The Quiet Picture

First of the “Micro Four Thirds” cameras is soon be released, Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1. Although I’m a happy Canon EOS 40D user, I must admit that a smaller camera has its benefits. For one thing, I will go hiking next week – the 40D + lens + tripod + accessories gets a bit heavy after a kilometre or 50. Not a chance of bringing a collection of lenses, I’ll have just the zoom and that’ll have to do. And the 24-105mm zoom is no lightweight, either. A compact camera would be an alternative, of course, but I’m just loathe to use one. The image quality is probably a lot better than 5 years ago when I last had one, but otherwise the cameras just don’t behave like an SLR which I feel comfortable with.

So these new Micro Four Thirds cameras, they might be a viable alternative. If the image quality is up to any good, then it should make a much more hiker-friendly alternative with lenses and all. IDG says that the price is set to be 7995 SEK, which is a bit on the pricey side though for a 2nd camera. But again… if the IQ holds up, then it would make a nice companion on skiing and hiking trips!

The opportunity to photograph the ghost orchid was so unique that I just had to get back there, this time with the zoom lens to capture the environment as well. I should mention that “ghost orchid” means different flowers in North America and Europe. Dendrophylax lindenii is the American ghost orchid, and Epipogium aphyllum is the Eurasian ghost orchid.

It was raining quite a lot but the Stormjacket came through for me so I think my camera is safe. But as far as Sundays go, well, I just can’t think of anything better than walking through a rain soaked forest in cool weather!

I can’t even remember the last time I rode my motorbike. First it was too hot, then it was too cold, then it was too rainy, then I didn’t have time, then I was too tired, then I wasn’t even at home… and before you know it, half the summer has gone by and the bike is stuck in the garage. But today I finally got on the road again, and to my surprise I hadn’t forgotten anything. On the contrary, it feels like riding the motorbike is now even easier than it was before. And more fun!

Yes, shocking, that’s actually me. The picture is taken by my MC-mentor (I cropped it to re-compose) and the camera is provided courtesy of my new toy – Nokia N95 8GB. Somehow I managed to resist the lure of the iPhone (what really killed it for me was the sub-par camera and Telia’s insane pricing) but since I had gotten used to the idea of having a smartphone, I got the N95 instead. Apparently it has one of the best mobile cameras, but coming from an SLR background I’m not really impressed. It’s almost good enough for these “on-the-road-and-resized-for-the-web” shots anyway and I wasn’t expecting it to do anything better either.

The day dawned rainy. And windy. Definitely not a flower photographer’s dream weather, but I wasn’t discouraged. It just takes a bit more work, that’s all. I drove to Kallgatburg in search of the narrow-leaved marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza traunsteineri) and I was happy to find them – except now that I looked at one and confirmed the id, I realised that many of those early marsh orchids I was cursing at yesterday were also narrow-leaved marsh-orchid. But now that I was sure of what I was looking at, it was surprisingly easy to tell them apart. That’s learning the hard way, but these are the lessons that I’m sure to remember. Much more efficient than someone just pointing out the flowers to you.

Weather-wise, I had a lucky break at Kallgatburg. When I was walking to the car, it started raining and it kept raining on my next stop, the Alvena lindaränge meadows. It was so bad that I had I not found a new orchid, I wouldn’t have risked getting the camera wet, but as it happens, I did find a new orchid – military orchid (Orchis militaris). And a bonus orchid in a form of a half withered Gymnadenia odoratissima, and now I knew the species for sure. The ones that got me wondering yesterday were not Gymnadenia odoratissima, they were hybrids at best.

The Stormjacket came up the champ, it kept my camera dry and I got my pictures.

Since I had now ticked off two new species, my list was getting short. All that is left are the rarest ones, so now I was just checking my notes to see where those elusive orchids grow. I read that narrow-leaved helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia) and fen orchid (Liparis loeselii) would grow in Ar, so that was my next stop. I was stunned when I got there – pyramidal orchids growing by the roadside, in large numbers! This is the first time I saw them since that one individual I found two days ago. And then I was also seeing early marsh orchids and ssp. ochroleuca, plus lesser butterfly orchids and marsh helleborine… all in greater numbers that I had seen anywhere so far. As for the flowers I was looking for, I found a withered narrow-leaved helleborine, so now I can stop looking for it – I’m hopelessly too late for it. The fen orchid was nowhere to be seen.

