Catching Light - Big Sky Sweden

Slowly getting back into blogging after a long absence by participating in "Inspiring Photography-Catching Light", a very intriguing meme hosted by Monica at Nature Footstep . Looking for--and capturing--the light in all its surprising variations is both a challenge and a pleasure for most photographers. Especially when I travel, I'm always aware of the different light wherever I am, looking for something that I would not see at home. For this week, I'll show you examples of the light in the landscapes of mostly southern Sweden, captured on a trip from Stockholm to Malmo (2008).

(Click on images to enlarge.)

This first dawn photo was taken through the airplane window.  According to the "you are flying here" map we were just south of Reykjavik, Iceland, flying over Aberdeen, Scotland and about two hours from landing in Stockholm.  The light of dawn is always a welcome sight after a long night flying:

The view from your hotel window is always the luck of the draw.  Sometimes you get the blank wall, the air conditioning units, or parking lot.  Other times--as I did in Stockholm--you get beautifully lit architecture on the water.  This is a night view of the Stockholm City Hall with its gold capped tower and Three Crowns, the official symbol of Sweden (by the way, the Nobel Prize ceremonies are held in the Gold Room of this building every year):

After a few day's sightseeing in and around Stockholm, my tour group began a long drive through the farmland of south central Sweden.  The light was so clear, the clouds just huge and appearing so close to the rolling grain fields along the highway.  The farm buildings in this region are painted with Falu or Falun Red, a color resulting from mixing copper ore castings into the paint.  This color has been commonly used in Sweden for hundreds of years:

Many of the farms lay along Lake Vattern, a long finger lake which feeds into the Baltic Sea and the second largest lake in Sweden.  Here I loved the sky's reflections in the glassine surface of the lake:

In small villages and towns along Lake Vattern we saw many gaily painted and trimmed cottage homes like this one in the traditional Falu Red, which looked wonderful caught in the sunlight:

And finally, late in the day we stopped at a family owned inn in Toflahom for the night.  This was our twilight view of a small lake from the dining room window.  The next day we had just a short drive to Malmo where we took a long bridge/causeway across the sea to Copenhagen, Denmark:

I must say the light surprised me in Sweden.  I expected weak, watery skies, but got brilliant almost painterly light instead.  If you too find chasing light with a camera fascinating, be sure to check out Monica's link above.