Archive for May, 2010
Re-visit
Did my weekly walk again to take a look at the flowers. The daphne in my favourite daphne spot have just started to bloom so I approached them with the macro lens and extension tube. I’m pretty happy with the daphne pictures I took last year so the only new thing I could think of was to get closer to them. Too bad it’s not possible to capture the scent of the flowers… just amazing!
In the afternoon I drove to Svansjöbäcken. I discovered relatively late last year and fell in love with the place right away so I was really looking forward to seeing it again. The light was just about the worst possible, there was a thin cover of clouds that had moved in so there were too many highlights in the water for intimate landscapes but the light was too diffused for any wideangle pictures. So initially I was just walking along and then stopped for a cup of coffee and wondered if I’d find anything at all. I wouldn’t call it a wasted trip because it was so nice to be there, but it’s always a little bit disappointing to come back without pictures. Then I found a couple of spots right when a thicker cloud moved in and suddenly I had my opportunities. Well, two of them to be exact, but it felt like plenty!
I have never followed the brook all the way down to the Voxnan river so I remedied that today. The brook itself is not very interesting at that point because it’s not even a brook anyway, it just flows into this small lake slash marsh before joining the river. But there’s a nice little ridge with sparse pine forest, very pleasant to walk through. And I found a couple of new spots, but they need the right light. Early morning or late evening would be a better time for a trip to Svansjöbäcken than afternoon like I did today. Or an overcast day, that would definitely work. I have all summer… I’ll be back!
Extension
I like hiking light. Dragging a whole lot of photography gear is just not my thing, because I want to enjoy the hike as well. So I have a big dilemma when I have to choose the gear for mountain hikes because I want to be able shoot both flowers and landscapes. 
And since the 150mm macro is not much of a landscape lens, I needed a way to transform the 24-105mm zoom into a macro. Answer: extension tubes. Since I’ve never tried this combo, I had no idea if it really works or not but the proof is in the pudding so today I tested it on some wood anemone buds I found. The idea is not to compare the 150mm macro to the zoom with extension tube, but just to see if the zoom kit can be used for flower close-ups at all. It turned out it works fine! Problem solved, I now have my light-weight photography kit for the long day hikes. The irony is that two of the components in the kit are the oldest pieces of photography equipment I have, the monopod which I got in the very beginning when I started with photography (except I’ve switched the ballhead) and the extension tube set which also dates back in the early days before I got a dedicated macro lens.
At this time of the year I do the same walk every weekend, kind of an inventory round to see when the flowers will start popping up. The wood anemone above was shot at hembygdsgården because there’s still about 20cm of snow in my favourite wood anemone spot. 
Another flower that’s about to bloom is the daphne, I have high hopes of seeing some flowers next weekend because the buds are getting quite big in my favourite daphne spot. I didn’t expect to see any open daphne flowers so imagine my surprise when I came across these pink beauties with their amazing scent when I was inspecting the Svartån waterfalls today. There was too much water in the creek to inspire me (small creeks work better for me when there’s little water in them) so finding the daphne was perfect. But regardless of the amount of water, it was great to be out there. The wind was horribly cold and completely negated the warm sunshine, it was even snowing at one point, but it didn’t stop me from sitting down and enjoying a cup of coffee (or two) and be happy about the changing season!