On my way back south, I stopped at Vitärtskällan. It wasn’t on my list, but the entrance to the reserve was right by the road so it was too easy to miss. Nothing new there, just some cows.

The next location to find my elusive orchids was at Slite. Again, it was a miss but there was plenty of other orchids. Can’t believe these numbers… back home there’s one bog where you can find 5 different species of orchids. That’s the most I know of anywhere in that region. Here, 5 species seems like a poor orchid place. At first on my excursions, I kept a count of the number of orchids I saw. Now I don’t even bother… The last time I counted was 8, and I’ve read that there are some places that host no less than 15 species. They are obviously not all blooming at the same time, but still! And the most common orchid? Twayblade, no doubt. Can’t remember a place I’ve visited where it didn’t grow.

Time for one more excursion before I called it a day. Having given up on the narrow-leaved helleborine, I was now hunting for the burnt orchid (Orchis ustulata) which is actually quite high on my wish list. But I missed it again, I did however find mosquitoes. Got my first mozzy bites on this island!

I don’t need it. But I want it.

What can I say. I’m a victim of Apple’s marketing. It Just Works.

I couldn’t wait anymore and ordered my Canon 40D, which arrived even earlier than I expected! I haven’t gone all trigger happy and tested it just for the sake of testing, rather I’m just taking the pictures I would anyway. I will leave the reviewing and pixel peeping to others (and there are plenty of them around), but will just briefly give my first impressions:

• the 40D is slightly bigger than the 20D (meaning that the L-bracket doesn’t fit the new camera, so I’m in for a wait until the 40D L-bracket becomes available)
• the LCD screen is massive! The thumbnail in the info display is almost the same size as the full screen picture in the 20D
• the shutter seems to behave a bit differently from what I’m used to. It’s quieter for one thing, and it feels like it’s a bit more sensitive than the 20D. So far anyway, it seems like the picture is taken just a fraction before I would expect the shutter button to be fully depressed. No biggie, just a matter of getting used to.
• focus point selection can be assigned to the joystick – a boon for someone like me who keeps frequently changing it
• the ISO button has been moved – I keep pressing the wrong button every time I change the ISO now. I’ll get used to it.

All in all, I really don’t think there’s any major thing that is better than my 20D. It’s just the number of the small improvements which add up, but to be honest, I think the biggest reason I got the 40D is because… well, because I wanted it. I’ve had the 20D for three years and it’s the longest time I’ve ever gone with the same camera, so I just felt that I needed a new toy. Now I have to decide what to do with the old camera… keep it as a bad weather body or sell it while it’s still in perfect condition?

But, one more word about the 40D – the bottom line. Are the 40D pictures better than 20D? Only if I can make them so!

Somehow I’ve managed to avoid seeing any cranberry flowers until two years ago. Since then, I’ve somehow managed to avoid shooting them, but I was really hoping to correct that mistake this summer. It figures that when you’re looking for them, they’re nowhere to be found… So I stopped looking, and suddenly found a whole marsh full of cranberry flowers!

The cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus) is something of a challenge to shoot. Firstly, it’s a very small flower, growing just a few centimeters off the ground. Secondly, the flower points downwards. And thirdly, it grows in marshland. Put these three together and you’ll need your entire bag of tricks to get some keepers!

The angle finder proved once again to be an essential piece of kit. I had to put the camera on the mossbed (checking first that it wouldn’t be all too wet but I was still grateful for the L-plate which isolated the camera just a little bit) to get a level angle and it would’ve been impossible to twist my head to look in the viewfinder without sinking my face in the moss. But with the angle finder, I managed to pull the whole thing off with nothing more than wet knees and I even got my keeper cranberry flower pictures!

Every spring when I see blueberry flowers I think that I should photograph them. Every year I have not done it. Until now – I have these things growing 5 metres from my house, no excuses! Not even the high winds deterred me, I just made use of my new Wimberley Plamp to steady the stem and a golden reflector to add some frontlight to the sidelit flowers. And since there were two flowers, I used the Plamp to angle the flowers so that I got them parallel to the sensor. Looks like I got one more gadget I just absolutely have to have in my bag… it’s getting heavy!