Day 13 - The Cliché

Being in this beautiful place I could not help but go wild when the sun neared the horizon. No matter how overdone sunset shot are, I have to confess I'm still a sucker for them. Also, the light here was simply too gorgeous to pass up. The way the sun beamed down trough the mountains was beautiful enough to make you cry... literally in my case haha - I stared into the sun too long as I shot this, and there went the water works. It was totally worth it though :)

/MrsHjort

CCC - August: Calm Afternoon

I was very happy to win the August competition. It's the first contest of the calendar series that I've won this year. That's always a great feeling, but this was even more special...

You see, I got a new camera for my birthday this year. I turned 30, and my family had all pitched in and bought me a brand new Nikon D7100 together. They're just the best (thank you, thank you, thank you!)! This win, is extra special because this is one of the very first photos I shot using my new toy, it's the first time I tried the HDR function that I had been longing for, and it's the first one taken with my new camera that I entered into a competition. That made the win all the more special to me. It was so great to be able to tell my family about the win when they asked me how I liked my new camera :)

/MrsHjort

Day 2 - City of Stone

I'm constantly second guessing myself when I'm editing shots like these. I'm much more comfortable editing photos that were taken in sunlight. This overcast sky was a pain in the trigger finger as well as in that self critical post-ed eye of mine. I even wen't back to try something whilst writing this (not once but twice), only to discard it and go back again. I much prefer the way sunlight helps everything along, but this time not even the skylight filter helped me very much, since it turned things too yellow. sigh... You can't beat nature I guess. Well, I'll just have to grit my teeth at it all and accept the gloom.

That reminds me of something we overheard as we were walking along one of the streets close to our hotel; "In Scotland thare ur three kinds o' waither; reen, reen 'n' mair reen". Well thankfully the next day was much, much better.

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 1 - Edinburgh Castle

This next series of mine will show you the beautiful city of Edinburgh. Mr and I went there for a few days this summer, and did all of the usual touristy stuff, but on steroids! You see, I've been to the city before, but back then, I didn't get to do any real touristy stuff – I wasn't there on holiday and my schedule was packed. So, this time I wanted to do all those things I didn't get to do last, and shoot all of the things I didn't have the time to shoot back then. Needless to say, I had a blast! I love Edinburgh and all its wonderful traditional stone architecture, I love the cozy pubs, the friendly people, the charming lilt of their Scottish accents and the smoky whiskey they serve. If ever I were to settle down outside of Sweden, Edinburgh wouldn't be a bad choice :)

I'm learning so much during this challenge of ours! By post-editing all these different shots every day I'm getting to know the Nik collection much better. Strangely, I've been ignoring one of it's many wonderful functions up until now. I guess I've been focusing on geting to know things one at a time, it's just how I roll, but now I've finally tried out the HDR tonal mapping, and it rocks! Before, I've used the detail extractor for the same purposes, and removed stuff selectively after hand, trying to make all the layers blend nicely (it's a pain in my self critical left eye), but the HDR function is vastly superior to that. Just look what it brought out of that uncooperative sky! Color me impressed!

Cheers

/MrsHjort

Day 29 - Chateauneuf en Auxois

This is what the castle and its village looks like viewed from the place where I stayed. It's not strictly taken at the medieval market (which is my theme for this challenge), but during the evening that same day, so I think it qualifies.

It was such a beautiful evening... The perfect end to a great day... My medieval market series is drawing to a close too. It started out as a 7 day challenge, which is why I've labelled it as such, but I've never been one to follow the rules, and thus it turned into a full-blown 30-day challenge. Best of all is that there are two more rebells breaking the rules with me. Kim and Craig, you guys are awesome! Mwah!

I'll show you the last shot tomorrow, but the post-ed challenge will carry on, at least for me anyway, and hopefully some new faces will join in on the fun. We've left the challenge open for anyone to join, at any time, but maybe the change of months is the perfect time? We'll see... But just so you know, all of you reading this right now, you are more than welcome to join me :)

Cheers

/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

New Adventures

I've been away for a while now, travelling. And since I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my photography, and my laptop can't handle PS, that means that I've been away from my blog as well. This was the third time we went back to the one of our favorite islands - Madeira, Portugal.

I've always preferred nature photography to anything else, and Madeira is a great place for that. The "levadas" and mountain paths are just gorgeous and the flora is quite unique. You can find a lot of different types of areas - from very dry to very moist, and sometimes, it's enough to turn a corner to get from one to the other. Very cool indeed!

Unfortunately though, Mr and I had been sick for weeks before travelling, and therefore, we were quite out of shape. So, alas, this time we had to keep to the easier treks, wish meant mainly forest treks along levadas. Don't let that give you the idea that it was less enjoyable or less adventurous though. You can find really gorgeous spots pretty much anywhere on the Island, and despite the fact that Mr and I have spent... lets see... yes, as many as 7 weeks on the island in total, counting all our trips there, there are still things we haven't done yet!
Ergo, lots of cool stuff to see and do, and shoot ;)

So, there's more to come. I just wanted to touch base a bit, and show you the first batch of my shots. They describe our trip pretty well I think - wandering in lush green forests, feeding birds and enjoying the wonderful weather :)

See you soon

/MrsHjort

Chasing the Action

A few weeks ago, I once again had the pleasure of shooting my ex-colleague at a football game. This was the third time, and I must say that I am growing more and more comfortable with shooting action.

The first time I was an eager beaver! I, literary, watched the game through my lens, snapping all the way through. I'f you've ever done such an intense session, you'll know what I'm talking about when I tell you that I developed a severe case of "Camera Eye" haha. It took... maybe a half an hour before my vision was back to normal.

The second time was easier, I was more used to the way of thinking and composing. The first time, I had pretty much followed my friend, throughout the game, the second time I followed the ball. That way I got more interesting shots in general, and the number of shots with my ex-coworker in them were the same.

The first time had been a try-out for lenses as well. I had brought two of them with me; my trusty Nikon 18-105 mm lens, and my fairly new Sigma 70-300 mm macro lens. It turned out the Sigma was vastly superior. I got much closer to the action, with no drawbacks.

This third time was the first time I had a clue about what was going on around me - I was experienced enough to know when the real good shots were coming up, and that way, I could enjoy the game itself as well. I actually knew the score this time haha! I was way to distracted and busy before.

An other bonus was, that this time, the game was set on real grass! That made for prettier green colors and less glare. However, the sun was a bit of a problem. The contrasts turned out quite pronounced and left me with quite a bit of tinkering in post-ed. If only I could do HDR shots haha! That would really be
something :)

/MrsHjort

Pleasant Surprises

Sometimes my camera does weird things, I don't know how, or why, but occasionally it's like it goes "no! What you want to do is boring! I want to do this instead!"

I always take one or two extra shot for safety. Particularly when doing outdoor macros - since the wind can ruin a good shot, or the lighting might change slightly from moment to moment, when there's a cloudy sky. Once I even tried doing a floral "HDR" shot (for the lack of a better word) - merging three shots that didn't work individually. I merged one shot from when a cloud was covering the sun, one from when there was a wisp in front of it, and one when it was out completely. It actually turned out pretty neat! It really made the reds pop - which can be a problem sometimes when shooting outside in "real" light conditions.

Anyway, this was one of those safety shots I talked about, before my ramblings lost track, and even though my camera did some wacky things, which made the shot sort of hazy, I kind of like the result. It's certainly not one of my strongest shots, with composition in mind - it was very windy, and I waited for several minutes at a time for things to settle down (whilst sighing and grumbling haha). Composition aside though, I like the dreamy mood. Don't you :)

So, tell me, does you camera also go bananas sometimes? Does it have a will of it's own, and is it just waiting to confuse you with its mastermind schemes? If so, it might be related to mine!

Have a nice weekend, dear friends, cheers!

/MrsHjort