Spring (Almost)

This is a cause for celebration! Not only is the snow starting to melt and the temperatures starting ever so slowly to rise, I have finally been able to find the time and the courage to go out and start to take pictures again. I wasn't out for as long as I had hoped. It's a Friday after all, and I am still feeling a bit weary after hours of number crunching at work. But still, this is progress! I decided last night to finally take my Pentax K-5 with me to work so I can walk for an hour or two before taking the bus home.

While the temperatures have definitely become more tolerable, there is still this bitter wind that bites your bones, and some of the streets are still icy. So I was not able to get off the beaten path (very few remain in Oslo). I just headed towards the most scenic place I can think of nearest my workplace: Bygdøy. And the plan? None whatsoever. I just wanted to get the hang of walking around with a camera again after nearly a month of restitution. The rest was definitely worth it. I felt eager to take home some quality shots. Thankfully i still remember how to use my camera and adjust the settings. But being the amateur I was still prone to the most common mistakes when it comes to composition. But it will get better with practice.

HDR shots? I had none this time. I still cannot replicate the beautiful HDR photographs I took in Spain last summer. I am getting to understand it more but I just cannot put it to proper wording yet. There are a certain criteria which must be met for a HDR photograph to work. It's not just about snapping three or five images with different exposure levels, running them on Photomatix Pro and hope for a miracle. I guess it has something to do with the lighting and how you feel about a certain scene. Back in Spain the scenery I took using HDR felt alive, so alive that one shot could not possibly evoke the feeling that I was feeling at the time. It definitely worked for me in Spain, but not here in Oslo.

But the photos I took today turned out ok nonetheless, beautifully detailed and with lots of contrast, really bringing them to life. And that is how one feels after not having seen proper sunshine for a few months. The positive energy is slowly coming back. And with it comes inspiration, motivation and creativity. If there is one thing about photography that I know now all too well, is that every picture must tell a story. I guess that is why a lot of amateurs fail with wide angle shots. There is too much going on that the viewer simply cannot lock his or her eye on the intended subject, making it difficult to create a story in one's head. So I played it safe today: I went in close whenever I had the chance.

One thing to remember though: always read what the statues are about before you take pictures of them! Or at least take a picture of the place holder so you could look it up later. Scott Kelby was right on the money with this one! But then again Bygdøy is just a few minutes walk from my workplace so I can always look it up in the near future.

Another thing that I did was to just use the central focus point of the camera and simply adjusted my feet or hands if I wanted the focus point off-centered. In the photograph on the right I focused on the leftmost statue's feet, then shifted the camera towards the right to get the other statues in the shot. I wanted to have more bokeh, but my lens unfortunately isn't up to the task since it cannot go wider than f4.

So my walk today was pretty successful if I may say so myself. I wasn't really expecting to end up with pictures worthy of posting in my blog so this is indeed a very pleasant surprise. It may be a small victory but it's something to be proud of nonetheless. I have to keep on practicing and keep on getting better if I want to own a Leica M9-P and not feel guilty about it :-)

So to summarize the lessons I learned (or was reminded of) today:

1. Think. What story do I want this picture to tell? What feelings do I want to evoke?

2. Close in on the subject.

3. Know what it is you are taking a picture of.

4. Composition. In what perspective can the subject be best viewed at, so that it can grab attention and tell a story faster?

5. HDR is very selective. Not everything can be photographed using this method. Use sparingly!

Have a nice weekend everybody!