Mid/end summer always brings out the full-grown crops. I have a weakness for many things in terms of photography subjects, and one of them is wheat. For many reasons.
One of those is that it’s perfect to play around with depth of field (DoF). Even though it’s probably one of the most cliché things ever to photograph, and there probably isn’t a single angle or point of view left that it hasn’t been photographed from, it just never fails to entertain me.
I guess I’m just happy with the small things Life has to offer

For all 4: D700, ISO200, Nikkor 70-200mm. 1) and 2) 1/6000 sec @ f/2.8 -- 3) 1/350 sec @ f/13 -- 4) 1/45 sec @ f/22

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

It’s not always all easy and lazy, photographing cats lazying on a warm lamp or on the bed. Sometimes it takes a bit more than just pulling the camera out of the bag.
Our friends have a beautiful German Shepherd. She was quite patient and willing and jumped up and down in the snow for the most part of an hour while I tried to get the right shots, which in the end wasn’t all that easy, focusing in the dark on a moving subject… But… in the end I think I managed to get a few good ones anyway.

D700, ISO3200, 1/250 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x SB-800 fired remotely on both sides of the dog.

D700, ISO3200, 1/250 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x SB-800 fired remotely on both sides of the dog

June, July and August are probably going to be the most quiet times on this blog.
Not really sorry, but I’m going to apologize for enjoying the summer and totally neglecting writing anyway.
Especially being in Finland, where “summer” is defined somewhat different than elsewhere in the world.
Especially when we’re going on our 6th consecutive day of sun and 20+ degrees Celcius. That’s quite an achievement.

Suffice to say I’m out…
Enjoy the summer, as I will, and I’ll be writing whenever it might be raining

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/8, Sigma 10-20mm

Some time ago I wrote about how our balcony’s facing west and how we enjoy frequent sunsets.
Now that the ever present snow clouds accompanying the winter on its way out, we get to see those sunsets again. Today was especially colorful and I was too busy to get out and find a decent spot to make a good composition of it. But I think this picture tells enough.

D200, ISO100, 1/45 sec @ f/5.6, Sigma 10-20mm

More to follow, without any doubt.

So… After writing about the end of winter twice, and getting a new fresh thick pack of snow a day later, I think I can now safely say that it’s over for this year.
Last Saturday it snowed from 6 in the morning until late in the evening and we got about 15 cms of new snow. After that the temperature has gone up and it really looks like things are on the fast track towards spring.
Snow on the streets and pavements is pretty much gone and the huge piles that were shoved to the sides of the roads are almost visibly disappearing.

It’s only a matter of time now…
To wave goodbye to this year’s winter, I give you one final snowy shot. The rabbit which passed here was also on its way to spring.
How poetic…

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/16, Tamron 28-75mm

In a previous post I wrote that Winter was on its way out.

Well… Apparently Mother Nature has changed her mind. It’s been gorgeous weather the past couple of days, but now the temperature has dropped again and there’s going to be some more slush/snow.
I love winter and snow and what it does to the landscapes, but when it gets this crappy dirty winter-aftermath I’m pretty fast fed up with it.

Let’s see how long this will last…

D200, ISO100, three exposures of 1/45 sec, 1/20 sec, and 1/10 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm, circular polarizer, HDR post-processing

D200, ISO100, 1/6 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm, circular polarizer

D200, ISO100, 1/3 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm, circular polarizer

D200, ISO100, 1/3 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm, circular polarizer

D200, ISO100, 1/30 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

in which words don’t need any place…

D200, ISO100, 1/8 sec @ f/16, Tamron 90mm macro

D200, ISO100, 1/8 sec @ f/16, Tamron 90mm macro

D200, ISO100, 1/8 sec @ f/16, Tamron 90mm macro

D200, ISO100, 1/10 sec - 1/15 sec - 1/30 sec @ f/16, Sigma 10-20mm, HDR post-processing in Photoshop

Last summer, when I was in the US doing that photography course, one of our teachers gave us a checklist on what to check before we go out and/or take pictures. It’s become quite an automatism over the past half year to go over that list in my mind. But not this afternoon.

A couple of days ago I was out shooting in the late afternoon. Cloudy, overcast day, and too dark, really, to take pictures. But well… stubborn… I wanted to try anyway, even if I knew better.
Upped the ISO to 1600, screwed up all my pictures, as expected. D200 doesn’t really handle high ISOs as well as the newer models.

Worse, today I shot a couple of pictures and forgot completely to check the checklist. So I left the ISO on 1600.
Bright daylight, so this image wasn’t as ruined as the rest…

Anyway… Rambling…
Doesn’t have anything to do with what I actually wanted to write.

IT’S WINTER!!!
We finally got a decent pack of snow, and cold weather!
Love it, LOVE IT!
It was kind of funny when I shot this picture.

D200, ISO1600, 1/180 sec @ f/8, Tamron 28-75mm

This image is unedited. There was a gorgeous orange sunset behind me, turning everything on the opposite side this shade.
We live a bit uphill and when it’s clear there’s a sunset like this every day. Lasts only about 5-10 minutes, but when I’m home, I’m always looking.
I still have to nick the keys to the roof of our building some time. Set up there and take a shot from bird’s eye view

And this… Well… sunset through a glass pot with some frost in it…
Never mind me…

D200, ISO1600, 1/500 sec @ f/19, Tamron 28-75mm

We had it coming already for a couple of days, and after 3 weeks of pretty much non-stop rain I was really looking forward to it. SNOW!
Some slush to begin with, but last night it started seriously snowing. Now I only hope that it’ll get more and that it’ll stay until next year. Last year’s winter sucked moosepeckers. We “celebrated” my first snowless Christmas since moving to Finland.

There was a little bug on the window looking out, probably content with itself being on the inside of the window, not on the outside. It IS quite important, if you’re a one-day fly that the quality of your life is good and snowless.
Unfortunately the quality of its life wasn’t catless and Cassandra did have a protein rich breakfast… And the fly turned out to be not-quite-a-complete-one-day fly.

Enjoy the snow while you still can...