Ice Spiders _ The lack of snow persists. The landscape keeps an atypical appearance for the beginning of December: looking at the forest of conifers, it would be virtually impossible to tell whether we are in May or late autumn, without take a look at the calendar. There is still room, then, for the games of the cold: a few degrees below zero are enough to transfom the shores of Lake Särna - and any other expanse of water in the region - into canvas over which the ice seems to enjoy drawing the most amazing shapes. Here it is a couple of images that ideally complements the last year's collection "The Icy Ten", taken in the same circumstances, which you can see here in the 2010 Chronicles. Here next, the water surface was solidified with a crystallization phenomenon that created regular geometric shapes: it happens when the temperatures drop suddenly within a single night, from just above zero to minus ten degrees. Waves _ In Särna, the lake sports small but delightful beaches made by fine sand, methodically arranged by the wind, and by the even slightest backwash, in the shape of those classical, minute waves that you expect from the sand at any latitude. The water entering and flooding them is the first to freeze, and creates a double scheme of mirrored sinuousities beneath a thin layer of ice so transparent to be invisible, if wasn't for some still free sand blown by the wind, which rests on it, taking the shape of long strips of gold. This gold moves rolling on the ice with waving motion - in all respects similar to a snake - and run all over the lake: one of those rare moments when I regret not having a videocamera in my hands. The snow is expected in very short term, and once it will be here there will be no way to play with the ice again, until October of next year. Trollsjön is a small lake not far from Särna; its name means "Magic Lake", and I don't know the origin. Maybe some local legend, some encounter with animals in a distant past which has been confused with a display of arcane powers, or who knows what else (well, now I'm curious: I'll ask in the village). Actually, there is nothing different from the average of the Swedish forest lakes: surrounded by the saw-toothed silhouette of the taiga which reflects in it, patiently passes its six months of frost (like all of us, however), to offer itself as a cradle of life for birds and insects which thrive in its waters during the short summer . I get there by chance, a few nights ago, while a cloudy day is leaving room for a few minutes to the low sun, just when I arrive; the perfect mirror surface is swept by a sudden bright light, despite the late hour. While I am taking pictures, immersed in a total silence, the piercing whine of a Black-throated Diver explodes from the center of the lake, leaving an echo pushing toward the walls of trees as ripples of a stone thrown into water, and then vanish. A magical moment: the lake kept the promise hidden in its name. |
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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