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LAPC #212 – Motion

/ Leya / 52 kommentarer

This week, Patti invites us to have fun with motion. Please visit her site and get inspiration and great examples on how to go about the challenge!

Personally I will tweak it a bit…letting me do the motion while the object is standing still.

In this first yellow one I have used a favourite technique – double exposure. The gentle flowers seem to be dancing a wild, energetic dance.

In these two slider pairs, I have used ICM – intentional camera movements. In a sense, ICM gives the same effect as (intentional) single-exposition motion blur: in the former the camera moves during exposure, in the second the target moves, but they have in common that there is relative motion between camera and target, resulting in streaking in the image.

In the first pair, I have moved my camera from an upward point downwards, rather fast, trying to create as straight lines as possible while the motif gets blurred. In the second pair, I have tried to move the camera faster still, making the image even more blurred, giving the sense of fast movement.

Generally exposures of 1/20 to 1/2 second give the best results and an optimum seems to be 1/8 of a second to retain the shape of the subject, but strip away surface detail. But much is trial and error!

Another motion effect can be achieved by changing the focal length of a zoom lens during the exposure. I find this even more difficult to get a satisfying result. But fun it is and the results surprising!

As I don’t use filters, I tried these effects in the late evening to get softer light.

Last week Anne Sandler challenged us to explore our photographic groove. A great challenge, Anne, and we found many interesting grooves to explore! Next week, Amy will lead the challenge. Visit her beautiful site next Saturday at noon EST to join the fun.

Just remember to link your post to Patti’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you in the Reader.

Until next time…, stay safe and be kind.

Thursday Thoughts – At the Pond

/ Leya / 19 kommentarer

We met up for a trip to a pond wellknown for its dragonflies. Rain in the air and rather chilly – so, our expert told us we would not see any dragonflies that morning… Ten degrees warmer and sun is the recipe.

We had all brought breakfast though, so we might as well hike up there and at least eat. Said and done.

After an hour the sun warmed up behind the clouds, so we were a bit lucky in the end. Not many dragonflies were patroling the water, but if you walked through the grasses on the shore, you were greatly rewarded.

Here are some of the critters that we found. We saw 6-7 different species of dragonflies/damselflies and some other beauties. The caterpillar will later evolve into a small tortoiseshell. Some sea birds were talking loudly, and the swallows came sweeping down as the mosquitos woke up. An enjoyable morning!

Click the gallery for more detail.

Amazingly small, but in a shining blue or red armour, striped or checked – we saw them dancing. I learned that many dragonflies live for a month or so, and some species live for almost a whole year – they even fly throughout the winter months here. If you want to hold one, it is the wings you should grab. They are not soft and velvety (as with butterflies), but stiff and hard. If you then set the dragonfly free, it will sit where you put it, silent for some seconds – and you have an excellent photo option!

LAPC #211 – What’s Your Photographic Groove?

/ Leya / 62 kommentarer

Our host this week, Anne Sandler , is asking: ”What type of photography do you truly enjoy doing?”

I enjoy almost all types of photography, but Nature is my Muse. More specificly: flowers, close-ups and macro. And I am happy if in the flowers there is a critter or two as well… I believe our ”groove” changes over the years – as the world is changing – so are we.

For many years my photography was all about travel, new places, new people, new architecture, new food… but there has always been flowers. And why flowers? Well, I was born in the countryside, and from my grandmother I learned the importance of the little things – to see a world in a grain of sand. Flowers – nothing beats their great variety; in colours, shapes and sizes. I have to have flowers in my life!

My blog was named lagottocattleya after my favourite breed of dogs and my favourite orchid. So, the first image is a cattleya hybrid pictured at Keukkenhof, Holland. Then follows a gallery with some old and new favourites, from close-ups to macros and from Spring to Autumn. From forest to garden and indoors plants. I hope they will speak for themselves.

Special thanks to our guest host Sarah Wilkie of Travel With Me for the exercise of picking out three of our favorite images. And thank you to all our wonderful July guest hosts, Aletta, Jez, Andre and Tracy. If you join us, please link to Anne’s original post and use the lens artists tag. We’re looking forward to seeing your photos! As the LAPC team resumes rotation, Patti will present next week’s challenge. In the meantime, have fun and safe travels.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info. 

