Category: Travel

ND filter fun!

On my trip to Washington last fall, I bought a 10-stop ND filter. I haven’t really had the time to play around with it much since the process of using it is so time-consuming.

However, yesterday and today I got the opportunity to spend some time in Drivdalen and at Kjøvangen taking photos with the filter.

The process of using such a filter is quite time-consuming. Since it takes away 99,9 percent of the light, it is impossible to use the viewfinder for composing. Thus, composition must be done either without the filter or by using high ISO snapshots.

The exposure easily runs into the hundreds of seconds, something that gives silky smooth water. This summer has been a wet summer in Norway, meaning lots of rain and lots of water in the rivers and waterfalls.

The dismal summer also means that the beaches are fairly empty (there is no such thing as bad weather, only different photo opportunities). Right next to our cabin there is a public beach with a nice quay. In the summer it has always been full of people, but today it was almost empty. Thus I found another opportunity to play around with the ND-filter.

In the last photo, some people arrived on the quay, but the since they didn’t manage to stay still for long periods of time, the effect was more like ghosts than real people…

Attention to detail….

This summer, I visited Orlando with my family. We visited Disney World, and I was fascinated by the attention to detail that all the theme parks have.

Detail from fountain

The little fountain above was just next to a cafeteria inside the park. Most people just sat there, and I would guess that most people just took it as part of the scenery without really reflecting over the details…

Asian temple

Also, the temple in the Asian part looked like it had been taken straight from the Asian jungle and dropped in place. Of course, it helps that the surrounding forest had a tropical feel (I think it would have looked strange in a Norwegian winter pine forest).

Tiger detail

At the tiger enclosure, the attention to detail was also clear as seen in this wall painting of a tiger…

Not only the buildings were “authentic looking”. Someone had also thought through the details on the costumes of artists performing, as seen in these two “African” drummers.

Street artist at Animal Kingdom

Captivity….

A loooong time ago, I wrote about my visit to the Kristiansand Zoo. I promised to write more about the visit behind the scenes, and here goes.

We got to visit the Siberian tigers in their cages where they spend their nights (well not into the actual cages, but at least inside the caretakers rooms. The tigers are part of a preservation project, where the tigers are mated according to strict plans to make sure the long-term health and survival of the tigers. There are about 350-400 tigers in the wild, and a few hundred in captivity.

A siberian female tiger
Sad...

When I posted these to my Flickr account I thought that was the best tiger photo, since the cage was not visible. A friend of mine however felt quite strongly that another of the photos were much better, since it captured the captivity better….

Captivity
Captivity

And looking through them both, I found that I agree. The second photo is more moody and captures the tiger in captivity far better… It just shows that the first impressions are not always the right ones, and that different interpretations leads to new ways of viewing…

To round it off I managed to capture a common squirrel monkey (most known in Norway for being the monkey of Pippi Longstocking. The monkey is a known thief and steals wallets, cameras and other goods from the tourists. We were warned to keep our pockets thoroughly closed 🙂

A master thief
A master thief

Behind the scenes

A few weeks ago, I visited Kristiansand, Norway for a project kick-off. The evening activity was a visit to Dyreparken, or Kristiansand Zoo and Amusement Park. Since this was a private tour, we were allowed into some of the animal enclosures, especially in the tropical house.

One of the animals we could visit was the ring tailed lemur, a sweet little animal from the south end of Madagascar. Very curious and trusting, we soon had them eating out of our hands.

Got any food?
Ah, food

We also saw some rainbow lorikeets that flew free inside the tropical house. Watching them was a real display of sweet love 🙂

Colorfowl Couple

We also got to go backstage to the Siberian Tigers, more on that in a later post…

Varese, Italy

Another one of my travels from last fall. I “had” to go to Varese, Italy (just outside Milano) for a conference on environmental monitoring in the EU.

The morning after the conference finished, I was waiting for my plane back home. To shorten the waiting time, I grabbed my camera and headed out into the streets for my first attempt at street photography. I found a table at a small restaurant and waited…

In the center of Varese there is a small square, and people were crossing it on their way to work, school or something else completely. I noticed a beggar going around asking for money, and as he approached to elderly gentlemen I saw the opportunity for a shot…

As I was sitting there, two young girls came over and asked if I could take their portraits. I was happy to oblige, and agreed to send them the photos afterwards. Unfortunately, the e-mail address they gave bounced, so they probably never have seen them…

I found the narrow streets of Varese fascinating, especially considering that Italians drove through streets I would never have attempted

Of course, I managed to “scratch” my car going through a street that buses usually drive through 😛

Washington D.C.

One thing I like about my job as a software developer is that I get to travel. Conferences, workshops, meetings and more take me “all over the world”. I usually bring my camera(s) hoping to get the opportunity to do some photography in between meetings.

Last fall I was in Washington D.C. for a workshop on environmental monitoring. We traveled to D.C. a few days before the workshop to get the jet lag out of our systems. This gave me the opportunity to spend a day sightseeing around town.

The first photo is from the Vietnam Memorial Wall:

The Vietnam Memorial Wall

Looking at the wall and the people I noticed that quite a few of the visitors were grandparents showing the wall to smaller kids, perhaps explaining their own experiences from that time. At the same time I was looking at all the names, and I found the contrast between the names on the wall and the people milling around striking: It could have been these people showing their grandkids around the mall…

The next photo is from the DuPont Circle subway station:

DuPont Circle subway station

I found the symmetry and structure of the station appealing, and when I managed to capture a train coming (or going…) I knew I had a shot.

The last picture is from Lincoln Memorial:

The Abraham Lincoln Memorial

Ever since I went to school in Baltimore back in ’86 and learned about the American Civil War I have been fascinated by the life and story of Abe, and I was happy to visit the memorial 🙂

Waiting for the boat

A few weeks ago, I was in Oslo with my friend Jon. A perfect evening with some photography, a nice dinner at a tapas restaurant and some more photography.

I have always wanted to do some street photography, but have lacked the courage to do this. However, together with Jon and under the cover of darkness I was able to let loose and take some pictures of random strangers passing by.

I felt that I got a few good ones, but my favorites were taken around the ferry to Nesodden.

The first photo shows a lady waiting for the ferry. Typical of the weary traveler she finds rest while waiting, since there is little else to do.

The second photo was taken at the dock towards the entrance to the ferry. The bright entrance surrounded by darkness makes me think of space travel (for some reason)…

The rest of the images from this session can be found on my flickr stream

The images have been edited with the DxO Filmpack so that they look like the old Kodak Tri-X 400 film.