Night Walk in Malmö 2

The TGIF Restaurant in the corner of Lilla Torg (Little Square) in Malmö, Sweden.

Pretty much all the same details as this pic.

Night Walk in Malmö 1

In South Africa when "magic hour" came around I really had to get cracking with picture taking because it got dark so quickly, I only had about 20 minutes or so. Here in Sweden the sun sets really late and really slowly. The magical light that photographic dreams are made of lasts a very long time. That's great, but now I have sooo many photos to process. Stay tuned, because there are a heck of a lot more on their way!

This one is of the Scandic Kramer Hotel on the Stortorget.

Nikon D90, under-rated plastic Nikkor 18-105mm kit lens, f3.5, ISO 800, 1/100s, hand held, processed in Lightroom 4.

Small Speedlight Studio Setup on a budget.

Don't have enough for those very tempting studio lights down at the camera store, but have a couple of Speedlights in your camera bag? Well then you have pretty much all you need to take some pretty cool portraits!

This is my friend Chinedu, and he just wrote a book. Once I get the details of where to buy it I will post a link right here.

I took his portrait in my small home studio in the corner of our lounge and the set-up looks more or less like this:

That's a Nikon sb700 on the stand shooting into a black backed umbrella and throwing back oodles of beautiful light onto the victim model. On the chair at the back is a Nikon sb600 with a home crafted gobo made from a corn-flakes box covered in silver duct tape which is spitting out light onto the white wall behind the previously mentioned model. The end result is quite satisfactory, at least that's what I think!

Boy with Agfa Isolette

Same details as the previous photo posted below.

Girl with Agfa Isolette

I recently purchased a used but mint condition Agfa Isolette camera in a second hand store, the same one used in this portrait. When I get around to it I will post better pics of the camera, but first the details of this shot!

This was taken with a Nikon sb700 bounced into an umbrella camera right and about 45 degrees up and to the side of the model. Second light is a Nikon sb600 down, behind and left of model with a corn flakes box front cut to become a gobo to prevent light spill onto the back of the model but splash oodles of beautiful light onto the white wall behind her. It worked.

The lights were triggered by the popped up flash on my Nikon D90 via Nikons nifty CLS system. The pop up flash had the handy IR filter doodad that Nikon produces to keep light from the onboard flash influencing the lighting on the subject, but still allows the camera to communicate via IR signals with the off camera flashes.

Nikon D90, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D "nifty fifty", ISO200, 1/60s, f8.0, hand held, one sb700 Speedlight and one sb600 Speedlight, processed in Adobe Lightroom 4.

Dom Kyrka in Lund Sweden

Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, ISO800, Aperture Priority mode, f1.8, 1/80s, hand held, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

This lens is remarkably sharp wide open and it is such a pleasure to have that beautiful shallow depth of field in a small sensor camera. Also, at ISO800 the images from the D90 are still great, I hear the new D7000 is miles better. Can't wait to get my grubby little hot sweaty hands on one! ;-)

Dom Kyrka in Lund Sweden

Lake Malawi Beach Life - revisiting an oldie!

Taken with a Nikon F801s, junky third party zoom lens and Fuji Superior film.

Blue on Blue

Sometimes photohraphy has less to do with documentary content and more to do with composition, shapes, texture, colour and imagination. I often like to look for art in everyday objects and scenes, which requires really looking and seeing beyond the obvious and useing the old imagination to find what the French call a certain "I don't know what". A lot of people just think I'm strange... this includes members of my own family! ;-)

More "strange" stuff here, here, here, here, and here.

Malmö Turning Torso Building (four)

The Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX lens is a great mobile light weight solution that is super cheap as well. Being an AFS lens it focuses fast and silently. On a crop sensor camera it gives roughly the same field of view as a 50mm lens would give on an FX camera, and this is often referred to as a "normal" lens. There is a misconception that it gives the same field of view as the human eye, but that is not true, we can see somewhat wider than a 50mm lens. They are, however, relatively distortion free, just like our eyes, so this might be where the rumour originated.

Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, ISO200, Aperture Priority mode, f8, 1/640s, polarising filter, hand held, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Malmö Turning Torso Building (three)

In the top left hand corner you can see the sun reflected, and at this time of the day it was blinding! But with the circular polarising filter it was a simple matter to reduce the glare to what is now a simple highlight that enhances the photo instead of ruining it. CPL's are the only filters I ever use on a lens by the way... but perhaps that is a debate for another time! ;-)

Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, ISO200, Aperture Priority mode, f8, 1/400s, polarising filter, hand held, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Malmö Turning Torso Building (two)

Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, ISO200, Aperture Priority mode, f8, 1/800s, polarising filter, hand held, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Malmö Turning Torso Building (one)

The craziest building I've ever seen, I really like it!
- More coming over the next few days.

Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, ISO200, Aperture Priority mode, f5.6, 1/500s, polarising filter, hand held, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Reflection in a Humber hubcap - another one from the 350D

Taken a few years back at the "Cars in the Park" event at Zwartkops Raceway near Pretoria. Always a lot of photo opportunities involving beautiful classic and vintage cars if you are in the area.

A lot more from the same day if you scroll down a bit on this page HERE!

Windmill Supermarket near Hartbeespoort Dam - "Old" digital technology isn't so obsolete after all!

Taken with an "ancient" digital technology Canon 350D and kit lens from early 2005. Still looks good to me!

Best of all is that I still have the camera and it still works like new! While Canon and Nikon don't publicly rate consumer cameras and their shutters very highly, in reality they will outlast any normal use that we can throw at them. While digital cameras are quickly tossed aside by Joe Public when a newer "better" camera is released, the truth is that if you look after them they will last way longer than expected and still take great photographs. Replacing cameras every couple of years is just a marketing ploy to keep selling cameras, and it's been ingrained so deeply into us by all the brainwashing indoctrination advertising that we can justify buying that new shiny doodad thingamabob quite easily. Remember when we only used to replace cameras once they broke completely and the dealer just simply couldn't repair them any more? No? It wasn't so long ago...

Now, how about that new D7000? :-)

Fredensborg Castle, Denmark.

Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, f2.0, 1/15s, hand held, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

Shooters!

I'm sure I posted this a long time ago, but I am revisiting some of my old pics. This one is from a small town in South Africa called Potchefstroom, and once a year they have a big "cultural" festival that has degenerated into an excuse to drink too much alcohol and behave badly.

If I remember correctly, this was shot with a Nikon F65 and 50mm f1.8D combination. A real light weight setup at the time and great for "street" pics! Ilford XP2 Super 400 film, if memory serves...

Harbour in Lomma, Sweden.

3 second exposure with camera propped firmly down onto a jetty while I am lying flat on my stomach.

I tore a strip off the skin of my little finger getting down on the old worn wood of the jetty, I console myself with the knowledge that at last I am suffering for my art! ;-)

Nikkor AF-S DX Micro 40mm f/2.8G

As long as you don't need to get too close to small creatures that might be scared witless by the front element of the lens looming menacingly at them causing them to take off to safer pastures, this lens makes an excellent bang for not much buck!

"Walking Street", Copenhagen, Denmark.

Thousands of people and not a single smile among them. What gives in Copenhagen?

Taken with the fantastic el-cheapo Nikon Coolpix L21.