Still Chasing the Dream

I don't know how many hundreds of butterfly pictures I've
shot. I find it hard to stop snapping once I've started. I'ts like when you were young and went to the candy store haha. I just can't stop chasing that perfect shot. Not that I have a particular one in mind, I just want a real gorgeous one. A picture that makes all other pictures look mundane and boring. That one dream shot, that constantly alludes me, fluttering out of reach just as I reach for it.

I doubt that I will ever get it, that once in a lifetime shot. Not that I doubt my abilities, it's just that some goals should never quite be reached. You should always strive to do better - it keeps you on your toes, and besides, it's the journey itself that's interesting. It does not matter If I ever make it, I just enjoy the ride.

So, yesterday, I once again went out into my garden with my camera-hand itching for action. Somehow, every shooting gets you something different. The light is never exactly the same, the environment around you changes and gives you a different bokeh, and the butterflies themselves never behave in exactly the same way.

Having shot tonnes and tonnes of butterflies, I've learned a bit about how to get closer to that dream shot. So, here are some of my thought about macro photography, and shooting butterflies.

1) Choose a calm day - it's so much easier if you don't have to wait for the wind to stop blowing all the time, and for the bushes to stop moving. Even the smallest gust of wind can be very frustrating when using a narrow DOF - things will move in and out of focus, a lot!

2) Any time of the day is fine, as long as the sun is shining. Even late in the afternoon or early in the morning - it makes for great opportunities to get "contrasty" shots with the main subject shining in the sun! Anyway, lots of light makes for shorter shutter speeds which, in turn, makes the shots sharper. It helps a lot when working with small, fast moving subjects.

3) Always think of the bokeh. You want the butterfly to be contrasted to the background, unless your intention is a dreamy shot, like the second from the top.

4) Experiment with angles, The butterflies may be pretty with their wings out from above, but there are a million of those shots, and one more isn't original. Unless, it's exceptional in some way - I just love the colors in the top shot :)

5) The focus should be right in the butterfly's face. Just like when shooting portraits. It's the coolest thing when you get those eyes just right. You know, I actually never thought of butterflies as fuzzy creatures before I started shooting them, haha, but they are, and gorgeously so.

6) Speaking of close-ups... A macro lens might have the ability to get you those really cool zoomed in shots, but, they're devilishly hard to get just right. So, do not use the maximum zoom capability all the time, sometimes a shot from a bit "further away" can be just as lovely.

7) Composition is tricky when working with subjects that have a will of their own. A good deal of luck is involved, but you can learn to anticipate their movements to some degree, if you observe them closely.

8) Shoot a lot of "safies". Butterflies are tricky to capture, and the more shots you have, the larger the quantity of really sharp shots will be. Let that trigger finger work!

9) Use an empty mem-card with a large storage capacity, I can, literally, shoot hundreds of pictures during one shooting. And, trust me, it's not fun to have to go through them and erase the ones you think are bad because you have run out of storage. And, it might make you miss a lot of cool stuff too.

10) Have fun and be patient :)

So, those are my thoughts, I hope they helped you.

Cheers, and happy hunting!

/MrsHjort

Rugged Around the Edges

This is one of those pictures that really breaks from what I usually like to shoot. I'm really more of a nature photographer, or someone that likes nice clean shots, but sometimes I'm drawn to subjects like this. The ruggedness and the reflections just took me in, and all those lines and circles were very interesting to me.

When shoot similar subjects I like to go with with diagonals - they usually make for an interesting composition, but non-level water always looks strange. So, therefore, I broke with my habits a second time and shot it straight.

Thirdly, I very seldom go with blue, I really don't know why, but I've always been drawn to warm colors. So, here we have a rugged, level, blue shot, as far from my usual style you can get, but hey, sometimes it's nice to break with your habits. Maybe I'll try to do something like that for the next 30-day challenge.... Hmmmm, that's an interesting thought!

What do you usually avoid shooting?

