An encounter from a couple of weeks ago. The kind of animals picture I like the most: a living being becomes an element of the composition as the others, which the photographer can manage in (relative) freedom; yet the animal retains the magnetic ability to draw our attention and stimulate an emotional response, thanks to the empathetic relationship that we inevitably establish with another being provided with eyes, mouth and ears, as we are. A subject brought back to its proportions and put in relation with the environment in which it moves, landscape and wildlife photography all in a single shot. The best of two worlds: that's what a portrait in the environment is all about.
I've always been fascinated by ptarmigans. Maybe because of their appearance and the habit to turn white during winter; maybe because in the rest of Europe they can be just found in very difficult environments to reach (well, at least for me): the mountain heights. Here in Sweden, latitude helps me to defeat altitude, and ptarmigans can be met at more "comfortable" heights. Nevertheless, I had yet to photograph them in their snow-white, winter plumage (but I did in the spring one: go here and be patient enough to scroll down until May).
A gap now filled. Subtle and pinky, the last lights of the day, reflected by the clouds, fall softly on the snowy scenery and the river Stor-Fjätan, in the nature reserve Långfjället. Januarys is gone, as one endless grey day, and gave us a single sunny day; during which, however, I met a large herd of reindeer just north of Särna, an area where they use to move in this season to graze in the forest, digging in the snow with their hooves to get to the vegetation on the ground. Above, an odd attitude showing a characteristic posture of this deer, whose “bell” shape ends with wide and flexible hooves, sort of snowshoes allowing an easy moving on snowy ground; one of their many amazing adaptations to the extreme climate of the North. However - like all animals, this season – they prefer to walk on a cleared road when they meet one: it is just so much more comfortable...
In Jokkmokk, Swedish Lappland, the edition nr. 409 (!) of the Sami Winter Market has just started. It is the most important event of its kind, for the indigenous people of Scandinavia. Along the 5 days of the market the town increases its population for a factor 10x, the streets are crowded by hundreds of stands and tens of thousands visitors. Every year a theme is chosen, and it becomes protagonist of a limited edition of celebratory postcards. This year's topic is "Reindeer" and this image of mine has had the privilege to be selected for this initiative. One to end it. The month just gone has been one of the warmest in the last 50 years, here in Dalarna. Wind, temperatures regularly above zero (even today, December the 31st, a day in which we use to struggle against -25/30°) and frequent rain. I could well have stayed in Northern Italy to get such a weather... Consequently, that has been a really poor photo month, with a bare landscape, little and dirty snow, grass emerging in the meadows, and wide sections of underwood entirely green. For this end of the month (and year), then here it is a shot from its beginning. Have a Happy 2014, everyone. Few days ago in the flooded forest of Göljån: lynx's footprints, not older than a handful of hours. This gives me the opportunity to narrate an “almost” close encounter with the big cat of the subject, few years ago, in the very same location. I was there to photograph a dipper which was hanging out along one the several creeks crossing the wood devastated by the great flooding from 1997; by the way, exactly the one, frozen, in the picture here. To get there, you have to walk on a narrow wooden boardwalk. I was a twenty meters from it, bent on the tripod and focused on the dipper coming and going on a fallen tree not so far. After just ten minutes I picked up my gear and was heading to my car: on the boardwalk, well clear and obvious on the dry wood, a very fresh track of linx's wet footprints was there, and it wasn't there before. To make it short, a lynx passed by my back, just 20 meters from me and in open sight, while I was staring exactly at the opposite direction. Ever since, inevitably, everytime I recall that moment, with a bitter smile the old commercial I embed here below comes to my mind. |
All site contents are: © Vitantonio Dell'Orto, all rights reserved worldwide. The Chronicles of Särna, and other stories from the North.
I live in Sweden, in Särna (Dalarna). The Chronicles are a photo diary about the nature (but not just) here around and from all the Scandinavian areas where my photo job takes me.
My book: "My Sweden - Tales from an Italian photographer in the North" is available in the bookstores and by the publisher.
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