I am quite aware that this isn't a nice picture at all. It is actually a snapshot, in the very moment in which the animal begins to run away from me, taking flight. A typical "stolen" shot, unplanned and made by chance. However, an odd chance which put me in front of a Willow Grouse so soon after the previous encounter, documented in the first picture of the year (previous post). A living one, this time. Thinking how much difficult is to see this taiga's phantom (widespread, but basically invisible), it seemed to me as the Chronicles were "claiming" a compensation to that shot through one witnessing the bird alive, and I could not help pleasing them. (cropped) A few dark strokes are what is visible of a Willow Grouse, otherwise indistinguishable from the surrounding snow. The animal died of the collision with a car along a minor road, to its eyes the obvious extension of its environment (everything here is white, now), crossed by chance in its quest for food among the low birches. Definitely not a good fate, if you think at the total lack of traffic. I picture the scene: out of the absolute silence, all the sudden the low noise of the car softed by the snow; maybe a quick swish at the impact, then quietness again, now truly absolute. Snow falls like an istant shroud to cover, remove the drama of an istant, an infinitesimal fraction in the life of Gaia. Someone might consider not a good omen opening the new year with a corpse photo, but it isn't a problem of mine: that's life. Those interested in further considerations on this subject could go to the last picture in November 2008. |
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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