Gothenburg Street Photo Festival

I have spent a couple of days at Gothenburg Street Photo Festival or GSPF recently. It is the first time it is arranged and it feels like it will be an annual event. We stayed at the Vega brewery out on Ringön. I attended some slide shows but not all. Tried some of the brewery’s good beer and checked out the surroundings. The festival gang had put the whole thing together well. Noted that the visitors here were not at all the same as you meet at the nature photography events that I usually visit. No wonder at all considering it is a completely different genre. Interesting to take part in so many pictures even if it is very far from what I do myself. Good street photography is not easy to do and I am probably more attracted to the slightly more “Thunbjörk” style than classic street photography. But I also got a bit of that, for example from Gustav Gräll.

It was both fun and interesting to be part of the world premiere and it is not impossible that there will be more visits in the future. Personally, I will probably never be a real street photographer, but I may not be the classic nature photographer either.

Many thanks to the whole crew behind GSPF!

End of summer

Mid-July and the thistles have bloomed over
Not long ago deep purple
Now just tufts of floss
What is left to wait for
Wistful and a bit sad
Don’t think it was long since the birches sprouted

Don’t usually feel like this
Have always liked autumn
Is it age, transience
Memento mori 

An excursion with Bengt Ehnström at Fagerberget, Björbo

Last Sunday I went to Fagerberget. It is located in the forests between Björbo and Nyhammar. The local nature conservation association had arranged an excursion with Bengt Ehnström on the meadows at the chalet. Bengt Ehnström is one of the Nordic region’s foremost entomologists and has devoted his entire life to the species of the forest and forest landscape. I was there quite early and had a chat with Kent Olsson whose meadows we are going to look at. When we gather at the parking lot, Bengt tells us that it is probably his three hundred guided tour and that it is very likely that this time will be his final as a nature guide as age begins to take its toll. Feels a bit sad and I’m glad that I came here today.

Kent and his family have just harvested the meadows and put the hay on racks, but he has saved some areas for us and the hares that live here. We have a fantastic view with the blue mountains in the background.

Bengt tells with empathy about the species richness that developed in the meadows and the grazed forests once upon a time. He also tells with practical examples from the local area about the slow but relentless extinction of species that has been going on for quite some time. It is a tragic development. I often feel that it is just a matter of trying to enjoy what is left as long as possible …

With Bengt in the lead, we go down the meadow. Right now the Devil’s-bit Scabious is in bloom and Bengt talks about the marsh fritillary that specializes in that species. We also hear about other plants and species that grow here. At the end of the meadow are the remains of a giant sallow tree.

We walked back up to the cottages for some coffee and a sandwich.

When the event was over Anders Lindholm and I walked down to the meadow again to see if we could find more interesting species. Personally, I lack deeper species knowledge so it’s interesting to go with someone who knows more about this. Among other things, I found a Roesel’s bush-cricket that I managed to get a decent picture of.

At two o’clock we headed up to the cottages again, thanked for a nice day and went back home again.

Dan Andersson Week 2021

(Dan Andersson (6 April 1888 in Ludvika – 16 September 1920 in Stockholm) was a Swedish author, poet, and composer).

Did only attend to one event during the week but that was a really nice one. Last Thursday I headed to Nyhammar for a program with Göran Greider, Nils Holmdahl and Ola Flinck, Love, myth, truth and magic. Nils told a us a lot about his masterpiece about Dan Andersson and Göran talked a bit about his book “She whose heart was like mine”. Sorcery, superstition and especially Nybo Kalle’s activities were also discussed. In the second part of the event, Maria Sedell told us a story accompanied by Livet Nordh on violin.

Summer night in Korskrogen/Färila

Actually what followed after the visit at Hamra National Park. At two o’clock I arrived at Korskrogen. A special feeling with the bright summer nights with the mist lining the fields. After Färila I headed south, the next community is Edsbyn. It’s not West Virginia but I think “Take me home, Country Roads” feels right when the country road stretches out into the night.

Night hike in Hamra NP

It happens not often, but sometime during the brightest time of the summer I try to make a trip from evening to morning. June 8th it was time again. I left home around 8 pm headed north over Enviken and Dådran. The weather was not the best, overcast and some rain. North of Furudal I stopped for a picture. Nesting box at a clear-cutting, quite telling. This is where the wilderness or what you would call it begins. In any case, large undeveloped areas where the forest roads lead into and to the north. Not many others are out here. Not much other life either.

Stoping my car for a moose that grazes on a clearcut, otherwise some hares that appear along the way. At midnight I arrive at Hamra National Park. Take a turn at the parking lot, where there are a couple of motorhomes and a caravan but the people have probably gone to bed.

Parking the car and take a walk on a trail. The light is enough for photography, at least with the 85/1.8. On the bog I meet hungry mosquitoes but I take the time to lie down on the footbridge to catch the cloudberry flower. In any case, the birds have not gone to bed. Magical with the birdsong and the bog in the midnight light. Took another trail down to the Swan Lake. Here you have to look up because the path is also used by a number of toads. In front of Svansjön, a platform has been made with a nice view over the lake and behind up the mountain are centuries-old pine trees. I can hear the cuckoo far away over the lake otherwise no life except the birdsong. Here I stay a while and enjoy, the mosquitoes seem to have stayed out on the bog.

Back at the car, I make some plans about the rest of the night. I decide to take the road over Los and Färila before I head south again, but that’s a different story.

Some pictures. The first two from the road up, the rest are from the hike in the national park. The pictures are taken with Canon 7D MkII and Tamrons 85 / 1.8.

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May 9’th, been a long time…

Almost four months ago since I wrote something here. Had a thought once that I should post some lines at least monthly, but look. Probably mostly due to the fact that I’m not in shape and have not been for a while. Actually, I like this forum better than FB, but the latter takes over.

Now I try to take the week off and we’ll see …

Found some black and white, three old and one new.

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  2008, in my home forest

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  2009, Pajso river

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  2010, from my home forest

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  2021, Sanders gammelskog NR

Swedish forestry…

Spend an hour to see this movie.

 

Polarization within the logging industry

Polarization has become a buzzword, but a word used treacherously. The forest industry talks about polarization while independent researchers, conservationists, biologists see a disaster for our remaining forests.

It does not matter what the forest industry says. If you cut down a forest, replant with a single tree species and then cut it down again after 60-80 years and then start all over again, there is no chance that the “forest” that grows there in the meantime will ever resemble the one that once stood there before the first clearcut. Many species do not have a chance to come back within that time perspective and that conditions. It’s not opinion and polarization, It is real facts.

Some pictures from the “forests” of Sweden…

The last days of 2020

Don’t know what to say… Not in the mood.
Saw Santa the other day, resting on his way back to the north again I guess.