The Quiet Picture

It was a rainy and overcast day on Saturday, it didn’t clear up until right at sunset. Which gave me some nice clouds to shoot, it must be the first sunset I’ve caught since… since… apparently quite a long time.

Sunday morning on the other hand was as bright as it gets in September. Maybe the sunny weather made it easier for the birds to find food in the wild, because I didn’t have quite as many of them at the feeder as I did yesterday. And numbers is a good thing – if there’s only a few birds, they have enough space at the feeder so they don’t need to stop at any of the branches I’ve set up for photographic convenience. But as soon as the number of the birds increases, they’ll use my branches for queuing. However, it was almost a moot point – shooting in sunlight just doesn’t quite work. Yes it’s nice to have a fast shutter speed and low ISO so I get sharp and noiseless pictures, but it’s impossible to get a nice background when some background trees are lit and some are shaded and the camera is barely able to contain both shadows and highlights. So it’s just a mess and a lot of luck is needed to get the bird to sit at a spot where the background at that particular moment is even. It was much more fun to take those noisy pictures yesterday!

The rest of the Sunday was supposed to be as sunny as the morning, but they got it oh so wrong. I had been looking forward to shooting beautiful autumn colours in warm sunlight, but got dreary overcast skies and dull light instead. On the other hand, we also got calm lakes for some sweet reflections and that wasn’t supposed to happen either!

I set up my bird feeder site really early this year. It turned out to be a popular move because  I’ve needed to refill the feeders every evening. All week I was wondering why the food is disappearing so fast because I knew from experience that the tits don’t eat that much… then today I found out the reason. Greenfinches – lots and lots of greenfinches. They are literally queuing up to find an open spot at the feeder and bickering with each other while waiting.

I had never before seen greenfinches so I was very excited of course. When I approached the feeder, the finches were the first ones to disappear while the tits tolerated my presence. One willow tit kept pecking at the seeds when I was less than 2 m away from it. But the greenfinches were trickier so I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the pictures, I wasn’t going after any major artwork but I just wanted to document the species. I started the easy way, which is opening my living room window and shoot from there. It’s too far, but you can recognise the species in the picture. Having gotten some shots, I decided to try a bit closer. So I hid behind a small spruce and although the birds initially scattered, they soon came back. So I got some shots a little bit closer and I was happy.

I have a new setup at the feeder and I was curious how it would work, so having documented the greenfinches I draped a camo net over myself and set up shop close to the feeder to get frame fillers of the small birds. I wasn’t sure if the camo net works and I expected that only the tits would visit the feeder while I was there, but when the greenfinches re-appeared, I knew that the camo net was fine! I was amazed. And just to make it perfect, I even got a closeup of a brambling! Totally unexpected, and totally welcome. It was a dark day so I had to use high ISO and relatively slow shutter, but I still got sharp pictures if a bit noisy. And some cropping required to fix the composition because I still can’t get it right in the camera with moving subjects.

There are still some birds at the feeder as I type this. The greenfinches are gone, but now there’s a woodpecker hacking away at the peanuts!

The highest mountain in the Gävleborg county is Stora Korpimäki (or Korpmägg because the Swedes can’t spell Finnish) at 711 m. It’s a forest covered peak and up on top the forest takes on some alpine characteristics, but the point is that it’s still forest. Which means that high as the peak is, your views are very limited and thus it’s taken me this long until I’ve finally visited the place. Been there, seen it, done that.

On the way back we stopped at the Flarksjöberget nature reserve. I had high expectations about it but it didn’t deliver at all, that was my initial reaction anyway. Then I noticed the intense reflections in the water with the fluffy clouds in the sky and that was a whole different story. Although, you don’t need to be in a nature reserve to do this!

I had to create the image by stitching because my “wideangle” wasn’t wide enough leave blu sky above the clouds and in the reflection. Just when I had started thinking that maybe I should get the Canon S95 compact instead of a real wideangle lens… but truthfully, even if I had had a wideangle I wouldn’t have had it with me on this trip. The small and light S95 on the other hand, I probably would’ve carried it instead of the SLR today and it has a 28mm wideangle. So I have to do some thinking again.

Raining.

