I walked today for 2 h 15 minutes in Luukki, west and northwest from lake Myllyjärvi. We are having plenty of mosquitoes, thanks to the rainy weather, and I got bitten.
The photograph of Ochlodes sylvanus was taken on June 22th in Tremanskärr.
(Posting title is from the poem Skipper Ireson’s Ride by John Greenleaf Whittier.)
During last weekend I didn't go for long walks in forests and swamps, as I had shopping to do with the children, and various other chores. But this week there should be time for walks, and for some other amusements as well, even though it will be rainy and cool, according to the weather forecasts.
The photographs of Trientalis europaea and Vaccinium vitis-idaea were taken in Vaakkoi on June 21st.
(Posting title is from the poem Allegory by James Longenbach.)
On June 21st I explored the swamps in north parts of Vaakkoi, from Kokkoissuo swamp to Turvesuo swamp. There were several types of swamps, and some of them were open, without trees.
(Posting title is from the poem Insect Life of Florida by Lynda Hull.)
The photograph was taken by lake Kiiskilampi in Kytäjä-Usmi wilderness. Well, the place isn't that wild, as most of the forests are cultivated, with only one tree species such as pine. But lake Kiiskilampi is protected, inside a small nature protection area, and feels wild, with trees fallen into the lake, and dense growth of forest on the shores.
I just learned that Apple will no longer be developing Aperture, the program in which I'm processing and keeping the photographs. Before Aperture I used iPhoto, which was too unstable with the big photo library I have, and Aperture has performed better, even though the library has occasionally needed repair or even re-building. The digital workflow is rather easy to automate with Aperture, and with that I have been satisfied.
Apparently Aperture will be compatible with the next version of Mac OS X, and thus there is no urgent hurry to see a replacement. Adobe Lightroom seems to be the only contender.
But perhaps the new Photo app which Apple is promising would be robust enough to serve as a replacement to Aperture. However, I suspect that the new app won't be as good for workflows as Aperture. The biggest feature seems to be "iCloud integration", whatever that means.
(Posting title is from the poem On First Seeing a U.S. Forest Service Aerial Photo of Where I Live by James Galvin.)
I spent today over six hours with the children at Linnanmäki Amusement Park in Helsinki. The weather was cool, about +15 °C, and there were relatively few people at Linnanmäki, and thus the queues at the rides were short or even non-existent.
My favorite ride at Linnanmäki is Vuoristorata, the classic roller coaster, built of wood and steel in 1951. Vuoristorata seemed to be ancient when I rode it the first time as a child, the year was 1975. It feels almost the same today, even the smell of tar is preserved. My daughter likes Vuoristorata a lot, and today I rode it with her twenty times.
The photographs were taken at Vaakkoi on June 21st.
(Posting title is from the poem Falling Water by John Koethe.)
The cold weather doesn't seem to bother the Bird-cherry Ermine or the Apple Ermine at all, they are now rather prominent thanks to the weblike nests the caterpillars make. The photographs were taken on June 15th.
Today I went for a walk with my daughter to Seurasaari Open-Air Museum. The island wasn't crowded at all, probably because of the cool weather, but it wasn't raining, and Seurasaari is always a nice place for a walk.
(Posting title is from the poem In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659 by Anne Bradstreet.)
A somewhat ragged Lomaspilis marginata rests in plain sight, photograph taken on June 14th at Kytäjä.
Yesterday I walked for three hours in Sipoonkorpi National Park, in the north and middle parts. I left the car at the Hindsby parking place near Källängen, walked south past lake Fallträsk and lake Jöusjärv, and past Stormossen swamp to lake Katronträsk, and from there south to Lindamorsmossen swamp. From the middle of Lindamorsmossen I walked west to Viirilä swamp, and then walked north along the swamp.
Viirilä swamp proved to be a great place to explore. This swamp is quite wet, especially as it has rained a lot recently, and even though I avoided the wettest spots, my rubber boots sank 20-30 cm deep into the swamp in some places. Luckily I have tall rubber boots so this was not a problem.
Walking on the wet swamp was somewhat tiring, but it was worth it, the place is really fine, with several different types of swamp. No wonder the Viirilä swamp is part of Sipoonkorpi National Park. I must return there some day.
Today I made reservations for traveling to Lapland in July with the children. We'll go by train to Rovaniemi, and then towards north by car, all the way to see the Arctic Ocean.
(Posting title is from the poem Glazunoviana by John Ashbery.)
Here are photographs of birds, taken on Midsummer's Eve in Espoo, at lake Pitkäjärvi.
(Posting title is from the poem Let Me Count the Waves by Sandra Beasley.)
Here is a collection of photographs taken at Kytäjä on June 14th.
(Posting title is from the poem Fresh Air by Kenneth Koch.)
I walked today for 2 1/2 hours in Sipoonkorpi National Park, exploring the middle part of the area, starting from the parking place at Bakunkärr, walking southwest past Hyppjaskärr swamp to Yrjölä, and then north via Horskärr, and finally back to east passing Brytberget hill from the north side.
