Social Media

Now that I've been in to photographing for about 4 years I'm starting to see a growth of interested of my social media page's. Some more then others, at google plus near 12000 people have circled me. +Fredrik Larsson is my google plus page for you who haven't circled me already :-)

On the other hand my photo page on Facebook isn't growing the way that I want it to do. One reason being that I write all in Swedish there. Only about 315 "likes" on my page.

And on Instagram it's like Facebook about 400 followers. My all time low is on twitter, only 45 followers.

Why is this? I mean from 12000 to 45 is quite the drop :-) I guess one of the obvious reasons is the different public. +Guy Kawasaki described it like this:

Twitter = Perception, what happens here and now, for example "Car crash on route 66, 3 injured taken to hospital" Many uses twitter as an update status app, like - "Check out my new blog on shutter speed"

Instagram = Twitter, but with photo's. There is a lake with photo app's for your phone that intergrate with your instagram account. More and more people upload their DSLR pic's to instagram but I still think that phone photos are most common.

Facebook = People, those you want to stay close to, like family members, friends etc. Many update their status based on what they are doing, like "Ahh nothing beats a really hard workout" or "Having a drink on the beach" followed by a photo of a Pina Colada. Another common thing is sharing your baby/pet progress "Look at Steve's first steps" followed by a video. One of the most usual shares, to many annoyance is game invitations to like Candy Crush.

Google Plus = Passion, You have a passion? This is the place for you. For me, my passion is photography and this is made to share beautiful pictures. But also if your not into photographing, it's great. If your passion is dogs, cats, football, soccer, history, gadgets etc there are community's for everyone. With all the integrations with other google apps it can make your social media life online so much easier.

Conclusion :-)
Since my passion is photographing, my go to social media page is google plus, there is where i publish most posts. More posts and interaction = more that take an interest in what you are writing.

Beneath is screenprints on my accounts, if you click the name below the pic you get to that page. Why not "Like, follow or circle?" :-)

Have a great weekend all
Ciao

Instagram

Facebook

Google plus

Twitter

Not a photo-blog, just a little :-)

Party!!

Been in the kitchen all afternoon, the biggest party in my hometown is tonight. It's called "Ride around party" and it's not that easy to explain it, even in swedish :-) 
A lot of couples gets an invitation and get one of three tasks, appetizer, dinner or dessert. Of course we got dinner this year again... 
Then, a couple of days ago we got a letter telling us that we shall be on an adress for appetizers, there we stay for about 1,5 hour then we rush home (two other couples get a new letter at their first stop that they shall be at our home for dinner) we have two couples for dinner. After this we open a letter that says where we and the two other couples shall be for dessert (not the same adress) and at the last place after dessert we open a new letter where it says where the big party is at. About 300 couples does this during the evening (the best evening for the local taxi company) As I said in the beginning it's not that easy to explain this :-)

Well now all preparations are done and I do some processing, sipping a glas of wine for relaxing. So here is the result from the process:

*I follow*
Taken outside of Vetlanda, a nearby town.
HDR - Of Course :-) 5 exp
Photomatix Pro, Viveza 2 and Lightroom
Enjoy

Wish you all a great weekend (you from Europe, don't forget to set the wintertime tonight :-))

Getting better

Well it's been a tad over 4 years since I got my first DSLR and what a journey it has been. First shooting only in "green" mode, jpg, not processing at all and now aperture priority or manual, often manually focusing. Knowing what shutterspeed does to the photo, or dept of field. Using filters, thinking about composition and the "rules" and when to break them :-) Also learning more about post-processing like +Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and plug-ins like +Nik Collection by Google or Photomatix.
Going from showing my fiancee my pic's and she says ahhh great pic, to selling prints on regular basis.

I've literally eaten everything I got my hands on, books, online courses, exhibitions, etc. This has gotten me from the first pic to the second one. I think I'm getting better for every shot I take, always learning. One of the things I truly love about photography is that you never get to the place where you feel like I'm now fully learned.

The latest project is entering +The Arcanum with +Glenn Guy as my mentor hoping to take me to new heights.

