The Quiet Picture

Snow leopard.

Snow leopard in the Orsa Björnpark Zoo.

I’m so there! Snow leopards are my favourite felines and I really, really wanted to see one. The last time I saw a snow leopard was ages ago back when I lived in England and it was love at first sight.So on this visit, I hoped I could at least see a snow leopard and maybe with some luck, get some pictures as well.

Since we’ve already had good opportunities to see wolves and lynx and other Nordic animals at Järvzoo, we walked right past the “domestic” enclosures to get to the tigers and leopards. I found the tigers a bit difficult at first, just couldn’t get a good angle, until this one tiger was kind enough to sit down on top of the hill with some forest far back in the distance. It’s probably my favourite picture from this trip, even if it required some editing because there was small tree sticking up from behind the tiger and I needed to get rid of it.

So what about the snow leopard then? It was starting to look like I wouldn’t get any pictures of it. It has a hideaway in the middle of the enclosure and it wasn’t in any hurry to come out. The closing time was approaching and half of our group had already headed back to the exit, but we still had a few minutes until closing time so we made a last effort at both the persian leopards and the snow leopard, neither of which I had any pictures of so far (I’m not counting the snow-leopard-in-the-dark-hideaway frame).

And so our persistence was rewarded – the snow leopard made an appearance!  I could hardly believe my eyes. Then of course I found out that my 300mm lens was too long to fit the snow leopard and its long tail in one frame, so I had to try stitching. I thought I had it, but then at home when I attempted the stitch, it didn’t work at all – it turned out that the leopard had moved right at the moment I reframed for the second picture so nothing was matching in the pictures! But this cat is sure worth the effort, so I took those two pictures and at first I matched the backgrounds. Then I just simply extracted half the animal and re-fitted it in the background and quite amazingly, it actually works. It’s still not a good picture by any means, but it wouldn’t be a good picture even if the stitch had worked straight-out, that background is nothing to cheer at. But honestly, it’s a snow leopard. I’m happy!

This is very exciting. The crane pair that I wrote about a month ago have a hatchling! Every day I have seen one of the cranes lie down and incubate, but this morning I saw the crane stand up instead. So I was fairly sure that the baby had hatched, and even more sure in the evening on the way home when both of the parents were standing in the same place. I haven’t seen the two of them at the same time since the breeding season started in April.

So when I got home, I took the camera and drove back. Try as I might, I couldn’t see the baby but that’s where the photographs come handy – I was able to see some interesting detail in the full res picture. It’s a baby, for sure!

And please note that I stayed in the car, on the shoulder of the road, while taking pictures. As nice as it would be to get closer to the young one (or at least get an unobstructed view), I would never try to approach it and I sure hope nobody else will, considering how easy it is to spot the birds now that they are standing up and mobile. They actually lay down while I was looking and they disappeared in the grass so effectively that I wouldn’t have seen them if I didn’t know exactly where to look.

So congratulations and good luck to the proud new parents!

It’s been a windy day but I was determined to do some flower photography today, perfect time to test my new wind box. But my first target was the marsh marigold in a spot which is surrounded by forest and thus less susceptible to the gusts, so I left the windbox in the car (it would be too small for the tall flowers anyway). I didn’t have any ideas what to do with the flowers so I just walked around, waiting for something to catch my eye. The marsh marigold always blooms late in this somewhat shaded spot, so there were still a lot of buds around and in the end it’s the buds that inspired me.

The problem with the marsh marigold is that the leaves are almost always bug-eaten and even when you find some which are nice, you have to deal with a lot of glare. So I put on the polariser which I almost never use with flowers (it kills so much light that I can’t afford it when there’s a slightest bit of wind) and it actually worked pretty well to cut the glare. But then as I was working on different compositions, the sky became covered with clouds so I had to lose the filter in order to keep my shutter speeds at reasonable levels. I’ve posted the second picture to illustrate the grey sheen of glare, it’s a matter of opinion if it distracts or not.

It seemed like it just kept getting darker. I had a few other ideas what to shoot, but I felt my inspiration disappear along with the light. I normally prefer overcast weather for shooting flowers, but I guess the wind was too much for me, windbox or not. But the good thing about a hobby is that you can also choose not to do it, so I turned back home, no regrets!

