Author: Christian Jensen

Sivilingeniør, terrengsyklist og relativt datakyndig. Ble bitt av sykkeldilla i ung alder, men først i 2008 slo det ut for fullt. Krydrer gjerne tilværelsen med gåturer og skigåing. Har siden 2009 bidratt på Sykkelhjulet.no og gjør det fortsatt. Trives best i skogen på sykkel, gjerne med følge og kamerautstyr.
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Framing that snowy landscape

Have you ever been photographing snowy landscapes just to realize that your camera made a blue gray looking out of focus image?

The camera operates with something called while balance and there is your first problem. The camera does a best guess when it comes to picking the color temperature.

Moving away from AWB (Auto White Balance) and over to a more representative choice could solve your first problem. A much better choice would be to also shoot in raw. Raw makes it possible to adjust the white balance in post processing. I’m always shooting Raw. The single reason is to keep all the colors.

By keeping more of those colors you will also be able to reveal some more details in under/over exposed images. That often happen because the snow will reflect light and confuse your light meter.

The next issue is the out of focus problem. There might be condensation on your lens so check that when you are out photographing.

The other, and more common, issue is contrast. The camera needs contrast objects to detect focus. So find your self a color change in your image to help that autofocus.

If you are using the camera on a tripod then use your live view and focus with manual focus and magnification. The process takes a bit longer but done properly the results are always better.

Low contrast snowy landscape on Greenland
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Autumn mist

The autumn is really beautiful. Especially all the different colors on the trees and the ground. I’ve also got a weak spot for partly frozen waterfalls, but there is one more thing I discovered recently. The beauty of the autumn mist as it rises from the ground and create great separation to the elements.

I went out one early morning to find a good location. I did know approximately where to go, but I had not been there before. I arrived early and spotted for a location about 30 minutes. Then waited another 60 minutes for the sun to rise.

It’s all about getting the composition and then get the timing just right. I find both quite hard, but I do think I got a couple of beautiful shots. One of them I’ve added to the post below here. What do you think?

Autumn mist at Storhaugen
Autumn mist at Storhaugen
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Waterfalls

I often spend grey overcast days searching for new places. I’m using some apps on my smartphone to check when (and if) the sun will light up the scene or maybe if the moon decides to show up one night.

If I’m not in the mood for new places then I go visit some waterfalls, rivers or streams. Even if the light is flat its possible to create beautiful images. I’d thought I’d share some of my techniques with you in this post.

Continue reading “Waterfalls”
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That time of the year

The nights are getting colder and darker. You wake up early and realize that the morning mist is just as beautiful as yesterday. Unfortunately you have no time to catch those first rays of the sun before you go to work.

One morning on my way to work I brought along my camera and had to stop for this image. I just love the clear reflections in the water and the colors in the sky. Especially when the colors are reflected in the water.

Continue reading “That time of the year”
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Photographers best friend

Teddy is taking a bath

Teddy has soon reached 11 years of age. He has been with me on many of my journeys. When capturing beautiful landscapes, your pet might be what you need to get your subject in the foreground.

When I’m trying to frame a landscape, one of my tasks is to have something that your eyes can rest on while observing my picture. There are a lot of tools to help you out here. You might have heard others talking about “Rule of thirds” or “Golden ratio”. If you’re a Lightroom user you have those tools in the cropping tool already. Once you start to get familiar with there tools you will start using them without thinking of it.

And there are a lot of rules, but the most important thing is to try and learn while you do so. Being a theoretically good photographer does not help you out if you can’t translate theory into practice.

When you introduce leading lines you guide the observer through your image. And while the observer moves around it is often good to have something to stop or come back to. That might be anything, but I tend to use Teddy or maybe something more static like a separated tree.

Do you have any special objects that you place in your frame every now and then?

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Going back

Often when I’m out on location the conditions aren’t exactly what you wanted them to be. The images will be acceptable, but you know they can be better. So I’ll mark my locations by the help of mymaps.google.com and go back when I think the conditions will be more exciting.

The sun had just settled behind the horizon and the sky turned into my favor. I’m very satisfied with my result.

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A short introduction

I’ve been thinking of making a vlog for a long time now. Below you will find my first video on youtube. I hope you like it. It would make me very glad if you would like to follow my channel and comment some on my work.

https://youtu.be/71sjTSRx5BE
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Seascapes

I visited the southern parts of Norway recently and one of my favorites is the sea. This time I chose to do some long exposures. The weather was not that good, but the sun was trying to get through the clouds. The sea was quite calm, but there was enough waves to create the dreamy look around the rocks.

  • The cormorant
    The cormorant
  • The oystercatcher
    The oystercatcher
  • Fuglavika
    Fuglavika
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