Mysteriously, the forest is looming over the water surface. Its shadows framing the lake, blending with the evening light and the reflections from the clouds. Overseeing the scene, a pine tree catches the rays of the setting sun. An image of stillness, mysterious and a bit sad, yet peaceful.
Mist from the seaside clearing up in the morning. Orust island. Sweden. Photo: Lasse Johansson
Morning mist is rolling in from the shore, the remnants of a rainy summer night. Elusive, yet being so close that one can nearly touch it. The sun finally breaks through, clearing up the mist into vapour, and it is gone, the remembrance of the night’s thunderstorm. Mist, the symbol of the unclear, the undiscovered, out of which discovery is born. Does it still hold any mysteries?
Stone resting in Lake Mien, Sweden. Photo: Lasse Johansson
A memory of an impact millions of years ago. A collision. And now, one of the most peaceful places on the planet. For a stone, the million years are just a moment — a moment of observing its own reflection, timeless.
Evening sky at Fredensborg, Sweden. Photo: Lasse Johansson
Glowing, the clouds reflect the last rays of the evening sun. Tinted in pink and coral against a soft blue canvas, they fill me with awe. The dark silhouettes of the trees add to the drama in the sky. Water and light, here in yet another combination, here in yet another dance.
Soap bubbles ejected from a propeller-driven soap wand. The long sausages pinch off into bubbles in the wind. Photos: Lasse Johansson
Tinted in purple and blue, the bubbles float away through the air, upwards for a while, then sinking until they meet the ground or the foliage, disintegrating. Bubble after bubble flows out of the bubble wand, which is forming long sausages by the flow of air, soon pinching off into bubbles.
Reflections in water. Orust island, Sweden. Photo: Lasse Johansson
Like a painting, the water surface shimmers. A patchy green stretches down from above, creating a striped impression on the ever moving canvas. The sienna coloured rock walls blend in between. Like the memory filtering an artist’s impression, the water surface has its own way of doing the same.
Rainbow reflecting in lake. Fredensborg, Sweden. Photo: Lasse Johansson
A soft light illuminates the sky. In its way: cotton-like clouds and a falling rain. Little drops in the sky, friends to those on the grass, distract the light, turning its path in my direction, exposing its hidden colours. Down below: a mirror completing the path, faintly perceptible, yet there.
Glistening like diamonds in the morning sun, the small dew drops cling to the grass blades.
The slow wind gently caresses the nearest grass blade. To and fro the tip rocks, irregularly. Settles, for a moment still – and then a gust gives it a puff again. The little dew drops cling to the blade, firmly secured to it by the mutual attraction.
A gentle brush, it seems, has left its traces in the sand. A group of pebbles seek to hide into the shore. So sensual. Water has just caressed their surface — taking off a little at a time. Here they lie, half hidden, half exposed, resting gently in the sand.
Breaking wave. Los Gigantes, Tenerife. Photo: Lasse Johansson
Whoosh. The water wave breaks joyously, cascading and foaming, noisily. The glassy towering ridge of water from the moment before is suddenly gone. Here releasing its power, all its thrust, in a joyous final motion before reaching the shore.
Sand-water rolls self-organizing in the receding stream. Agadir, Morocco. Photo: Lasse Johansson
Self-organizing, seemingly out of nothing, the sand-water rolls appear. Where did they come from? The moment before, when the incoming stream reached its highest level and turned, there was only a flat surface of murky water.
Self-organization means the spontaneous formation of a macroscopic structure, an order for free, as it were, emerging when the effects of the individuals, e.g. the movement of water molecules, start to interlock and add up, forming a new complexity. When the conditions are right, self-organization occurs, spontaneously, like a vortex forming in a bath tub.