Another trip to Messlingen, with a mission. I’ve gotten over the disappointment from the last time, and I’ve actually made some significant process – I’ve found a reliable craftsman who can finish the cabin. Although it won’t happen until after midsummer, but I don’t have any vacation until July so that’s perfect. Today’s job was to do some cleaning and furniture assembly because I intend to spend my first night in the cabin in two weeks’ time and I wanted to prepare for it. No toilet or running water so I will have to rough it, the cabin is kind of a glorified tent at the moment… with solid walls and proper roof, and a microwave oven.

But I’m getting ahead of things.

Before I even got to Messlingen, I checked out the calypso orchid which is just a short detour. Normally they are in bloom in late May/early June, so there should be some buds by now. And yes there were buds, and also a number of individuals in full bloom so I reckon they will peak in about a week. I already have a lot of closeups so I will attempt some environment shots instead, like the one here.

When I arrived at the cabin, I set to work straight away. Out with all the junk, clean the floor and put together a table and a chair. The floor will take more work though, even after vacuuming and washing there was still a layer of dirt on it so I will have to take more cleaning equipment with me next time. While I was working on the furniture, I heard a knock on the door. A neighbour! I was really nervous, I had been avoiding to speak with any neighbours because they must be furious at me for letting this construction work go on forever and the place looks like it does. So I was absolutely amazed to hear that he had no grudge against me, he understood that my contractor was the problem here and told me that I should absolutely not worry about any neighbours, they’re all nice people. I can’t tell you how relieved I was about that conversation, I was almost floating on air! I have been so worried about what the neighbours think that I have been embarrassed to park my car at the cabin every time, just hoping that nobody would notice me. When I finally had finished the table and the chair, I was truly happy to sit down and have my first cup of coffee in my cabin!

Time was flying by and my choices were to put together more furniture, or go for a walk. So I went for a walk, and I didn’t even consider other alternatives than the Fiskhålsgraven ravine. It’s just a 3 km hike on a good trail, but about half of it ascending – about 200 m to the top of the ravine. I’ve been to Fiskhålsgraven many times before, but this was the first time I came from the Messlingen direction and the trail gave me a pleasant surprise, which in the future will make the ascend a whole lot easier. The trail follows a small brook which is of course constantly falling so you just need to take your pick which particular section you want to shoot. Because this is still early spring in the mountains, there’s nothing growing along the brook and it’s not looking very nice. But come summer and come the green, it will be a whole different story!

When I was walking up, I had an epiphany. It was a real feeling of belonging, something I rarely experience. Normally people would have that feeling when they’re at home, I mean that’s were you belong, right? But not me… my home is just a place where I live. I’ve never felt that I’ve grown roots anywhere, it seems like everything is just temporary in my life. Even if I’ve had the same job for years and lived in the same flat for years, it’s still somehow temporary (it’s very evident in my flat, it’s full of temporary solutions!). Never trust anything, because the moment you do the earth will cave under you. So I’ve never belonged. Until that moment walking through a naked forest… I belong here. Amazing. The cabin that has been killing me in the past year is now saving my life, if you please pardon the dramatic license!

Back at the cabin, I had another cup of coffee. Do I dare to trust?

It’s a rainy and windy day so I decided not even bother with the big camera, even though the macro season has well and truly started. A lot of flowers are on the way up, for example the wood sorrel is blooming at its best but with the weather of course, the flowers are closed. So are the wood anemone in my favourite spot. But then at Hembygsgården I found the lily of the valley leaves growing strong and tall with some buds, some of them seem to be only a few days short of bloom. This spot is a south facing slope so it’s always a sure bet in the spring. The earliest common dog violets are in bloom and I also found these wood cranesbill buds.

I’ve never used the Powershot in manual focus mode before. The autofocus struggles big-time with closeups so I had no option but to switch to manual, and to my big surprise it worked really well. Obviously it’s a bit finicky when it has to be done electronically and using the LCD, but all things considered it was ok. It will even be a little bit easier when I don’t have to protect the camera from the rain at the same time!

This winter I found a waterfall. Obviously, it was under snow and ice at the time, but I promised myself to get there at first best opportunity in the spring and today was it. In the winter you get there following the snow mobile trail, but in the summer there are two roads that take you close and leave about 1 km to do on foot. My choice of roads was perhaps not the best possible today, there was a point the road was so bad I considered turning back, but then I thought, nothing ventured nothing gained… so my car gained a few new scratches after a couple of ground hits. My next car will have higher clearance!

