WOA! That was exciting!
Not that I haven’t seen thunderstorms before in my life, but still. This was one of the better ones we get in this -usually- thunderforsaken place. It all started when things got really, really dark really, really fast.

D700, ISO1600, 1/4 sec @ f/8, Nikkor 50mm

Usually I’m quite fast with taking out and setting up the stuff, but this time I was just so in awe about the power of the whole thing that I stood there on the balcony with the Better Half just watching it unfold. Then I quickly ran back inside, grabbed camera, tripod and remote shutter, put a plastic bag over the camera (it had started to rain really badly), set everything up on the balcony, put the camera on C-high with the remote shutter locked and a long exposure time. And then I continued to stand there with the Better Half watching it unfold (I even missed -like- an hour of Star Wars Return of the Jedi – which I’ve never seen before in my life!).

It was just too cool, literally, after having been fried in plastic balcony renovation plastic, which they took down only two days ago!

D700, ISO200, 10 sec @ f/19, Tamron 28-75mm

D700, ISO200, 10 sec @ f/27, Tamron 28-75mm

D700, ISO200, 30 sec @ f/16, Tamron 28-75mm

Boy, is that a milked cow, or what?
These days the whole HDR thing is SO overdone! It seems like people don’t seem to understand the true meaning of this technique anymore.
True, you can do some funky stuff with it (although then it’s not really called HDR anymore but cross-processing), but some people really just don’t know when to stop and go waaay overboard with it.
So here’s a little 1-2-3 on HDR:
1) the abbreviation HDR stands for High Dynamic Range
2) the meaning of this High Dynamic Range is to capture a range of contrast with a series of exposures of the same subject, which your camera wouldn’t be able to capture in a single exposure
3) the result of of a true High Dynamic Range image is a believable image which doesn’t have HDR written all over it.

The exposures:

Left: D200, ISO100, 1/3 sec @ f/11, Sigma 10-20mm. Right: D200, ISO100, 1/30 sec @ f/11, Sigma 10-20mm.

The outcome:

Compiled from 2 images shown above

It’s one of those underestimated holiday places, I think. You probably won’t find it in the travel tour guide catalog. And yet, it’s such a gorgeous place.
We were there in early March, which is probably not the best time to go, because it rains cats and dogs, but we were told we were still lucky with 3 dry days out of the 8 we were there.
The fact that it’s so humid there pretty much relates into everything you see…

D700, ISO200, 1/350 sec @ f/1.4, Nikkor 50mm 1.4

D700, ISO100, 1/2 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 50mm 1.4

D700, ISO200, 1/3 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 50mm 1.4

Being out in the cold is fun. I don’t mind cold. You can dress for it.
Being out in the cold and having to operate your camera, that’s a whole different story. You can still dress for it, but the handling of the camera gets a whole lot more uncomfortable.

Luckily it was dark, and I could just leave the exposure time on 30 seconds. That way I didn’t have to take off the gloves that much

Wishing everyone a great, great 2010 with lots of good moments, and as little moments as possible where you wish you had your camera with you but you didn’t

D200, ISO100, 30 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 50mm

D200, ISO100, 30 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 50mm

D200, ISO100, 30 sec @ f/16, Nikkor 50mm

We spent the weekend in Stockholm, doing some touristing. Once every now and again we just hop on the ferrie and take a 2-day cruise.
Last time we did it is already a couple of years ago and we were in Stockholm on a Monday. That day all the museums and cultural things are closed. This time we planned better

This time we visited the Royal Armory, part of the Swedish royal castle.
Very nice, indeed. And very much worth the visit.

We strolled in, I with my camera bag and tripod and down in the basement where the whole history of carriages is set out, I set up the tripod to take some nice pictures.

D200, ISO100, 30 sec @ f/9.5, Sigma 10-20mm

So after the first few pictures we moved on to the next part. We noticed another guy coming in just after we continued to the next part and it was only a short while later when the alarm went off. The guy who had just come in strolled on and told us he’d “probably stepped too close to the fence”.

Half a minute or so later the guard came rushing in. He came straight at me.
He was very polite, yet very strict and told me I was not allowed to use a tripod. Professionals paid extra for the privilege of using a tripod, so he said.
We checked and double-checked at the entrance, but we found no note or sign which stated that the use of tripods is prohibited.
Owwell… He didn’t confiscate my memory card, so I have at least two images with tripod. Wooohooo! *LOL*
The rest I was forced to shoot with flash (ugh!).
Did give some nice effects here and there, though (with some rear-synch flash, or a spooky white balance setting…)

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/4.5, Sigma 10-20mm, camera's own flash

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4, Sigma 10-20mm, on-camera SB-800

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4, Sigma 10-20mm, on-camera SB-800

by Don McLean. Well, really by me, but we needed some music to go with it
And it was the first thing that popped to mind.
It wasn’t really such a starry night at all, since it was raining, but well… Sometimes we can help, can’t we? (no filters were used here.)

D200, ISO100, 10 min 39 sec @ f/27, Tamron 28-75mm

Myeah… when you live up north and most of the day is dark, you get quite some opportunities to shoot during the “night”.
We went to an old part of the railway area and there’s lots of stuff to shoot. If not old wagons or other equipment, it’s old buildings.
This we ran into just before we left. Notice the train that passed in the background during the 91 sec exposure… Happy coincidence at a railway area

D200, ISO100, 91 sec @ f/27, Tamron 28-75mm

You hear only my voice… just like you did before…
I think now I’ll just let you sleep…

D200, ISO100, 30 sec @ f/16, Tamron 28-75mm

I’ve been out of town already a couple of times, and figured I’d have to change the title to “Touristing in your own country”. I probably will in time. For now it’s “area”.
Last year I happened to pass this church in Kirkkonummi. There was snow then when I passed, and of course I didn’t bring my camera. Next time I passed with camera it the snow was gone and it didn’t look half as interesting. It was a crappy winter last year and I didn’t get any other opportunity.
But you know the saying… Patience, virtue…
Now we have snow. So I give you the church of Pyhä Mikael.

D200, ISO100, 26 sec @ f/19, Tamron 28-75mm

Yah, I have something with darkness. And lightness.
If only I had my camera with me last night. Don’t you just HATE that? Always when you go out and you don’t take your camera you see something that’s worth shooting and you can’t recreate it.
There was a snow storm going on and the world was dark. Not only because it was night, but also because the snow was coming down so bad that you couldn’t really see anything.
And then it started thundering and there was lightning. Never seen that before during a snow storm. The lightning lit up the sky and because of all the snow in the air the sky had this neon blue-ish purplish color. Absolutely gorgeous.
But owwell… No camera… And even if I’d had it with me, I’d probably be too late anyway… *sighs*
But I got something else, that night that I went out shooting. While my buddy was lying on his stomach not 10 meters to the right of me shooting lights there, I got these.
It’s light, like in my previous post, but a whole different kind of light.
In color it looks totally boring, but in black and white it’s really dramatic, I think.

D200, ISO100, 1 sec @ f/6.7, Tamron 28-75mm