Hailuoto, Finland, November 2010

It’s early November now, about one and half month’s away from the darkest day of the year, and it becomes increasingly difficult to find the time to do landscape photography. The forecast showed clouds and sun just in time for sunset and I wanted to use this chance. It might take quite some time, before I have another one.

I’m sitting in my car on the ferry which will bring to me to the island of Hailuoto and light snow is falling on the car. On my way here I notice the muted colours of the foliage on the ground caused by the light layer of snow. Occasionally the sun breaks through the clouds and gently warms up the scenery. Still on the ferry I hope to find similar conditions at my targeted location, a beach on the other end of the island. To be prepared for changing conditions I’m already thinking of a plan “b”. The muted colours of the foliage should create a wonderful contrast to the tree trunks which is why I planned to go into the forest. That is if there’s not too much snow on the island.

I have been visiting the island of Hailuoto plenty before and often the shootings here had been rather eventful. Once I got attacked by breeding birds and another time I had to stay on the island because missed the last ferry home. Neither of these should be happening today though.

Famous last words…

The outing turns out to be  unsuccessful. Whilst the light during the way here was nice and seemed to improve, it got worse though during the one hour drive to the beach.

My original intention was to photograph along the beach in light snow and nice light/sky. Upon my arrival though the sky was already covered with dark and boring clouds blocking all possible light. All in all it’s very un-inspiring and I don’t even feel like making a picture. It simply doesn’t look like something that I would like to hang to a wall. After a quick explore along the beach it’s clear that this is not going to work and I opt for my second option, photographing in the forest.

I continue to explore the forest, but somehow nothing really captures my eye. I struggle to find a clear motif for a clean and powerful composition. It becomes dark quickly and I decide to pull the plug and opt for plan “C”. Catching the next boat home. But today doesn’t seem to be my day. I miss the ferry by a minute.

But it’s not the worst thing. I spent the time with some reading and writing. The nicest light today is the light of the of the slowly approaching ferry.

People tend to write about their successful outings and images and I’m by no means an exclusion to that, but when doing landscapes, things come in different more often that not, so I thought why not write about that? But still I wouldn’t want to change a thing. It’s better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all.

This image I captured when I visited the island once after a very heavy storm. As you might guess it was a chilly day then and I posted my very first entry in my photo-journal afterwards back then. Which actually reminds me, that this blog’s anniversary is getting close…