Besides the obligatory photography equipment, I had also packed a gimmick and a pair of sturdy rubber gloves. I knew that there would be a lot of wood debris lining the waterfall but because it’s such a small brook, it would be easy to clear out the small stuff. And sure enough, it was – I got it looking quite nice, apart from the trees that had fallen across the brook. If you look at the first picture, you can see some of that stuff in the lower left corner and on the right but it looked a whole lot worse at first, many of those small waterfalls were broken by small branches and dead leaves. In the second picture, you see the fallen trees but this is not even the worst spot, one section of the falls were almost completely blocked out of view by a fallen spruce.

This waterfall is such a nice little treasure, I will come here in the summer for sure when everything is growing, for example I saw some ferns coming up and what could be a nicer decoration than ferns? The height of the fall is also impressive, of course it’s not continuous at all but I reckon overall it must be the highest one in Loos.

The gimmick that I had packed was my blue/yellow polariser. It’s been ages since I’ve used it, and to be honest, any gimmick filter is best used with care and seldom. The last time I used it was in the winter a few years ago so using it now in the spring and in the forest was new for me. It was a useful experience because I discovered that the polariser works magic on the bland looking mosses. Just compare the first picture with the third one, there’s a world of difference in the moss. The white balance in both pictures is set by picking a custom balance from the white water. So I was thinking, in the future, I could take one picture with a normal polariser for the water, and a second one with the b/y polariser for the forest and then combine them to get rich green mosses and natural looking water.

Other than that, the gimmicky nature of the b/y polariser is obvious. The way it paints the rocks golden can be nice (to a limit) but the blue version looks awful. Maybe the blue end of the polariser will be useful under some circumstances that I can’t think of right now, but I’m already looking ahead to the autumn because it feels like the golden effect would be perfect then!

Photography in a zoo on a sunny day in May can be a tough affair. Contrasty light and animals shedding fur, not the easiest of conditions. So imagine my surprise when the frame count kept creeping up, I never thought that was possible. On the other hand, because of the conditions, I kept taking the same pictures with different settings and hoped that I could rescue something out of one of the versions.

Or then it was constant action and I was just trying to keep up. Like this wolf coming ever closer to me, sniffing and digging the ground. Needless to say I was amazed that the only shot that wasn’t instantly trashable had the wolf licking its nose! Mind you, by this time the wolf was so close to me that I was shooting down on it, and with the sun high up in the sky the eye is half shaded. And I’m sure nobody noticed that one ear is missing?

When we got to the muskox enclosure, we found one of the oxen lying down in a shaded corner. Well, partly shaded anyway – cue horrible contrast between the highlights in the horns and the shadows in the dark fur. But I was able to rescue one of the frames in Lightroom, even if I had to convert it to B&W which is more forgiving to all the local exposure adjustments I had to do.

At the bear enclosure, I was really struggling with my fixed 300mm lens. The bear cub was sleeping by the momma bear’s side with the paws turned up so just for once it wasn’t so bad to be shooting straight down. But it was absolutely impossible to get the whole cub in the frame, so I tried stitching. It was a shaded spot so I had to use a long-ish shutter speed and it turned out that it was too long – for every series of pictures I took, at least one of the frames was too shaken for the stitch to work. I only had one series which was borderline ok, but by then the cub had changed position a little bit so the paws were not as nicely positioned as here.

And would you know, at the wolverine enclosure I was shooting down again. But this is the first time I had a close look at a wolverine eye, and I was surprised to see what shape the pupil is. See for yourself!

I completed my full house of looking-down pictures at the lynx enclosure. The lynx enclosure in Järvzoo is notoriously difficult for any eye-level pictures anyway, but I just love that furry face and those yellow eyes! And I’m sure that nobody missed the missing ear again?

All in all, it was a good visit. Not the ideal conditions and way too much looking down (a big no-no in animal photography), but somehow I’m still happy with the results. Orsa Björnpark next!

