The Original Scrat

Curious squirrel looking at camera.

No experimental photography this week, although I still favor infrared photography at certain occasions. This time I settled for a classical photograph - a squirrel. I think it´s kind of cute.

Garden Still Life

Upward striving flower with old fence in the background.

At first I was trying to capture this image in infrared, but the fence in the background reflected just about as much infrared light as the flower itself, so the end result was not really that good.

So, I ended up with just a classical shot of an interesting plant. And I must say, I´m quite satisfied. This is another black & white shot, but with a hint of Sepia.


Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8, ISO 100, 1/320 sec at f/1.8. PP includes ACR and a great deal of photoshop techniques.

Infrared landscape

Lake in the woods

Infrared photography i so cool! I´ve been adimiring beautiful shots in different Flickrgroups, most of them beeing created by semi-pros or really advanced amateurs. Many photographers swear by the IR-modified camera. To my delight, there is no need to modify your camera for IR-photography. All you need is a filter that you put in front of your lens. I bought my filter on eBay for 12 euros (including postage).

There are obviously certain challenges by using this specific method for IR-photography, the few I found most challenging were difficulties in composing, focusing and the long exposure. Composing the photo is not possible through the viewfinder when the IR-filter is in front of the lens. I solved this by using a tripod and locking the camera in the position that I wanted. Focusing is a problem. I haven't figured out why, but the image is no longer sharp after screwing on the filter, and this has nothing to do with clumsy fingers fidgeting with the focusring. I solved the focusproblem by trial-and-error and manually focusing according to the image on the display. The long exposure is not really a problem, not if you have a tripod, the method of finding the correct exposure thorugh trial-and-error was also used here. One tip I read on one of the many photo-mags writing on the subject is that when shooting RAW, if possible shoot RAW + jpeg, and set the camera to black and white. This way you get a feeling for what the photo is going to look like later.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 fitted with an IR INfrared Pass 950nm standard filter , ISO 400, 15 sec at f/4. PP includes ACR and a few photoshop techniques.

The Hands

Old hands carrying a baby.

Fine, so I missed my deadline. But hey, I´ve been on a vacation. I didn´t do as much photography as I thought I was going to be doing, but I found several more relaxing ways of spending a week in my native surroundings. The photo above is one of the photographs of my daughter in the hands of my grandmother. Very emotional to me and perhaps also other viewers. PP as usual.

I´m not sure if I´m going to be able to pull through my one-photo-a-week-project. It just seems so hard to be doing this all by myself. No-one but me is demanding anything. I don´t even know if anyone is enjoying my photography. If you are reading this, then please leave a comment. It´s okay to be anonymous.

Thank you!

Rendevouz

Butterfly meeting with flower in a B&W surrounding

Saved by the bell... With only forty-five minutes to spare, I finally came up with this photograph for my "one photo a week"-project. Deadlines truly are the greatest inspiration for an artist.

Solitude

A single rock in a stream of water, surrounded by boulders.

Continuing on my new project: one photo a week. Obviously my aim is to improve as a photographer, develop my creative thinking and - basically - just 'get out there' more often. This weeks photo is from the central park near my home. We´ve had some heavy rain here lately, so the streams are filling with water. The photo is quite classic, and perhaps not that unique - but hey, there is no need to reinvent the weel everytime you go out.

Nikon Nikkor 50mm/f1.8 fitted with a circular polarization filter, ISO 100, 7.1 sec at f/8. PP includes ACR and a few photoshop techniques.

Nomomortia

The legs of a dead frog on a bench.

This is the first photograph in my project "one photo a week". Just my personal thing, trying to force myself to be more creative and productive...

Colours of winter

We went for a walk today, I brought the D80. The light was great, and the clouds inspired me to have a go at some HDR-photography. Here is "Academill", on the coast of Vaasa. I particularly like the reflections in the ice and the dramatic clouds. Enjoy!

