I have finally learned the art of not taking pictures. Which may sound like a strange thing to say for a person who has recently invested in a whole new camera system, but what I mean is that I no longer prioritise photography. I want to do hiking, mountainbiking and skiing – if I get nice pictures from those activities, then it’s great. If not, then no regrets. If I were to remove the pictures from the Svalbard trip, then 2016 would be my least photographed year, beating the previous low from 2004 when I did most of my shooting with an analogue camera!
January
After a tricky December with barely no photo opportunities, January started off frosty and just got colder, to the point where my car couldn’t take it any more and it broke down. Which kind of limited my options for many weeks while my car was in the shop in Östersund, because public transport is not a thing here. Even so, I did some nice skiing and got pictures of pretty mountains, but my favourite is this simple pattern in the snow with light playing on it.
February
This was not my original pick for the photo of the month, but I didn’t get any stand-out pictures in February so in the end it’s only the feeling that counts. And since the feeling is about mountains and skiing, then nothing represents it better than this grand view in Ramundberget.
March
I had a problem with my hip which forced me to take a break from skiing. I was really disappointed, but I got up to Ånnfjället on snowshoes and it was a wonderful trek, something I must do again for sure!
April
April has got to be the best month for skiing, hands down. I used to hate April, in Hälsingland it was the month when the show had melted and nothing was growing yet, so it was just dull. No such problems here, and I’m seriously wondering if I should call April my favourite month of the year now! The skiing is truly epic with long days filled with warm sunshine. If you haven’t already experienced it, then do yourself a favour and put it on your bucket list!
May
Could be that May is the new April. Snow is melting and nothing is growing… I did the last skiing of the season on the first of May and went snowshoeing on the 7th, but after that it was just a long wait for the nature to wake up. At least we got some migratory birds to give me something to point my camera at, but my favourite picture is the patchy snow cover on Hamrafjället.
June
I did my long-awaited trip to Svalbard so it’s a no-brainer that my favourite picture is from there. However, not a polar bear (my jumping polar bear was a close second choice), but this landscape picture taken at 23:00. I even have a picture taken exactly at midnight, the light is the same as in this one but the clouds are not as nice. I have always wanted to experience the midnight sun and it’s safe to say that it’s done now! The sun was higher at midnight than it is at midday here right now!
July
I did a whole lot of hiking in July, including two of the highest peaks – Helags and Skarsfjället. Helags in particular gave me some nice pictures, but my favourite is from closer to home – Ånnfjället. An evening hike which gave me a chance to shoot the sun setting over the beautiful landscape of Funäsfjällen, with these aforementioned big mountains in the horizon.
August
Livsäterån is the creek that keeps on giving. I’ve been there countless of times, and I will keep going there. There’s always something new to be found, depending on the amount of water and the light.
September
My second big trip of the year, and my second trip to Iceland. I’m so glad I went there again, because it turned out to be so much better than two years ago. If I did a Top 10 list of favourite images of the year, half of them would be from Iceland! And the favourite of those favourites is this sunrise behind Reynisdrangar. Two years ago I had such a tough time with this place that I felt half defeated when we got there now. But then the light started changing… and I went from frowning with my whole face, to beaming happy!
October
2016 was one of the best October’s I’ve had, photographically. We saw some aurora in Iceland, but nothing I wanted to keep. And it doesn’t matter, because the show we got at home was out of this world and I found the perfect place for shooting it. Aurora reflected in ice, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to beat this!
November
Before I moved here, April and November were my least favourite months. I have totally come around on April, but I still have some reservations about November. Although not in 2016, we got snow early and the skiing season got off to a great start. We also had a super moon which I missed because of clouds, but I was prepared for it and shot the moon one day short of full. There were some clouds, and it’s the clouds that make the picture – otherwise it would just be a dull old moon and how many million pictures have you seen of that?
December
Just like 2015, the temperature has fluctuated above and below freezing, which makes the tracks either too wet or too icy to my taste. And it sure does not provide any great photo ops. I started to wonder if I could get anything else but a couple of snapshots with a compact camera, when we got a lucky break just in time for Christmas, and I had a really nice skiing trip and was able to use my new Samyang 14/2.8 lens! So I’ve used it twice this year, and the pictures from both sessions ended up on this list. I hope it brings me good luck in 2017 as well!