People normally say that they love spring. I have no idea why. I mean yes, it’s nice it gets warmer after a cold winter, it’s nice that things start to grow… but no, spring for me is my least favourite season. It started when I was a child with allergies. What’s the point with warm temperatures when as soon as you set your foot out the door, you start sneezing?

My hay fever isn’t quite that bad any more, some years with low pollen levels I almost get away without anti-histamins. This is not such a year. I’m sneezing with anti-histamins.

But what bugs me about spring, even more than hay fever, is that I can’t make it work out for me photographically. Early spring is just hopeless. Ugly melting snow, honestly who can create great pictures out of that? Then when the snow finally melts, it only reveals last year’s dead grass and fallen leaves. The camera stays in the bag. So I wait until things finally start growing. It’s great to see the first flowers, but there’s only so many ways to shoot the coltsfoot. I’ve already ran out of them.

So I’m still waiting. Now the leaves are starting to grow, turning the trees from grey to green. Finally by the end of May, there is some hope. What does that give me? Maybe one week when photography is a serious option and not just a lucky once a in a while.

And then it’s already summer.

Nope, I don’t like spring. As for the other three seasons, I have trouble deciding on my favourite. As a flower photographer, summer is an obvious favourite. But the landscape photographer in me prefers autumn and winter. In the end I think the scales tip towards autumn… the flowers may be withered but there is no better feeling than hiking up in the mountains, breathing in crispy clean air and taking in the amazing colours (when they exist) and sitting down for a cup of coffee and enjoy it without the company of a billion mosquitoes.

Yes, I’m already looking forward to autumn…

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The attached picture is taken with my mobile. I was way too optimistic today and carried the macro lens, but the only ”new” flower I discovered was the dwarf marsh violet. Anyway, the picture illustrates what I describe above. No leaves in the trees (with all the ice in the flood plains, the season there is a few days behind) and dry grass. I did my best to try and imagine the place a few weeks from now. There are tons of lily of the valley growing in the birch forest so it should look amazing when they start blooming. And the birch forest itself, that should look pretty good with leaves on the trees. And all that water, while ugly brown, should he acceptable when it’s lined with the green. But it’s gonna take at least two-three weeks before I can make anything out of that…