Sunset in the woods

Norway is still affected by Corvid-19 and it is strongly advisable to stay at home or close to your home. Since we live on the countryside its possible to move around a bit, but not too far. My family live in a valley called Orkdal and the hills surrounding this valley is mostly covered in forest and farmland. One evening I was out biking and I came across this beautiful little area with some old trees and rocks. I always bring a camera with me, but my M100 was not capable of capturing all details in those trees.

A couple of days later I went up there again with my big camera (Canon 5Ds) and my 24-70mm lens. I’m really pleased with the result.

Into the woods

Now a days one have time to digg trough the photo library for old hidden treasures. I found this piece from the woods.

I’m not quite sure where its taken, but I believe its shot south west in Norway at a place called Urdådalen. It has a remarkable good quality given that its taken by a Canon 350D back in 2009.

Urdådalen

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

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

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.

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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.

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Trollheimen

One of my favorite areas is Trollheimen. It’s a national park just south of Trondheim. The area has everything from bare mountains to dense forest.

The area beautiful the whole year. During the winter the whole area is covered in snow and the temperatures can get as low as -20oC. The trees get a nice layer of soft snow and the uneven surfaces on the ground gets flattened out. The sun is visible only a couple of hours each day and when it is its very close to the horizon. The white snow and the low sun makes long shadows and contrasts.

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