The (almost) Eastern corner of the Landskrona Citadel

After posting a few low-light/night shots of the Landskrona Citadel I decided to post one of it during the day, and what a beautiful Swedish summer day it was!

Waterfront at Lake Esrum in Denmark

I still haven't got used to the extremely long summer evenings in Scandinavia, despite having been here for over a year now. This is my second summer in these northern countries and the beautiful lingering light still appears miraculous to me after a lifetime of the abrupt sunsets that characterise the evenings in Southern Africa. This particular photograph of the waterfront at Lake Esrum was taken at 20.03pm, and there was still another hour of useable light for a fruitful and fulfilling photowalk that splendid Danish summer "magic hour".

Livet är mycket bra!

Beautiful Studebaker at the southernmost tip of Sweden

I came across this beautiful Studebaker while visiting Smygehuk, Sweden's southernmost point. A few minutes later an old guy who looked like he may have bought the car brand new ;-) came over, got in and started it up. Started first turn, no smoking, sputtering or fuss ...and what a truly beautiful nose this car has!

Jetty on Lake Esrum in Denmark

I have photographed this jetty before, but never in a beautiful pastel painterly sunset like this!

Fredensborg is one of my favourite places in Scandinavia, and Lake Esrum is down past the palace a couple of kilometers or so from the town center. It is a beautiful walk through a forested area interspersed with parkland from the palace and then the beautiful lake is the cherry on the top.

Life is good!
:-)

Lake Esrum Sunset

I don't often venture into the world of HDR, but when I am faced with a huge lighting challenge like the one in the scene above there really is no other way to get the full dynamic range on offer. If I exposed for the setting sun the boat in the foreground was diminished to murky blacks and greys, and if I exposed for the foreground the sunset became a wash of blown out highlights. Cue bracketing function on camera, roll on Photomatix (I never upgraded from version 3!) tweak in PSP X5, and voila! A simple exposure blend is enough for me, I try to keep these looking as natural as possible given the circumstances because overworked HDR is an abomination to behold... at least to me.

Campari on Ice - another three light product photograph

Same basic lighting set-up as the photograph in the previous post.

Four Light Product Photo of Baileys' Liqueur

A (reasonably) simple three light product shot of a bottle of Baileys' Liqueur. But how to set up the lights to get this effect? Answer below the photograph of the very yummy Baileys'.

The rim highlight you see on the edge of the bottle is from two strip lights behind the subject, one on either side and about 10" out from each side.

Konstruktor DIY Kit from Lomography

This looks like a fun project, and could be just the thing to while away a few hours on something creative with the added bonus of having a cool Lomographic style camera at the end. Could be a good conversation starter for the lounge as well.

Konstruktor DIY Kit

Take your analogue DIY experience to the extreme and build your own 35mm plastic SLR camera with this kit.

Introducing The Konstruktor - The World's First Build-It-Yourself 35mm SLR Camera from Lomography on Vimeo.