Just when the caterpillar thought
the world was over,

it became a butterfly.

proverb

Small trip to a big place

For the feast of Midsummer Johannes, Clara and I boarded the train to the northernmost part of the country, Norrbotten. Since the Sun doesn´t set above the polar circle the trip, some 900 kms on railroad, is popular among tourists at this time of year. The same day extends over several weeks as there is no seam between sunset and sunrise. It´s a wonderful phenomenon, but makes it very hard to sleep.
During our stay, we managed to visit some of Johannes family and friends. Everyone was very welcoming and the mosquitos were not so ferocious. A highlight was the visit to Storforsen, one of Europe´s largest rapids.

Norrlandsresa

Did someone say HDR photography?

Have you ever taken a photo of a sunset and found the resulting image not looking the same? Or noticed how shadows in daylight become much darker on photos than to the eye?
These problems are due to the camera´s limited dynamic range, or ability to store light information. If the camera is set to record a bright motive, such as a sunset, the foreground will fall out of the dynamic scope and become underexposed. You may choose to adjust the camera for the foreground instead, most probably resulting in an overexposed sunset.
To solve this issue, you may want to create an HDR-image (High Dynamic Range). Simply shoot several pictures of the same motif (using a tripod), each photo differently exposed going from very dark to very bright. Load those pictures into a software of choice, Photomatrix for instance, and go ahead and generate your HDR. The program helps you extract the best exposed regions from every photo and merge them in one single image. The method is best applied to motifs where the difference in light intensity between light and dark areas is small to medium. If the difference is too great, the resulting image will look slightly unreal.

I´ve made a couple of examples to show how the final image relates to the different source images (Require Quicktime):



You can see the full size versions of these in my photo gallery.

Have fun with HDR!

Pictures from trip to England

England

The cliffs of Dover

This Saturday I went to Ashford to visit my friends Gunilla and Joakim for a few days. When I got there, they were in the middle of their daughter Maj's first birthday party. The baby and her toddler friends were engaged in different kinds of play, either sucking on paper tags or banging cuddle bears into the grass. They also had a ball bath to thrive in.
On Sunday, we travelled to the coast and experienced the white cliffs of Dover. We walked to a lighthouse, some 3 km along the quite scary chalk steeps. Maj was carried along on our backs, in "the best seat of the house" as a fellow visitor commented.

An English weekend

Someone once said
Travelling to another country is always a pleasure when you have someone to visit.

Cousin Francesca and her future husband Francesco.

Joakim and his daughter Maj.

More info to come.