Thursday Thoughts – A Piece of Old Time Magic

/ Leya / 24 kommentarer

Sporrakulla is the name of an old farmstead from the 16th century. I went here for the first time almost 50 years ago, and haven’t visited again since my children were small. Last week we decided to drive up to the beautiful farm once more.

When you leave the car, you walk into a harmonious landscape, where time seem to have stopped…and the silence is almost tangible.

The meadows are harvested as in the old days, with a scythe. This is for the benefit of the flora.

The last farmer left in the 1960’s, and now the houses are kept by the local forest authorities. Many tourists visit during summer, and sometimes there are minor events in the garden. Mostly hikers picnicking though. The area is thick with hiking tracks.

The flora around the farm is abundant, and so is the fauna. I could have walked around for hours…

…or just sit and watch the quiet pace of life.

Thank you for returning here with me. Hope you enjoyed the old buildings and the atmosphere. For me – nostalgia, the best kind!

LAPC #210 – Picking Favourites

/ Leya / 50 kommentarer

Sarah of Travel with me is our guest host this week, and she says:

”I want to ask you all to join me in sharing three of what you consider to be among your very best shots. This exercise will really test your ability to be self-critical, as it has mine. Look into your archives and apply your most critical eye; play ‘judge’ and try to look dispassionately at your images.”

Sarah asks us to pick out three that stand out as particular favourites, and three from different genres. The genres are up to us to decide: macro, wildlife, street, landscape, architecture. Anything goes, but ”each must be an image you are proud of.”

Not easily done this picking…and I sneaked in a header photo as well…hope you don’t mind, Sarah! But, I made it fairly easy for myself by picking the two award winning images I have, in genres I love, macro and nature – trees. But let’s start with the third image, from 2016:

This favourite is from the Fluela Pass in Switzerland. I have showed it many times, but never tire of it. Also a pleasant surprise as there was no reflection when we passed here in the morning – then this magic appeared when we went back the same road. The people in the image shows the very size of the landscape, and I love the feeling of an endless mountain range disappearing into the blue sky. I remember the difficulty in getting it all inside the frame…a vast landscape and a difficult angle.

This Epiphyllum cactus, in Sweden called Princess of the Night, is a gem. This is her first flower, a warm summer night in 2016. And how we stayed up late, waiting for the wonder to happen! 25 cm of magic, only lasting for a few hours. This photo was taken with my phone, but won a medal of honour and a place in our Nordic photo competition that year. It is in their yearly book of best photos as well.

It was my first competition – I generally don’t send photos to competitions… and I was happy and proud. I think that magical night and the first time I saw the beautiful flower unfold, will stay with me forever.

This image (from the Autumn of 2018) of my favourite beech tree is very precious to me. The photo was taken before the great storms and the heavy snowfall last year, so the tree is intact in this image. Some of his big branches are gone now.

Not much to be seen of the tree in the picture, but that thrills the imagination of the viewer. We understand that the size of the tree must be huge – look at the texture of the trunk and the long, horisontal branches. He is hundreds of years old, and more than 30 meters high, standing alone in an open meadow. I also love the view of the birch trees and the beeches taken under his wings… Because I imagine he is a he – and he is keeping an eye on us all. We usually talk at least once a week.

Being an award winner too, and the only photo of mine sitting on my wall – I have to pick this one. Getting it printed on canvas was part of the prize, and the reason for me to participate was the story of a favourite tree, as trees are my passion. The host was a national park.

If I try to summarize…I can see that I photograph more with my heart than with camera and lens. Strong memories and precious moments I treasure the most. I want the image to reveal my emotions – and to stir yours. I have several thousands of photos collected throughout the years…but the best ones have sprung out of special moments where my feelings shine through.

Special thanks too to Tracy for hosting that interesting Surrealism challenge last week and to everyone who joined in; it was great to see the variety of responses! Anne will be our host next week, Saturday, August 6. Her intriguing theme will be What’s Your Photographic Groove.

Until then, stay safe and cool – and be kind.