges and trails and guard rails as well. In fact, it was hard enough to get the whole falls in the frame, at all… my widest angle wasn’t wide enough. A moot point in any case. But then I decided to ignore the waterfall completely – the secret of success is adaptability and there were other things to shoot than just the falls. And it seemed like the sun agreed with my decision, because it came out and revealed a glorious rainbow across the canyon, born in the mists of the waterfall! That’s all the opportunity I needed and I was a happy camper. The inclement weather added some spice to the sky, and even the wind wasn’t quite that bad here so the rig stayed steady during the exposures.

When I left the falls and drove towards Gäddede, there were rainbows everywhere, this time born out of rain. When I saw a good op and stopped to shoot it, I really strugged to keep the camera steady – not because my hands were not steady, but because my body wasn’t! That’s how the wind was.

* * *

I’m posting this from my little Powerlessbook, I hope the pictures are ok (they look a bit iffy on my screen). I’ve processed them like I normally do but this machine is really not ideal for image processing! I’ll fix them when I get home if needed.

There’s this one old birch that’s become something of an un-realised obsession for me. Obsession, because I think about photographing it almost every day – the birch is visible from the road so I see it on my way to work, and I see it on my way back home. And un-realised, because I’ve only over tried to shoot it once, many years ago.

So why I am not trying again, and again? Because I can’t decide what to do with it. Do I need sunlight or overcast weather? Sunrise or sunset? Noon? Summer with green leaves, or autumn with yellow leaves, or no leaves at all?

I was going to go somewhere else today, but things happened and I thought I might as well drive there and take a closer look at the tree to scout for the best angle. It’s not easy, because this is young pine forest and although the birch does stand out well from the distance, it’s really hard to find an unobstructed angle somewhere closer. There are some big rocks in the area and climbing on top of them solves part of the problem, but you’ll always have some pines sticking in the frame.

But there’s more to this place than the one birch. All the mosses, lichens, rocks, fallen and burned trees… I don’t know why I don’t visit the place more often. I guess I’m bothered by El tenedor del diablo.

El tenedor del diablo, The Devil’s Fork, is from the film Romancing the Stone. It’s one of my favourite films and although there’s nothing fork-like about this birch, it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the tree and the name stuck. A devilish subject, for sure – and maybe that’s the clue to how I should shoot it: dark ominous clouds, no leaves. I think I have a November date with the Devil’s Fork.

So, I set out to photograph water with the film camera as planned. At first I was cursing at the sun but I guess I shouldn’t have, because it started raining. Not a lot, and normally it wouldn’t be a problem but with the Tamron 28-300mm lens it is. I have to use a step-up ring to fit any filters, which means that the lens hood that would otherwise protect the front element from stray drops is now useless. And photographing running water without a filter, I’m not sure if I can do it, at all. I got a few frames though (with filter!) so we’ll see how I did with the exposure. I’ll find out in a few weeks…

When I got home, the rain had stopped of course. So in the afternoon I went to the Kvarnsjön lake and it didn’t fail me (it rarely does), I found these old wooden boats. You don’t often see wooden boats anymore, it’s all plastic and shiny colours these days. At first I was annoyed at the boat in the foreground because it was blocking the best angle to the untied boat in the background, but then I realised that I would get a much better composition if I used both boats in it. The boat in the background, there’s a chain hanging from the bow but I doubt it’s an anchor, I’ve never seen a rowing boat anchored offshore anyway. When the wind picks up, I wonder if I’ll ever see that boat again!