Here comes the spring!

  It's still January and I guess it should be freezing cold outside, and indeed it is once in a while, but then there are those days when the sun shines and the temperatures rise up to somewhere between +10 and +15 degrees Celsius, and that's when it happens... the tiny small invertebrates comes out from their hides and it's time to attach the macro lens and get out. Here's a few images as an early starter for the spring...

"Who would believe such pleasure from a wee ball o' fur?" - Irish Saying

  I've made quite a few images of cats during these past years and I still find them a nice subject to photograph. Right now there is four cats in our household and honestly, I sometimes feel there is just four too many of them. But as the Iris saying quoted above says, there are moments when when these selfish little fellows even give you some good moments. On a cold day they warm you, those funny kittens making you laugh and when having a bit of stress petting a cat can work as a reliever and of course those images. When not having any money to go and shoot big cats you can always stay at home and shoot small cats with big egos.

 So, here follows a few images of cats...

                       Cats eat a lot, no matter big or small...

                 ...Food makes them sleepy...
                             

                       ... And it's time to close the eyes.

                      Once open again it might seem a bit boring, but just for a while...

                     ...You can always climb a tree...

    

                  ...Check out if the new neighbors have moved in...

...Climb up a bird feeder and see if the flying meatballs would fly to the mouth...

                       ...Or just smell flowers and  wonder...

                       ...Until it has once again come time to take a nap. 

  Just for the fun, a picture from the archive...

                             ...A tree devouring a stop sign. I guess you can't stop the nature.

   So, it finally came, the book I ordered (actually it was my wife who posted the order). Two weeks of waiting and less than one more week and it's been read through. I thought it might be nice to share a few thoughts about this piece of work, which carries the name "Digital outdoor photography, 101 top tips", by Heather Angel.

                This how the book looks like, if you stumble a cross it in the book store.
                         
 
 For me reading a book is somehow related to inspiration. Especially when there is a lack of inspiration, a good book or even a magazine might help to give that so much needed punch to pack the gear, get out and start to shoot. Somehow, usually I just don't manage to get that same feeling when reading and watching stuff on the internet. I need to have something concrete and real in my hands, so a good book will most likely to do the job. Why? Looking images made by other photographers, especially when the pics are made by someone who has a vision, makes me want to do the same, go out and find something beautiful and show it to others. Reading stories makes me want to experience similar kind of things. And finally, good tips and tricks are always appreciated, right? You never know too much so that you couldn't learn a bit more.

   Heather Angel is an author for whopping 52 books, this one is the 52nd. She has a long and successful career in photography, so she surely knows what she's writing about. As the title suggest the book concentrates on outdoor photography. Practically, all types of nature photography is gone through, landscape, flower, wildlife and macro photography. The book is divided in thirteen sections, starting from "Planning and preparation" and ending in "After a shoot" section. So actually the book contains a workflow from the start to the end of a shoot. There's tips for composition, ideas for subjects to shoot, advice for clothing, neat tricks for macro photography and so on. Besides everything is accompanied by images that fit the tip. Actually the title "101 tips" is a bit miss leading, there is quite a lot more tips and tricks than just 101.

  So did I get inspired? Honestly, not as much as I wished. This book is best suited for a beginner. If you've been in to nature photography for a while, then you maybe won't find too many tips you already don't know from this book. The good thing with "Digital outdoor photography, 101 top tips" is that the tips are between two covers, in the internet you might have to search for a while to find all the information which is packed in to this book. Some of the images are absolutely stunning and inspiring, but on the other hand there are a few which made me feel that "this is something that even I could do". So if you are starting in outdoor photography or dreaming of getting out to the wild accompanied by your camera, this book might be an invaluable investment. If you are a seasoned pro, this book maybe won't give you so much (or who knows?).  

  By the way, what I especially liked with this book is that it didn't immediately tell you to go and get the most expensive D-SLR and a bunch of fast glass. So if you don't have "pro gear" it's not a big deal, the most important is to get out and make pictures with what you have. There's also lots of tips for accessories you might need on a photo shoot.

          

   I'm not actually a very keen movie maker, but I do sometimes make a clip or two. If I'm sure that I have the image I wanted and there still is time and the action is there, why not, just turn the live view mode on and push play.

  Last spring I photographed lots of Wolf Spiders. There's plenty of them hunting in our garden. One way to identify a male from a female is to look at their pedipalps, that small leg kind of thing between the jaws and the first leg. The males have enlarged pedipalps, in my opinion they sometimes look like boxing gloves, and there in these pouches is its sperm, which the male spider most likely would like to donate to a receptive female. It's time for a courtship dance and this is how it goes...

  This guy wasn't lucky, hes date left before he managed to deliver hes package. Just hope some other female was more impressed of hes dance, drumming and waving.

