Day 9 - Daisy

Today is another hot day best spent in the shade. I parked myself in the middle of our lawn under a tree and snapped pictures from there. Usually I'm always shifting my position to find absolute best ange for a shot, but today it's simply too hot. Though, I have to say, confining yourself to one spot is kind of fun too - it forces you to search for new subjects in a whole new way. Also, working with a telephoto lens makes it all the more interesting because you get to search, not only in different directions, but in depth as well. Today was a fun :)

/MrsHjort

Day 1 - Poppy

So, It's finally time to start a brand new 30 day Challenge on DaggerBay, and thus I'm blowing life into my old blog again.

First off I want to jot down a few explanatory words to tell you why you haven't seen a lot of me lately. Those of you who know me in person may already know, but this past year has been quite hard on me. Basically I've been dealing with health problems. Without going into too many details, it has meant cutting back on many things, including my participation on DaggerBay. So my blog has been very quiet these past months. My condition has been having a big impact on my day to day life, and it is only recently that things have started to turn around for me. I've finally arrived at the top of the list to see the medical experts that can help me, and I have finally gotten some medicine that helps. I'm so glad to finally have enough energy to get my creative juices flowing again and I look forward to doing this challenge with all of the amazing photographers that have chosen to join me. Just to say though, however happy I am to be able to do the challenge, this past year I've learned never to take anything for granted, so, even though I'm (knock on wood) feeling better at this moment, things may change, and I may need to take a step back again. Cross your fingers for me!

With my current condition in mind, my month's theme will be quite simple - things found in my garden. This shot is my second experiment with a 10+ close-up lens filter. It enables me to get much closer to my subjects but has the drawback of limiting me to a very narrow depth of field. The result is quite dreamy, don't you think? :)

/MrsHjort

CCC - November: Cold and Dry

I always find it hard to go out to shoot this time of the year. Sweden is cold, dark and colorless in the winter, and not particularly pretty - unless there's snow. I didn't want snow for November's shot though - I wanted something in between to get a nice transition from autumn to winter. Luckily, my laziness in terms of garden related work finally got me something good. I don't like the garden autumn work (once the harvesting has been done). It'd just so boring putting the garden to sleep, cutting away wilting flowers and trimming the stuff that needs trimming. I much prefer the planting in spring and watching new plants pop up every day. Well anyway, this is my wilting garden; it turned out rather pretty in the end, despite all :)

/MrsHjort

Day 22 - Aged

I can't help but wonder how this would have looked when it was brand new. The fine apartments of the castle were all beautifully decorated and filled with wonderful details such as this. It must have been stunning! Though as beautiful as it must have looked back in the day, I think I like this better, not to live in mind you, but as a subject for photography.

Speaking of photography, I've gotten a brand new camera (Nikon D7100) as a birthday present from my family, and I'm having so much fun checking it out! All the new functions are so much fun to explore. I was just outside in my garden testing the HDR-settings and I'm very satisfied with the results I got. It's so much easier than the way I used to do it. As a matter of fact I've just entered one of the HDR shots from today into the Calendar Corsair Challenge for this month at DaggerBay. So you'll get to see it in a bit over a week. Time will tell how it all goes.

/MrsHjort

Day 18 - Gunpowder

This is me trying out fake DOF on a still life in order to make distracting stuff in the background less distracting. Did it work? Or did I just blow in by telling you haha. I like the result nonetheless, even though this is a very brown shot (I'm no fan of the color).

I am a fan of olden things though. I think it's my next favorite thing to shoot, right after nature. There are just so many wonderful textures to be found on the surfaces of aged stuff.

There is also something very attractive about things that have been made by hand. They're not perfect like the massproducerad stuff you see everywhere nowadays, and those little "imperfections" make them much more interesting. A little wonkiness, asymmetry or a crack or two... nothing wrong with that. Great stuff, it shows character :)

/MrsHjort

Day 5 - The Ladies

Yey! Things are moving forward! I've had two epiphanies since yesterday - I've figured out a new way to reduce noise selectively using the Nik Collection, and a new, much faster way to fake a narrow DOF.

