Saturday 28 December 2013

2013 flashbacks

As we approach New Year's Eve, I guess it's inevitable to do some flashback thinking about the year that's about to end. 2013 was a great year for me and my photographing aspirations. This was the year that I started my own small photo business, I still have a full-time job, but this has made it possible to make some money on doing the thing I love. Mostly to afford some more camera equipment.

So what have I been doing this year?

The year started of in great way, I got an assignment taking some product-photos really big company and one of my photos ended up in their paper for their customers.

During spring I was contacted by a non-profit association that was about to start a project involving a book about the old parts of my home-town documenting what it looked like during the last 100 years. For this they wanted a bunch of photos from what it looks like today, ending up in about 50 of my photos in the book.

At the same time I have sold some big print landscape photos and this kind of photographing is what I love, I'm excited every time I get a mail in which it is a order for one of my big prints. This acts like a form of confirmation that people like my photographing.

I'll end up with a thank you all who have followed me on social media and here on my blog giving me support and cheers. Next week I will write a post about goals 2014.
I wish you all a Happy New Year


Monday 2 December 2013

Macro

I bought my first Macro lens ever a couple of weeks ago, this last weekend it was time to test this baby out. It's a Nikon 105 mm, 2.8 Micro lens. I've read some great reviews about this lens and if you don't want to cash up more then twice the price for a 200 mm macro lens this was the way to go.

First of I got to tell you, wow, the sharpness aren't from this world. I mean you can see things that are so small that you hardly see it with your own eyes until you magnify it on your screen, and it's really sharp. This has opened up a new world for me. 

With the 1:1 ratio in the viewfinder you can discover all kinds of small things in the forest like a landscape in the moss or a stone with some cool texture. Add some water on the moss or on a flower and you have very cool reflections.

Some argue that it's too big and heavy in comparison to the 40 mm and the 85 mm, and sure I weighs more and is a bit more clumsy, or so I think sense I haven't had either the 40 mm or the 85 mm. But 99 times out of 100 I don't care because I almost always shoot on a tripod.

I even tried some HDR with the macro lens, see first photo beneath. And I'm pretty psyched about it, sure this one isn't one of my better shots, but I think about the possibilities with macro shots in hard lighting conditions.  

I've talked to a portrait-photographer who has this lens in his camerabag and he says that it's one of his go to lenses. He loves the bokeh it creates and the sharpness, shallow dept of field etc. I haven't tried it on portraits so I'll take his word for it.

Can I recommend this lens? Yes, if you have the money I think it's a great lens. You can have so much fun with a macro lens, the possibilities enormous. Me I think I'll read up on "How to photograph a snowflake" and see If I can nail one.


You all have a great week, beneath there are some examples from this weekend's macro shots.

 Macro- HDR

Macro


Wednesday 13 November 2013

Landscape photographer's great obstacle

Ok, been to Grand Canaria for five days now and as I promised my girlfriend only been out shooting for two days. Now I wonder, why we as photographers don't have power over the weather? 

As I went out two very early mornings hoping to catch a great sunrise over the sanddunes at Maspaloma beach (make a picture search at google then you know what I meen). What do I get??? Clouds, clouds and a bit more clouds and we are only here for one day more. 

So what to do? I might sneak out early tomorrow again, though the girlfiend won't be happy. Or use what I got and go for a more moody shot, abit darker. I think I go for the later :-)

I guess one of every photographers great challanges is to be able to adapt, think outsider the box as it so popular is called.

By the way, I got some great shots of the mountains that I'm exited to have a go at one's I'm home. These will be published as soon as I'm finished processing them at www.larssonsphoto.com

The pic below is from this morning as I'm waiting for the never clearing sky.


Sunday 3 November 2013

Gloomy november

Well here in Sweden the autumn is starting to slip into winter, gone is the beautiful autumn colors. And the bleak, gloomy november is here instead.

