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

La Palma

Before we continue to La Palma, I thought I’d let you have a good laugh at me. You know you like it, I know you like it
Here’s a screenshot of my labour in Lightroom (only, so excluding the Photoshop work…). That’s what I’ve been doing for the past weeks.

Lightroom screenshot with all the evidence of cloning out the crap from the sensor (probably need to click for enlargement).

Anyway…
See how I managed to make uninteresting Tenerife seem interesting? Took me only nine posts
But now on to La Palma.
We took the boat from Tenerife to La Palma. Funny side note is that the best café con leche I’ve had in the whole Canary Islands was a cheap 1€ cup in the terminal of the harbor in Tenerife.
The boat was late, and we left late. All because of the weather. Apparently there was quite some rough weather out there. The main part of the trip we didn’t really notice much, but when we got close to the harbor in Santa Cruz de La Palma we started to notice. Not personally, but from all the people running with their hands in front of their mouths back and forth to the toilet.
Oh, and of course, when we looked out of the window.
“Hey, there’s La Palma… Huh? I swear I just saw land, seriously! Huh? The moon? Hmm, wait… No, see? There it is, La Palma! Huh? The moon?”
When we disembarked we had to step on this hydraulic gangway which was forcefully moving back and forth and up and down. And just after we stepped off, it snapped loose from the boat.

Yeah, it was quite a storm… But it was fun At least we thought it was.

Still the next day, when the storm was pretty much gone already, the sea was very rough with high waves.

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/11, Tamron 28-75mm, Photoshop

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

We’ve had a good amount of snow still in the past week, but temperatures are going up and it looks like -slowly- spring’s pushing its foot in the door.

It’s going to take awhile still before all the snow is gone and I’m sure I’ll get a few shots of “winter” still, but in case I might not have the time (if I get buried under a load of work or something *G*) I went out for a little shoot yesterday.
It wasn’t cold, actually it was quite pleasant to be out. I should do that more often…

D200, ISO100, 1/90 sec @ f/4.8, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/5.6, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/5, Sigma 10-20mm

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

Every year I look forward to winter.
Being from Holland originally, where winter officially ceased to exist in the early 80s (with the occasional exception to the rule every decade and a half or so) I haven’t really had the pleasure of enjoying a good pack of snow and temperatures so cold that your eyes get sticky. Until I came to Finland, that is.
And the first years were great. Massive amounts of snow, freezing cold temperatures, and great great opportunities to photograph.
Unfortunately, call it global warming, or whatever, it looks like in the southern part of Finland where I’m residing, winter’s going on holiday now too in winter… There was a bit of snow in November, but since then it’s been just dramatic. Just like in Holland. Rain, rain, rain.
So what’s left to do for a photographer then? Traveling up north would be an option, and I WILL do that some time. But right now the only option is to retreat underground… Into the tunnels under the city.

D200, ISO200, 1/2 sec @ f/5, Sigma 28-200mm

D200, ISO100, 8 sec @ f/19, Sigma 10-20mm

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...