Bloggen
On my photo walk on Sunday in my dear Elfvik, I was out for four and a half hours. It was such a lovely winter day. Clear blue sky with the low and pale yellow wintersun bringing out the sparkles in the snow and in the ice. -10 C with high clear air that filled my lungs with freshness and new energy. Photo walks are the best walks. It makes you really take notice on what is around you because you are looking for possible photo opportunities, and at the same time you get exercise and in winter, that so important spare daylight. A photo walk forces you to be completely present, here and now, both physically and mentally. When you come home, you have the excitement of downloading all the photos you took into the computer and start editing. I can never wait, I am too curious on how the […]
Categories:
In my journey to practise my eye for the best photos and to improve my ”seeing”, I have started to really taking my time when I try to find a picture. I look at angles, light and shadows. I am not finding it all perfectly yet, but at least I am looking. Before I didn’t know until I got home and downloaded the photos to the computer if it was a good picture or not. I still do, but more often the picture I had in my mind show up on the memory card too. 🙂 So I am hoping that practice will make nearer perfect. I find it rather rewarding to ”really” take in the scene or subject. To actively think of it and how to show it. I am hoping that this is a first step to take better photos. Before I was kind of stuck in the […]
What in the world is ”Twentieth Knut Day”…? 🙂 St Knut’s Day. In Swedish tjugondag jul (Twentieth day of Christmas) or tjugondag Knut (Twentieth Knut Day) The 13th of January marks 20 days after Christmas, and the end of Christmas here in Sweden. Today is the day that you traditionally remove the Christmas decorations that have been up since first of Advent, and you have a Christmas tree plundering party (julgransplundring) with dancing around the Christmas tree before you throw it away. Like dancing around the Maypole at Midsummer. Same dances, basically the same songs with a few Christmassy exceptions. Why change a winning concept? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1uJPmCl4Ow] So following tradition, I today cleaned out Christmas. Out with the cosy lights and candles. I will miss them! Just lighting it all up one last time! Farewell beautiful advent candles. Farewell, my favourite decoration – my ”tomte” lamps. Bye bye electrical advent lights, […]
Time has not allowed me to go out to take more photos so I have to make do with some ”left-overs” from last time. This means I am not too happy about these. But as this creative journey partly for me is to learn to try and experiment and fail – this entry is an exersice in that. The theme of Jen’s and my tree project this week, is a continuation of last week’s texture theme. This time texture in black and white. I like black and white photos. Just the fact that they are black and white can make a boring image a little less boring. But it is still not enough to take away the boring completely out of the photo. So why not take this opportunity to just play around a bit? First some regular photos. Black and white photos are good for a graphic effect to display the pattern of the bare twigs […]
Categories:
Youtube is such an amazing source for aspiring ”photographers” like me who are eager to learn as much as possible about photography and Photoshop editing. And who can’t afford too many expensive photography or Photoshop courses. The more I learn about editing, the more I am starting to enjoy that just as much as taking the actual photo. You can have so much fun with Photoshop. It is an art tool in itself! Through a blog I follow of a young (Swedish) girl, Nevnarien, who is a great photographer and inspiration for me, I found this Youtube tutorial about adding snow to your photos by creating a snow brush in Photoshop. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP7qiZIuTA0] I tried it on a photo I posted in this entry and another photo from the same day that I discarded, because the slow shutterspeed blurs out the snow so it just looks like a mist instead of snow. […]
Yesterday was one of those perfect winter days. I was a bit late for my little photography excursion so I missed a lot of light. But I did catch the amazing winter sunset. The air was completely still and the sky was cloud-free. The sun was just about to set and cast long dark shadows over the ice-covered lake. Despite the near sunset, the time was just around three. The lake was still buzzling with life from people iceskating and skiing across it like an icey lake highway. On a barbeque site by a wooden wind shed on a hill facing the water some people had a barbeque party in the snow. Voices of laughter and excitement both from the ice and the barbeque broke the otherwise peaceful air. It doesn’t get any better than this in winter. I was lucky to be out on this perfect day for my contribution to […]
Categories:
Happy New Year! 🙂 I was planning to write a resume of 2015 today for the English part of the blog but I won’t have time so I will put that up on Tuesday. What I will do is to present the two photos I got to take for Jen’s and my tree project’s first theme. Shallow depth of field. I am not 100% satisfied with this first photo -which is the one most true to the theme. I can do a lot better. I might try a few more of shallow depth of field even though we now have a new theme. What I love about the photo (I always have to find something I like in my photos to practise not being so self-critical!) is the light. The contrast with the white tree trunk and the setting sun reflecting in the tree tops. What I don’t like is […]
Categories:
I am excited. My dear friend Jen is an amazing artist with great creative talent. Everything she touches becomes beautiful art. She is a great supporter in my creative journey. She is helping my mind to be more creative in my thinking and gives me valuable feedback on my photos and creative efforts. She is also interested in exploring photography. She is my twin soul when it comes to how we feel about nature and beauty (and so many other things too!). We have decided to start a photo project together. The subject is trees. From different aspects. We alternate to choose a theme per week. So we will both learn from each other and together through this project. I, for now, know more about the camera functions and Photoshop, even though my knowledge is very basic. Jen just recently got her first digital SLR camera and wants to learn […]
Categories:
I found this Photoshop tutorial on my favourite photography tips youtube channel. He is great. You can watch the tutorial here: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGNctntIOx8] I really love this effect. I think I will have a lot of use for it once I get the hang of it. I tried it on a photo that I have previously posted here on the blog. I like it! I think the effect really conveys my feeling when I took the photo. The magic of nature and how my inner peace and spirituality feed of that magic. Which is also what the entry was about (in Swedish). Which editing do you prefer? Original photo The photo edited with the effect: Photo: Marie Elmqvist
Where is winter? Outside the grass is actually green. The leaves have left the trees since long ago – but there is actually green grass in December. It’s warmer than on Midsummer’s Eve for God’s sake – we’ve had up to 12 degrees! I don’t know which is most weird – warmer than normal in December, or colder than normal in June?? It’s an upside-down world. What is happening to the weather? Am I the only one who find the weirder and weirder weather scary? Something is not right. I also wonder if we have the time to stop the effects of global warming. How many big ”climate meetings” have there been with ”the urgent need to come together to stop the development”, that end up with nothing. Because short-term profit and hunger for power are more important than having a world left to give to our children and their children. And instead of coming together […]
[…] bild tog jag med för att den är tidig vår för mig. Detta var en aprilmorgon för tre år…
[…] Dissade först denna bild, men så blev det till slut den jag valde eftersom jag tyckte den passade temat…
[…] början på våren började jag en kurs i landskapsfotografi. Kika gärna på inlägget där jag filmade en liten film…
Thanks <3
hugs <3