The Quiet Picture

Very exciting day – looking for the ghost orchids (Epipogium aphyllum)! I really had been looking forward to seeing it, because these mysterious small pale orchids have become my favourites. Last year was spectacular for them so we didn’t dare to hope it would be equally good this year, but I think it turned out to be pretty close anyway. Last year we found a few groups with many orchids, this year the concentrations were much smaller but there were individuals scattered over a larger area, it was such a treat to be walking around the place and spot the flowers among the mosses and ferns. We checked out four ghost orchid locations in total, and found them in each – which wasn’t guaranteed at all, considering their nature. They can disappear for many years from a location and then suddenly pop up again when the conditions are right.

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I have been itching to go back to the Svartån location we visited last week, so I did that tonight. The volume of water had gone down considerably, just as predicted. Now it was possible to follow the creek on the cliffs surrounding the water, instead of making detours in the forest. I followed the creek up to where it finally levelled off, the next time I think I will follow it downstream. This visit confirmed the feeling I got the last time, the place is full of opportunities and even after 2.5 hours I had still only just scratched the surface. It’s not just the waterfalls but everything around them as well. You can use a wideangle to cram in as much as possible or you can concentrate on a single detail, and come back some other time and do it all over again because it will have changed. Marvellous!

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SVT Gävledala hade ett inslag om Hamra NP i måndags. De hade filmat vid Svartån, men jag kan inte avgöra om de filmat precis här eller hittat mer klipphällar annanstans längs Svartån… i så fall, var var det?

As far as warm and sunny summer weather goes, then July wasn’t it. We got rain, then it rained a bit more, and when it stopped raining it started again. Ok it wasn’t entirely that bad, but it sure wasn’t good either. But don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining! By some freak accident I had managed to book myself on holiday during those brief periods of warm weather, and it was too much for me. I can handle warm weather when I’m at home, but when I’m in the mountains and doing a lot of hiking and photographing, warm weather is the last thing I need. So I just got sick of it and haven’t missed it since.

Four days of observations missing – those warm and sunny days when I was on holiday.

Temperature (High): 23°C
Temperature (Low): 10°C
Temperature (Average): 16°C

Barometer (High): 1020 mbar
Barometer (Low): 995 mbar
Barometer (Avg): 1005 mbar

Total of sunny days: 0

Rain: 168 mm

Days with rain: 20

2007
2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009

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!

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!

After a few days of rest at home, I’m back in Funäsdalen. I started by taking the northern road to Ljungdalen, I knew the new road was finished so I was curious to see it and it was also nice to be driving it westward, can’t remember if I’ve ever done it before… normally when I take this route, I’m on my way home. Anyway, I can definitely recommend the road, maybe it’s nothing out of the ordinary but it’s worth the detour at least once. You start seeing the mountains nice and early, with a few really photogenic spots along the way.

In Ljungdalen, I headed straight to Torkilstöten. The snowfields are getting smaller and I was absolutely sure that the mountain avens would be blooming now a week later, and yes indeed they are. I was happy! After that, I checked out a couple of places for lapland marsh orchids and early marsh orchids ssp. cruenta. I knew these places to be good especially for the lapland marsh orchid and oh boy was there ever so much of them… And as always, when I took a closer look at some orchids which looked a bit unusual, I started wondering which species it really was. A light version of a lapland marsh orchid? A darker version of heath spotted orchid? Or something in between? By the time I got down to photograph the early marsh orchid ssp. cruenta, I was totally confused. You can be dead cert you’re looking at a cruenta when the leaves are spotted or completely dark on both sides. But if you just look at the flowers – like I did through the viewfinder – I couldn’t really tell the difference from some individuals of lapland marsh orchids. Which I knew must be lapland marsh orchids because the colour was right, and spots only on the upper side of the leaves… dactylorhiza is by far the most difficult orchid genus to make sense of!