So what to photograph when the weather is like this, waiting for the first snow? I guess many with me spend more time in front of the computer going though the photos from past summer and fall. And don't get me wrong I love processing photos, but not as much as I love taking pictures.

I went out yesterday trying to get some gloomy pictures, trying to get some dark mood in the photo. I'm quite pleased with the result.

The result you see below. It's a 3 exposure HDR -2, 0, +2, processed in Photomatix, then a trip in to Lightroom with some spot removal. After that I took it in to Silver Efex 2 and finished it up in Sharpener.

As usual you can enter my webpage larssonsphoto.com to see a bigger version of the photo.


I wish you all a great ending of the week
/Fredrik

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Monochrome or color?

I guess that all photographers have been staring at the screen and wondering this more then ones in their career. As I almost exclusively shoot landscape photography I've fond my self wondering more then ones which is best monochrome or color. 
You are taught that contrasty photos are best suited for black and white, but sometimes I think that you don't need a picture containing mega contrast to make a nice monochrome picture. Like the one beneath you have contrast in some areas and some flat areas. Sometimes it's very hard to decide on which way to go. In the end I went with the color one because I just love the orange/yellow shine from the rising sun behind the farm.
On one hand I'm often going for the colorful sunset, autumn leafs, blue water etc, on the other hand I think that a monochrome perhaps have a longer life-span if you make a print, hanging it on a wall.
As always the photo is available in better rez on my web page larssonsphoto.com since I went for the color one that's the one on my page. But please tell me in the comment field what you think, monochrome ore color?

Wish you all a great week

/Fredrik



Sunday 13 October 2013

Abundance

As a guy who loves landscape photography this is the time of abundance here in Sweden. The autumn colors is magnificent, where ever you look you see a potential photo. It's like letting the Cookie monster in on a donut factory, he would go loco and scream COOKIE.

So how to address this problem?

I don't have the answer, but I guess the best thing to do is go back to basic with the composition, looking for leading lines, points of interests etc. But it isn't easy when mother earth show of her best side (in my opinion).

With that said here comes a shoot from yesterday just a ten minutes drive from were I live. It's a 3 exp HDR. For this and more autumn shots in full rez check out my site Fredrik Larsson Photography which I have updated with some pics from yesterday.

Have a great week.
Fredrik


Thursday 3 October 2013

Workflow HDR

From the top, just love the +Nik Photography  collection. I've fumble a bit with it past month but the other day I bought the collection, about 100€, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm now going to take you though my workflow using Nik and Lightroom.

I was out the other evening scouting locations for capturing the autumn foliage colors when I came upon this abandoned quarry about one hour drive from were I live.

This is the normal exposure, taken from a set of 3. -2, normal and +2.



I took the three exposures though HDR Efex Pro 2, were I used the preset "Graduated" and did some tweaks to it. and this is the result after a touch of Lightroom (spot-removal, crop, lens-correction)


This is were I usually was content and I think it is a good image. But little did I know what Viveza, Color Efex and Sharpener did to the picture.
I used Viveza 2 to umpf up the rocks and some sky tweaking
Color Efex pro 4 for creating more feeling of warmth to the photo.
Last I threw it through Sharpener Pro 3.0, and got this result


And if I may say so, this picture is great :-)
For full resolution please check it out at my portfolio.

By the way, I'm not sponsored by Nik or anything.

I wish you all a great weekend
/Fredrik

Sunday 22 September 2013

And it's up and running

I've been reading, watching tutorials and talked directly to a couple of companies about where I can publish my photos in a nice, clean environment. At the end I went with SmugMug because I love there easy way in publishing and their quick answers when I asked them about anything. I guess it's correct what they say, that their help-desk is world-renowned.

I also have to thank +Ryan Oakley for his outstanding tutorial "How to create a gorgeous photography website with SmugMug in 90 minutes" It made my day, easy to understand and follow.