Where have your journey taken you?

This is one of my first sunset pic's.

And this is my latest pic of the sunset.

Goals

As I’ve said before I attend the Arcanum a master/cohort type of learning. This is a great learning experience with the master +Glenn Guy  and my fellow apprentices. I’m getting critique and tips on what to do to make it better, then I head out in the field trying the new ideas. Well this can get somewhat overwhelming, much to take in. 

The other day I saw a short film by +Peter Giordano  about some of the new feathers in the Arcanum and one in particular that caught my interest, about setting goals. You can tell your fellow apprentices your goal with a particular photo, like “my goal with this photo is for the viewer to feel a certain feeling” and so on. Or you can make bigger goals, like I want to improve my street photography.

I think it is essential to set goals in what ever you do, that you want to improve. So what do I want to improve? Everything? Yes maybe but that wouldn’t be productive it’s like not seeing the forest because of all the three type of thing. I might want to narrow it down a bit. 

Ok, I would like to be able to take killer black and white shots. Still quite a wide goal, black and white shots of what? People? Architectural? Cityscape? Macro? 

I would like to be able to take killer black and white landscape shots. Ok we’re getting there, but still to big I think. Vistas? Macro? Seascape? Mountain?

I would like to be able to take killer black and white landscape shots with the emphases on “less is more” where the composition is crucial. 

Aaaah nearly there, but if you set a goal how to know when you achieve it? You need to be able to measure it. And how to measure this goal? That depends on your self. I’m going to state the measure “sold at least 5 different fine-art prints”

There you go, my goal for the time being. Of course I keep on shooting HDR, color landscape, macro and so forth, but in the back of my head I have my goal and thinking about it when I’m location scouting.

You all have a great weekend

And lastly I know this isn't a black and white pic, but I like the road going up to "nothingness" with a lot of empty space.

The Arcanum

I've been in to The Arcanum for about 2 weeks and I got to say I love the experience. The whole idea is to use the old master - apprentice deal, and this works really good now that the world has become so small via social media. There are one master with 20 apprentice communicating though Google plus witch works pretty good, some minor hick-ups but you have to know that the project hasn't been out of beta state for more then about 3 - 4 weeks.
The key is to interact with the cohort, the more you put in the more you get in return. Not only with the master, but also with your fellow apprentices. I'm sure looking forward towards getting to know all people in the cohort via posts and hangouts etc.

I wish you all a great week.

This photo is one from my level 3 challenge.

Travel photography

Why not? Many photographers dream of this. To travel the world taking pictures for different magazines or travel agents. Who wouldn't want to go to the Bahamas taking photographs of the beautiful beaches?

But, then it wouldn't be a vacation. It would be your job with all that comes with it like deadlines, pictures of things/places that must be taken, weather conditions and so on. 

Now I go on vacation with my fiancee, who's not into photographing, and we have a deal. I can spend early mornings and one whole day taking photos. And I'm happy with this, I usualy come home with lots of pictures to process.

I'm doing this blog post from a bar i the town of Rhodos, Greece (it's my photo day of the vacation 😀) having a beer, you know from my google plus flow that I like beer. Could I've been here on work? Yes of course. But would I've been this relaxed? Well I don't know and I'm leaning against no.

I leave you with this pic taken on the beach of Rhodes and wish you all a relaxing weekend

First exhibition

My first exhibition ever is about a month away and I'm out chasing my last pic's for the show. I know what I'm aiming for. Having two floors the first is my passion, landscape concentrating on sunrises and sunsets. Second floor will be pic's from my hometown. Live in a town that is over 600 years old with the city center very well preserved, so photo ops is no problem :-)

I am super excited, my only concern is that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my pic's. There is a list :-) that I work from.

1. NO errors, like dust spots, halos etc 

2. Would I put this on my wall?

3. How would I feel about having this on my wall for, say 3 years?

4. What do my fiancee think?

As you probably figured out, number four is quite important :-) The one beneath is in :-) 

Wish you all a great weekend