The first warmth lowers the snow level, and the night cold makes it more compact; grouses then leave the tree tops and more likely are visible on the ground. This male capercaillie was weighting its territory with slow steps, taking position in the waiting of the right moment to start its daily spring shows. This is a picture from last week, and it was intended to be a greeting for the coming mating season. Actually, the greeting appears to be already outdated: this very morning, passing by the same place, I found this bird already showing off in its courting display, so far still without any attendance (at least from its own class...).
Click on the image to further enlarge it.
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...
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. I have to be honest: I have no idea why it never came up to my mind before. Moreover, the snow is definitely one of the typical products from a Swedish winter; perhaps having it around for seven whole months a year made me giving it for granted, I don't know. So only last January, after five winters in Särna, I decided to check if it was possible to get decent photos of snow crystals, and just with a plain, homely equipment, so to speak. I realized I already had what needed: a tripod, a flash, a 105 mm macro lens and an adapter ring to join it - thread to thread – with a classic and cheap 50 mm, in order to achieve a higher magnification. A series of not photo-related items, which could be found in any house, completed the shooting set up. So far, so good: I just needed... the snow; but not any snow, of course, because we have shovelfuls of the usual one (literally, my back knows). There are specific conditions that facilitates the fall of snow in well-formed single crystals: absence of wind in height, temperatures between minus 10 and minus 15 degrees, and probably some other weather factors I'm not aware of, but which I suspect more directly tied to the good, old luck. As known, without it even the best technique is powerless.
And, of course, these conditions have to keep coming for several days, in order to get the best chances to find good crystals (which is all but obvious) with a continuity. From this point of view Särna climate proved to be a perfect helper; then it was just a matter of using a good magnifying glass and be patient (warm clothes were kind of useful, too). This way I put together a gallery of shots that worked as feasibility study, and which I plan to try improving in the winters to come. Here some of them, and please forgive a more intrusive watermark than usual. 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). |
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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