Thats it for this time but more will come :-)


Me in Crete last year

Saturday 28 December 2013

2013 flashbacks

As we approach New Year's Eve, I guess it's inevitable to do some flashback thinking about the year that's about to end. 2013 was a great year for me and my photographing aspirations. This was the year that I started my own small photo business, I still have a full-time job, but this has made it possible to make some money on doing the thing I love. Mostly to afford some more camera equipment.

So what have I been doing this year?

The year started of in great way, I got an assignment taking some product-photos really big company and one of my photos ended up in their paper for their customers.

During spring I was contacted by a non-profit association that was about to start a project involving a book about the old parts of my home-town documenting what it looked like during the last 100 years. For this they wanted a bunch of photos from what it looks like today, ending up in about 50 of my photos in the book.

At the same time I have sold some big print landscape photos and this kind of photographing is what I love, I'm excited every time I get a mail in which it is a order for one of my big prints. This acts like a form of confirmation that people like my photographing.

I'll end up with a thank you all who have followed me on social media and here on my blog giving me support and cheers. Next week I will write a post about goals 2014.
I wish you all a Happy New Year


Monday 2 December 2013

Macro

I bought my first Macro lens ever a couple of weeks ago, this last weekend it was time to test this baby out. It's a Nikon 105 mm, 2.8 Micro lens. I've read some great reviews about this lens and if you don't want to cash up more then twice the price for a 200 mm macro lens this was the way to go.

First of I got to tell you, wow, the sharpness aren't from this world. I mean you can see things that are so small that you hardly see it with your own eyes until you magnify it on your screen, and it's really sharp. This has opened up a new world for me. 

With the 1:1 ratio in the viewfinder you can discover all kinds of small things in the forest like a landscape in the moss or a stone with some cool texture. Add some water on the moss or on a flower and you have very cool reflections.

Some argue that it's too big and heavy in comparison to the 40 mm and the 85 mm, and sure I weighs more and is a bit more clumsy, or so I think sense I haven't had either the 40 mm or the 85 mm. But 99 times out of 100 I don't care because I almost always shoot on a tripod.

I even tried some HDR with the macro lens, see first photo beneath. And I'm pretty psyched about it, sure this one isn't one of my better shots, but I think about the possibilities with macro shots in hard lighting conditions.  

I've talked to a portrait-photographer who has this lens in his camerabag and he says that it's one of his go to lenses. He loves the bokeh it creates and the sharpness, shallow dept of field etc. I haven't tried it on portraits so I'll take his word for it.

Can I recommend this lens? Yes, if you have the money I think it's a great lens. You can have so much fun with a macro lens, the possibilities enormous. Me I think I'll read up on "How to photograph a snowflake" and see If I can nail one.


You all have a great week, beneath there are some examples from this weekend's macro shots.

 Macro- HDR

Macro


Wednesday 13 November 2013

Landscape photographer's great obstacle

Ok, been to Grand Canaria for five days now and as I promised my girlfriend only been out shooting for two days. Now I wonder, why we as photographers don't have power over the weather? 

As I went out two very early mornings hoping to catch a great sunrise over the sanddunes at Maspaloma beach (make a picture search at google then you know what I meen). What do I get??? Clouds, clouds and a bit more clouds and we are only here for one day more. 

So what to do? I might sneak out early tomorrow again, though the girlfiend won't be happy. Or use what I got and go for a more moody shot, abit darker. I think I go for the later :-)

I guess one of every photographers great challanges is to be able to adapt, think outsider the box as it so popular is called.

By the way, I got some great shots of the mountains that I'm exited to have a go at one's I'm home. These will be published as soon as I'm finished processing them at www.larssonsphoto.com

The pic below is from this morning as I'm waiting for the never clearing sky.


Sunday 3 November 2013

Gloomy november

Well here in Sweden the autumn is starting to slip into winter, gone is the beautiful autumn colors. And the bleak, gloomy november is here instead.

