For the last few weeks my grand total photos taken with my DSLR can be summed up with a very low number. In fact it can’t get any lower without going into negatives. That may sound rather ominous for someone into photography to not shoot photos, but it actually isn’t ominous or alarming at all. Quite the contrary in fact!
Read MorePhotography
Use the camera you have with you!
I am currently on vacation in Austin, Texas and as my beloved host and I made our way home from brunch at IHOP (gotta get some of those pancakes when I am here!) she suggested we go to the Aquarium, and I thought that was a great idea. I hadn't exactly planned for a day of photography, so my DSLR was still in my backpack. My HTC One cell phone was what I'd have to use for photography that day. I was fine with that though, this vacation is NOT a photo vacation as much as it is a time of seeing loved ones.
Still I couldn't help myself snapping away a few as we walked through the displays and tanks with various fish, octopuses, sea urchins and a few creepies and crawlies. It actually felt good not to have that big camera with me...guess I am slowly turning into a "normal" person? Pity the thought!
My point to this post though, is that it is okay to use whatever camera you can have with you; it doesn't have to be a big full-frame DSLR, it can sometimes be a cell phone...or a point and shoot. It's even possible to do without photography entirely and experience it "live", as my beloved host so eloquently puts it. That could be my New Year's resolution for 2015, to experience things more and not necessarily shoot photos of everything.
More than halfway to Christmas
As I write this it is December 13th, a day that in Sweden is Lucia Day where we for some strange reason celebrate an Italian saint from Syracuse, with women wearing candles in their hair, men in pointy, star-strewn hats and other costumes (look it up people, it is quite a sight).
Last night we had a pretty severe storm go past us, so I spent the night editing photos I took a few days ago on a recent, but far too rare nightly photowalk in Malmö. I was in town for a meeting of the board with my photo club, as well as picking up my telephoto lens that had had some refurbishments done at the workshop, so I headed in a bit earlier and did a walk around the city, where most of the stores are now more or less fully decorated for the holiday shopping season. Lots of lights, lots of red and quite a bit of green in other words.
Most of these photos are taken around the Gustav Adolf Square in central Malmö, which has become the epicenter of Christmas decorations in the last few years with lots of torches lit daily, decorated trees, christmas trinkets on sale and a merry-go-round for the kids.
I also tried a few really long exposure shots of the canal, but I am not sure I’m happy with those. It’s an area of photography I need a lot more practice at. Also...clean your lens and filter dude! Those dust specks are large enough to be landmarks on a map!
It's gray in November...
During the month of November it generally is very gray and dark in Sweden, so it's perfectly timed to participate in NaNoWriMo, since it is not exactly photography weather most of the time. However, if you sit in front of your computer day in, day out you're eventually going to go bonkers (at least I think I would), so I've still been outside, if only to get a bit of grayish daylight into my eyes.
Of course I bring my camera too (I wouldn't be me otherwise), but there still hasn't been much photography this month. Here are a few of the fall-related pictures I've taken this month though, just within a mile or so from where I live.
They're all taken with my Canon 600d and a 50 mm 1.8 lens (since my zoom lens has been in the repair shop for a large part of the month), and I find it intriguing to try to take the shots with a fixed focus lens sometimes. It makes you zoom with your feet, so you get a workout on top of getting your images (albeit a very small workout!). They've been processed in Adobe Lightroom 3, where I've increased contrasts and color to make them "pop" better on screen.
Photo Flashback
in Photography
During the month of November I am not doing a lot of photography, due to it being National Novel Writing Month, and that tends to soak up most of my creative energy. It's fun to do something much slower, more introspective than photography from time to time. But since this is a photographer's blog there has to be photos...right?
So, this is a photo that is an "oldie", shot back in 2007 at the Wanås manor in Skåne, Sweden. I was there with my photo club, looking at all the sculptures and artwork that the place is full of during the summer months.
I shot this with a Canon point and shoot and haven't really done anything with it until today. I tweaked the saturation, brightness and contrasts in the picture a little bit, to make it "pop" some more, but other than that it is the way I shot it 7 years (!) ago.
It is (sometimes at least) fun to go back in your Lightroom catalogs and look at the stuff you did a year ago, two, three, four or in this case seven years ago, and find stuff you had almost forgotten that you shot! I also discovered that the ratio of photos I'd actually keep if I shot them today is a lot lower, but that's all part of the learning experience!
Day One
Five days, five black and white images
in Photography
I don't know how many photographers have been swept up in the whole Five Days, Five Black and White shots challenge thing on either Facebook or Google+, but I've just posted my fifth and final image and I figured I'd post them here as a whole (not that they are a collection or on a common theme).
Day Two
The more I've done photography through the years the more I tend to do black and white photos (much to the chagrin of my dear mother who just doesn't "like" black and white photos ;-)), so it was a fairly easy process to find five images to post.
Well, actually it was more a process of eliminating shots that I wanted to include but couldn't. As usual my selection process involved having way too many photos to pick from and from there narrowing it down to the final five.