I’m good at rain-proofing myself and the camera, so I drove to Skärkdalen to photograph the Silver Falls I visited in the summer. It’s a 2 km hike from the car to the creek, the trail goes through some mud and muck and it was even worse now than it was the last time. I found that my wellingtons are leaking again, this is definitely the last pair of Tretorn boots I’ll ever own.

And it was raining. I hadn’t come very far when my all-weather hat was leaking water on my face. And my all-weather jacket had wet sleeves and I was only saved by the fleece sweater underneath. And my all-weather hiking pants were wet at the knees. There’s a shelter at the creek (next to the bridge over it) so I just wanted to get there, have a cup of coffee and wait for the raining to subside.

When I got to the shelter, I found that I had forgotten to take the thermos with me. So I downed my sandwich with cold water and looked at the raining to continue just the same. Then I had a Snickers and it was still raining. I waited some more (getting colder by the minute thanks to all the wet clothes I was wearing) and when it finally looked like the raining was tolerable, I went out and set up the camera by the closest fall. The camera at least was still dry, while the tripod was wet and cold and not very nice to handle.

And then it started raining some more again. I retreated back to the shelter and waited a little bit longer. And gave up. I hadn’t gotten very far on my way back to the car, when the raining quite genuinely let up and I even saw the disc of the sun through the clouds. I really wanted these waterfall pictures so I turned back, but in a minute it was raining harder again. I definitely gave up this time, it just wasn’t meant to be!

It was still only early afternoon and I had no plan B, I had a problem instead. What to do? My only rainproof clothes were soaking wet, so I had little chance of doing anything meaningful today. And the forecast said that it would continue like this tomorrow, which gave me bad odds for doing any photography.

I checked out and drove home.

It had stopped raining by the time I got to Långå, so I stopped at the Rändåfallet falls so I could investigate the top falls that I missed the last time. I got my waterfall fix anyway, and the falls were definitely worth seeing even if here’s very little water right now. I know I always say that I prefer less water in my waterfalls, but you need some water in any case or there wouldn’t be a fall!

The raining aside, I think it was a good vacation. I got to see the autumn colours, conquered three mountains, witnessed some reindeer behaviour I had never seen before, ate a waffle, did a lot of hiking that’s good for the body and soul. Now I have a whole weekend at home before work, and I’m planning to do absolutely nothing at all. Well, apart from finish processing all the pictures I took this week and re-live the good moments!

Yesterday was such a great day that it was unrealistic to think that I would have another one today. My hike started off cold, windy and moody and when I was climbing up to mount Ramundberget from Walles, I found that my thighs were a lot more tired than the rest of my body. I was lifting my feet more by will power than muscle power but at least I was still ok walking on level ground and going down. My original plan was to go to the Hästkläppen peak after Ramundberget, but having discovered how sluggish my feet felt, I abandoned that and settled with one peak. With the weather as it was, I wasn’t inspired to make extended hikes anyway.

There was a path to the peak of Ramundberget, but instead of going back the same way I continued down on the other side to meet with a trail that was coming from Ramundberget (the village) and then follow it down to the Össjön valley and then south-east back to Walles. A great plan with one big problem – the trail from Ramundberget (the village) was old and apparently not used much and although finding it at first wasn’t hard, it was really hard to stay on it. The trail was frequently crossing some wet streaks and disappeared and initially I always found back, but the closer I got to the creek at the bottom of the valley, the harder it was to find the trail again. In the end it didn’t matter, it was virtually impossible to get lost in any case but the terrain was not fun. All these small streams of water and patches of marshland that you constantly had to be going around to find a safe place to set foot. I’ve got Goretex boots but it doesn’t mean that I want wade in water ankle-deep all the time.

But then there were these really brief spells of sunshine that lifted my spirit. At one point there was big blue gap in the sky and I saw that the clouds were moving in the right direction, so I had some time to find a good(ish) spot and get some sunshine pictures. But then the gap closed and I didn’t see the sun again the rest of the day. It started raining when I was driving back.

Today I hiked to the peak of Lill-Skarven (1224 m). It was promising to be a relatively easy and quick hike, except that if you park your car by the road 84 in Tänndalen, the entire hike is uphill from there to the peak. The only places where it levelled off at all was when the trail crossed some small wetland areas (duckboards over them). There is an alternative route with less climbing if you take your car up to the Fjällparkering which is close to the tree line. But having done a few of these small mountain roads, I didn’t want to put my car through the ordeal again so I decided to punish my feet instead. But my feet were fine, and later on when I walked down that road, I found that it was actually quite fine as well. Maybe next time then.