Let's deal with the noise first. Sometimes, the name of a thing can blind you to the effect is has. The Nik Collection includes a filter called Dynamic Skin Softener that reduces texture in, you guessed it, skin tones. But, you have the ability to redefine what should be accounted as "skin", which means that you can soften any color you like by using the pipette tool. Neat huh? That helps a lot when changing a portion of an image drastically, like say when you use the Detail Extractor to bring out a sky and it becomes "too noisy". I wish I had figured that out sooner.

Next, lets talk about the fake DOF. Before, I used do that in a very time-consuming way. I used the lasso tools to select the portion I wanted to keep sharp, copied it and put it on a new layer. After that I  went back to the base layer, cloned the areas close to the "copied part" and painted over it to minimize the bleed effect that blurring an image creates - otherwise I would end up with a give-away fuzzy "halo" around sharp area. Today I figured, why not simply cut the subjects out instead? That way there would be nothing left on the base layer to bleed from. As you can see, it worked beautifully! Tough, I had to copy the base layer three times, blur three of layers and keep a sharp one in the back so that there wouldn't be any "sharp bleed" or transparency (am I making sense here? I hope I am).

So there you have it. My two new methods, I hope they're useful to you too.

/MrsHjort

Day 1 - Ser Barristan the Bold

I know this is the costume of a temple knight, but having read all of George R.R. Martin's famous books, and seen the Game of Thrones TV-series, I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite characters. He looks quite like him don't you think :).

As I wrote yesterday the goal of my challenge will be to edit the photos I took at a medieval market in France a week ago. I went there with only one lens. I chose the 18-105 mm one, since it's the most flexible and least intrusive of my lenses. I love doing candid shots and tried my very best to be discrete. I didn't quite manage with this guy though, who spotted me at the last moment. It still turned out great though.

I've done quite a lot of editing to this shot. It's not quite as zoomed in as you'd think - the DOF is faked - and I've cropped away quite a bit. Like I said, I was trying to be discrete and not zoom in on people. I figured I'd fake it in post-ed (selective blurring). Other than that I've done the usual basic stuff
(corrected the levels) and played around with the Nik Collection. I used Skylight, Bleach Bypass and Contrast Color Range. After that I sharpened the main subject and added a slight vignette.

I hope you like it

/MrsHjort

CCC - April: Fresh

Back in April, I wen't out shooting the budding trees without high hopes of getting anything I would like. I've tried my hand at buds many times before you see, and it has always ended in disappointment. Trees are complex things, and it's hard to get that perfect shot without too many distracting elements. Wind is a huge pain in the trigger finger. The smallest gust can move everything around which makes composing difficult, and it has the added bonus of motion blur, and moving stuff out of the depth of field, ah whooptidoo! That day however, my attempts turned out different. The light really worked with me, and the wind wasn't blowing at all (I live in a windy city, so those days are rare) which made things so much easier! Also, the bright blue sky turned out to be a gorgeous backdrop. The outcome exceed my expectations that day. YEY!

/MrsHjort

CCC - February: Diamond Dust

It's been a while again, real life keeps getting in the way of me blogging I'm afraid. But anyway... February's shot turned out more "wintery" than the one I used for January. I wanted snow, but just snow is a bit too boring, or wouldn't you say? So I went out in the garden and started looking for the perfect blades of grass. Now that's a much harder task than you'd think - either there were too many of them, the background didn't work, the depth of field wouldn't work because the grass was too twisted, the light conditions were bad or the grass was just plain ugly. It took me a while to find something I was satisfied with, and even then it would probably had been better to do some focus stacking - it's a bit rough around the edges. I really like the effect of the glittery snow though, which is why I decided on this one. I hope you like it too.

/MrsHjort

Blossoms, Blossoms Everywhere

This spring may be late, but oh so lovely. It's been so long since I've seen this many blossoms in the trees. The weather is lovely and nature literary is exploding with colors. Wonderful! Unfortunately the weeds have also awoken and my back aches from pulling up what feels like a gazillion weeds from the strawberry plantation in my garden. If I had a super power I wish it was the ability to conjure away all the weeds... and the dust that gather inside my home haha - you wouldn't believe how fast cat hair gathers in the corners during springtime, when the cats shed their winter coats!

On an other note, I'm still having fun with the Nik Collection. In the beginning I played with it like a kid who first discovered Word Art haha, but now I'm trying to go for more natural looks. I have to say I'm impressed with what the software can do. It's wonderful how much detail the filters can extract from what looks like plain monotone areas, and I love the skylight filter, it's a life saver on cloudy days. The only beef I have with the software, is that it often creates a bit of grain in soft backgrounds. The reduce noise filter helps a bit though, but boy would I love it if I could keep the smooth soft background and still have that edge the Nik Collection provides. Oh well, you can't have everything I guess...