I had a plan for the day:

1. Wood anemone
2. Lunch
3. Check the pasque flowers
4. Bake bread
5. Cycling
6. Watch ice hockey and eats lots of ice cream

1. The wood anemone in my favourite spot were stuck in about the same stage where they were last weekend. It has been a cold week, it even snowed one day, and the wood anemone appear not to have appreciated it. So had a closer look at the buds and found that the way the leaves were curving around the bud was just about as cute as a flower can get (I mean, how often do you use the word “cute” to describe a flower?) so spent a long while shooting them. I found that I’m probably getting too old for macro photography because oh boy how my knees and back were complaining about the session…

2. It filled my stomach, that’s all I can say about the lunch.

3. I found one pasque flower plant (leaves, no flower), the same one I found last year. I think they’ve died out in this place, but I will check it next year again of course.

4. The bread takes a long time in the oven, so I had time for

5. cycling. I pedalled to Älgsjön, but I took the road which leads to the eastern end of the lake. I’ve never taken this road, so I was surprised to find out that it rises quite high and because the forest has been logged, there’s a great view down to the lake. Will have to come back some calm morning to try to shoot it.

6. So far, Canada beat Norway and Denmark beat Germany. Waiting for Finland to beat Slovakia, please…

P.S. There’s another version of the wood anemone bud on my Facebook page.

After a cold and rainy day, the evening was turning out to be sunny and calm. It sounded like a perfect evening to photograph the red-throated loons, so grabbed my camera and jumped in the car. I hadn’t gone 100 meters into the forest road when a crane took off right in front of me, so it was a promising start. The first lake however was empty, but it is also the one which is harder to photograph so I didn’t mind. Right after that lake though, I found to my disappointment that they had done a lot of logging and huge piles of timber were lining the road. The road was also a bit rough to drive because the forest machines had torn it up but I got through ok, it was a relatively short stretch anyway. Then when I got to the most photogenic lake, I found that it was empty, too – not a feather of a red-throated loon in sight. Right after this lake, on the other side of the road, there’s a small tarn and now I finally saw some life. Three ducks of some sort were swimming around, the tarn was back-lit so it was difficult to see the detail in the birds but in the end I was able to id them as teals. I hope I will get another chance to photograph them because the teal has a really nice colouration, one of the prettiest waterfowl we have.

But I was going to shoot red-throated loons, so I decided to check out another lake where I had heard that the loons hang out, even if I had never seen them there before. But just before I got to that lake, things got really interesting – there was a male black grouse on the road! I tried to get my car in an angle so I could shoot the bird from the driver side window, but I guess it was a bit too much because it strutted away from me and then flew off to a near-by tree. But at least it was on the right side of the road (considering the light) and not very far, so I got some pictures of it singing its love song in the pine. But apparently I wasn’t quite what it was calling for so it flew to another pine, a little bit further away. And after that, yet another pine even further back. I had a clean view though and blue sky in the background, so I kept clicking away while waiting to see if it would move back towards me. In the end it did, but it landed on the ground and I couldn’t see it from the car so I decided to call it a day.

And those red-throated loons? Nope, didn’t see them at all. But the evening turned out great anyway!

We drove to Gröntjärn today, the idea was to shoot pale pasque flowers. I was sure they would be in bloom or at least budding because the spring is slightly early this year. The weather wasn’t too good, overcast and cold (there were snowflakes in the air at one point), but the pale pasque flowers are nice even if they’re not open. So I was prepared for all this, but I was not prepared for not finding any pale pasque flowers at all! I couldn’t believe it, I was standing right where I’ve been shooting them in the years past, but now there was nothing. After some searching I finally found one plant, with just tiny leaves. This is like a deja-vu from last year when we looked for the flower in a place where they were abundant 15 years but almost all gone now. So I’m totally mystified by what has happened. However, now that I’ve had some time to to think about this, I remembered reading last year that the pasque flower can skip blooming some years and then pop up again when the conditions are right. I just always assumed that they are a sure thing at Gröntjärn… And what’s wrong with the conditions this year if they’re only resting and haven’t completely died?

Since there was too much wind to make anything out of the lake itself, we drove on to Hornberget. I’ve been on top the mountain once before, that was in 2001 – the 6th of May 2001 to be exact, I wrote in the guest book which was still in the small cabin on top. The oldest entries in the guest book are from 1995 and there’s plenty of empty pages left in it, so there’s not much traffic up here. Which is a shame, really, because the view is fabulous! You can walk to the cliff’s edge and look right down at the tree tops and the occasional falcon flying below you. There’s a 200m vertical difference from the car park to the top and I reckon the cliff drops straight down at least a 100m, if more. That’s an impressive cliff in this region!