The Quiet Picture

The landscape is transforming quickly. Snow is receding visibly every day and now it’s just patches rather than any real snow cover to speak of. The next major breakthrough will come when the lakes break free of ice, normally it happens at the end of April or early May at the latest.

The early spring flowers are popping up in the warm spots and my crocuses are always early. The flowers closest to the house were blooming while there was still a pile of snow a meter high in front of them! But now that pile is gone of course and I had plenty of space and dry yester-year grass to kneel on to shoot them.

In the afternoon we made a major effort to find cranes and other migratory birds. I’ve been a little bit perplexed that I haven’t seen the big crane flocks in Veckebo that normally are there every year, now it’s only been a handful of cranes in the distance. And when we were driving around through all the big fields around Ljusdal, all we saw was one pair of cranes! Since I don’t think there’s been any major drop in the crane population, the only conclusion I can make is that the cranes’ breeding wetlands are open enough for the cranes to move straight home instead of gathering in the fields while waiting for the thaw. Proof of the point, there’s a pair of cranes in the marshland in Kullas (the highest point on the road between Korskrogen and Loos) already. They nested there last year and I wondered if it really could succeed. They don’t seem to mind the traffic, but I’m fairly sure that somebody got out of the car to take a closer look. The cranes have a zero-tolerance policy about people and sure enough, the nest was abandoned before the baby hatched. On the other hand, it’s normal that a crane couple would have a failed breeding attempts in the first years they’re together. So provided that people leave them well alone, maybe they’ll succeed this year?

Last week I was hoping that I was done with the crocus pictures, but I just had to post this one. It’s not very polite to shove a lens up to anyone’s reproductive system but the crocus didn’t mind and I promise that no flowers were harmed in the process! In order to get this picture, I had to use an extension tube with the macro lens and this is actually the first time I’ve ever used the combo. The Sigma 150mm lens does 1:1 magnification but it wasn’t enough to completely fill the frame with the crocus so the extension tube came out of the retirement where it’s been since I got the long macro. I’ve been thinking about my flower strategy for the summer and one idea I’ve toyed with is doing more genuine macro photography. The definition of what “macro photography” really is can be a bit fuzzy, but I think that most of my flower pictures are close-ups rather than macro – true macro starts with life-size magnification. But regardless of the amount of the magnification, the appeal of the technique for me is to completely fill the frame with the subject!

Since we now have more and more green things sprouting from the earth, I made an inventory tour of my favourite spring flower places. I was mostly interested in the daphne and wood anemone and found out that I probably won’t be shooting the daphne on 1 May like I did last year. And the wood anemone… I got a real shock in my favourite wood anemone spot. It was covered by 40 cm of snow! The place gets direct sunlight only in the morning but the nights have been cold so the morning light doesn’t do much. It hasn’t been raining either and the days haven’t been particularly warm, so this snow is not going anywhere. Will be very interesting to see when the wood anemone will bloom here and in what numbers. In a much sunnier place I saw the wood anemone already sprouting leaves.

My camera needs flowers, and so do I!

Today wasn’t quite as nice as yesterday, but it doesn’t stop the spring from coming along. I found hepatica buds behind the garage, and they weren’t there yesterday because I looked and didn’t see any. The crocuses are also increasing every day and I can even see a snowdrop on the way, only leaves mind you no bud. I’ve only had snowdrop flowers the first year after I planted them, since then it’s only been leaves. So if they start blooming next week, hopefully this is the last of the crocus pictures this year, but at least it’s a yellow one. Out of the 23 crocus flowers I have at the moment, all but three of them are purple and the first two yellow ones were unphotogenic so I was happy to see this third yellow open already today. A small thing, but big enough for the macro lens!

Then I went for a walk down to the lake. The water level is really low as it always is in the spring, probably around 1m lower than normal. In the autumn I needed wellingtons to approach this old boat from the shore, but today I was able to walk around it without any risk of wet feet. But I did have to watch out for the numerous willow grouse droppings (if you look carefully, there’s a pile to the right of the boat). I think it’s willow grouse anyway, I’m not a bird dropping expert… if not willow grouse, then black grouse. But if it’s black grouse, then I would be very surprised because this doesn’t seem like a black grouse kinda place.

* * *

These are the first pictures I’ve processed on the new laptop. The screen takes some time getting used to, it’s very bright so everything that looks ok on my big monitor looks too bright on the laptop. But a lot of the problem has to do with the viewing angle… need to remember to always use the same viewing angle when I process the pictures!

