This time, I photographed the games with the soft focusing Lensbaby. Not one single photo where you can see who’s actually participating. I just love it. (But the friend who asked if I got any good images of him might think otherwise). I uploaded a few of them to Flickr, as is, but processed the one below into b+w. I like the melancholic feel I get when the image is unfocused, when there is no apparent depth of field. By making it b+w, the image becomes even more suggestive, as fading memories often are. Very special, too.

This weekend is special for many Swedes, although not for me. This year, however, it was really pleasant. I had worked a lot with late nights every evening up until last Thursday, so when Friday and Midsummer eve came up I was really tired and needed to rest, probably too tired to think of everything you have to be on a traditional holiday like this. I really had a lovely weekend and am fully charged again.

I have been shooting, creatively too. It’s good to feel that it’s enjoyable again. The image above is made with the Lensbaby and the double glass. I haven’t been shooting that much with the soft focusing glass, lately. I eventually became tired of seeing everything defocused, and with the double glass you get it at least sharp in the middle. As in real life , if you think about it.

This week will be dedicated to writing, though. I will participate in a feature writing workshop. Maybe I turn into a Pulitzer award-style writer, and starts to write captivating and interesting articles that have the potential to change you lives. What do you know.

I’ve been away for a while, away from everything that spells out Internet and present in the more tangible reality. Well, all I’ve been writing about and everything that I have been photographing, that has been real, too. This time, I’ve been busy with life and a course in graphic design that I participated in this semester. The former has perhaps not been very tangible, but it is nonetheless a reality show that is broadcast in my life annually. Not very fun, but it’s in the past now. The latter was really fun, and I learned a lot that I hope I can gain from in my profession. Now, I don’t only master Illustrator, I also know InDesign at my finger tips. Very useful. In fact, this takes me directly to SOFOBOMO.

Apparently, the SOFOBOMO window starts tomorrow!?! This came as quite a shock to me, since I though I should participate, earlier this year, at least. Well, I have not been thinking of quitting, there are still plenty of time to consider what to do, if anything at all, that is. And, as an answer to myself – yes, I’ve seen that some has started to blog on this topic, so there are definitely many that still are out there. Hardly a surprise, and I’m happy for it.

Hello, everybody!

Now, when I have been writing myself midway through this post, I realise I’ve entitled it nearly as one of my favourite photographer’s web site is called, While Standing Still. Her images have inspired me to explore colours again, although the images in this post are in b&w. Let’s see what will come out of that, and back to this post and the images.

I took them last week, an early morning while it was very foggy. I knew about this windmill and thought it would be perfect to shoot it in this light, so off I went. The time has indefinitely stopped ticking for it. It costs of course a fortune to maintain such an old mill like this. This one has probably been out of function at least the late 75 years, perhaps more than a hundreds, so the economical rationales to keep it standing are about….none. While people probably would be willing to pay 10 millions (divide by 7 to get a figure in US Dollars) for a house with a picturesque mill on the property, right here in Lund, this one is located a few kilometres outside, far too long away to attract those who have that kind of money. So, the decay is inevitable. It will only stand a few more years, as it looked like now. Large parts of it had already fallen down to ground and started to become one with Mother Earth. As life in the large, I guess.

Om jag kisar lite
Målar med mjuk, vit pensel
Ser jag ett sandslott

Brrrr…..

Looking at this chair makes me thinking it must be like this some less fortunate birds and animals experience this winter.

I have seen this a few times as I passed by, but never photographed it until last night. It stands in a Bicycle shop display, but, too much of the store interior disturbs the overall impression of this magnificent bike during daytime. Look at the fork and that frame, pretty neat work. I hope it gets to stay in there, in the warmth, because if it gets sold, it has to come out in the cold and quite probably, eventually end up as a rusty wreck.

As you might have seen, I reworked my blog design since I partly wanted a clean layout without distracting elements, and partly wanted to be able to display 1024px images, as this one. It’s not ready yet, and there are links and stuff that I don’t know what to do with. Yet, I hope it works as is, for the time being.

I must also say that I sometimes like the sun ray effect you get around direct light sources within the viewframe. To much of them, and the image is completely spoiled, but when the light source is not too bright, the result may occasionally look really lovely. Okay, it’s almost not photography any more, but anyway. In the image above, the rays came through a bit too strong, but I liked them anyway. It’s like the sign points in that direction, and as if there were blinking lights over there that called for you.

I think I’m getting a grip of this little creature now. But I have also started to look around for other ways to get the diffusion effect. I would love to use for instance my Summilux, which is both sharp and contrasty, together with a diffusion filter. I have seen that there are Schneider filters for still photography, previously only being available for motion film equipment. There are filters for overall softness (Classic soft), but the one I found most interesting diffuses only on the lighter areas in the view and retains all shadows (Black frost). They seem to come with a hefty price tag, though… The classic solution to use a pair of stockings is perhaps the most viable solution, who knows, black stockings might do the trick with the shadows.

The weather guys were right, the sun really rise at 8.40, but honestly, the light was much more interesting during the hour before that. Not that I didn’t know that, looking at this in retrospect. We call this hour the “blue hour”. The same type of light occurs after sunset. Well well, what could we do? We went out to hike up to the place were the ship setting is, and got our second shock for the day. It was -14°C and the wind was not hard but present, and mostly pretty damp since Kåseberga is located by the sea. We managed to get out to the stones, but we were already pretty cold before we even had taken our first photo.

I made a few, and managed against all odds to even change lens two times during the shooting session. It lasted at most ten minutes, then we had to get back to the car. It was terribly cold, and my hands were completely frozen. The first image is made with a soft focusing Lensbaby, with the sunrise in my back. It’s the moon you see in the image. The second one is taken against the sunrise (it hides behind the large stone in the middle), with my Summilux 25.

After having warmed up at a café, we took a long way back home, where I spotted an abandoned house that was located very dramatic on a height with only a tree as company (that’s the last image in the series, taken with my Lensbaby). All in all, it was a great trip, with some really good images to work with, so I’m pretty happy tonight.