Night Streets
I wrote in the last blog post that I didn’t really have any plans for what I am going to do with my 2025 photographic or creative year and that still stands. No clue yet…however I also wrote that I’d try to get out there more to take more pictures, even if it is still pretty meh around here as far as light and weather goes. It IS getting better though, the days are getting longer and you don’t risk freezing body parts off when out and about (provided you wear sensible clothing of course!).
The start of a new...something...?
The year is just started and in some ways it is a “clean slate”. All over the internet I’ve seen people post articles about what they’ve got planned for this year, various projects that they’re starting up, subjects they want to focus on in their photography, and that’s great for them. Personally though I do not have a single project idea at the moment. No upcoming exhibition, no book project and not even a single trip planned. In previous years I’ve done lots of posts in late December or early January proclaiming what I have planned for the new year, or what I hope to do, but other than the 365 projects I did for a few years in the 2010s I rarely finished, let alone started, many of those projects.
Out there at night...
A second blog post in less than two weeks’ time…what is this? Is there suddenly a return to old times when I posted several times a month? I don’t know honestly, but I figured that I’d post something of my recent stroll through the twilight and first hour of darkness in Malmö. I was there for a board meeting at my photo club and some other errands and figured I’d arrive a little early and give myself some time to walk around with my Fujifilm XT-3 and a 35 mm 2.0 lens.
Shooting high-speed film at night
For the longest time I’ve had a roll of medium format Ilford Delta Pro 3200 in my film stash, because I thought it’d be interesting to see how a high speed film would do in my Kiev 60 camera. I didn’t find a good moment to shoot it though, because I haven’t really taken that humongous camera out at night before. When a couple of friends and I went to the Tivoli amusement park in Copenhagen in Denmark a few weeks ago (I posted my digital shots from that outing in the blog a few weeks ago) I figured why the heck not give it a go with some high speed film in the “tank” too. Sure enough…while giving myself a bit of a shoulder ache from the weight of the camera in the bag I did shoot the first half of the roll there.
...'tis the season once again
Regular as clockwork (or should that perhaps be calendar work, given that it’s an annual thing?) the holiday season comes along and cities go nuts with hanging up lights and decorations in the streets and squares. I am absolutely fine with this tradition, in fact I definitely enjoy it! Especially after the ultra doomy, gloomy, dark and rainy November we had this year I feel we’ve definitely earned it!
The 365 Project Mark IV - The Eleventh Month Summary
It is time for my last but one summary of this year’s 365 project and I think it’s been the easiest one of them all, mostly because I’ve allowed myself to include images from all my photographic devices; be it analog, digital or mobile cameras. That way I didn’t limit the type of picture that I could include. If I decided to my 5th 365 project next year I will definitely apply the same rules to it then. I’ve not decided yet…that’s what December is for!
A million lights lighting up the night
One of the joys about the upcoming holidays is how all the lights that people put up put an end to gloomy and dark November. This year it has been a particularly gloomy and gray November with VERY little sunshine and that has had an effect on the general mood and the urge to shoot (although I’ve been unusually active with stuff like that this month, thanks among other things to the outing to the coast I’ve covered in two blogposts lately).
When a friend on Facebook suggested a group trip to the Tivoli amusement park to experience the Christmas decorations there I jumped at the opportunity right away. I’ve enjoyed that place several times in the last few years and it’s always a positive experience. The weather looked to be somewhat iffy with splashes of rain in the forecast, but I didn’t really care. That’s what umbrellas and rain covers are for. Also, this was the first chance I had to try out my new Fujifilm camera at night and that was exciting in itself…at least for me.
Lights of the Night
One of the trickier things to do in photography and getting right (at least it's been that way for me) is night photography. The hit to miss ratio is so much lower than in daytime photography, because you're dealing with such long exposures that things can go wrong in mid-process in countless number of ways. Yet, it's fun to do...partly because you get such unexpected results sometimes.
Night Photography Walk
One of the things I don't do nearly enough of is night photography, or low light photography in general. Mostly because it can be cumbersome to schlepp a tripod around, setting it up and waiting for the long exposures to finish...but when it is done right it looks pretty darn good!
Still liking my project!
I’ve now done almost two months (complete but for one day) of my Instagram 365 project and it is still fun to do. I’m two twelfths, or one sixth if you will, done and hopefully I can keep this enthusiasm going well into the year.