Solarigraphy

Finally! Here are 4 photographs, or solarographs, that I created using small pieces of Ilfords photographic paper that I placed in small containers with a hole in the side (basically pinholecameras). The exposures were 2-4 months. This project was totally experimental, and my main objective was to record atleast a few strokes of the sun on the sky. I´m proud to say I achieved this. I haven´t added any landscapes to the photographs, but I think that could be the next step in this project.

The paper I got from my pinholecameras was about 5 x 3 cm. I scanned the image and inverted it, flipped it horizontal and adjusted the contrast along with curves and shadow/highlight. I also added a sepiatone to these particular images.

the big dipper

This landscape needs no further introduction. A 55 sec exposure and some ACR along with my beloved softing-technique. A memory from the summer past...

Classical landscape

The archipelago needs no further introduction. The beauty, the drama, the serenity.

Autumn is still (here)

I´d like to continue on my autumn-theme. Here is a couple of shots of a leaf in the water. And, yes - it´s the same leaf. It´s getting harder and harder to find colourful leaves in good shapes, they are all starting to decay. PP as described in the earlier post.

Nature is on fire

I mentioned earlier that i like rust. Well, guess what else I like? Autumn! Finally the air is crisp and clear and natures treats us to a majestic cascade of colours. This afternoon I decided to go for a walk with my D80. I found some really nice scenerys. Along with some leaves. I had a go at creating a triptych of a collection of leaves I found in a park nearby. PP as usual.

Autiotalo

This weekend I had the opportunity to visit an abandoned house in a small village in the Kvarken archipelago. Here are a few photographs from that visit.

I like rust

You know, I like old stuff. Really old. The kind that others have already left behind, tossed away, or wish they could get rid of. That kind of stuff make excellent pictures. And rust is one of those elements in old objects that gives the photograph that extra punch. So here is two pictures of some old junk. PP include ACR, gradientmap, vignetting and softing.

Impressions:Vienna

Vienna, what a fantastic city. The food, the architecture, the art, the atmosphere... I spent 5 days in this beautiful Austrian capital with my wife. I ended up taking about 1000 pics with my D80. I know, 1000 photogs isn´t really that much. But after all, I was on a vacation/honeymoon, so I couldn´t really spend all the time looking through the viewfinder :) Above is but a few of the many impressions I got from beautiful Vienna.

Boathouse

This picture is more than one year old. It´s shot with my old Canon Powershot A85. So yesterday I found it on my harddrive while going through some other projects. I had already adjusted the luminance and colours, so basically I just needed to get the frame and the signature added.

The spinning wheels

Here are a few spinning wheels I found in the attic of a really old building. These spinning wheels haven´t been used for about fifty years or so. The HDR consists of three exposures merged in Photomatix PRO, and then some tuning in Photoshop.

Angel

Here is one of the photographs from the project I mentioned earlier. My theme was beauty, serenity and relaxation. The photographs depict an angel that has taken her wings of for a moment, as if she was taking a brake from being an angel (and what ever angels do). In this particular shot, the model is improvising.

Post production include Camera RAW, sharpening, vignetting and softening in Photoshop. The dodge-tool came in handy when I needed to get the dress and the wings even whiter.

Peace

Peace can be a state of harmony or the absence of hostility. "Peace" is used to describe the cessation of violent conflict. ('source')

During the Winter War an iceroad was build between Finland and Sweden so that supplies could be transported to and from Finland. The hand above is a statue in memory of the iceroad that was part of keeping this peace-loving country independent.

This is my response to the challenge I received last week. CP Geek wrote: Mission: "Peace".
Photoshop: Not allowed.
Time to accomplish: Must be presented 4th of july at latest.

Since Photoshop is a well integrated part of my photography-workflow, the challenge was, well, let´s say challenging...

I insisted on that the use of Camera RAW had to be allowed, though.

So, for the artistic part that I missed out on by not being able to use the force of the mighty CS3, I had to do a lot of thinking. I tried different angles and positions. Different f-stops and shutterspeeds. Just like in the good old 'analog' days. Above is the result. I used Camera RAW to adjust the saturation and luminance and to crop the image. The frame is obviously added in Photoshop, but that is all about presenting the photograph (it has nothing to do with "what you shoot is what you get"). So, mr Geek. Your call!