The view from Lill-Skarven is fabulous. I know I always say that the view is great, and naturally it always is because the peaks give you a high vantage point. But Lill-Skarven is better than average, it feels right in the middle of the mountains and closer to them as well. And one thing I found attractive is the view towards the valley of Anderssjö with mountains all around.

On the way down, I decided to check the view from the Skarvvålen height. It doesn’t require any climbing as it’s just kind of an extension of the mountain, but I was looking for an alternative viewpoint towards the valley and the Hamrafjället mountain so it was worth checking out. It turned out that the view wasn’t that special, but then when I was going back to the trail, I saw a herd of reindeer on the slopes of Lill-Skarven. They were moving slowly but the general direction was east, which is where I was heading as well. So I thought it’s worth a try to see if I could get closer to them, and took a diagonal approach so I would be ahead of them if they would continue towards east. And amazing things happen – they did come towards me and when I saw that I might have a possibility to use them as silhouettes against the sky, I took the risk of getting closer. And they allowed me to do it!

What I then got to witness is something I will not soon forget. The herd consisted mostly of females, plus two young bull reindeer and one older (bigger) bull. The reindeer mating seasons starts in September and the two young bulls were sparring with each other, crossing their antlers so I could hear the sound they were making. If only they would’ve come up a few steps closer to me I could’ve gotten their fighting profile against the sky… but I wasn’t that lucky. And by the time I got their silhouette, they were not sparring any more because the big bull appears to have cooled them down. It was not tolerating any challenges so it chased off the young bulls while running around the cows to make sure they would not stray off.

Although the reindeer allowed me to get so close, they did keep a watchful eye on me. I’ve heard that the only time a reindeer might be a threat to a human is during mating season when the bulls get too excited. So when this running and chasing was going on, a couple of times it looked like they would be running towards me and that really got my heart racing! But this is probably still early season for them, the bull was flemming but none of the females were ready and I didn’t really see any aggressive behaviour from the dominant male, apart from the moment it thought the young males got too close.

It’s easy tell the males and females apart. All reindeer grow horns, but the males shed the velvet skin on theirs before mating season while the females keep it, and just like with other animals with horns, the older the animal the bigger the bigger the horns. So if you look at the pictures, you can easily tell apart the cows and the bulls, and also the dominant male and the future challengers (they didn’t seem to pose much of a challenge today).

What did I say about putting experience first and pictures second? Well, this one was an experience for sure. And one of my photographic aspirations is to picture a reindeer silhouetted against the sky, and I think I kind of got that one as well. Can’t ask more from a hike!

I had a couple of visitors today, one of them all the way from Spain. It would’ve been really nice to show some beautiful mountains to him, but the powers that be decided otherwise. It was raining, and if it wasn’t rain then it was drizzle. But the autumn colours are there, no matter the weather. So hopefully not a complete loss.

Since great scenery was not to be had, the highlight of the day was the waffle at Djupdalsvallen. I love their waffles, I really do. A vacation wouldn’t be complete without one!

On the way home (or hostel), the miracle of light happened, even if it was very brief. Having been raining on all day, the cold wind was biting through me and it was a relief to see the light disappear so I could go inside to warm up!

I’ve been in desperate need of a vacation, and now I finally have it – one week in the mountains in the autumn colours is just what the doctor ordered.

In preparation of the vacation, I had been studying the maps quite intensively. After all these years, I’m still finding new things, like this oddly name lake Uggtjärnen north from the Ånnfjället mountain. My maps told me that there is no trail to the lake, but satellite images told me otherwise – I could even see the sharp lines of duckboards in some places. After some more investigation, I finally found an old map where this trail was marked so I plotted it in my GPS to make sure I could find my way even if the old trail would disappear in the forest.

The trailhead to Uggtjärnen is marked from the road, it’s a small sign but if you just pay attention you can see it. And the trail itself was just fine, there was absolutely no need for the GPS so I really don’t know why it’s not in any of the current maps. When I got to the lake, I even found a wind shelter which is also not on the map. Very strange. Both the trail and the wind shelter were in good condition, no signs of decay that you sometimes see in trails and constructions that actually are on the map.

