Rocks
It’s been a while since my latest attempt with HDR photos. Some two weeks ago I visited the ravine in the western part of Lund with my trusted camera. I rigged it on the camera bag and shot the necessary 4-5 shots and the result can be seen below. I like how the spceial HDR technique improves the visibility through the water and details below the surface becomes easily recognizable.
Originality
Please read this post out loud in a timber voice and don’t hate me for all the bad puns. This spiral beech has probably heard about the theory that successful growing plants and trees should reach toward the sky. Well, this one heard about it, thought about it and decided against it and went its own way to try and discover other, if any, possibilities. You could perhaps say that it has embarked on an epic horizontal journey and that it is branching out. Time will tell if it was the right decision or staying with the original plan wood have been better;)
Let’s not beat around the bush anymore, let the pun fight b-b-b-begin! (ledsen jag stammar 
Who’s going to be the 10.000 visitor?:)
Bridges
Here’s a picture of a relatively new bridge and, closer to the camera, a really, really old one. Judging by the way the concrete foundations tilts in different angles it couldn’t have been a very safe bridge to walk either;) As usual when the water is this level and blurry I’ve used a longer exposure time, finally being able to use the grey filters I bought earlier this year:)
Bendy
For those of you out there who have missed that the house where I live is covered in one layer of the finest tarpaulin and then one layer of the sexiest available plastic I want to say that this is still the case. I didn’t know living in a “cave” could be that dark and depressing but the good news is that the workers are really making some progress. I think the roof is pretty much finished and the work with cement is also coming along which is really nice. Only one more month to go:)
That being said it’s extra nice for me to look at pictures like the one today because, if it’s something I haven’t seen much of this year, it’s trees, grass and other things that grows outside in my “gollum-like” state;)
Have a nice weekend!
Please press for a bigger view.
Tree trunk
I know there have been some pictures of trees the last couple of days and showing something else today wood;) have been great but I really like them so I hope you have patience with me. This is also an HDR-photo which means that I took five photos with different exposure settings and then merged them in a program. I think the result is quite cool with a picture that has a very high range in its contrast. From the lightest parts to the darkest there’s a lot of information and even though the foliage is very bright the tree trunk is clearly visible. Me like:)
As always, please press the picture for a bigger version:)
View
On the bike ride the other day I passed some pretty nice viewing points and this one, close to Billebjer, is perhaps the one with the best view. I think the different colors of the fields are just wonderful and the view is quite breathtaking in its own way.
As always, please press the picture for a bigger version:)
Spiral beech
I’ve posted pictures of spiral beeches from Trollskogen outside of Skrylle before but that was sometime last spring or early summer. Yesterday I went back there again and tried out some new HDR photography. The result wasn’t that bad and I think I’ve got quite a few pictures to show you:)
As always, please press the picture for a bigger version:)
Trees
Yesterday I went for a ride in the country and ended up being viciously and brutally attacked by an ant. The sun had, against all odds, decided to grace us with its presence so I wore shorts and on my feet I had sandals. As I was putting together the tripod I felt an immense pain (not really;) in my foot and when I looked down I saw this huge killer ant (not really;) hanging on for dear life with nothing but his, or hers, jaws. Man, did it sting!
This is just a point to make you realize all the pain and suffering I go through each and every day to bring you these precious and wonderful photos. I guess in a way it’s ok because true hero’s always puts others ahead of themselves;)
The picture? Look below and judge if it was worth the ordeal;)
As always, please press the picture for a bigger version:)
There it is again!
I know, the bridge is everywhere at this blog but I just can’t help it;) Unfortunately I foresee more of them in the near future but you never know, you might get a bit surprised;)
The cathedral
I hate my computer. Over the last couple of days I’ve had some serious problems with it. A while ago I bought Windows 7 and thought this would be a good opportunity to install it and at the same time get rid of all the problems. Well, I installed it but it sure didn’t help.
Instead new problems appeared like grey clouds on a blue sky. My optical driver all of a sudden decided to disappear and not even a firmware upgrade could send it back to the land of living. The solution? Formatting the harddrive and re-installing Win 7. The second time everything worked fine for like 24 hours. Then, just as I started to believe in miracles, Windows did some wonderful updating by itself which made the optical drive go to its happy place again and at the same time my subwoofer went on an unexpected vacation!