/MrsHjort

Day 4 - Wood Squill

Here's an other little ugly duckling who got to grow into a swan. It was one of those shots that got pushed aside in favor of a better one, plus, it always bugged me that the center of the flower is't in focus. Processed this way it does not matter to me as much though - since the glow makes it an entirely different kind of shot. Enhancing the light like this makes it into a "mystical fairy-tale" type of shot, and that takes the pressure off the that little imperfection. Funny how a photo can change genre like this, just through the use of different post processing techniques - in this new context the blur actually works in its advantage.

I'm gonna have to stop trowing shot's like this away haha. If only I can get that perfectionist inside me to keep her finger off that delete button. A photo does not have to be technically perfect to be enjoyable. That's the lesson I relearned today :)

Cheers!

/MrsHjort

Day 2 - Dahlia

This is from last autumn. The shot was doomed to the shoebox when I saw it on my monitor and discovered that the focal length didn't quite cover the bee. Alas I had no other shot that did, so focus stacking was out. Thus I gave it up at the time, and went with an other shot for whatever I was shooting for that day. Photoshop sure can do some magic though, a couple of bee specific High Pass layers later and I'm satisfied to use it.

This shot made me think of Alice in Wonderland. Maybe it's because the composition looks similar to a drawing in the children's book I had when I was young. That made me want to use processing to make it look slightly unworldly, as fitting for a fantasy story. So off I went and did several layers of cross processing and then cut them together with different layers softly spreading out from the bottom one in the middle.

Now that I'm done it makes me think of the book even more :). I love the time travel you sometimes experience through photography! Don't you?

/MrsHjort

Day 1 - Tulips

Dagger Bay has just started running a Shoebox Challenge! Fun fun fun! If you're wondering, the main idea is to finally get around to processing old picture that haven't yet seen the light of day. Boy do I have a tonne of those haha!

For this challenge I'm going to focus on floral shots - I absolutely love doing them and as a consequence I have a million of them gathering dust on my hard drive.

This shot is actually three shots - they're focus stacked in order to make all three tulips crispy sharp. I shot them two years ago but never got around to finishing the work. It was too time consuming at the time and I didn't really need the shot anyway. Today I found them again, and I'm so glad I did!

I am also going to try to focus on processing techniques that I don't usually use - I tend to go for the natural look, but for this challenge I want to focus on bringing out light and colors in new ways. Time will tell if I'm successful.

Wish me luck!

/MrsHjort

Happy Easter

I have really been neglecting my blog lately. Dagger Bay is taking up much of my time (but it's so much fun) and work has been busy too (I love it though). In the meantime spring has finally arrived, and colors are returning to the world outside my windows.

This spring is something extra. Maybe it's because last time I didn't have the time to enjoy it. Sure I'm busy now too, but it's a positive kind of busy. The kind of busy that is about building new things, enthusiasm, creativity and drive.... about that feeling of moving forward and accomplishing something. I am very happy right now. Life couldn't be better. It feels so good to be able to say that.

This is a shoeboxd picture. I shot it years ago but it has never seen the light of day because of some slight focus issues. I can't help but love it though. The low angle in combination with the light and colors is so pretty. It's very "Eastery", if there is such a word haha.

Happy Easter to all of you!

/MrsHjort

13:04 - City Life

I finally got to try out my new telephoto lens today (it's a Nikon 55-300 mm telephoto lens). I've been dying to ever since I got it, but January has been so hectic. There has been so much Dagger Bay related stuff to do I just haven't had the time. But toady's lunch walk proved the perfect time!

