Fall Colors...again...for the last time this year?
Now that November is here and Daylight Savings Time is over it’s definitely moving towards winter and within a few weeks’ time the frost will be here, so it’s probably a good idea to enjoy any sunlight that nature provides. That’s why I grabbed my camera and suggested to my constant photo partner (a.k.a. Dad) that we head out to shoot. He didn’t need much convincing, so we headed to the nearby Höje Å area, just outside of Lund, Sweden, where there are some footpaths along a slow moving creek that provided a few nice shots.
New gear at the train station
There is a certain excitement for a photography nerd when there’s new gear around - although in my case the new gear I’ve acquired in the last few year has been OLD gear - in the shape of analog cameras. Last year I got myself a Kiev 60 medium format camera and that was a fun piece of (to me) new old tech to have a go at, shooting those lovely large 6 x 6 cm negatives. I’ve enjoyed exploring 135 format film photography too with various cameras. However, I’ve been feeling that my 2011 Canon 600D DSLR has been used less and less, because the low-light capabilities felt lacking. Also, the size of it was beginning to be a problem for my more and more achy hands (which is a bit ironic, given that when I got that Canon camera I felt I needed to add a battery grip to let my hands grab it properly).
Fall colors are here again
Each year, just before the weather and lack of light turns conditions here decidedly unfriendly towards photography we get a little burst of color from nature, free of charge. All we have to do is get to a place where you have access to vegetation and it’s often an abundance of colors for you to try to portray. This year I’ve done A LOT of black and white analog photography (much of it shared here on the blog), so I figured I needed to have a bit of variety in my photography so out I went. I picked the gardens and park of the nearby Alnarp agricultural university, a place I knew would provide lots of colors (although it’s always a bit of a lottery how many leaves are left on the trees by the time you head out there).
Walk in the woods
Last week’s post perhaps came across a bit too much doom and gloom-ish with me feeling a bit fed up with photography (or edging towards it). I think it was more a case of me having shot a lot of black and white street photography with my analog equipment this summer and I might have done a bit too much of that without shooting other things now and then. Therefore I jumped at the chance to head out into the woods for some fall colors with my constant photo buddy (a.k.a. Dad). He graciously “allowed” me to shoot with my 18-200 lens on my Canon 600D (it’s been on long-term loan to him while he figures out what lens to get for his camera), while he used my backup 35-75 mm crap lens.
Photographic rut
It is one of the dreaded parts of a creative endeavor, be it music, writing, photography, painting etc. That feeling of “what is the point really?” or “my stuff really sucks” or “I should just sell all my gear and withdraw into a cave!”. I’ve had it happen before, so it’s not exactly a new feeling, but it’s still uncomfortable and unnerving when it does arrive. I’ve felt it slowly creep up on me during the summer even though I’ve been quite happy with the stuff I’ve been shooting and posting. The change in weather and most important - light - might also have something to do with it.
So long my friend...
I had planned that this week’s blogpost would be illustrated with analog images from a recent photowalk in Malmö with the IgersMalmoe group, but last week I found out via Facebook that one of my longest online friends had passed away, so I’ll postpone that idea into the future. I just don’t have the urge to write a whole lot of words on photos I haven’t had the urge to edit.
The 365 Project Mark IV - The Eighth Month Summary
Wrap-up post number eight of the year and only four to go now before this year’s edition of the 365 idea is done. Yay! It did feel a bit endless there for a while in March when I was on month three, but now it absolutely feels like something I’ll finish, making this my third success out of four tries at this sort of thing. Of course, by saying it like this I’ve no doubt jinxed myself somehow…aw well…shrug
Festival days, part II
Last blog post I showed some of my digital images from the recently finished Malmö Festival, the annual event held in Malmö, Sweden (for the last 35 years). I took analog shots too during my visits to the event, but I had yet to develop them at the time. I’ve done that now and scanned them as well, so this week’s entry in this blog is all about the analog shots I took, both with my 135 camera (a Canon 650) as well as my 120 camera (a Kiev 60).
Festival days are here again!
There are certain things that happen annually that with time become markers of where in the year we are (other than for instance Midsummer, which funnily enough is in the middle of…yep…summer). One of these is the Malmö Festival which happens in August, just before the kids go back to school for the fall semester. So in a way it marks the end of summer for us here in the southernmost part of Sweden. It certainly feels that way today as I write this, with rain outside the window and temperatures that barely reach 20 degrees Celsius!
Colors, Drums and Sunshine!
A few weekends ago I attended the Landskrona Carnival with the parents who hadn’t been there before (I’ve been before, but not the actual parade part…which was the main reason we went). It turned out to be quite an interesting and entertaining experience, not to mention a challenging one, photography wise.
I had lent my dad my 18-200 mm zoom lens, since his is no longer working, so I was using only my 50 mm on my Canon 600D. Yep, I was shooting digital again…it seems to be something I’ve gotten back to this summer, at least a little bit. No worries though, I am still using my analog gear as well. It’s just that when you expect a boatload of colors and action my black and white analog setup doesn’t really work that well!