However, I was a bit lazy with the compass at this point, and got confused until I looked at the compass again and realized I was walking towards west instead of east. I got wet because of the rain, and temperature was between +11...+13 °C, but that wasn't a problem, it was nice being outside. I saw twice hazel hen (Tetrastes bonasia) with the young ones, which were quite capable of flying already.
The photographs were taken at Kytäjä by lake Kaksoslammi, where Gavia stellata has regularly been seen. Not when I was there, though.
(Posting title is from the poem He Who Loved Beauty by Alec Brock Stevenson.)
In Kytäjä, east of lake Piilolammi, there is a hill where black granite (gabbro) has been mined, and signs of that activity are still visible.
Today is a rainy day. But maybe I'll go for a walk anyway.
(Posting title is from the poem Firefly Under the Tongue by Coral Bracho, translated by Forrest Gander.)
Here are some lake views, photographs taken on June 14th at Kytäjä.
(Posting title is from the poem The Silver Lily by Louise Glück.)
Here are photographs taken in Kytäjä forests, a week ago. Today I walked for two hours in Tremanskärr forests and swamps. Also, I went to the movies with the children, to see Maleficent, which wasn't as bad as I expected, in fact in some places the story was quite good.
(Posting title is from the song Once Upon a Dream by Lana Del Rey.)
I walked today for two hours in Vaakkoi, exploring the big swamp north of lake Saaren-Musta.
I also checked whether Gavia stellata are still at the lake, and one of the adult birds was there, on the island near water. I didn't see any young ones, but they may have been near the adult. It was rather cold, +9...+12 °C, not a good time for young birds.
I have been thinking about traveling to Lapland next week, but the weather there is even colder than here. In fact, at Saana hill in Lapland the weekly temperature around midsummer has been -2.2 °C! And when you check a camera view of Saana hill, you see a cover of snow there.
(Posting title is from the poem A Date by Kevin McFadden.)
A week ago I walked for 4 1/2 hours in the Kytäjä-Usmi forests and swamps. At the Kytäjä parking place by the south edge of the forests there was a bird nest box, or in fact several nest boxes build on top of each other, and birds were busy feeding the young. I think I'll visit the place again this summer, even though it takes 50 minutes by car to get there.
Yesterday I went with the children to watch a fire, which is a Finnish tradition on Midsummer's Eve. It was clouded, and there was some rain during the evening, but luckily that stopped and we didn't get wet.
(Posting title is from the poem Nest by Marianne Boruch.)
The weather forecast promises relatively cool weather, temperature between +8...+17 °C. But at least it won't be raining continuously. I'm not quite sure what to do now that the vacation has started, but I'm sure there will be all kinds of things happening. And some traveling with the children is to be expected as well. In any case, I don't want to make detailed plans, let things develop as they will.
(Posting title is from the poem A Midsummer Night’s Stroll by Philip Nikolayev.)
It was once once again a cool day, and there was even a little bit of rain during the afternoon commute by bicycle. I started my summer vacation today, seven weeks of it. I hope that I'll have a bit more time for photography, and for walking.
I had a look at the most popular postings here are Light Scrape, and all of them are postings about technology or photography gear, except for one posting, which discusses the history and current uses of photography. But then I realized that even this posting is about technology, not about photography as such.
All of the most popular postings are more than two years old. I think this is due to the fact that I'm not writing about gear much any more. It isn't an important topic for me in the way it used to be. But this other stuff isn't generally interesting in the same way as gear is.
Also, I realized that many of the photographs I took two years or six years ago are quite good, or at least not as bad as I thought they could be. I don't think that the photographs I'm producing these days are better the those I took two years or six years ago. They probably are worse.
One reason for this is that I'm no longer taking photographs daily, it has become something I do during weekends when I take long walks in forests and swamps.
(Posting title is from the poem Beginning With an Acute Stab of Nostalgia, It Gets Worse and Worse by Arthur Vogelsang.)
I have commuted by bicycle each day this week, and on the way home there has been headwind, up to 10 m/s. I have had a little bit of muscle cramps, but I have also taken magnesium, and it seems to be helping.
The temperature had dropped to +3 °C during the night, and there has even been a little bit of snowfall here in south Finland.
I hope that the young birds are not suffering too much, and all the other little critters.
(Posting title is from the song You've Lost That Loving Feeling by The Righteous Brothers.)
Here are two lakes views in Meiko, photographs taken on May 31st.
We had cold weather today, +5 °C during the morning commute, and +9 °C in the afternoon. There was a little bit of rain also, but I didn't get soaked as I did yesterday. I have started using some of my winter gear for the bicycle commute. In fact, the temperature today is about the same as it was at the end of March. And at the Saana mountain hill in Lapland the temperature dropped to -6.2 °C.
(Posting title is from the poem Forgetfulness by Billy Collins.)
It rained and I got wet when riding the bicycle home from work. And it was cold, temperature was at +10 °C, and it was the same in the morning. Much colder than usually this time of the year. Not so good for all the little critters out there.
(Posting title is from the poem Selected Recent and New Errors by Dean Young.)
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