Words & pictures by Nick Small.
A couple of years ago I wandered around a few of my favourite local waters in Lapland, taking with me a small domestic handycam. Yes, I know normal people use those to document family fun. I do that too, honestly.
Anyway, these little portraits of lakes, rivers, brooks and ponds, shot hand held (I’m getting my excuses in early…I’m no Hugh Miles) have been sitting on a hard drive ever since. So, as a little gift to the good folk of Caught By The River to welcome 2011, I cobbled them together and set them to music….a Nick’s Motion Pics for the New Year.
Lapland from Guidepost on Vimeo.
To me the scenes evoke a deep sense of longing…to be back there, tossing flies clumsily at the surface, drinking in the view, watching the wildlife and daydreaming. Of course, at the moment all these waters will be invisible, frozen under a blanket of snow, seemingly lifeless. Yet, within six months they will once more be glistening beneath warm skies, teeming with grayling, trout, char, roach, perch, pike and surrounded by dense verdant forest. Perhaps they will evoke the desire to be there even in those of you who have never even considered venturing to these Boreal forests of Swedish Lapland. I hope so.
The music is “How You Dug Your Own Grave” by Elin Ruth Sigvardsson. It was playing a lot on Swedish radio that summer and for some reason it seemed to resonate perfectly with the landscape: The voice is sweet, but the song is dark and, a stroke of genius, the chorus is a Duane Eddy style guitar refrain. It’s worth using headphones rather than tinny laptop speakers. The MP3 is available in all the usual places pop pickers.