The Quiet Picture

Cold and rainy day, but not too rainy for checking out some flowers. At first I drove towards Älgsjön to check a bog which I had heard would have orchid potential. Well, either it’s a bad year or there’s not much potential, because I only found a few early marsh orchids. But at one point when I was in the forest, I heard something growl very close by. I could swear it was a growl… or someone revving up a motorbike in the distance. Either way, I stopped and pulled out the compact camera. I figured, if it’s a bear and it will attack me, I’m done with for sure but I’ll have the coolest pictures ever. If it’s a bear and it will not attack me, I’d still have a chance for some cool pictures. And if it’s not a bear, I’ll take the shortcut over to the open bog anyway…

Having come back to the car empty handed, I viewed at the landscape and made a mental note to come back in the autumn, it looked nice. I then drove to one of the rare early marsh orchid ssp. cruenta spots and had a hard time finding any at all. Last year they were abundant but now I found only three in bloom and 5 non-flowering plants, all in a very small area. So I guess this fits with the lack of early marsh orchids earlier. Last year was the best orchid year I’ve ever seen, so a slower year now makes sense.

I was determined to get some pictures in any case, so I came home and checked out the flowers behind my garage. I found a huge patch of twinflowers, I mean they really were growing like a pale pink carpet! So I tried to get a picture which gives an impression of the abundance but there’s a risk that my favourite is the version where I isolated one twinflower… but I’m posting the abundance version anyway.

And if that wasn’t close enough to home, I then noticed a beautiful oxeye daisy with rain drops right under my kitchen window. So I could’ve saved myself the trouble and stayed at home all day!

After the huge disappointment last year when I found someone had cut all the lady’s slipper orchids in one location, I decided I have to do something. I can’t stand watch there every day, so I ended up creating a sign where I pointed out (in a gentle manner, no accusations!) that all orchid species are protected. I offered one of my pictures as a print as a trade-off for anyone who had planned to pick the orchids this year as well.

I put up the sign a couple of weeks ago and today I visited the location to see how the orchids are doing. My sign was still up and so were the orchids! Although to be honest, I don’t think anyone has been there at all, even to look at them. The local folks normally check another location, which is exactly why I’m now visiting this place instead because I don’t want to add to the wear and tear. I started to wonder if these people who pick lady’s slippers have possible also selected another location… but I can’t check them all.

So in this location anyway, the orchids were safe. It turned out that they are early this year, they are already starting to be over bloom and there were no buds at all. They were not as numerous as some other years and I noticed something interesting. I’m almost sure that they are smaller this year than they normally are. I noticed this with the calypso orchids as well, they were definitely smaller than normal. So I’m wondering what could be causing it. Maybe the really warm period in the spring which made them spurt too far ahead considering the season… The next orchid in bloom will be the lesser butterfly orchid, I saw a couple of individuals today which had just started to open up. So let’s see if those will be smaller than normal as well.

I also found some creeping lady’s-tresses orchids in early stages of bloom. But it is such a small orchid anyway that it’s impossible to say if it’s bigger or smaller than normal.

Exciting times anyway – I need to adjust my head to think that this really is summer now, because the flowers are popping up everywhere!

I had a walk around the forest to see what’s happening with the flowers. I was particularly interested in the lesser butterfly orchids, they are already growing but will probably take a couple of weeks to bloom. Most things in the forest seem to be in the same stage and I saw a lot of buds of different kinds. A week or two and it’s the high season!

There is one spot in the forest which is covered by a green mat of ferns. I’ve always eyed this spot and tried to find out ways to photograph it, but even when it at first looks wonderfully light green, at closer look you find that the mat is a little bit “broken” so I never created any pictures here. Until today, when I saw the half grown wood cranesbill break up the fern pattern and this one leaf with a young fern nested on it. It really was like that when I found it, not sure I could’ve come up with the idea myself!

I tried to clean up the leaf before taking pictures and it looked ok in the viewfinder, but on the monitor I could see the leaf was full of little spots of different kinds, some kind microscopic debris that’s really easy to miss in the nature. So I did a great deal of healing to get rid of the worst, but when I realised that there were probably a hundred of these smaller spots, I gave up and used negative clarity instead. Which is a little bit ironic, considering that I shot it at f16 to get enough depth of field to keep the fern sharp!

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!

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.

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!

After all the warm weather last weekend, I’m having a hard time figuring out what to wear now. It’s not as warm but the sun is shining, so do I need the middle layer or not? I decided to have faith in the sun and left out the middle layer and I was very nearly freezing. The wind isn’t helping. It didn’t help me when I tried to shoot the young birch leaf either, the branches were dancing like crazy and I had to hold the branch with one hand and shoot with the other. The Sigma 150mm macro is not made for one-handed shooting, let me assure you… but the shutter speed was fast enough to pull it off. More DOF would’ve been a bonus, but the leaves are growing so fast that either I grab the opportunity when I see it, or wait until next year.

I was short on ideas on what else to shoot, I actually contemplated to skip the daphne because I’m starting to feel that I’ve done everything with daphne that I can and it’s not very inspiring to take the same pictures all over again. But then I figured that it doesn’t hurt to check them and it’s not like I had any better ideas anyway. And oh boy was I happy that I didn’t give up on them! I found this branch which made it possible to fill up the background with the flowers, instead of having to fill the frame with extreme closeups (like I did on Monday). Having done this, now I really don’t know what else to do with the daphne… but at least I learned that it’s worth checking, because you never know what surprises Mother Nature will throw at you.

Surprises like being pounded by hail when I was doing my afternoon walk. I had to take refuge under a bridge and wait for the hail to pass, in the meanwhile the ice that was stuck in my hair started melting and the cold water trickled down my back. Now this is the April weather we all know and (don’t) love!

Flowers, give me flowers! I went to my favourite daphne spot to see if the flowers would already be in bloom. They were, but only by a very narrow margin and there were more buds than open flowers. But the scent, it was already there. Love it!

In the afternoon I took my bike down to the lake and found two pairs of cranes and one pair of swans in the flood plains. The weather is so warm that I can hardly believe it… cycling in a t-shirt in April. That’s a first!

Later on, I drove to Kullas to see if the crazy pair of cranes would be nesting by the road again, and sure enough, one of the cranes was lying down so I think it’s incubating an egg! But at least the nest is not completely in the open, it’s visible from the road (if you know to watch for it) but behind some trees so there’s no clear view. I won’t even try to approach the nest, obviously, so if I want to photograph cranes I will have to find them elsewhere.

One of my spots was the road that my guide took me last year to see red-throated loons. And oh joy – I found a pair of them! It was difficult to get a good shot though so I drove on to the small lake where we found a red-throated loon last year. Only this time, I saw two. This is absolutely brilliant! I’m not a loon expert but I’m thinking that they are out fishing during the day and come back “home” for the evening (black-throated loons live in the big lakes, but red-throated loons only fish in them and breed in the small lakes or tarns). Just perfect for me, it means that I can expect to see red-throated loons just about any evening and I have two lakes to choose from, as well. Today I settled with shooting from the car so I have my work cut out for me to get out of the car and crawl to the water’s edge without disturbing the birds.

But I found something else at this lake as well. I saw a dark spot on the opposite shore – a black grouse! It was way too far for any meaningful pictures but of course I had to try and as I was looking through the lens, I realised that there were actually four of them. Four black grouse and two loons… and then that other pair of red-throated loons in the other lake, and I also saw a pair of cranes between these two lakes. I wasn’t even disappointed when I didn’t see any cranes in the flood-plains at Loossjön!