Sometime you just have nothing really significant, or not even interesting, to write along any single photo, so you just offer something you think it’s pleasant enough to be shared. This is the case: a little exercise of geometrical composition which goes back to few weeks ago (when snow was still there). A few days ago Särna hosted, as is traditional at this time of year, the Polardistans, one of the most important European sled dogs competitions; possibly the hardest, considering that the participants have to be entirely independent (in a race up to 300 km long in its more challenging category), carrying all the food and equipment by themselves. Forty teams from all over the continent took part, finding themselves fighting a night blizzard that forced many to retire.
Not my usual stuff, but I actually enjoyed it. Here is a short gallery of shots before the start and along the first segments of the trail. The lake of Särna in a late February evening; the town remains discreetly sheltered along the opposite shore, already wrapped in the shadows. It’s been a warm February, the warmest in the five years of our life here: a worthy conclusion of a temperate winter following a very mild autumn. The beginning of March is the entrance into Gidádálvve (springwinter), one of the eight seasons of Sami people: daylight has increased almost by magic, both in duration and intensity; the sun shines high and the temperature range between day and night is important. To the point that solar energy succeeds in raising a thick evening fog on a lake still solidly frozen, which will remain so until the end of April. That very energy has fueled for hours that thermal on the hill over there, and it still has the strength to climb on its vertical, condensing into an atmosphere colder and colder as the sun goes down. The little cloud suddenly appears, catching fire with the last light. Few minutes, just enough to take a picture and contemplate the scene, before the shape of the mount Fulufjället to the west makes both dissolving in the twilight to come. |
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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