Day Three
Now I am sure that's nothing unusual for photographers (or any artist making selections for public events, but I find it fascinating that at first I think I don't have any good shots to show, then I go through my stuff and pick the "maybe's" and the "potentials" and I usually end up with twice as many as I have room to show. From there it's a process of elimination, and finding the reasons why an image should either stay or go.
Day Four
The five images I picked for the five day challenge turned out to be an interesting bunch. I've got two street photos, two details photos and one landscape photo and I think that fairly well reflects the sorts of photography that I tend to do. It wasn't a conscious choice to do this, but I like the way they are "collected" here.
Day Five
Flowers? For me? Well, thank you very much!
in Exhibition, Photography, Events
Yours truly receiving flowers and a reward. Photo by Agneta Nilsson
It's not everyday you stand in front of an audience and accept a bouquet of flowers and a check that has a healthy amount of money written on it, but I can definitely get used to it...fast!
The reason why I did just that this weekend was that I was rewarded for providing the image of the poster for this year's Culture Night, an event where local artists show off their works, be it photographs, paintings, sculptures or performances of various kinds.
I wrote about this in a previous blog post so I won't go over it all again, but rather talk about the evening a bit instead.
My father and I had gotten spots at City Hall, which was definitely a step up from last year's location, a nearby school gym, as far as audience numbers go. This year it was pretty much non-stop people showing up from about 5 PM when the event started all the way to 10 PM when everyone seemed to have disappeared. The event was scheduled to continue until midnight, but when no one had shown for 15 minutes we decided that enough was enough and took down our stuff.
My setup at City Hall.
I showed 11 50 x 40 cm frames (20 x 16 inches) and one at 100 x 70 cm(40 x 28 inches). The bigger one was the poster image put on a separate easel so that people could look at it close up. The others were mostly local images...and in color too, which is a rarity for me these days. I did have four black and white ones though, and they seemed to render quite a bit of interest too. I even had a tentative request for one of the images, but it didn't end up in a sale since the lady in question didn't come back to close the deal. That's too bad, but not something I cry myself to sleep over; I didn't think I'd sell anything. If I had sold anything it would have been a lovely bonus to a very enjoyable evening!
This was my fourth time participating in Culture Night and I hope I can do #5 next year too, because it is just so much fun! Next year I'll try to avoid the rookie mistake of not putting titles or price tags on my pictures too...perhaps if I show they are for sale people will actually be interested!
At the photo exhibition
This last weekend I was one of the officials for my photo club's big international exhibition that we've held for 13 times before (so logically this was no. 14 ;-) ). I was the webmaster for the whole thing, so whenever something is related to the web or pretty much anything related to IT...it's my duty to get it done. It's okay, because it's fun to do (and rarely means any extraordinary amount of work).
So many awards!
Wait...I take that last bit back. Just before the deadline back in August, when everyone suddenly discovered that they had to send in their photos on the very same four or five days it got a bit busy for yours truly. But not the event this last weekend; that's where it's good to be part of a nine person board where everyone has done this kind of thing before. It just runs smooth!
Audience members watching accepted images in the color section on a big screen TV
We had a nice turnout and people seemed to appreciate the images we had on display, both on TV screens (for the accepted images in our two categories), large screen (for the awarded images) and in print (images from the six jury members and club members).
Tony Clements (R) receiving his gold medal from exhibition chairman Nils-Erik Jerlemar
I didn't take all that many photos at the event since I tried to be social and a good "host", but I did snap a few, including of Tony Clementz, the winner in the monochrome section receiving his PSA Gold medal, deservedly so too I think.
Yours truly on the right discussing photos with Christer Lindberg (L), one of the jury members and an enthusiastic guest..and hopefully future club member. Photo by Ingrid Nilsson (no relation)
With all these photographers running around it was probably inevitable that I ended up in a picture or two...which is nice...I guess, but I can't help feeling a bit awkward at being in front of a camera rather than behind it. Silly notion I know!
Now it's a few days of non-photography before Friday when the local Culture Night is on, and I get to show images at City Hall, along with my dad...something we both look forward to a lot! I'll be sure to write about that too once it's all over.
Photo by Ulf Nilsson
Look Ma! I'm on a poster!
No, it's not that kind of poster...I've not been asked to pose for a front-facing and then a side-facing portrait while holding a plate with numbers and letters! It's much better than that!
Like a bolt out of the blue
A few weeks ago I was asked by Lion's Club, a local charity organization if I had any images that they could pick from for the poster for the annual Culture Night event on October 17th. It's a one-night event that I've participated in a few times now, and it's always been a lot of fun to show photos there in front of rather large crowds.
It was very flattering to be asked, and it came totally out of the blue! While it wasn't explicitly stated that it should be pictures from the local area I assumed it ought to be, so I picked ten candidates from around Staffanstorp. Well, at first I picked 5, then I didn't hear anything from the committee for a few weeks, then it turned out that they couldn't agree on one particular image, so just to make their selection process "easier" I sent them 5 more. (They did ask for more candidate pictures, so it was their own "fault"). In the end they picked an image I took a few years ago in the faux-medieval neighborhood "Jakriborg" on a late winter afternoon.