I had some great expectations about this lake. I figured it would give an opportunity to shoot Ånnfjället with the lake in the foreground, it would only work later in the day when the sunrays would reach the northern side of the mountain. It was a null point today, because as calm as the day was (when driving here, I saw that the big lake of Lossen was dead calm, I’ve never seen it like that!), there was just enough wind to break the surface of the water. And it was overcast anyway, but it looked like there would be some sun later so all hope was not lost.

It’s only about 3 km to Uggtjärnen and I had plenty of time, so I continued hiking north-east from the lake towards the Anåkroken peak. It was absolutely lovely to hike up there, my chosen route (there was no trail here, marked or otherwise) took me along the tree line so sometimes I was walking among the crooked mountain birch and sometimes out in the open. The sun was coming out just as predicted but the light was moving fast, so normally the light was gone by the time I had set up the tripod and camera for something that had looked perfect the moment before. No complaining though, my new mantra is that experience comes first and pictures second, and there was certainly nothing wrong with the experience!

The Anån creek starts from the slopes of Ånnfjället and I needed to get over it. I thought it would be easy so high upstream, but it wasn’t and I suck at long jumping so I found it a bit tricky. I had to walk up and down for a few times but I didn’t find any easy spots, so I had to pluck my courage and make the jump. It was either that or wade over, which I didn’t find an appealing option either as the water was surprisingly deep and flowing fast. But even before I got to Anån, I came across some water which I didn’t understand at all. It looked like it was flooding because there was certainly no waterbed here and water was flowing over grasses and bushes that I’m sure were growing high and dry earlier this summer. Very unusual, because everything else I’ve seen indicated that water should be low, I saw many dry waterholes and dry brooks on the way. But then when I was walking upstream in search for a place to walk over (it was not very deep, just very wide), I found a small pond and a beaver hut. Never expected that – the pond was above the tree line and the nearest trees were further downstream. Live and learn.

And here’s some more trivia. The peak I reached today, Anåkroken, literally translates to “The An creek hook” (where “An” is a name!). I never quite figured out what the hook is (well, never really thought about it), until now that I was crossing the creek (or brook as it still was up here). It flows east at first, then swings north and finally turns west to the Anån valley. And the Anåkroken moutain is there where the creek makes the big turn.

The light continued to be as shifting as it was earlier but by the time I was back at Uggtjärnen, it had become almost completely overcast. It looked like there would be little chance of a nice sunset, and I was actually genuinely hoping for a dud because my feet were killing me and I was absolutely starving. So my options were to wait for the sunset and suffer the hunger pains, or drive to the hostel and get something to eat. My stomach won, and I was relieved to see that the sunset was indeed a dud so I didn’t miss anything.

But oh what a great day it was!

There’s nothing that can take my mind off things than photography. And I really need to take my mind off things. Too many things going wrong, I’m constantly stressed out and it’s starting to take its toll. But nothing to do about it, just wait and hope that everything will work out fine. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

I spent some time at Högforsen, it’s really only photogenic during low water so you can jump around on the cliffs. It had been raining at night so the shaded cliffs were a bit slippery, but I managed without breaking my skull or equipment. The sun was coming out which was making the cliffs safe, but ruining my photo ops – I still haven’t learned how to deal with the sunny highlights on running water. But I had to take the pictures to chase away those bad thoughts, if only for a moment.

Next week it’s vacation and the mountains, and I know from experience that it will do a world of good for me!

I think I found a new favourite place. The same one I visited a week ago, except this time I followed the streak of marshland at the northern end of the lake to further explore the area. And now it was afternoon, which provides a more suitable light for this place than morning. It was a gorgeous day – nothing but blue skies. Which is of course not so exciting in a photo and then you can also add some wind so that I couldn’t use the water in the compositions, so all my pictures fall short of the experience. Having said that, I’m posting a panorama (cropped from one shot, it wasn’t worth a stitch) that highlights the problem with wideangles and polarisers shooting at a 90 degree angle from the sun. Intense blue sky on one side, and bland pale on the other! But at least it gives an overview of the lake and I will come back here, in calmer weather and with some nice puffy clouds in the sky.