/MrsHjort

Summer Glow

I went chasing butterflies again today, I just cant help myself! I've been looking forward to this all summer. It sort of reminds me of when I was a kid, waiting for my birthday to finally arrive haha. You see, I was born i August. All summer long I waited for the big day, and when it finally came, it was just marvelous! There was just one downside - my birthday always meant that the summer holidays were nearing the end, and as the days grew shorter again, autumn drew closer and closer. Now that I'm not that fond of my birthday anymore, the blooming butterfly bushes has taken over that role, the role of something you look forward to, but don't really want to experience, not just yet. A weird, bitter sweet sort of thing...

Anyway, having shot many, many butterflies, I've come to the conclusion that they're easiest to shoot late in the afternoon. That way, the sun shines beautifully on their pretty wings and accentuates their textures. Lovely, don't you think? Also, the low angle of the sun illuminates them so well, it's less likely their fast movements will result in motion blur. Quite neat, I must say.

/MrsHjort

Chasing the Dream

Just like most little girls, I have always loved butterflies, and as a grown-up, I have always dreamed of taking that one perfect photo of one. To make things easier, we have planted four Buddleja bushes in the garden, or well, it's not only that they attract butterflies, they are very pretty too.

So, yesterday, I headed out with my trusty Nikon to chase the dream. I think it's becoming something of a tradition haha - last year I did the same, but then I used a tripod and remote. I figured it would be safer, but I found that is was hard to capture the fast, and small subjects witch such bulky equipment. It was hard to compose too, so this year I'm trying without them. The result is about 20 % sharp images - the ones when there was absolutely no wind whatsoever, the narrow DOF was just right and I didn't move an inch. So the ratio might be a bit lower, but the ones that made it were much prettier - it's better to compose yourself that to hope that chance will make the butterflies step to exactly the right spot you want them to be in.

Anyway, this is my favorite of the set, I hope you like it too :)

/MrsHjort

10 Pictures of One Subject Challenge

Having scored the most points on both my entries on last week's challenge, I got to choose the new one for this weekend. So, this time it's 10 shots of one small subject, which really gets you thinking about angles and composition. Fun fun fun!

So, I chose my teapot as my subject. I love its design and its different surfaces, it makes for an interesting theme. So, I sat it down on the kitchen counter and turned it around... a lot! I got down on my knees and I stood on a chair, I zoomed in and out, and I twisted my body into many uncomfortable positions haha, and in the end, I got my 10 unique shots.

This exercise reminded me very much of when I did the 30-day challenge a year and a half ago. The hunt for abstracts was very rewarding and it made me look upon the world with new eyes. I can still find myself looking for lines and harmonic shapes throughout the days sometimes and I sometimes stop for a minute or two to appreciate the beauty of the world around me. I love that photography has brought me that!

/MrsHjort

Kitchen Panograph

I've been wanting to try this for a long time, panographs are just so cool! So, today I killed two birds with one stone - I finally got around to a great (and very late) spring cleaning, and, I got to experiment with my camera a bit too :).

Since I wanted this to fit into the "24 pictures from one spot" challenge, I had to think it through a bit beforehand. I ended op going with a 6 by 3 grid, which makes 18, and then shot 6 additional shots, featuring some details (to mix things up a bit), and thus I got to 24.  I chose 6 by 3, because I wanted quite a lot of overlapping so that the distortion would not get too great - I wanted a more natural, and less edgy look.

The post-ed was a bit time-consuming, but not as complicated as one might think. Since I shot all of the photos in the "grid" with the same settings on manual, there was practically no "drift" in contrast. The hard part was to make them fit together nicely. I decided on having the 2nd row on top and the upper and lower rows layered below it - I think it makes the whole thing look more natural and harmonic. When I had gotten the whole thing together, I merged all of the 18 layers, and put it though my usual basic post-ed adjustments (levels & curves). Next, I added the six "detail shots", and matched them to the grid. As a final step, I went over the photo with the desaturation sponge and removed some color from places with a bit of color drift. And.. I done!

