I’m proud to say that one of my pictures has won the gold medal in the Bulgarian “The Wild” photo competition. Check out also the other winning images. Great stuff there!

D200, ISO100, 1/1000 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm

Winters here are beautiful, but whenever the snow starts to melt it gets really dirty. It’s no different with the car. It was a terrible mess, and it was about time we washed it.
So this afternoon we drove to a car wash and had it washed. It was kind of a slow one, but it turned out to be quite fun.
Since I rarely leave home without my camera, I took it out of the bag and shot some pictures while we waited in the car for the machine to clean everything up.

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, on-camera flash

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, on-camera flash

D200, ISO100, 1/125 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm, on-camera flash

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

Last weekend we went out to my better half’s family’s (I could’ve made that sound a lot more difficult, but it’s only Tuesday, so… ) summer house on the point of an island about 20 minutes out in the archipelago between Finland and Sweden. It’s a little pearl. I hadn’t been there since last year and it was great being back there again, especially now in fall. Last year the fall sucked moosepeckers (yeah, I know, I keep on saying that, but it’s all Wayne’s fault ), but this year’s it’s just been beautiful.
They forecast rain for pretty much the whole weekend, but instead we got a good storm on Sunday. Saturday was a gorgeous day. Sunny with a bit of clouds. Not seriously warm, but pleasant. Shame that we only had such a short time. This week the boat will be taken out of the water and prepared for winter. Maybe we get to drive to the summer house during winter… If we get some sort of winter this year… because last year the winter………..

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8, Tamron 28-75mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/5.6, Sigma 10-20mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/5.6, Sigma 10-20mm

D200, ISO100, 1/60 sec @ f/4, Sigma 10-20mm

D200, ISO100, 1/350 sec @ f/4

I also tried some panning. Really! It’s not as easy as it seams! Those… Heck, how am I going to say that in a decent way? I was going to say “those fucking dragonflies are so damn fast”… But really, they are. And they were fucking! So… Owwell… Just excuse me my french this time, I usually don’t express myself like this…

D200, ISO100, 1/180 sec @ f/9.5, Tamron 28-75mm