Now. I know there is nothing wrong with the hardware. It’s one, or more, of the drivers who make the computer go stark raving mad and it makes me almost depressed to know that in the morning I’m going to have to spend many hours installing the whole thing a whopping third (!) time. And, because it’s impossible to say which driver it is who does the damage I see no end to the whole thing.
If I have the same problem after an additional 10-15 tries I might even be so desperate I’ll try out a Mac but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that:)
To sums things up: I hate my computer.
Lundagård
I better hurry up and post some more pictures with snow in it because yesterday it rained quite a bit here, leaving us with a whole lot thinner layer of snow covering the ground. This is a picture of Lundagård which is situated in the center of Lund. Around this park area are many of the most important buildings connected to the university as well as the historical museum in the red building on the far left. To the right is a part of the cathedral although the trees are somewhat in the way:)
It’s been some time since I last posted an HDR picture but here’s one I was actually kind of pleased with:). I used five differently exposed pictures which I composed in a program called Photomatix. The result from that program ended up in photoshop for some final tweaking and the end result can be found below:)
Toys
My grandparents’ house is being sold sometime in the near future. It is impossible to keep it since it’s a long way away but being somewhat of a sucker for sentimental stuff I set sail for the northern part of Scania last weekend to spend a final night there with my dad. I took the opportunity to collect some memorabilia from the house for me and I got my hands on some really cool stuff. (For me anyway). The picture below shows a cool little biker-dude who belonged to my father and with which he played with as a child. Too bad the mechanism for winding it up has been destroyed but I really like it anyway:)
No…
…This is not a repost. I posted a picture a while ago that looks pretty much the same but I was a bit hasty with that one because I hadn’t looked at the other pictures from that session yet. I think this one is far better and shows the effect you can get with the HDR-technique even more. Notice that you can even see the comfy chairs in front of the bookshelves inside the library. 
Seaweed
I’ve been rather busy the last couple of days, and still am, so this will be a short one. I went to Bjärred the other day and the result can be seen below:)
Dark clouds
We’ll continue on the HDR and water theme today as well. This picture was taken by the long bridge of Bjärred, focusing most on the water and the sky with just a touch of the small harbor on the far right.
As usual, be sure to press the picture in order to see it in its full size:)
Sunset
As promised yesterday here comes a new picture from this weekend’s cartrip with Stefan and Magnus. This is also a HDR photo which means that I took several pictures with different settings after which I compiled them in my computer. The great thing about this technique is that by doing this you get a picture which has a lot bigger and better contrast between the darkest and the lightest details in it compared to a regular picture.
As usual, be sure to press the picture in order to see it in its full size:)
The library
Last night I went for a drive with a couple of friends. I really enjoy those times when we escape from our regular lives and routines and set our sails for the unknown. Kind of;) This time we ended up in Lomma and I can pretty much guarantee that this week’s posts will be from this trip. Today’s picture is of the library in Lomma. I can’t say what material it’s front is made of but with the evening sun reflecting in the metal plates it looks like copper or something like that.
If you can’t tell this is yet another HDR shot:)
HDR – first try
Here’s my first try on a very interesting technique of photographing called HDR. HDR stands for “high dynamic range” and in short it means that you take several different pictures of the same scene you want to show. In order for this to work you need to use a tripod because the camera needs to be at the exact same position in every shot. What you do is that you capture several frames but you use different exposuretime for each one.
To make this picture I took 5 different pictures with anything from 15 seconds to 1/15 of a second exposuretime. I needed such a long exposuretime as 15 seconds on the longest one because this picture is actually taken at 22.30 when it was quite dark.
After getting home to my computer the “magic” begins. I used a program called Photomatix to merge all the different shots to one frame. It’s a really nifty little technique, this HDR. By using such a width of exposuretimes you are able to use all the characteristics of each shot from the whitest of whites to the darkest parts which gives the end result as shown below.
(as a sidenote I must comment on the sad death of Michael Jacksons the other day. Being born in the seventies he has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I’m not a fan as such but his different hits connect with so many memories from my youth it’s hard to ignore. He must be one of the biggest mysteries in all of showbiz but definitely also one of the biggest musicians of all time. Although his biggest days where a while ago I’m sure he would’ve kept on entertaining us for a long time. He will be greatly missed and leaves a void in music as we know it.)
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