I’ll be off on a short holiday now, probably no Internet access. I will be able to send tweets from my mobile though, my latest tweet can be seen here in the blog lower down in the right margin. Now you’ll be wondering why on earth I have Twitter when hardly anyone is reading this blog either, but I figured it would be nice to have – I can update it from my mobile so I can send tweets about my whereabouts. In case I fall down and hit my head and can’t call anyone, the latest tweet will tell the rescue patrol approximately where I am. Provided that anyone reads this blog, anyway, because I forgot to tell anyone in person that this is my new safety line. LOL!

Had one last look at the lesser butterfly orchids. They are finally starting to open, but out of the 21 individuals that I found (11 of them about 100 meters from my house, I think this is a new location for them, very exciting!), 2 were in full bloom and the rest were varying degrees of buds. So I can stop worrying now, there will be butterfly orchids left for me to photograph even when I come back from my vacation. The reason I’m making such a big deal out of them is that I haven’t photographed them with the 150mm macro yet, and then there’s the fact that they are just so beautiful! What more reason do I need?

The heath spotted orchids are also starting to bloom. It’s the most common orchid in this region, but I’ll never be blasé about any orchid!

Take 1

When I set out northbound, I saw some very dark clouds ahead of me. Otherwise it was sunny, so I figured it was just showers and drove on. I ignored the rain, but when the hail started pounding the windshield, I turned back.

But I was right, it was just a shower. I waited it out at home, decided to dress for rainy weather anyway and set out again.

Take 2

Same road, same direction. When I got there, the raining had already stopped and now it was blue skies all around. The lovely overcast weather had been replaced by a harsh noon light… I worked around it by playing with shadows and light. The bog rosemary was blooming at its best so the timing was right in that sense anyway. When I was almost done with my session, I heard the thunder in the distance. Very dark clouds in the north. I headed home to wait it pass.

I didn’t need the rainy weather clothes though. Even if the day is on the cool side, the sun is very very warm and you don’t want to be wearing rain gear…

Take 3

The thunder storm never made it all the way to Loos but the rain did. And hail. Once the sky started clearing, I set out again, but in a different direction this time. Last week the butterfly orchids had looked like they would be blooming this weekend, but they didn’t. The cold weather had effectively frozen them, I didn’t see any difference to last week’s status.

So I thought maybe the early marsh orchids then. They were already blooming last weekend, so that would be one in the bag. I was trying to find photogenic individuals – no problem with finding individuals, but the photogenic aspect was too much to ask. All early marsh orchids in this location were very small and setting them clear from the grasses would’ve been impossible so I didn’t even try.

I also had a look at the twayblade. No progress from last Sunday.

I gave up.

Take 4

I drove home and when I parked the car, I noticed that the pansies that had mysteriously appeared next to my garage were still blooming and the colours were incredible. I normally don’t photograph garden plants but these pansies were runaways, there’s no way anyone would’ve planted them here. So I focused as close the 150mm macro allowed me, and still had to do some cropping to fill the frame… but I got what I was after. I’ve always wanted to try this with violets, but the wild ones are too small. Pansies however, big enough to pull this off without using extension tubes.

Come to think of it, I might as well have stayed home all day. I can see the pansies from my living room window…

It’s midsummer. What better way to use the day off than walk around a bog, in rain, looking for orchids and other plants? Well I couldn’t think of anything better anyway. And I mean that quite seriously!

The result was 7 individuals of early marsh orchid ssp. cruenta and about a dozen of early marsh orchid. You’d think that it’s not a lot and it actually isn’t, not for this large area that we covered. But I think that it’s part of the charm of these excursions, when you finally find one of those rare flowers it’s always a delight. If our bogs and forests were covered with orchids, then there wouldn’t be a need to search. And without searching, there wouldn’t be finding. And without searching and finding… where’s the joy?

What was a little bit surprising is that all the early marsh orchids we found (of either kind), none were blooming yet. The cold weather has slowed down the development considerably, so while in early June it seemed like all the flowers were about a week early, they now seem to be a week late instead.

One orchid that was blooming at its best though was the lesser twayblade (Listera cordata). It’s a very small flower and easy to miss where it’s growing among the grasses and mosses and whatnot in the forest. But once you get your eye trained on it, it seems to be popping up everywhere. The individual flowers are tiny – the stem is about 10-15 cm tall, so those flowers are just a few millimeters.