Last week, I went on an excursion with my landscape ecology course, and for the first time ever in my geography studies history, I did not bring my camera with me. I don’t really know what I was thinking, maybe that there won’t be anything new there for me to photograph, we’ll only be driving around just north of Stockholm for two days anyway, I will have seen it all already. And the camera is so heavy, it will only be a nuisance.
As if Stockholm and its surroundings aren’t beautiful. What kind of Swede am I, to forget how amazing the Swedish spring is?
So there I was, with only my less-than-satisfactory cellphone camera to help me capture some of the middle-Swedish springtime beauty.
A wooded meadow in Vallentuna.
An out of focus cowslip.
Some pasque flowers on a 3000 year old grave mound.
A pretty typical deciduous tree grove, something which is pretty atypical this far north.
A dryish oak-maple forest patch, the ground covered in soon-to-flower lilies of the valley.
And a fallen oak, lying leisurely like a naked woman in the afternoon, in an oak pasture near Norrtälje.
You have no idea how frustrating it was, not having a real camera. I know it might have been beneficial for me, I should be able to experience beauty without a camera too, but – gaah!
So, last Friday when the sun was shining and we had planned a surprise picnic for Dries’ birthday, I even went back home in the middle of the day when I realized I had forgotten the camera. And I think that was a good thing, cause I managed to capture some great Kodak moments there, in the national city park.
Lots of laughter, and a portrait in hippie colors of me and birthday boy Dries.
I’ll never forget my camera again.
Katja Malmborg 