On a personal level, 2013 was tragic. My mother passed away in November, which has made me re-evaluate some things in my life, even my relationship with photography. But more about that later.

When I looked back at the pictures, I realised that I did a whole lot of hiking in the summer. I really miss that already… there’s something very special about hiking in the mountains. When you’re up there, you feel very small in the vast landscape. It’s a very liberating experience and you’re totally present in the moment – you need to concentrate on where you step, you need to keep your bearings, and you take in all the beauty around you. There’s no time or energy to worry about anything else, it’s just the hike that matters. It almost feels like I did more hiking than photography and 2013 wasn’t as productive as previous years, both in quantity and quality. But after all that has happened, I want to look ahead and not worry about the past. Here’s hoping for a happy and productive 2014!

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January

2013 was supposed to be a good year for the aurora. Sure, I did get to see the best auroras I have ever seen, but I think everyone agrees that 2013 wasn’t a particularly good peak year. I didn’t get the killer aurora picture that I’m dreaming of, but I got my best aurora pictures so far. Only 11 years until the next peak!

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February

February wasn’t a very productive month, even though it included a trip to the mountains. All the pictures were more or less average, so the pick for the month is… well, a souvenir from that trip. The real highlight of the month was getting a new camera backpack (F-Stop Loka) and now that I’ve been using it in every season, I can only say good things about it. I really is the pack I have always needed!

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March

March included another trip to the mountains and it was just as good as I could have hoped for. There’s absolutely nothing that beats skiing in warm sunshine out on the tundra! It can be surprisingly difficult photographically speaking though, but when I found these patterns in the snow I knew I had a keeper. It was worth ignoring that ”risk for avalanche” sign… although I did turn back in a hurry as soon as I had taken the pictures!

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April

I always have trouble deciding which is more difficult for photography, April or November. They are these hopeless in-between months that can’t decide which season they belong to. In April 2013 my highlight was shooting the Pan-STARRS comet but since you almost can’t see the comet without going to 100% magnification, my photo of the month is the glory of the snow that I shot against a white background.

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May

May was a bit of a disappointment, and right now I honestly can’t remember why… well, maybe to some extent, it’s because I just can’t find any good flower spots in Föne. When it comes to flowers, the best ops I get is with whatever I grow in my own garden. Which is why I’m planting more and more every year. But the photo of the month is a wildflower anyway, a carpet of golden saxifrage with some wood cranesbill leaves in between.

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June

After a wildflower, I’m back in my garden. I found a drop of rainwater nested on a columbine leaf and it made a perfect subject. And as much as I like the columbine, I discovered that the leaves are easier to shoot than the flowers! The news for the month is that I got a Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro, it’s a very small and light lens which is easy to keep in the pack at all times, just in case. Turns out that I didn’t really have any use for it at all, but I will keep it anyway. Just in case.

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July

Having complained about the lack of flower spots in Föne, I have surprisingly many flowers in this year’s collection. July’s pick is a wildflower growing in the garden and this is not a set-up – I found it like that and I didn’t waste any time in shooting it, for a fear that the first whisper of wind would destroy the fine placement of flowers.

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August

Surprise surprise, summer is rounded off with yet another flower. The dahlia quickly became my favourite flower when they finally started blooming in the late summer. And so late in the season with not so many other flowers around, the dahlia were very popular with all kinds of bees. There will definitely be more dahlias in my garden next year!

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September

What is September without a trip to the mountains? I spent a magnificent morning shooting Mittåkläppen from a spot that I had scouted many years back, but what became my favourite was this reflection picture after I found a small tarn that I hadn’t even realised existed, despite the many times I had driven past this place.

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October

October surprised me by giving me a bunch of pictures that were better than average as far as 2013 goes. The subjects were varied – autumn colours, aurora, old cars, zoo, birds, full moon.. but choosing the favourite of the month was still quite easy, I just like the strong colours and the layers in this picture from a sunny autumn day by the river.

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November

Tragedy struck on the 4th of November when my mother passed away, and sad as it was, it also helped me realise how important it is to do things you like doing while you still can do them, so by the end of the month I was quite eager to get busy with my hobby again. Except that this is November and it’s the worst possible month to get busy with photography… I have five (5) keepers, which officially makes this my second least productive month ever. But like I said before, it doesn’t matter. All I will say is that the least productive month ever is August 2004, I have only one keeper. My only excuse is that I was shooting film back then.

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December

December has been tough. It started out without snow, then we got lots of snow, then it we got a lot of wind and finally warm weather and rain. So there really was only one weekend with any decent photo ops, and I spent one of those days in the zoo. If you know Järvzoo, you know that in the lynx enclosure you can look straight down to the animals when they wait for the food and occasionally look up to you. The lynx cub was sitting right below me and although I already have a few closeup shots of a lynx looking up to me, I pressed the shutter again. I very nearly deleted this picture but at the last moment I realised that I could rotate it so it doesn’t look like I’m shooting from straight above. So this is a serious crop of the original, but when I added the high contrast effect, I was pleased with the result.