Simple as it looks: a small pond especially appealing at this special time of the year, and two hours of pure joy and visual research, wallowing in 30 centimeters of soft moss. Here a small gallery of few different photo looks from the same scene, the opening one.
A swamp. A small one, let's say 20x30 meters. Cloudberries getting ready for the coming winter, few meagre birches and a pine, and a wide angle lens. Two afternoons of pure visual joy, spent deep in the soaked moss as a child playing in a puddle, and with the same amusement.
At the end of September two Italian photographers came here for a vacation, and stayed one week at our hostel; guests for the first time, then, in the term's classical meaning. Nature and outdoor enthusiasts as they are, they got things going in the right way, exploring the territory without sparing any energy, following the hints by yours truly. This way they have been able to enjoy most of the beauty of these latitudes' autumn, albeit a weakening one. I am glad to give visibility to their passion and niceness devoting this post to a gallery made with a selection of the pictures they made here around: thereby, they are guests a second time. At the same time it's a way to show what results the commitment and a correct approach could produce – from a wildlife standpoint – even in such a short period of time, and not in the very best season, at least for the animals.
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you, in strict alphabetical order, the dynamic duo Perlino & Pons (Luca and Massimiliano respectively), whom I thank here for the helpfulness. By the way, the Chronicles are today passing the milestone of 400 pictures, since May 2007. I once again went back to Fulufallen, close to Fulufjället National Park, where a river creates, along a half kilometer span, ten waterfalls nestled in the forest for a total drop of about 80 mt. It's a perfect place to photograph the water and the trees reflections with long shutter speeds, above all in autumn.
Found a suitable water jump and set a 1/8 s speed, I was ready to do my usual things, when a passing white cloud lit up the water surface with a fan of bright brushstrokes. That slightest mental flexibility which still strenuously holds up clinging to some obscure spot in my brain made me change my mind at once; so I switched from 1/8 to 1/80, in order to preserve the individuality of those shining curtains, which would otherwise dissolve one in another with the overlapping from the long speed. The resulting structure bears itself the whole image composition (click on the photo to further enlarge it). The forest is a green ocean. Like planks from stranded wrecks,
among backwashes of blueberries and waves of ferns, dead trees lie. Two more autumn shots, this time from Städjan-Nipfjället Nature Reserve (the former was from Fulufjället National Park).
Several are the reasons why the Fulufjället has been declared a National Park, ten years ago. It hosts the Swedish highest waterfall, where the Scandinavia southernmost pair of gyrfalcons (world's largest and rarest falcon) is nesting every year; its origin goes back to 900 millions years ago, not coming from recent ice ages; the oldest tree in the world grows on it (almost 10,000 years old), and it is, consequently, also the oldest individual living being on the planet. Last, but not least, the vast plateau (34x15 km at 1,000 mt height) on its top is the only mountain area in Sweden with no signs of reindeer grazing in centuries. The result is a peculiar, pristine vegetation, unique for number and diversity of species: bushes, plants and carpets of whitish reindeer lichen as far as the eye can see. And here I close the advertisement. I was facing this environment in a late afternoon with a dull light, totally unfit both for the lichen cushions and the autumn blueberries quilting them. In a short enlightenment of lateral thinking, I then asked myself “Why not just use a flash?” Obviously, only directed toward the area I wanted to enhance, leaving the rest of the landscape to its lifeless light. |
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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