Posts tagged #Wisconsin

It's the Small Things that Matter - Macro Photography

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Wednesday Thoughts

Earth Day

Earth day came and went while most of the US were under some sort of “shelter in place” order. I remember last year they closed off parts of Broadway and had a bunch of sustainable groups that gave out freebies, or had you sign up for various things. I think the same part of Broadway is closed today, but for very different reasons. It’s nice to have a day that celebrates the marvels of this earth, but I of course like to marvel about our earth every day.

Documenting the smaller things on earth

Ever since I moved from Alaska my camera has been getting less and less attention. By now it is a bit outdated and I have been thinking that I should get a new one for several years now, just like I have been thinking that I should get a tattoo. None of that has happened, yet. At one point I got really into macro photography, because there is no better way to see natures magical world than to drop down on your knees and get close to the tiniest parts of this ecosystem. I am the type of person that will do just that and don’t think about the consequences, i.e dirty knees, until afterwards. I can easily get sucked in to the details, maybe that is why I am a lab manager.

Now when I look through all my photos I want to get back, back into photography again, but the lack of the nature I want to depict is nowhere to be found in this urban place. There are details here too of course, just not so obvious, or maybe that is the whole point. You have to search for it and train your eye for a different environment. Either way, one can dream about the nature that used to surround me at least.

10 Years in the US

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This past August marked the 10 year anniversary of my life on this side of the ocean. 10 years seems so unreal to have lived in a different place than where you were born. So many things have happened in these 10 years. I was so young when I first got here and had no clue that this would be where I actually settled down. I have lived in three very different states, spanning northwest to the very far east of the US. From a cabin in the woods to one of the largest cities in the world. I have been lucky enough to go to very remote places in Alaska, roaming around Montana and Yellowstone, walked through old plantations in Puerto Rico, experienced the Northwoods and the UP, seen the desert sunrises and sunsets, I have seen the desperation in old peoples eyes while walking through the casinos in Las Vegas, learned about the fire history in the west and seen the aftermath of reoccurring fires, learned about the Native Americans and how they just like the Sami people have been pushed away from the place they call home, skied long distances races in 20 below in the wilderness of Alaska, walked the streets of New York and seen the misery that comes when you lose everything. I have learned that you can’t take anything in life for granted, and that you never know when it will be the last time you see someone. I have grown but also lost so much since I landed at that small airport in Fairbanks, Alaska with only two bags. But most of all I gained a second family over here.

Springtime and the case of Phenological Mismatch

March 30th, 2019. Central Park

March 30th, 2019. Central Park

Signs of Spring

Budburst and Leafout

When I lived in Alaska the timing of spring was maybe more apparent compared to what it is here, in New York City. Fairbanks, AK, usually has some snow cover that lasts from October to April, sometimes even May. There are two main factors that drive a plant species budburst and leafout, temperature and light. In Fairbanks you get the right amount of light pretty early (late February-early March), so most of the time the plants are sitting around waiting for the ideal temperature. Once the warmer weather comes along and the plants accumulate enough warmth you will see budburst and leafout. The warmer temperature acts as a cue for the plant, and triggers physiological changes that starts the budburst. Leafout is so apparent around Fairbanks that you can see a change in color of the deciduous trees between morning and afternoon. You can leave town for a week during end of winter and come back to summer. I have posted the video below before, and it shows how fast spring comes and evolve in Fairbanks. It really is remarkable to see spring happen this fast, and I haven’t seen it anywhere else.

May 26th, 2013 Alaska:

April 26th, 2014 Alaska:

May 3rd, 2014. Alaska:

April 25th, 2015. Alaska:

2017 we went back to Alaska and skied in Denali on April 1st, it was an extraordinary warm spring there then, something that keeps repeating itself again, and again, and yet again. Of course it makes you extremely happy after a long dark winter, but at the same time it definitely makes you worried. Worried not only about the danger to local communities that a warm spring brings (open water instead of ice covered streams along common travel routes), but also the ecological consequences, and the possibility for a phenological mismatch to occur.

April 1st, 2017. Alaska:

Currently Alaska is experienced the highest increase in temperature world wide, and it is projected to increase into the future as well. In a state where light usually is not a problem, a shift in temperature in the early spring can be devastating for certain species. Scientists often talk about the term phenological mismatch. When two or more life cycles, of certain species that generally overlap, all of a sudden don’t overlap any longer, this results in a phenological mismatch. What this means, is that certain species are dependent on other species, let it be insects that are crucial for certain bird species once they arrive or native bird species that depend on the insects for their hatchlings. Or insects that hatch on time to get their life-cycle timed with certain flowering plants. If one or the other is delayed or sped up, and synchrony is disrupted, it can be detrimental for certain species. We know that changes in the lower level of the ecosystem chain, can have huge effect on the upper level. Just last week Alaska broke the record of the earliest warmest day when it hit 70 degree F.

Flowering Magnolia in Madison 2018:

This past weekend we walked through Central Park and got a first look at spring here. The Magnolia is already blooming, in Madison that didn’t happen until mid-April and in Alaska snow is usually still on the ground right now as I mentioned earlier. But, then again, it’s all a matter or temperature once the sunlight is sufficient. This was also one of the first times I really felt like a New Yorker. The feeling that I am not just here for the weekend, the week, this month or the next 6 months. I never know how to identify myself after I move to a new city, especially now when I have been in the US for so long. If people ask me where I am from, should I say Madison, Fairbanks, New York or Stockholm. Who am I really, and why do we always identify ourselves with the origin of our lives? I guess in one sense we are all shaped by our origins, but at one point we will have lived longer somewhere else other than our birth place, and who are we then? There is a quote that I really like, from a Salomon running movie about Anna Frost, about home that really identifies how I feel about Home. I don’t know where the quote originated from, or if it’s a mix of several quotes put together.

Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your mind, something you dream about and think about. Maybe it’s not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visited. Maybe Home is just a collection of memories and our roots, based on nostalgia

Central Park March 30th, 2019:

What are the signs of spring where you are, and did spring come early?