I must say, I'm very happy. The lens proved to be just as awesome as I'd hoped it would be - giving me those dramatic street candids I wanted. I felt kind of awkward shooting though, standing amidst the crowd trying not to invade people's privacy too much. I didn't want them to feel like I was shooting "them". Also, people kept getting in my shot which was very frustrating. I saw many perfect opportunities that were ruined by some random person or another walking through the frame right at the wrong moment. Gaaargh! I finally got one that I was happy with though. I hope you like it too :)

Ps. Today's shot comes with a goofy bonus shot, just for laughs ;P XD ;)

/Mrs Hjort

07:45 - Traffic

If you've been following my blog, you probably know of the 30-Day Challenges that used to run on W1K. That tradition has now been carried over to my new home - Dagger Bay. This is not a 30-Day Challenge though, but a Seven Day Challenge! We're starting light so to speak :). The theme om my challenge is, "7 Days in the Life of the Mrs". So, here is day one's shot - traffic on the may to work :)

As one of the Quartermasters of Dagger Bay, I cannot resist the opportunity to promote my new favorite hang-out spot a bit. We've started the very first contest there now! A historic moment! Come! Check out the fun!

With hope to see you soon :)

/MrsHjort 

Nr 31 - Happiness

Congratulation again to all who made it!

In addition to being an homage to essjaynz, LetItBeFun and Regoch who made the whole moth following the word list in their own individual and o so wonderful ways, this shot is an acclaim to kimbomac who shot such lovely texture images every day. It's also a salute to sectretatlantis, and her marvelous search for the light, and I do believe she got it right! The shallow focus is a tribute to purplefrog, who delighted us with her use of DOF. This is also on the theme of abstract patterns and shapes, which is what sfalice dazzled us with this month. And finally, the picture is monotone therefore a bow to JustLou, who managed to get her beautiful rainbow in the end.

And now to why this shot is "happiness" to me... Fist off, it's yellow which has always been the number one happy color to me, and that's the reason why we painted our bedroom mango yellow. It's a shot of a piece that is very dear to me. It symbolizes our current home in many ways and it evokes many fond memories of past times. Also it's made of things you can bring home with you from trips to sunny warm places, which is very much happiness to me.

Can you guess what it is?

/MrsHjort

Day 30 - Newspaper

Sorry, no story about newspapers this time - there's simply too much else to say ;).

So! It's finally arrived! The final day of the 30-day challenge is here! Like always, it's a bitter-sweet moment. It's a bit of a relief that it's over - I won't have to plan a specific shot each day anymore. Surprisingly (not) carrying the camera around everywhere can be a bit of a nuisance, not to mention the times the battery has died on me (one of them being today), which has been very irritating to say the least. And I can live without the embarrassing shots of bus-stops as people walk by thinking I'm crazy! Also, no more cases of "camera-eye" (fucuseyeus stangeis) or "trigger-finger-itis" (itchyis spasmus), fellow photographers, you know what I mean!

However, I also love the challenges! I'ts such a great opportunity to get to know the wonderful people who play, and see their awesome shots each day. I've seen so many beautiful shots that make me think and break my own habits, and it's been such a joy to see people develop and breaking barriers of their own.

Another great thing is the comments I have received. They have been such a silver lining to every day (not cloud). Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to stop by and sharing your thoughts. You're the reason why W1K is a great place to be and I hope we'll keep in touch :).

Also, thank you to all you other visitors who have stopped by to take a gander each day. Seeing the stats map of all the people who come here, from all over the world, is just sooo cool! I hope I'll see you around here too! And feel free to drop me a line whenever :)

Finally I want to say congratulations to everyone who made it, and well done to those who tried! It's been an amazing challenge this time! You're all winners in my book!

Cheers!

/MrsHjort

Day 29 - Morning

This was one of those nights when I didn't sleep well. When that happens, I always result to that old trick of turning around 180 degrees, not from left to right, but from head to toe. And thus, this was the sight I woke up to this morning; Mr's toes, in all their glory!

Mr and I have our own little inside jokes about each other's feet. Mr is a football referee, so his feet are very rough. I playfully nag him about it and he repays by making fun of my, in his words, "nonexistent" little toes. I do have little toes though, it's just that they're kind of crooked and they fold in behind the toe next to them. Consequently, when I wear sandals, it looks like I have only four toes. I guess neither of us have very pretty feet haha.

/MrsHjort

Day 28 - Padlock

I love those bridges filled with padlocks symbolizing the love two people share. We don't have one in my home town though, instead I had to come up with something of my own. So, why not Mr's and my own padlock locked together :)

It's been eleven years now, since I met Mr. It's strange to think - time flies by so fast! Though at the same time, I cannot even remember what it was like before I met him. It's been eleven very happy years, and I just know, we're going to stay locked together forever :)

/MrsHjort