  Sometimes the Female might be interested of something else. Caught this male in the next clip, when he was furiously trying to make an impression on a female. After a few pics the female hid her self behind the rocks. The male was still waving, but suddenly it stopped. Let's see what happened...

  Amazing things going on in the tiny world of invertebrates.      

   Mushrooms is a nice subject for photography. There's a great variety of them, different sizes, funny colors, strange shapes, some of them are even a delicacy and some poisonous. Anyhow, a nice subject to be recorded on a film or with a digital sensor. Somehow it seems that it took a while before mushrooms appeared this year. Maybe it's because of the long and dry summer, mushrooms like humidity as we all know. whatever,  found a few when walking in a forest a few days ago and of course I  have to share some of them with you, like it or not.

  This first on is actually not from this week but from an earlier photo walk this year. Nice group of mushrooms in a landscape

  The following two are from our garden, a Common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus). The scientific name for it comes from how it looks (Have one other too, but I'm too ashamed to show it).

  The surface of this fungus looks interesting so I had to go really close...

  The next images are from this week...

  Actually I had in my mind to shoot birds, so I had my 500mm lens attached, but when I saw this beautiful mushroom I fast changed my lens to a wide angle, just to get the surroundings of the fungus too. Maybe not edible, but it sure poses nicely for the photographer.

   This red hatted fellow was hiding, so I almost missed it. Just love the red cap and the yellow colors in the backdrop... looks like fall to me.

                A family portrait. Mushrooms like to grow in strange places. Look for fallen tree trunks.

                     From a little bit different angle. These guys were quite tiny so I used a macro lens.

    The cap might cause some shadows and it sure ain't good for the beautiful gills which you most surely want to show in the image. A good way to get rid of the shadows is to place something white underneath the mushroom. Here and in the next one I used the white side of a postcard, simple, but it works.

  Besides using a postcard to open the shadows, I did some "gardening" with this one. Some times mushrooms can be covered in foliage or there can be some distracting twigs around them, so feel free to clean them away if you feel that they won't add anything good in to your image. Just be careful when removing stuff around the subject that you don't brake it, mushrooms are quite fragile... not so nice to smash your subject because of clumsiness.

  Ordered a book today, Heather Angels "Digital outdoor photography: 101 top tips". When I get it I might write a few words about it. Never too old or wise to learn new things and most of all I hope it will give some inspiration. We'll see.

      

  On Wednesday when walking in a forest a small thought hit my my mind. It started with looking at how people have left all kind of garbage in the nature. Somehow it looks like it's very difficult for some people to carry out from the forest their belongings. An empty beer can, how hard is it to pack it back to your bag? It's anyway empty now, so it's even lighter than before consuming it, right? Or that empty cigarette box, it's not a very big thing to put it back in to the pocket and carry it to the next garbage container, instead of throwing it were you are? Just too many people think that it's okay to throw garbage in to the environment no mater where you are. Maybe they think, "It's just me and my garbage, it's not a big deal", and when everybody are thinking in the same line of thought the outcome is that there is lots of waste in the nature.
  As a photographer I also think not just from the environmental side but from the aesthetic angle too. It's just so "great" to come home from a photo shoot and then notice that there are some nice garbage, empty bottles, plastic bags etc. in the image. That's when you make a choice if it's possible to clone the garbage away in post or do you just throw that nice image away as "garbage". Of course you can do some cleaning at the place before hitting the shutter release, but in too many cases you just won't notice the trash until you are at your computer and you are eye balling the image at 100%.

 Empty water bottles  and containers are quite a common view. as they are empty the wind and water will carry them around and that's how all nature lovers can enjoy of these beauties very often.

 Empty glass bottles and jars. Nice, specially when broken!!! Of course glass is heavy and when you are drunk you don't have the strength to carry those empty bottles out from there. It's better to leave it there were you were.

                 Some one left the forest without one shoe. People leave strange things behind them.

  If I'm completely innocent? That's the thought that really hit my mind. Honestly, the answer is... no. Probably I've in some occasions left some garbage in the forest. A few days a go I lost my lens hood somewhere in there. For sure that piece of plastic won't decompose in a while if ever. Pretty sure that in some occasions I've dropped some candy bar papers and it have gone unnoticed. So all of us are leaving some traces of our selves when out in the wild. Just a small step out from the path might make a big impact on the surroundings we are in. For example...

  when walking in this type of environment, water and sandstone, you just have to be very careful and watch your step. The water have made an amazing job during hundreds of years and the sight is amazing. But if you don't watch your step you most likely will break something. It will be fixed, but it really will take some time.    This just one example and no matter where we walk it's always good to look around and place that next step carefully and even better if we can find a way which will have the smallest impact on our surroundings.

 As a conclusion, let's not throw and leave garbage here and there, but carry it away from the nature and let's watch our step and in that way show some respect to the environment and our fellow citizen too.