Pohjoista valoa etsimässä

Winter is full of surprises, or maybe I’m trying to make (force) myself to think like that… Don’t tell me I’m having bad attitude. Winter seems to last at least a decade here, and life is just too short for that! -Already made myself clear that I’m not a winter-person?
Honestly, winter is quite frustrating season for me. I mainly shoot flowers and insects, and due that it’s quite obvious I’m not having too much to shoot @ winter.
However, my friend told me he found a dozen hibernating small tortoiseshells couple of weeks ago! I packed my gear and drove to Tuorsniemi area and went directly into friend’s barn. There they were: dozen wintering butterflies in small area. It was so dark inside the barn that I had to use the flash. Macro lens produced tack sharp image and made me very happy.

I still miss summer.

Pretty classic flower picture, ain’t it? I picked one out of ten tulips wife brought home yesterday, put up very simple “studio” on the kitchen table, shot five pictures and this is what I got. Oh boy, how much I miss summer!

Today I woke up “early”, just before 10 am. :P Actually, would have slept even longer, but luckily neighbour’s children kept some noise which woke me up. After some nourishment I took the camera and went outside to the most beautiful February light.

This time I desided to stay on open ground, because the cliff-area was so slippery last time. -I even fell down once! My wife almost yelled, when she saw the whole incident. Tripod flew backwards, I slided downwards and the camera case landed onto my belly. Now, that was a soft one – to the camera ^.^

So, I wandered on the fields looking for some animal tracks to shoot. Even managed to find some fox trails, but they weren’t so nice to shoot. Then, something caught my eye: Willow catkins! This might not be a big deal for you, but for me, the willow catkins are seriously talking about spring!

End of the January was unusually warm in Satakunta. On 28th I even found a spider outside, took a picture of it, posted it into an insect forum where it was recognized as Anyphaena accentuata – a buzzing spider. We call it ghost spider here.

Anyways, it was a b e a u t i f u l weather today!

In wintertime, hare tracks can be seen basically everywhere. Shooting tracks, and especially hare tracks, is not usually very extreme art. However, -20 degrees, moonlight, chilly wind and frozen shooter can make it an extreme. -Okay, okay, there are those heroes out there, but I’m talking about ordinary people.

This picture was shot in mixed moon- and city light. You can easily see that the structure of the snow is very rough due the low temperature.

It has been quite a cold today! 18 below zero and almost no snow. Despite of that, I went outside with my camera and tripod.

After a short walk, I came to a cliff-area which was covered by an inch of snow. Had to walk extra-carefully due the layer of ice beneath it! On the top of the cliffs I found a little frozen puddle, and these iceflowers from the middle of it. The moment could have been perfect, if the precious february light had reached the flowers. But no, not this time. Quickly lowered the tripod and shot couple of basic pics.

I have to admit, that I like my Tamron macro. Last week I shot a hibernating tortoishell butterfy with it, and all the tiny details were there :-) Very pleasing.

Edit 5th Feb:
Went to the same place to shoot some more pics today, but the view had changed dramatically :-( Perhaps this kind of effect is only seen when temperature lowers quickly, i.e. on the very first day of the cold weather. Have to keep my eye on the puddles when it’s getting colder!