So what to photograph when the weather is like this, waiting for the first snow? I guess many with me spend more time in front of the computer going though the photos from past summer and fall. And don't get me wrong I love processing photos, but not as much as I love taking pictures.

I went out yesterday trying to get some gloomy pictures, trying to get some dark mood in the photo. I'm quite pleased with the result.

The result you see below. It's a 3 exposure HDR -2, 0, +2, processed in Photomatix, then a trip in to Lightroom with some spot removal. After that I took it in to Silver Efex 2 and finished it up in Sharpener.

As usual you can enter my webpage larssonsphoto.com to see a bigger version of the photo.


I wish you all a great ending of the week
/Fredrik

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Monochrome or color?

I guess that all photographers have been staring at the screen and wondering this more then ones in their career. As I almost exclusively shoot landscape photography I've fond my self wondering more then ones which is best monochrome or color. 
You are taught that contrasty photos are best suited for black and white, but sometimes I think that you don't need a picture containing mega contrast to make a nice monochrome picture. Like the one beneath you have contrast in some areas and some flat areas. Sometimes it's very hard to decide on which way to go. In the end I went with the color one because I just love the orange/yellow shine from the rising sun behind the farm.
On one hand I'm often going for the colorful sunset, autumn leafs, blue water etc, on the other hand I think that a monochrome perhaps have a longer life-span if you make a print, hanging it on a wall.
As always the photo is available in better rez on my web page larssonsphoto.com since I went for the color one that's the one on my page. But please tell me in the comment field what you think, monochrome ore color?

Wish you all a great week

/Fredrik



Sunday 13 October 2013

Abundance

As a guy who loves landscape photography this is the time of abundance here in Sweden. The autumn colors is magnificent, where ever you look you see a potential photo. It's like letting the Cookie monster in on a donut factory, he would go loco and scream COOKIE.

So how to address this problem?

I don't have the answer, but I guess the best thing to do is go back to basic with the composition, looking for leading lines, points of interests etc. But it isn't easy when mother earth show of her best side (in my opinion).

With that said here comes a shoot from yesterday just a ten minutes drive from were I live. It's a 3 exp HDR. For this and more autumn shots in full rez check out my site Fredrik Larsson Photography which I have updated with some pics from yesterday.

Have a great week.
Fredrik


Thursday 3 October 2013

Workflow HDR

From the top, just love the +Nik Photography  collection. I've fumble a bit with it past month but the other day I bought the collection, about 100€, and I couldn't be happier.
I'm now going to take you though my workflow using Nik and Lightroom.

I was out the other evening scouting locations for capturing the autumn foliage colors when I came upon this abandoned quarry about one hour drive from were I live.

This is the normal exposure, taken from a set of 3. -2, normal and +2.



I took the three exposures though HDR Efex Pro 2, were I used the preset "Graduated" and did some tweaks to it. and this is the result after a touch of Lightroom (spot-removal, crop, lens-correction)


This is were I usually was content and I think it is a good image. But little did I know what Viveza, Color Efex and Sharpener did to the picture.
I used Viveza 2 to umpf up the rocks and some sky tweaking
Color Efex pro 4 for creating more feeling of warmth to the photo.
Last I threw it through Sharpener Pro 3.0, and got this result


And if I may say so, this picture is great :-)
For full resolution please check it out at my portfolio.

By the way, I'm not sponsored by Nik or anything.

I wish you all a great weekend
/Fredrik

Sunday 22 September 2013

And it's up and running

I've been reading, watching tutorials and talked directly to a couple of companies about where I can publish my photos in a nice, clean environment. At the end I went with SmugMug because I love there easy way in publishing and their quick answers when I asked them about anything. I guess it's correct what they say, that their help-desk is world-renowned.

I also have to thank +Ryan Oakley for his outstanding tutorial "How to create a gorgeous photography website with SmugMug in 90 minutes" It made my day, easy to understand and follow.

Thats it for this time but more will come :-)


Me in Crete last year