Sometimes things turn out totally different from what you have planned. This morning I planned to do a long exposure of a structure at the nearby sea and since the sun rises nowadays already quite late I wasn’t in a hurry.

The sky last night and the forecast for today looked promising, but once I headed out to the car I found out that it obviously started to snow during the night. It’s not unusual at this time of year, but it was an unexpected surprise though. Still I decided to head out there, as everything was already packed and the now stronger wind would most likely offer me to capture some nice movement in the clouds during the long exposures that I planned.

Upon arrival at the coast, I realized that not only the wind would move nicely the clouds, but also pushed away the water from the coast. Something, which I learned later, is quite common once there’s a strong wind from the north. Well, lesson learned, but still disappointing.

Spontaneously I decided to head out to a different location out in the forest. This meant a 30km ride over slippery roads, but I had the feeling that this could be one of the last chances during this year to visit the location. And so I headed back into the car.

During the ride, or better, slide there, the weather cleared up significantly and the light started to become rather nice. The light layer of snow was beautiful in the soft morning light.

I arrive at my desired location, a waterfall in the midths of the forest, called Isterinkoski. I have been visiting this place twice before and found it always difficult to find a decent and clear composition out here. It’s a rather narrow and tight place with lot’s of trees next to the river and torrents. Somehow this doesn’t make any easier to find a decent and clean composition.

I learned from my previous and less successful visits and already had some idea in mind how I would like to frame the bridge passing the river, which was my main motif for today. I found two different vantage points from which I wanted to photograph the scene, and as usually, they seemed to be also the most difficult to reach spot. After a slippery climb down to the river I reach the spots and are able to compose the images that I had visualized.

It’s a relief to work at this time of the year at this location. During my previous two visits here it was nearly impossible to concentrate on working on a composition, as there were more mosquitos than I can bear. Luckily that season is over now.

After getting the image that I came for, I experiment with an slightly different panorama and frame a few detail images.

I’m satisfied with the outcome of this shooting, as it was also one of the last possibilities that I had for this year capturing floating water. Soon the landscapes will be covered in snow and all the water will be frozen for a few months. There’s another waterfall a little down the river, but I ran out of time to photograph it this time. Well, next year then.