All in all, it was a fun exercise! I'll definitely do more of these :)

/MrsHjort

24 Pictures from One Spot Challenge

I love new challenges, that's why I joined W1K back in 2013, and it's a huge part of why I've stayed. Even more important though, are the awesome artists you meet there, and all the inspiration you get.

Today, thanks to Buffy, I've finally gotten around to shooting my garden. For some reason, it's hard for me to get around to shooting at home. I like to go places and shoot, but really, you can find loads of nice subjects in your own back yard.

So anyway, the challenge was to stand in one spot, without moving your feet, and shoot 24 different photos. Fun huh? It makes you look around more than you usually do and experiment with angles and composition. I shot all of the pictures with my Sigma 70-300 mm lens - I just love how flexible it is and the gorgeous bokeh you get when using a large aperture :). It's just the best!

Shooting comes quite natural to me, I'm usually very fast - that's the way you get to be when you have an impatient husband, who sighs loudly when you take too long haha. The time-consuming part is the post-ed. But, it's an oh so important part. Some sharpening here, some curves manipulation there, getting the levels right is important, and saturation is the cherry on top. About two hours later, and I'm done.

So, here it is, the fruit of my work, both as a photographer and gardener. I hope you like it.

/MrsHjort

Devotion

I never get to shoot Mr, seriously, I don't, not for real. Oh, I'm not counting those times when he "lets" me. No matter what we try, he can't help but look totally awkward and tense. Have you've ever seen the episode of Friends where Chandler and Monica are taking an engagement picture? Well, that's exactly what it's like! So for me to actually get a good picture of Mr... it's a very rare thing indeed.

Shooting Mr, involves stealth and a lot of luck. Fortunately, I have a lens that lets me get in real close from quite a distance, which really helps in his case. That way I can catch him off guard, when he's relaxed and unaware. I shot this from 20 meters away, and I got really lucky! In my eyes it's one of those pictures that really defines him. It's a rare thing to succeed with that... just a picture of him, doing such an every day thing as watering our garden, but with the same care and devotion that he handles most things in life. Mr is a very caring man.

We've been together for 11 years now, and I'm still totally crazy about him. He told me recently that an acquaintance had asked him how long we had been a couple. When Mr told him, he said that he never would have guessed - we're still as addicted to each other as we was when we first met, and that is what I really love about us! It tells me, that no matter if 11 more years pass, or 22, or 33 for that matter, we'll still be the same, crazy about each other, just like a couple of teenagers.

/MrsHjort

Happy Summer Holidays

My, my my! Has it been so long? Almost a month since my last post? Time sure flies!

I've been really busy lately, not gaming though - I'm done now - but "photoshopping", and time really passes quickly when you're busy with BotS. Then there's the garden to take care of, and work of course, and we also have two house guests, furry ones. You see, my sister in law is away on a trip and we're taking care of her chinchillas. But alas, no pictures of them yet, if cats are quick, we need to coin a whole new word for those guys!

So, today, Lady Freya is my poster girl again. Two weeks ago the weather here was wonderful. The temperature was around 35 degrees C (which is really uncommon where I live), and Mr, I, Freya and our other cat Morris, would just lay in the shade, on a blanket in the grass, and read comics - that's the only thing we had the energy to do. Isn't it wonderful when nature provides the perfect excuse for you to be lazy? Those days were perfect!

Anyway, what's the perfect thing to do when you're bored with comics and need something else to occupy yourself with? That's right! To lazily lay in the grass with a camera! It makes for interesting low angle shots, and the furry subjects are too warm to jump out of your shots. All you have to do is snap away :).

