Somber Days

Shorter days, darker days, wetter days: After the outstanding Swedish summer 2014 with seemingly endless sunshine and high - yet comfortable - temperatures in air and water, the somber mood of late fall is a bit hard to take.

From the standpoint of the photo-interested, summer provides good opportunities for nice family and activity pictures, but does not readily stimulate sensitive and evocative studies of nature. It takes a good deal of distancing from one's own clichés of ”feeling good” and of what is visually/pictorially appealing to enter more promising photographic ”terrain”. As the year declines in our part of the world, subtle palettes of earthen colors appear, able to conjure warm, organic feelings, but also mysterious moods at the edge of darkness. So, late fall gives good help for discoveries along these lines.

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Lately I have taken up Nordic Walking again. Moving forward assumes a new quality. One learns and appreciates very quickly to throw in the normally underused upper body to literally push yourself forward. Especially in light or moderate uphill terrain the benefit is staggering, affecting you even mentally. For taking pictures the two poles can be a bit in the way, but also offer unexpected possibilities. They can in many ways replace a monopod, so often needed on darker days to keep the camera steady enough to allow for the required longer shutter speeds. I sometimes use just one pole to press the camera down onto. Using both poles works great on uneven ground, you just spread them at different angles. The camera's height above ground can also be adjusted quickly by spreaded poles. Since the camera is not attached to the support, as you would normally do with a monopod, success still depends a lot on the steadiness of you hands, firmness of your stance and good breathing technique. Good Zen practices to get into!

The nearby Änggårdsbergen-reserve is a near perfect area for walking. The scenery could be considered unspectacular, it is just a typical landscape in this part of the world. Yet there are specific ”beauty-spots”, some less common features and much potential to explore. And even after many years in Sweden, I believe that I still look at the local nature with ”unswedish” eyes. This helps to get pictures that local people sometimes find a bit surprising. How you look at familiar environments is after all heavily influenced by custom and culture. (Find more info and pictures here)

This is what the area looks like from above: