The forest is a green ocean. Like planks from stranded wrecks,
among backwashes of blueberries and waves of ferns, dead trees lie. At last the snow settled on central Sweden also - and it couldn’t be otherwise - although still not in a "Scandinavian" amount. Enough to justify going out in the woods; not enough to get views of them in line with the "winter wonderland" effect of stylization and simplification that snowy landscapes usually provide (and I usually expect). With such a low level of the blanket, brush and branches of the undergrowth remain in sight to mess with the purity of the whole. Therefore I thought to go with the good old motion blur, in order to dilute the "impurities" while maintaining clearly visible the side of the trees crusted with snow (I've been waiting for it a long time), which in any case would not show any detail. Blades of sunset enriched an already fascinating scenario. When you have to do with photos so alike, it’s dificult to tell which one is better, which deserves the title of "nice picture"; here, more likely, none of the three, but that is what I could get in this December so far.
And talking about similarities, the most careful of you will find some between the second picture here and the motion blur one in this post: when the elements in a picture are few, similar and simple (the trunks, in our case), the rules of a balanced composition can lead to photographs which look actually pretty the same. The other parameters involved (light, colours) make the difference, in these cases. Photography is like music (and I’ll like to return on this topic): the involved parameters are finite in number, but their combinations are endless. By the way: Happy Holidays to everybody. Or better: God Jul och Gott Nytt År! I end posting the images from my journey to Skåne in May, with this three from Stenshuvud Park. This National Park, the southernmost of Sweden, preserves a promontory characterized by a peculiarly lush vegetation, which sometimes assumes the appearance of a Mediterranean environment, at least according to the provided documentation. As a Mediterranean by birth, I have to confess that quite a remarkable amount of imagination it's needed to make such a claim... Nevertheless, it is true that forest and underwood are here different than any other place I have ever known in Sweden, because of the species and how they are combined, even visually. In particular, I was struck by a stretch of flooded forest, an Alder wood where the partially uncovered roots, are creating small islets from which the trunks raise to the sky. Sedges and ferns complete a picture of great beauty. A relatively small area, no more than a couple of hundred meters, but that was enough to tie me up for two splendid early mornings of May.
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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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