Happy Holidays to you

/MrsHjort

Planting Peonys and Killing Monsters

This month has been... unusual. On one hand, I've been very busy at work, and we've done a lot of rearranging in the garden lately. Today for instance, I've been hunched over all afternoon pulling out weeds while Mr moved two bushes and replanted some flowers. On the other hand however, this month has been incredibly lazy and hedonistic too, as both Mr and I delved into "the Witcher 3", gaming for hours and hours, enjoying all the little details of the world we both are so fascinated by. Boy am I lucky, I married a man who is just as nerdy as me!

So, about the game, for those of you who might be wondering, it's the best one I've ever played! One play-through easily takes 100 hours and though it may be filled with side quests, they are never boring, which is a mark of a good game. Compared to "Skyrim" for instance, which is an other open world game, the side quests are more motivating, more diverse, much more unpredictable and they play a more central role to the main protagonist Geralt. I'ts not just "run from point A, to point B, kill monster C, get D and return to get a reward", it's never that mundane. There is a real sense of motivation, of exploration and of building your character, not only in terms of getting more XP, but of actually getting to know who Geralt is. And the best part is that there are plenty of these little nuggets of gold in the game - even though I made it a point to explore the world thoroughly during the last play-through (I'm on the second one now), I still find new quests this time. Let me tell you, the game is HUGE!

An other thing that's really great is that, not unlike the series "Game of Thrones", the game is not about black and white, good and evil or any kinds of moral extremes. I love the fact that every choice has you debating and thinking things over. Very much unlike other games when there's really only one way I can possibly play, because, lest face it, I'm not a bad guy and I could never deal with the choices required. Nope, the game is filled with moral dilemmas, and I love it!

When it comes to the world itself, it's alive, really alive! It feels lives in, in a way I've never experienced in any other games. The people around you are like anyone you'll find in real life, there are greedy merchants, trying to suck up to you, there are bullies, who are just as annoying as real ones, there are smelly drunks and pious priests, intellectuals, scheming spies, poor orphans, gossiping women, cross-dressers, hard-working farmers, dimwits, maniacs, beggars, psychopaths, worried mothers, men's men, thieves, dandies, yellow-bellies, sad saps, know-it-alls and any other person you can possibly think of. And thy're all unique, with their own dialogue and appearance, each and every one of them believable. That is nothing short of amazing.

Finally, I have to say, that as a huge fan of Andrzej Sapkowski, who wrote the books the game is based on, as well as the previous games, I had pretty high expectations on the game. The previous two games were detailed in terms of lore, the voice acting of "the Witcher 2" was absolutely superb, the characters were detailed, the quest-line was very true to the books and the graphics was stunning. I wanted "the Witcher 3" to be like "Skyrim", but more detailed and alive, I wanted it to be like "The Witcher 2", but even more diverse and challenging, I wanted it to be like "Final Fantacy IX", but with an even more epic story and I wanted it to be like "Dragon Age 3", but with more detailed characters and more "soul". So, needless to say, I wanted the third game to be exceptional! I have to admit that I was a bit worried prior to the release - how could it possibly live up to all that? Well... the answer is, without a moment's doubt, YES! "The Witcher 3" is above and beyond! Wow! Just WOW!

/MrsHjort

The Nerd Awakens

So, I haven't been around for a while, sorry, but that's the way it goes when the nerd in me awakens (and gets insomnia). You see, I'm one of those super duper nerds who is not only into Fantasy and SciFi, but also an intense gamer. and now that "The Witcher 3" is out, I've been glued to my computer for hours and hours, playing the game, turning over every stone, exploring every cave and seeking out every quest I can possibly find.

I could go into depth and write an entire essay on the game, but suffice to say that I'm so nerdy that I've not only played the previous games more times than I'd care to admit, but I have also read all the novels and short stories about the game's protagonist. So, you get the picture, big fan of it all and I absolutely LOVE the last part of the trilogy!

So, sorry for not updating haha, I'll probably be back more frequently in a month or so, when I've played through it all (let me tell you, the game is HUGE!!!).

Cheers!

/MrsHjort