On a poster and in the paper
So here I am now, with the official program that has been delivered to every household in town and I must admit it feels pretty surreal that everyone who lives here (in theory anyway) has looked at a picture of mine! I was interviewed for the program as well, and against all odds I come across as pretty sane and coherent in that interview! Hats off to the reporter for that one!
Here's a link to the actual article (in Swedish only I'm afraid): Spegeln.
My rough translation of the colorful language in the article is below:
Tomas Nilsson: The World Through The Lens
(CI Tomas Nilsson
It's late in the winter afternoon and the sun has already descended past the steep roofs and pointy rooftops of Jakriborg. There's still a sleepy twilight, but soon the December darkness will fall upon the houses and alleyways.
The first page of this year's program is a photo taken by Tomas Nilsson. The 42 year old Staffanstorp native is not a newbie to Culture Night; he and his father Ulf Nilsson has participated with photos several times before.
- When Sven Jönsson of the Lions' Club called and asked if I could provide a photo for the poster and cover page I was very surprised and then very happy. I felt very flattered, says Tomas.
Light, shapes and stories
The image of the unmistakable rooftops of Jakriborg is taken at the Christmas Market a few years ago. Among the first things you notice is the benevolent light. Light in particular is something Tomas focuses on in his images. Where others see a thick cloud cover which thankfully lets a few solar rays through, Tomas through his lens sees how heaven opens a small gateway to eternity. The mood borders on the divine.
When others, during the Staffanstorp Motor Show, admire a row of very speedy vehicles in front of Town Hall, the photographer captures a colorful palette sparkling in the June sun.
But it's not all about light; graphical elements are also likely to activate Tomas' shutter button finger.
- I'm often intrigued by shapes, he admits and shows his contribution to the Lions' arts raffle; the curved entryway to the Emporia shopping center, in a tightly cropped and black and white version, for maximized impact.
Meetings, or moments in stories attract Tomas too.
- I don't often do portraits, but I enjoy photographing people.
A young couple in a loving embrace, joy and happiness during last year's Pride parade in Malmö, with a lot more colors than the rainbow.
Tomas sees the world through the lens and it's a beautiful, exciting world full of stories.
The bar is constantly raised
During the month of August Tomas has participated in three photo exhibitions, one together with other photographers in the Malmö Photographic Society, where he is a member of the board, and during the three weeks 3,500 people visited Köpmansmagasinet in Smygehuk to see the photos. Other events with lots of spectators were the one-day events Linan and Planket in Malmö.
- It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work, Tomas reflects. So during the month of September I sort of lay low and prepare for Culture Night.
Through his father Ulf there's always been lots of photography in the Nilsson household, and Tomas had his hand on cameras early.
- But it was still mostly typical vacation photos. My real interest in photography started around 2000 when I got my first digital camera.
Tomas is an honest photographer who edits sparingly and very rarely adds anything to his photos.
- Light and cropping is what I work with. Cropping is a fantastic tool for making sure you only have exactly what you want within your frame.
After many years, and thousands of photos, he is his own harshest judge. He calls it a necessary survival skill, both not to get utterly swamped with photos as well as for improving his skills. Images that don't stand out or aren't better than average tend to end up in the recycling bin.
Not a gear head
Making a living as a photographer isn't something that the realist Tomas thinks will happen, but selling a picture here and there, that's something he hopes will happen.
- There are interesting online solutions that I'd like to study more. The question though is what images to pick; does the prospective buyer like the same pictures as I do?
Photography can be a expensive hobby. Not so in Tomas' case. Even cameras for a few hundred dollars do an excellent job these days.
- The most important pieces of equipment are your eyes, your brain and the connection between them.
During Culture Night Tomas shows a selection of his images. If you want to see some of his works already, go to www.tomasnilssonfoto.com.
Text by Ann Mellblom (translation by yours truly)
No photography? Sure there has been!
It's been a few weeks with no posting on this blog. I've not exactly been off the planet, but haven't had anything interesting to post either. It's been a very non-photographic few weeks for me. That actually felt nice after the onslaught that was August with all the exhibition and photo club events.
I've only taken the DSLR out a few times in the last three weeks and to be perfectly honest I've not really taken any pictures I'm happy with during those outings. That's perfectly fine though, I didn't feel my heart was in it, so the pictures weren't that exciting. It felt more like "I should bring my camera now that I'm stepping outside", rather than, "Oh I want to take photos! I should go outside!".
No trains in sight!
Still, a few cell phone snaps were taken here and there, so that's what I'm sharing here. This is an image I took a few days ago near my home on an old defunct railroad.
I have also "abused" the photo in Snapseed to make it look like an old photo that's been through the ravages of time (sort of anyway). I tend to do at least some treatment to all my images (whether it's in Lightroom for my DSLR photos or Snapseed for cell phone snapshots, although this one has been put through more steps than I usually take!