I’ve got myself a new toy in the form of a 14″ Sony Vaio laptop. I must say that I’m quite happy with it, not least because I got it for discounted price that I’m sure was Sony’s mistake! When I was looking for a laptop, I was having a real hard time finding something that was perfect for my needs. Then I found this Vaio in one webshop, it was only some pre-release information with a price but it wasn’t available for order yet. So I went directly to Sony’s store, bookmarked the page and waited for the laptop become available. One day it did… but the price was a whole lot lower than the price I had seen in the first store. I didn’t waste any time but ordered the Vaio, and the following day when I checked the Sony store again, they had corrected the price so it matched the higher price I had seen at first. But in my order, it was still that “discounted” price, this is the first time I’ve been a beneficiary of a pricing mistake! Not complaining.

The laptop comes equipped with a 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. I had been quite keen on seeing this new OS, having been one of the many (millions) who hate Vista. And so far it’s been a positive experience, even if it had some features enabled that were driving me crazy, but when I finally figured out how to disable the nuisance I’m much happier already. I still have one nag but I hope that I can fix that one, too. Google will help.

So apart from not being able to keep my fingers off the new toy, I spent some more time with my crocuses; there’s not much else growing yet anyway. There’s quite a bit of snow left in the forest, while the snowmobile trails are getting too soft to walk on so my walks are restricted to the roads at the moment. But things happen quickly at this time of the year, so I’m sure that things will look up soon!

Every day there’s more crocuses coming up under my kitchen window. Today I had five of them in bloom, but I can see three new buds already. It’s too bad that my crocus patch is shaded in the evening so the only chance I have of seeing them open is during the weekend, so I was happy about the sunny morning today because it gave me the opportunity that I was waiting for!

I checked out the hepatica again to see if any of the buds I saw yesterday would be open already, and a couple of them were. So the hepatica are now officially in bloom, which is roughly the same time as last year.

I came to realise that it’s worth taking the same pictures of the same flowers year after year, after all. I decided a couple of years ago that I wouldn’t do it but the budding botanist (pun intended) in me appreciates the documentary value of the pictures. It works if you write down when this or that flower was in bloom, but it’s much better to have a picture of it in the catalogue!

My crocuses are finally blooming! Or maybe they have been doing it for days… but they are always closed when I come home from work, and they stayed closed yesterday also as the sun didn’t come out until later in the afternoon when my crocus patch is already shaded.

The flowers feel like a colour explosion after a black and white winter. How I love flowers… flowers and a macro lens. Does it get any better?!

It’s starting to feel like Christmas already. The world was white in the morning, and the stuff kept falling all day. The sun sets around 8pm so there was enough light left to take some pictures, which felt a bit weird. Normally in the winter I can only hope that the snow won’t drop off the trees before the weekend, but now I can photograph it after work.

This is what the crocus patch looks like today

For some reason, not a lot of people like to be out in the forest in this weather. Actually, no one had been out today, it was pristine snow cover all around. Well, more for me then.

April weather (slightly cropped)

As I write this, I can hear the snow falling off the roof. So much of it has piled up behind the house that it reaches the bedroom window. So now I have to worry that some icy clump will bounce against the window and break it…

The flower photography season is now open – even if these are just buds! But I just couldn’t wait any longer, the snow is dirty and weather is boring but the spring crocus buds are absolutely beautiful. Every day when I come home from work, I pause by the flowers and just look at them, marvelling at how they grow even when it’s a cold day.

Most of the crocuses are violet coloured, or white-violet – only two yellows so far.

This is just about the first time I’m using the Sigma 150mm f2.8 for its intended purpose – macros. Can’t complain! I also found it to be an absolute joy to be working with a shallow DOF again.

I planted the bulbs in organised rows, which might not have been the best of ideas. But now that the flowers are starting to grow, I can see that they are spreading out, and the lines can effectively be used for creating OOF foreground.

I also saw some wild flowers today – coltsfoot! Last year I found the first hepatica blooming on this date, but now I can’t find a trace of them yet. I’ll settle for the crocuses then and keep my fingers crossed for the snowdrops. I can see some leaves already.

* * *

I drove to Gävle yesterday to buy motorbike clothes. So now I’m all set up – the only thing I need is a dry road! It will take a while though, because the weather seems to be cooling now and SMHI is forecasting snowfall.